A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 2016 Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) On August 16, 2016, Abrams ComicArts, an imprint of New York City-based Abrams Books, published Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: The Original Topps Trading Card Series, the third volume in writer-editor Gary Gerani's series of books about Topps' Star Wars- themed trading card series.  Like the previous two volumes ( Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Card Series and   Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Topps Trading Card Series ), Gerani's book tells a Topps insider's story about the creation of the 220 trading cards and 55 stickers that the confectionary and trading card company produced between 1983 and 1984.  Gary Gerani, the Topps editor in charge of the company's Star Wars trading card line, chose Drew Struzan's iconic imagery used in the now-rare Revenge of the Jedi poster created before George Lucas changed the name of Episode VI to Return of the Jedi. (C) 1983 Topps Ch...

(C) 2015 Abrams ComicsArt and Lucasfilm Ltd (LFL)   The Story So Far.... A long time ago in a South Florida apartment far, far away, I started collecting Topps' Star Wars trading cards. It was the fall of 1977, and we were "in between" houses; Mom had sold our three bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom home (with its huge backyard) in September and bought a townhouse in the Fountainbleau Park complex of condos, based on a couple of visits to the model home and on the floor plans provided by Trafalgar, the General Electric-owned developer that was building the new Eastwind Lake Village subdivision of Fountainbleau. I wasn't keen on the idea, but I was 14 at the time and not in a position to question my mother's decisions. The developers had promised my mother the house would be ready by October, but bad weather and issues with the builders caused delays. Now we were stuck in that apartment till January, perhaps even February of 1978. I wasn't thrilled ...

The dust jacket resembles the Series One packaging, right down to the faux wax paper wrapper! (C) 2015 Abrams ComicArts and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) A long time ago in an apartment building far, far away, I started collecting Topps Star Wars trading cards. It was the autumn of 1977 and George Lucas's space-fantasy film was still in its long, record-setting first run in theaters. Kenner Toys was frantically attempting to make the first batch of action figures and other toys in time for that year's Christmas shopping season - but wouldn't quite make it. Marvel Comics' six-issue series was still only in Issue # 3, and there was no Internet or social media like there is today for fans across the globe to exchange opinions or discuss plot points of the year's most popular movie.  And because the home video revolution was still a few years away, fans could only "bring the movie home" in a bare handful of ways: The novelization by George Lucas (...