A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

(C) 2016 Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. Cover art by Mike Mayhew On November 29, 2016, Marvel Comics published Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, a hardcover volume that collects all four issues of the comics adaptation of the eponymous space-fantasy film by writer-director George Lucas. These comics (and a similar trade paperback compilation) were originally published by Dark Horse Comics in 2005; Marvel, which regained the license to publish Star Wars content in 2014, has also reissued Dark Horse's other Prequel Era adaptations, The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, as part of a collection that encompasses the entire Star Wars movie saga. Writer Christopher Cerasi (using the pen name "Miles Lane" in the original Dark Horse edition) and artist Doug Wheatley follow the story in Lucas's screenplay closely, even using the same title crawl text from the finished film. (For some reason, the "crawl" appears twice in this compilation. Fir...

You'd think that after 64 days as President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, the self-styled master of The Art of the Deal, would drop his "alternative facts" shtick and, for once, tell the truth about his words and deeds. Especially his words, because now that he sits in the Oval Office, every utterance (or Twitter tweet) has the potential of becoming national policy.  Well, you would think that if Mr. Trump had learned anything about the Presidency and real leadership before he made his fateful decision to throw his hat in the Presidential campaign ring two years ago. There are plenty of books about the good, the bad, and the ugly Administrations that have led our government since 1789 that Mr. Trump can read, for Pete's sake. Or, since the 45th Chief Executive doesn't like to read, he could probably log on to Netflix, Amazon Video, or any streaming channel that offers documentaries along the lines of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.  ...

  Donald J. Trump has been in the White House - courtesy of a victory in the Electoral College and (allegedly) a little help from his friends in Russia - for 63 days and counting. In that short (but seemingly endless) period of time, Mr. Trump has managed to become the least credible and most unpopular person ever to sit behind the Resolute desk in  the Oval Office. Despite a small uptick in his approval ratings - Gallup shows that 41% of Americans think he's doing well in the latest poll  - Mr. Trump still has not cracked the ceiling of 50% approval (or better) since he took the oath of office on January 20. No amount of braggadocio, no vast volume of executive orders, no huge batches of Twitter tweets or campaign-style rallies can hide the fact that Mr. Trump is both incompetent and dishonest.  Consider this: according to various news sources, Mr. Trump suffered yet another setback on his way to repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The dismantling of "Oba...

(C) 2016 by Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Limited. Cover art by Mike Mayhew With the success of its 2015 hardcover re-mastered reissues of its classic Star Wars Trilogy comic adaptation, Marvel Comics decided to give the Prequel Trilogy a similar re-release the following year. Starting with the May 24 publication of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace , Marvel collected all four issues of Dark Horse Comics’ 2002 adaptation of Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones, the second installment of George Lucas’s “Tragedy of Darth Vader” saga. Written by Henry Gilroy – a screenwriter who has worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels – and drawn by Jan Duursema ( Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi ), the four-issue series tells the tale of a corrupt Republic’s gradual transformation into an authoritarian dictatorship, an ambitious Jedi apprentice’s stormy relationship with his Master, and a star-crossed romance that will ultimately affect the fate of the galaxy. ...

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the  Office  of  President  of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." - Presidential Oath of Office Only two months and three days have passed since Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. That's a short span of time, really,  but to many Americans, it feels like we're in a national nightmare far worse than the Watergate scandal that destroyed Richard Nixon's Presidency - and further eroded public confidence in politicians, the two-party system, and American democracy itself.  During his short time in office, Mr. Trump has managed to achieve something no other President had done in the 228 years and 19 days (or, if you prefer, 83,294 days) since President George Washington swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. In 62 days, Mr. Trump has generat...

(C) 2016 Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. Cover art by Mike Mayhew In May of 1999, Dark Horse Comics (which then had the license to publish Star Wars comics) released Issue No. 1 of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Written by Henry Gilroy and illustrated by Rodolfo Damaggio (with inks by the late Al Williamson, who had worked on the syndicated newspaper  Star Wars comic strip with Archie Goodwin, plus Marvel's adaptations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi ). the first of four issues covered the first 30 minutes or so of George Lucas's 1999 space-fantasy film.  Later that year, Dark Horse collected all four issues in a trade paperback edition simply titled Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace.  Like most comic books based on the  Star Wars  movies, the four-issue series successfully taps into the spirit of The Phantom Menace, even though some of the events are moved around or compressed to fit the requirements of the printed...

Officially?  None.  Star Wars: The Force Awakens  and its two sequels, Star Wars: The Last Jedi   and Episode IX  are all-new original stories based on concepts by J.J. Abrams, Michael Arndt, Lawrence Kasdan, and the Lucasfilm Story Group. (George Lucas, when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, handed in a treatment for  Episodes VII-IX,  but it was not used.) Unofficially:  Some story elements of  The Force Awakens  bear some resemblance to plot points from the  Star Wars  Expanded Universe novels and comics. For instance, in the film, Han and Leia have a son (Ben Solo) who is strong with the Force and is seduced by its Dark Side. This is also a plot point in the old EU, except that in the books the son is named Jacen Solo (who has a twin sister, Jaina) and after undergoing training as a Jedi in Luke Skywalker’s academy, turns bad and becomes Darth Caedus.