A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Cover art by Marvel Comics artist Bob Larkin. © 1980 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) In May of 1980, a few weeks before 20th Century Fox released Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in theaters, Marvel's official comics adaptation hit the shelves at bookstores, newsstands and comic book shops in the U.S. and Canada. There were various iterations of writer Archie Goodwin and artists Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon's take on the story written by George Lucas, Leigh Brackett, and Lawrence Kasdan, including five monthly issues ( Star Wars #39-44, labeled as Star Wars but featuring a  cover "blurb" featuring the logo for The Empire Strikes Back ), a large-format "Treasury" edition, and The Marvel Comics Illustrated Edition of The Empire Strikes Back, which was the size of a mass-market paperback (4 1/8" X 7" size) and featured cover art by Bob Larkin. Of all these, The Marvel Comics Illustrated Edition of The Empire Strikes Back was the first to reach cons

Inning 7: The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960) Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns Directed by: Ken Burns The Americans are on the move. Moving to the suburbs. Moving across the country. They are, it seems, restless, Of course, if you're a baseball fan in New York, you don't want to move. You're in baseball heaven.  Year after year, the Yankees are on top of the American League. Year after year, the Giants and the Dodgers fight for the National League crown. Starting in 1949, there is a New York team in the World Series for 10 straight years. And in six of those years, both teams are from New York.  On September 26, 1994, the 300 member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) broadcast The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960), the seventh episode (or "inning") of Ken Burns'  nine-part documentary that chronicled America's national pastime from its beginnings in the 1840s to the early 1990s. Co-written by Burns with historian (and

Reaper (the drone formerly known as Predator). Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons Someone on Quora asks:  Would drone strikes on their cyber war facilities be an appropriate response to the Russian attacks on our election? No. Sending armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) over Russian territory and firing, say, Hellfire missiles at the Internet Research Agency’s headquarters in St. Petersburg (the former Leningrad) would be, don’t you know, an act of war. Seriously, dude. What  are  you thinking? Okay, let’s say that a future President (not Donald Trump or Mike Pence) decides that the proper response to Russia’s interference in our elections is what amounts to a conventional air strike, albeit using drones. First, let’s look at the graphics of this. Imagine, if you will, Russia’s state-controlled media beaming pictures of the burning IRA building wherever it may be in St. Petersburg. Chances are that the drone strike would be a “no warning” strike (because then Russia’s

Is Trump a "modern-day Lincoln"? Some of his fans think so. But trust me, he's not. Photo Credit: NBC Nope. Not in the slightest. The only things in common that Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln are: Party affiliation: Republicans Ethnicity: Caucasian of European origin Last Job Held: President of the United States Gender: Male Other than that, besides the fact that neither Lincoln nor Trump were shoo-ins during their first run to the White House, they are  dissimilar in  most areas. An 1863 portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States. Photo Credit: Moses Parker Rice. Mead Art Museum collection  "I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."  Abraham Lincoln "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot

Ahsoka Tano as she appears in Star Wars: Rebels. © 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  Asked on Quora as: "If the Clone Wars series is considered to be canon, then where is Ahsoka Tano (Anakin's Padawan) during AOTC and ROTS?" After George Lucas put the finishing touches on  Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,  the then-chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. hired animator Dave Filoni and a team of producers, writers, computer animators, and directors led by Catherine Winder. Their mission: to set up Lucasfilm Animation and start production on a new television series,  Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  Lucas himself told fans about the new show - which is set  between  Attack of the Clones (AOTC)  and  Revenge of the Sith (ROTS). As Lucas has stated in several behind-the-scenes interviews, the Clone Wars is a conflict that can’t be depicted in its entirety in the main Saga films. We only see how the war begins in Act Three of  AOTC  and its end in  ROTS.  (There is a three-year

Cover art by Dave Dornan. © 1991, 2010 Dark Horse Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Following the deaths of Darth Vader and the Emperor at the Battle of Endor, the Rebel Alliance formed a New Republic over much of the galaxy. Long years of struggle have ensued. Remnants of the Empire have regained strength and reclaimed the majority of worlds, including the city-world of Coruscant. Now a civil war within the resurgent Empire has erupted, and the New Republic has seized the opportunity to increase confusion. A recent raid over Coruscant has left Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian stranded on the war-torn planet, but help is on the way...- Opening crawl, Dark Empire On September 15, 2010, Dark Horse Comics published Star Wars: Dark Empire Trilogy, a 352-page hardcover volume that collected Tom Veitch's 1991-1995 Expanded Universe trilogy of stories in which the fledgling New Republic's legendary heroes - Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Land

© 1999 Beckett Publications In April of 1999, during the media blitz that preceded the premiere of George Lucas's Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace, sports card, and memorabilia-related Beckett Publications published A Movie Fan's Extreme Guide to Collectibles From a Galaxy Far, Far Away, a 256-page guide devoted - naturally - to toys, books, trading cards, posters, comics, and other collectibles from the first four Star Wars films, including the upcoming Episode I. Written by Steve Fritz, Matt Brady, and James Beckett, Collectibles From a Galaxy Far, Far Away gives readers and Star Wars collectors an overview of some of the vast numbers of collectible items in the market, as well as a price guide that reveals how much a 1978 Luke Skywalker 3.75-inch figure in an unopened package was worth in 1999, just to name one of many examples. The book, which is not a licensed publication vetted by Lucasfilm, consists of four main sections, the third of which is divided into

This is one variation of the 2015 reissue of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's Star Wars: The Complete Saga  Blu-ray set, which contains the nine discs of the 2011 box set, except with different packaging. © 2015 TCFHE and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) A curious Quora member asked this question yesterday: How do you (legally) watch the entire Star Wars series without breaking the bank? Honestly, if you live in the U.S. or Canada, have a steady income, and are diligent about paying your bills, acquiring and watching the current 10 movies that exist at this moment (February 2019), it's not as hard as you might think.  If you want to limit yourself to the live-action Skywalker Saga films, you'll need to get the following: The Complete Star Wars Saga nine-disc Blu-ray set, preferably the 2015 reissue because it's easier to acquire on Amazon or other sellers (Best Buy, Target, etc.). Right now Amazon is asking $74.79 for the box set.  Star Wars: The Force Aw

Dust jacket design: Eric White. © 2013 Alfred A. Knopf On September 24, 2013, 99 years and one day after Japan – in an ironic historical twist – declared war on her future Axis partner Germany, Alfred A. Knopf published Sir Max Hastings' Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War, the U.S. edition of the esteemed British historian's account of World War One's first five months. Published in Britain as Catastrophe, the book examines the diplomatic, military, and human errors in judgment that led to the outbreak of Europe in the summer of 1914 and set in motion the chain of events that caused future horrors in the 20th Century and beyond. In this nearly 700-page volume, Hastings focuses exclusively on the conflict – known then by most people as "the Great War," although some prescient German writers called it der Weltkrieg: "the World War" – in the Eastern and Western Fronts in Europe. (In his introduction, Hastings writes, "Hew Strachan, in the first

Before I tell you how I feel about Patrick Stewart’s return to  Star Trek  in a CBS Access series about which little is known, let’s get our showbiz terminology straight. First, let’s stop referring to “reboots” in cases where it is not necessary. For instance,  Star Trek: Picard  (for lack of a better name) is  not  a reboot; it’s a sequel to, and a continuation of,  Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Based on what little information CBS (the owner of the  Star Trek  franchise’s television half; Paramount Pictures handles the features) has released, the new show starring Stewart in his TNG role is set 25 years after the events of  Star Trek: Nemesis. A “reboot” would be a totally different animal. It would involve a re-telling of  Star Trek: The Next Generation  with an all-new cast and would be presented as either a “hard” reboot (the 1987–2002 series and features  never  happened, thus allowing CBS to recast every role, including Picard’s), or a “soft” reboot, in which the eve