The 25 Baubles of Pop Culture! Advent 2022 Day 5

Star Wars is always one of my favorite subjects pertaining to Christmas. The Christmas of 1980 was full of Empire Strikes Back toys from Santa. Every Christmas from 1992-1998 involved watching the original trilogy with my little sister. And then there's the Christmas season of 1996.

Okay, this story actually takes place during the Summer of 1996. Hallmark announced that they would be producing their very first Star Wars ornament. A replica of the Millennium Falcon, the ornament was part of Hallmark's Magic line. If you removed a bulb from a certain type of bulb from a strand of lights and plugged the Falcon in, it would light up the cockpit and engine.

Anyways, on the day that the 1996 Christmas line of Hallmark ornaments was to debut, I was standing in line with probably 100 soccer moms and grandmothers. As an 18-year old and the only male in the group, I sure did get a whole bunch of odd looks. Nevertheless, I waited about an hour for the store to open and then when the doors opened, I rushed to the display of Star Wars ornaments and grabbed one from the stack. I was first in line at the check out as that was all I wanted from the store and everybody else was fighting over the more popular holiday offerings.

A year later, I'm back at the same store. Based on the popularity of the Millennium Falcon ornament, Hallmark decided to create an official line of Star Wars ornaments. Luke Skywalker was the first official ornament. Yoda and a Magic version of Darth Vader were also released for the 1997 season. 

As I said, I was back at the same Hallmark story waiting for it to open so I can get my hands on the new releases. Only I'm not alone this year. With me was Alan, the store manager at the Suncoast video store I worked at in the mall. We decided to split up and whomever got to the items first would grab one of each. We had to game plan as this year there were several other known Star Wars collectors in line hoping to get their hands on our ornaments. 

The last Star Wars ornament I purchased was in 98. It was of Princess Leia in her white gown from A New Hope. I got this one in the same way from the same store. But now that I was engaged, I needed to start saving money and went with the Princess from Alderaan.

Over 25 years have passed and there are literally thousands of Star Wars ornaments now. With Disney as the new owners of the Force, it's not just Hallmark who produces licensed tree decorations these days. Of those, my favorites are part of the M&M Mpire line of baubles in which the tiny candies are dressed as characters from the films. I also like the Downtown Disney set of ornaments that look like gingerbread cookies. 

As for the hand-crafted stuff, I'm going to highlight this painted wooden ornament DIY that I found on JustJENN.recipes. Utilizing a set of temporary tattoos, this stormtrooper tree hanger looks like it's been given the sugar skull treatment. I love sugar skulls!

Star Wars Adventures, Vol. 6: Flight of the Falcon

First Order bounty hunter Bazine Netal is on the hunt for the Millennium Falcon. Her search will take Star Wars fans on a roller coaster ride through decades of history set during, before and after the fall of the Empire! Flight of the Falcon was a fantastic read full of cameos of some of the greatest as well as some of the most obscure characters to ever grace the Star Wars universe. But due to spoilers, you'll have to read this collection for yourself to find out just who makes their appearances inside!

( I will give you one hint: fans finally will learn why Han and Chewie were looking for the Falcon in The Force Awakens!)

Disney made a smart decision outsourcing their all-ages Star Wars stuff to IDW. The editors and staff at IDW Publishing seem like big kids to me who want the fun they had with the properties and franchises of their childhood to be just as epic now as they were back then!

Hoax Hunters' Michael Moreci combs through 40 years of Star Wars to bring fans young and old an eclectic history of the Millennium Falcon and it's numerous owners. The art was perfectly done as an old school 80s cartoon by Arianna Florian (Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor). The art looks how I wish a Star Wars cartoon would have looked if ever that childhood wish of mine would've ever been granted.

Not everything about this book was perfect. A major flaw was somebody's decision to not finish Bazine Netal's story in the pages of Star Wars Adventures. To get that conclusion, you have to get another book: Star Wars: Pirate's Price. That book isn't even a comic book! It's a young adult prose novel by Disney Lucasfilm Press!

I can understand (but not forgive) having to read the conclusion in another comic book series. It's a pet peeve of mine. But such an action is a staple of the comic book industry that I don't see publishers ever changing their market plan. But to make kids have to go from the comic book store to the book store to get the conclusion to a story seems just plain rude. 

I love to get kids reading. But to interrupt the flow of a story by requiring kids (and their parents) to go searching all over town for the conclusion... No wonder the comic book industry is in jeopardy!

I loved this book. I hated the bait-and-switch. The editor's do their 'best' to explain the storyline gap, but it's not the same. Want to keep young reader reading comic books. My advice IDW: don't try such a stunt again no matter what 'Emperor Mickey' decrees.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Classic Star Wars Volume One

 Before I begin my review, let's get one thing straight: Classic Star Wars is by far the most confusing Dark Horse title EVER! Classic Star Wars is a 3-volume collection of newspaper strips by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson that ran in papers nationwide from 1980 until 1984 when the title was cancelled. I've always thought that this series should have been titled Star Wars Daily and that the original Marvel Comics run should have been designated CLASSIC! Instead the Marvel reprints were packaged as CLASSIC STAR WARS: A LONG TIME AGO... Added to the confusion is yet another series of trade paperbacks that reprint the 1979-1980 non-Goodwin penned strips called Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures!

    Having read the introductions, a little bit of this confusion is finally cleared up to me. Dark Horse in the early 90s had just received the rights to publish Star Wars comics and they were desperate to start raking in the sales. They didn't have the original Marvel books in their possession yet, so they went on to print the newspaper strips.

   For some reason, the first 18-months of the strips was MIA. Desperate to present rabid Star Wars fans with anything original, Dark Horse found its answer in rival publisher Russ Cochran and series artist Williamson. Russ Cochran had a few years earlier put out these giant sized hardback editions of the strip. But they were in black and white and they were reprints from a collection of clippings a fan made during the strip's original run. The images weren't all that great. Plus, since some strips didn't carry the weekly strip while others didn't carry the Sunday edition, to keep the reader from getting lost there were redundancies galore. Enter: Al Williamson!

    Strip artist Al Williamson apparently was ultra-meticulous. Not only did he have all of the original artwork but they were catalogued to such a degree that his files actually found flaws in the Russ Cochran archives! Working with Dark Horse, Williamson and company produced what I am just about to review, a beautiful collection of the strips, edited to look more like a classic format comic book, repetitive panels deleted; now colored, re-inked, and featuring original covers and filler art by Al!

  While I hated the title, I loved the content. The great introduction by writer Archie Goodwin helped me to better understand the way the strips were organized. There's lots of drama and action but it's framed in such a way that every other panel had to be a cliffhanger in order to entice the reader back the next day.

   In this volume, we learn of what really happened with Han and that bounty hunter on Ord Mandell. Then Luke accepts a deadly mission to the Imperial shipyards before he's a captive of the Serpent Masters. Lastly, before Han sniffs out a rebel traitor on an ocean planet, the crew of the Millenium Falcon are trapped in the wake of a collapsing star.

   The stories were exciting and I was riveted. There was one thing that really bugged me storywise and that was the love triangle between Princess Leia, Han Solo, and a certain farmboy from Tatooine. True, all of this happened before the big reveal in Return of the Jedi that Luke and Leia were brother and sister. But you'd think Lucas would've put the kibosh on this plotline. Plus, looking back at the massive hots Luke has for his (at the time unknown) sister, it's kinda creepy.

    But the thing I loved the most about this book was the art. Now when these strips were first published I was of the ages of 3-7. Yet, looking at Williamson's deft artwork and dramatic shading, I was taken instantly back to the days of having my uncles or parents read to me the daily adventures of my favorite Star Wars characters. Williamson's art is so identifiable. Though Luke may not look like Luke on every panel, the artist's renderings of spaceships, droids, and Darth Vader are so perfect.

    George Lucas was clearly influenced by the Flash Gordon serials of the 40s and 50s in making Star Wars. Here, Al Williamson's work is inspired by the classic strips that starred Flash and the Merciless Ming. Plus, I think the artist loves to draw lizards because he hides them in his artwork a lot. It's like a cool signature Easter Egg.

    With Marvel owning the rights to these properties again, you might see this series get a new reissue one day soon. But, the original Classic Star Wars volumes are not hard to find. Amazon has a ton for sale and I often find the books in this series at LCS and used books stores nationwide. And for a decent price too.

    A forgotten treasure in the Star Wars comic universe.

   Worth Consuming

    Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

 

The 18 Days of a Star Wars Christmas Miracle +7: Day 5

 

 As a kid, I had Star Wars toys, books, videos, sheets, clothes, even cereal. But one thing I never had were Star Wars ornaments!

   That was until 1996 AND I WAS 19!

   After 19 years, Hallmark finally answered my and scores of other Star Wars fans requests with the release of the first ever Star Wars ornament of the Millenium Falcon! It was one of those 'magic' keepsake ornaments where you plugged it into one of the sockets of a strand of lights and the ship lit up!

     I remember standing in line at the Crabtree Valley for over 2 hours to be one of the first people to buy it. Out of about 100 moms and grandmoms waiting to get their ornaments, I was the only guy there. I was so out of my element. But it was worth it.

    For my advent present to you today, I have included a link to an extensive history of all of the Star Wars ornaments from 1996-2005. Also, if you find yourself to be crafty, you might enjoy Pinterest link for some idea in creating your own Star Wars ornaments.

   Enjoy!