After Star Wars hit theaters in 1977, the moviegoing experience was forever changed. Science fiction and fantasy entered the mainstream, and special effects and viewer expectations were elevated to new heights. A marketing and merchandising empire was unleashed of unprecedented proportions, giving rise to the so-called Expanded Universe of tales — chief among them comic books and strips — that took the Star Warriors beyond the silver screen onto the printed page.
Marvel Comics published the first line of Star Wars comic books, featuring stories set after the original film. Since then, more than a thousand comics have been produced from a variety of publishers, including Marvel Comics, Blackthorne Publishing, the L.A. Times Syndicate, Dark Horse Comics, Scholastic, Tokyopop, and more. The comics have spanned the history of the franchise, from millennia before Anakin Skywalker’s birth to beyond Luke Skywalker’s death, and have focused on every aspect of the Star Wars universe: Jedi, Sith, clones, politics, droids, the underworld, romance, and even the much-maligned Ewoks.
In A Galaxy Far, Far Away: Exploring Star Wars Comics, editors Joseph F. Berenato and Rich Handley pick up where their previous volume, A Long Time Ago: Exploring the Star Wars Cinematic Universe, left off. This anthology features insightful, analytical essays examining the Star Wars comics, contributed by popular comic historians, novelists, bloggers, and subject-matter experts — plus, a foreword by fan-favorite Star Wars comics writer John Ostrander. From Jaxxon to Cody Sunn-Childe, from Ulic Qel-Droma to Lady Lumiya, find out how comics helped to keep the Star Wars universe alive, and why you’re missing out if you’re not reading them.
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Rich Handley (richhandley.com) has written books about Planet of the Apes, Back to the Future, and Watchmen, as well as licensed Star Wars and Planet of the Apes fiction, and he edited 70 volumes of Eaglemoss's Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection. Rich has co-edited Titan's Scribe Award-nominated Planet of the Apes: Tales from the Forbidden Zone; nine Sequart anthologies to date discussing Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Hellblazer, Stargate, and classic monsters; and four Crazy 8 Press anthologies about Batman and the Joker. He has contributed essays to DC's Hellblazer: 30th Anniversary Celebration; IDW's five Star Trek and three Star Wars comic-strip reprint books; BOOM! Studios' four Planet of the Apes Archive hardcovers; Sequart anthologies about Star Trek and Blade Runner; ATB Publishing's Outside In line focused on Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The X-Files, Twin Peaks, Babylon 5; and a Becky Books anthology covering Dark Shadows. Rich writes a weekly Star Trek column for HeroCollector.com and is the managing editor of RFIDJournal.com.
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By age three, Joseph F. Berenato began a life-long love affair with comic books, monster movies, and science fiction. Hailing from Hammonton, NJ, Joe obtained a B.A. in English and spent four years as the entertainment editor of The Hammonton Gazette before returning to his roots at his family's blueberry farm. Joe was a contributor to Gotham City 14 Miles: 14 Essays on Why the 1960s Batman TV Series Matters, and is currently hard at work authoring or co-authoring two reference guides for Hasslein Books: It's Alive: The Unauthorized Universal Monsters Encyclopedia (with Jim and Becky Beard) and Something Strange: The Complete Unauthorized Ghostbusters Encyclopedia. A graduate student at Rowan University, Joe will earn an M.A. in writing in 2015. In what little spare time he has left, Joe serves as an administrator, art director, and content contributor at AtomicWanderers.com.
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