Star Wars: Darth Vader And The Ghost Prison

This was one of the darkest Star Wars stories I've ever come across.

It probably should have been an obvious assumption to make about a miniseries starring the Dark Lord of the Sith. Lots of death, lots of betrayal, secrets, Jedi not really sounding all too heroic...

The first issue is perhaps a little bit too much in the way of setup. Before Vader is even seen we are introduced to a character named Laurita Tohm, one of the Empire's first graduating officers. He's done a great job and is happy to offer his loyalty to the galaxy's newest superpower.

When Vader meets Tohm, there is a real Doctor Who-esque vibe to the scene. I had to wonder if it was deliberate. Tohm is our everyman, and he is about to go on a wild adventure with a mysterious and dangerous man. Does he even consider for a second that he might not go? Of course not. Vader shares some secrets with Tohm by reactivating some old holocrons stored in the abandoned Jedi Temple.

The mission that Vader takes Tohm on is to stop a threat that has emerged from within the Empire itself. The very man who trained the Empire's cadets wants to be the Emperor himself. Palapatine is poisoned; Coruscant is threatened, and Vader needs a solution to the problems.

That problem winds up getting solved with the help of the Ghost Prison. As a Jedi general in the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker had helped to fill the secret prison with many enemies of the Republic. Now the prisoners are the best chance that Darth Vader has for assembling a quick army to take care of the insurgence. It's a crazy plan maybe, but it sure does work. The prisoners are eager to do anything that will get them out of their cells, and defeating a rebellion is almost too easy for Vader and company.

Vader hates the Jedi for many reasons and the Ghost Prison is just one of them. His former masters locked people up with no real impetus to ever put people on trial. It was just a place to send people with no consequences. It was a place that was designed to be all but forgotten. All it took to run the facility was a single Jedi and a hundred droids.

Darth Vader is every bit as menacing as you remember him from the movies. He kills and kills and kills. It is all that he knows after all of the blood that was shed in the Clone Wars. He is loyal to the Emperor, but at all times he is looking out for his own best interests (see the story's shock ending to find out what I mean).

Although it has a slow opening chapter, the rest of Ghost Prison rolls along like any good Star Wars tale. Reading it all in one sitting, it really did seem like I was taking in a cool brand new SW movie.

Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago...Volume Two

Now this is a book from a long time ago, and sometimes when reading it the stories even seem like they might have come from a galaxy far, far away. These tales are from the very early days of Star Wars being the phenomenon that it eventually developed into, and the results are often pretty squarely on the goofy side. The Omnibus captures perfectly what Star Wars meant to fans in the late 70's and early 80's.

Archie Goodwin is "the man with the plan" throughout most of the stories reprinted in this book. He served not only as writer but he also edited the book, so it's safe to say that Star Wars was truly "his" book. The main artist is Carmine Infantino, who is joined by a host of inkers. But of course Al Williamson has to be mentioned for his really beautiful work on the six-part adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back. Other names that show up in more of a supporting cast role are Chris Claremont, Mike W. Barr, Walt Simonson, and Michael Golden. So there's a lot of significant talent in these stories.

Al Williamson's detailed work from the Empire adaptation.

The comics reprinted in this Omnibus were from the series put out by Marvel. Having a tie-in of this caliber probably saved Marvel from bankruptcy in the late 70's, so yeah, you might be able to say that these comics were pretty important! What's fun about these stories is how you can see that the whole idea of what Star Wars really could be about was just forming. Half of the comics were made before there was even a sequel to the 1977 original movie.

Take the character of Jabba the Hutt for instance. He makes a few appearances in these comics, but Lucas apparently hadn't really figured out exactly what he wanted to do with the character yet. He was, after all, only briefly mentioned in A New Hope. So Archie Goodwin wanted to make use of this interesting character from Han Solo's past, and when he shows up he is nothing like the fat, slimy Hutt we know and love from Return of the Jedi. Jabba in the old comics is a skinny humanoid with a really ugly and almost baboon-like face. You can either be unsatisfied by a "lack of continuity" or you can just accept the fact that Star Wars was still very much of a work in progress while this series was being put out.

That's Jabba Version 1.0 there in the background, not the GI Joe-looking guy in front.

There is still an ongoing saga narrative behind these stories. Goodwin invented some new villains who cause some problems not only for the heroes, but also for Darth Vader. The Tagge family are a bunch of Imperials, true, but they would just love nothing more than to seize power from Vader. The fights with the Tagges build up over several issues and take some unexpected turns along the way. That might have in fact been the storytelling highlight of the Omnibus.

Maybe not what you'd expect from a Star Wars villain: Baron Tagge.

There are different issues focusing on different characters and you really get the sense that there was an effort being made to show this exciting new universe from as many angles as possible. It might not quite be the Star Wars that we all recognize today, but it's a great history lesson filled with a bunch of solid stories and a lot of exemplary Bronze Age art.

Dark Horse Presents #1

Some time ago, Dark Horse Presents was a pretty important book that Dark Horse put out. They showcased a lot of different things in it. Frank Miller serialized Sin City through it, Paul Chadwick built quite a following for Concrete, and there were tons of other off-the-beaten-path stories that were told. At some point it must have stopped selling and the anthology got the axe in 2000. The DHP model was pretty much forgotten until 2007, when Myspace was a big thing (my how times have changed). Dark Horse revitalized the anthology concept by publishing stories on their Myspace page, and it worked pretty well for them until the entire website proved to be something that just wouldn’t last. So there’s been another whole year without DHP, and the company decided at long last to bring it back in print. It’s a neat format they came up with. They’re doing quarterly 80 page books without ads. So it’s like a nice comics magazine that costs $8. Fair enough.

With anthologies the biggest strengths also seem to be the biggest weaknesses. It’s great to see a whole smorgasbord of stories, but sometimes a quick 8-pager fails to really grab your attention. It’s great to see all kinds of different stories packed into a single book, but inevitably some of them are good and some of them aren’t really anything special. The new Dark Horse Presents is an anthology; of course it will have some of these problems. But overall, I’m really glad that this book exists again.

Let’s begin the tour, shall we?

Concrete by Paul Chadwick: This is, as I understand, the first Concrete story that has been published in awhile. I definitely came to appreciate Chadwick’s nice inky art and his colorist did a good job too. But I’m completely unfamiliar with Concrete and I can’t say that I really “get” it yet. Still a little in the dark, but I hope there are more installments in future issues. Let’s say that right now I want to like Concrete but need a little more to make sure!

Marked Man by Howard Chaykin: This story was a much easier sell for me as a big fan of Howard Chaykin. He’s doing a new story that will be running for awhile in DHP, and it’s looking like a fun double life story about a guy who is trapped in a bad marriage and family situation, and there’s no way in hell that he can let his wife know that he’s really a criminal! This looks promising and like it will be a lot of fun once it really gets cooking.

Blood by Neal Adams: hmm. Well, you have to have a lot of respect for Neal. He’s been working hard since the 60’s, and here is today putting out a brand new story. He still has the skills at the drawing board, that’s for sure. But this story looks like it’s going to be off the rails. It’s an alien invasion story, but that’s kind of hard to tell from this first chapter, which seems to be constructed so that Mr. Adams can draw, over and over, the grotesque face of a man who is tied to a chair and being beaten by others who want information about said aliens. We’ll see about this one…

Finder by Carla Speed McNeil: I’ve been curious about Finder for a good long while. Well, in eight pages Carla Speed McNeil has turned me into a convert! It reminded of Strangers in Paradise in terms of characterization, general hijinks, and beautiful, sensitive art. I have to find out if she’s friends with Terry Moore or something. McNeil is one of those very valuable artists who is a master at capturing great facial expressions and body language in her characters. But wow, I’m definitely going to be looking for that huge Finder book Dark Horse just put out.

Mr. Monster vs. Oooak! by Michael T. Gilbert: I guess there’s nothing to really complain about with this superhero parody. Gilbert gave credit fair and square to the kinds of Lee/Kirby stories he was romping on. I guess it just wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. But I can see why it’s important to have the story in here…there isn’t really a wealth of humor material in the anthology.

The middle part of the book branches off into true magazine style. There’s a two page interview with Frank Miller about his upcoming Xerxes graphic novel (a prequel to 300). I hope that this is a project that materializes sometime within, I’ll be generous here, one full year. Because to hype a book and not deliver is just evil! After the interview there’s a four page preview of black and white pages. Miller is still drawing in that wonderfully cartoony style, but things are looking a little more muddled than they used to. Colors should help out in the final edition. The third thing in this part of the book is a Harlan Ellison short story, which I have to admit I didn’t read. It was a reprint from some magazine. I was riding in a bus and couldn’t be bothered by small print! I really just wasn’t interested.

Murky World by Richard Corben: This one I enjoyed a lot. I always forget to check out more of Corben’s work. He’s telling a tech/fantasy based story and he’s doing a neat black and white style. The art is great and the story is fun too. If you like to see corrupt old men getting what’s coming to them when they want to take advantage of young women, this is the story in DHP for you. Really looking forward to part two.

Star Wars Crimson Empire III by Randy Stradley and Paul Gulacy: Ah yes, a Star Wars story was definitely a good idea. This is a little sizzler for the third part of the Crimson Empire story, which has been laying dormant for a very long time. Having not read anything that came before it, well, I don’t know if I’m really enticed to pick up this new series when it comes out. Maybe if I can find some Crimson Empire. Although you could do far worse than have Paul Gulacy draw your eight page teaser!

Snow Angel by David Chelsea: This closes out the book, and it’s a family-friendly story about a girl who can turn into a sort of superheroic angel when she makes a snow angel on the ground. Kind of a strange yet cute idea. It also stood out from the rest of the pack because it was told using very few words.

Oh, and before I forget: they got Geoff Darrow to do some crazy little spot illustrations throughout the book. Very nice, but let’s get a new story out of this guy next time!

Well, that’s Dark Horse Presents version 3.0 in a nutshell. I’d have to say it’s off to a great start. It would be really great if there were more books out there in a format kind of like this!