When this book first started out, it was sort of the cool alternative to the Star Wars monthlies, featuring creators who only had a short Star Wars story in them, or who had a higher profile in the industry. As time went on, it became sort of the "fill in" Star Wars book, with a regular roster of creators instead of a lot of high profile guests, and while there were still some fun stories, it fell victim to the common anthology problem of varying quality in the stories. This issue sort of hearkens back to those early days of the book, the final issue for editor Dave Land in which he has somehow gathered up a pretty impressive roster of small press talent to tell stories that generally tend toward the goofy and are very unusual for a Star Wars comics. Even with all this talent, not every story is a gem, but there is some real fun to be had here, and if this can expose some Star Wars fans to some of the more eclectic talent that's in the industry, then that's a great thing as well.
By far the creator I was most looking forward to in this anthology was James Kochalka. His weird, funny sensibilities and tendency to write basically whatever pops into his head lead me to believe we'd be getting a very unusual Star Wars tale. And indeed we do, as he tells the story of Boba Fett's loser cousin Melvin Fett, whose hunt for Jar Jar Binks is full of the same sort of bizarre stream-of-consciousness dialogue that you'd get from Kochalka's other work. Hearing Fett complain (to no one in particular) about how he's sweating inside his battle armor is just kind of funny, and the way he eventually does get his man is a riot.
In the original solicitation, I was given to believe that the focus of this anthology was going to be on that most-hated of Star Wars characters, Jar Jar Binks. In fact, there are only two Jar Jar Binks stories, but they're both quite entertaining. Tony Millionaire tells a gorgeously-rendered tale of adventure on the sea with a sort of Herman Melville touch to it, the story of Jar Jar Binks's father and the disappointment he feels for his son. Peter Bagge, meanwhile, brings his exaggerated, wild style to the tale of Jar Jar Binks, senator, making for some outrageous fun. Both of these creators take off from the same humorous premise, that Jar Jar's annoying method of speech and intellect aren't racially based, but in fact that the character is a childlike moron who has screwed up the life of everyone around him in the same way that he screwed up whatever integrity the Star Wars movies had left.
In the "short but sweet" department, we've got a classic bit of humor from cartoonist Jason as he shows us Darth Vader's endless rehearsals for one of the big story moments and Peter Bagge skewering the flawed Anakin from Episode II as effectively as he does Jar Jar in his other tale. In another two-pager, Jim Campbell puts a working-class spin on one of the monsters from the Empire Strikes Back, and the result is a laugh-out-loud series of gags with a particularly twisted punchline. Less short, but just as sweet, is Bob Fingerman's tale of Fred Jawa, consumer advocate, who earns the ire of his Jawa counterparts with his insistence on getting their consumers a square deal. It's a cynical look at consumer culture that might be predictable in a slice-of-life vein but which takes on additional humorous life in the Star Wars setting, and Fingerman's full color art is gorgeous.
Actually, even the stories that didn't bowl me over have terrific artwork. Rick Geary's tale of Luke Skywalker, detective is played a little too straight for my taste, even though it's a perfectly reasonable style of story, but his artwork is terrific. I had a similar reaction to "Problem Solvers," as Chris Eliopoulos's story seems a bit one-note, but it's a lot of fun seeing Ewoks, Han Solo and Princess Leia done up in his style. The same is true for "Young Lando Calrissian," as Gilbert Hernandez writes a character who bears little resemblance to the Star Wars scoundrel even giving leeway for humorous interpretation, but there's a joyous innocence to the art style that makes it work for me on a visual level nonetheless.
