TJW Podcast and the 501st on TV!

Hey there TJW Podcast listeners - The local Comcast channel in Massachusetts did a great story about the New England 501st Legion. And they included some coverage of the Traveling the Jundland Wastes Podcast live event with Zack Giallongo this past February at the New England Comics in Norwood.   You can watch it here!  Enjoy!

Let us know what you think! Email us at: jundlandwastespodcast@gmail.com .

Stay tuned for a new episode coming soon.

All the best.

Mark

May the Fourth and Revenge of the Fifth!

Hello TJW Podcast listeners! A belated Happy May the Fourth and a very happy Revenge of the Fifth! More than any other year, I think this years May the Fourth celebrations were more exuberant and plentiful than previous years. Don’t me wrong, it has always been a lot of fun and at times it has coincided with Free Comic Book Day weekend as well.  But I think this year was a little different.

Maybe it’s because I live in southern New England and the fact that we just came out of a pretty rough winter and are thrilled that we have finally hit spring. We can get out and go to these events without worrying about an icy,snowy and cold trip.  But I think it is also because we are in full throttle with Episode 7 especially after getting the official cast announcement last week as well as getting a peek at the trailer for Star Wars Rebels.  And did anyone else catch J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan’s May the Fourth You Tube greeting?  

My facebook and email were just jammed packed with enough Star Wars news to make any Star Trek fan cry.  And how about all the deals coming in from every “etailer” you can imagine? If you are a Star Wars fan and were unable to make a choice for a good May the Fourth purchase, I do not blame you!  Do I get a good deal on a Star Wars book or graphic novel? Is there an action figure or statue that is too good to turn down?

At first I thought about some some Star Wars art.  As a budding artist myself, I really do appreciate the time and effort that Star Wars artists put into a great print, a sketch card or a nice commission piece. But as I was surfing the web for a deal, I noticed that Official Pix had their annual May the Fourth metallix photo deal. Last year they had two great shots to choose from...a funny impromptu shot of the Millennium Falcon crew giving us their best “May the Fourth be with you!” wave and a gorgeous shot of Carrie Fisher sporting her slave outfit while taking a jump in the ocean.

This year only offered one shot but it is such a great scene from The Empire Strikes Back. A close up of Darth Vader with Boba Fett in the background during the reveal scene on Cloud City when Darth Vader greats Han and Leia with, “We would be honored if you would join us.”  This was the item I had to get in honor of May the Fourth. This metallix photo measures 10 inches by 20 inches and is just missing some great signatures from James Earl Jones, Jeremy Bulloch and Dave Prowse.  I cannot wait to get this in the mail!

This November I will hopefully be going to the Rhode Island Comic Con.  Dave Prowse aka Darth Vader will be in attendance and I cannot wait to shake his hand and get his signature on this great photo.

What did you get on May the Fourth? Getting anything for Revenge of the Fifth?

Let us know!  Email us at: jundlandwastespodcast@gmail.com

All the best and stay tuned for our next episode!

All the best,

Mark

Co-host TJW Podcast

The First "Legends" Novels

Hello TJW Podcast listeners - It seems like we are in a period of time when daily news updates include something new about Star Wars. And today the news seems to be about the Expanded Universe.

We have just learned that the first set of Star Wars novels from our current Expanded Universe to have the Lucasfilm approved “Legends” banner are the Han Solo Adventures by the late Brian Daley and the Lando Calrissian Adventures by L. Neil Smith.  

Here are some of the details regarding these re-releases:

* Both set of “Adventures” will be the collected editions. The Han Solo collection will include Han Solo at Stars End, Han Solo’s Revenge and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy. The Lando Calrissian collection will include Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon and Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka

* These new reprints have new cover art and the “Legends” banner on the top of the cover

* These will be paperbacks and it does not look like there will be a hardcover version

* Amazon.com is taking orders for these novels but I am unsure when these will be available

I think most of us were expecting the first “Legends” title to be Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire. As I mentioned in a previous post this week, this novel was the beginning of the modern Expanded Universe for many Star Wars enthusiasts.  But I think there is something very significant about Lucasfilm putting the Han Solo/Lando Calrissian Adventures novels out as their first “Legends” titles.

These novels can be called the original Expanded Universe stories in the Star Wars universe. These titles came out at a time when all we had were the movies and one Marvel comic book series. Daley and Smith (as well as Alan Dean Foster who penned Splinter of the Minds Eye) were authors who gave us approximately 200 page adventures per title.

Aside: Nowadays it is strange to see a novel that is not somewhere between 300 and 500 pages long. But back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, there was still a concept of having a full novel in under 200 pages. I wish that novelists would return to this concept.

The fun of these novels was seeing how each author remained true to the character of Han and Lando yet at the same time did not feel the need to obey the rules of timelines, possible future storyline repercussions and the fear that ideas would be rejected for not falling into the universe set up in the movies. Don’t get me wrong....these are Star Wars novels and they do have a lot of “anchors” throughout the stories that remind us of the universe we are in.  But there is a freshness and sense of freedom I always get when I open up one of these very early Expanded Universe novels.  I am hoping that Lucasfilm will follow suit by re-releasing Splinter of Minds Eye as well under the “Legends” banner.

And perhaps Lucasfilm is giving us a small indication of how Episode 7 and the upcoming new Expanded Universe is going to play out. Perhaps by releasing these classic novels first as “Legends”, they are telling us that Star Wars is going to return to the style that made the movies and these early novels so much fun.  The combination of strong characters, high adventure and a limitless universe of ideas will be what takes us into this new and exciting Star Wars era.

Let us know what you think about these re-released novels. Write us at: jundlandwastespodcast@gmail.com

All the best,

Mark

Co-host TJW Podcast