Al Williamson (1931–2010)

I received this as a gift in the fall of 1980, a few months after seeing the newly released movie in theatres. This was significant in two respects, one being my impressionable age (7) and the other being that this predated the ability to re-watch movies at home, in any format. Thanks to this comic I could revisit the most spectacular movie I'd ever seen when I had no other means of doing so.

This is not strictly a scene-for-scene, line-by-line recreation of what you know. Like most show more adaptations that are composed at the same time as the film is in post-production, it has elements from earlier scripts and features scenes that were later cut, while missing others that were later added. It does not open with a star destroyer, and it includes the wampa attack on the rebel base. Darth Vader requests his ship as he is leaving Cloud City, which we didn't see him do on screen until the 1997 special edition.

Objects are not always accurately scaled (Yoda and the Executor, especially), and the shading gives an odd look to some scenes; as a prisoner of Cloud City, Han Solo looks ready for the discotheque. These are minor quibbles to me. I loved, and still love, every frame of my treasured copy and the fuel this provided to my young imagination. The original film trilogy is a significant memory for me and ESB most of all, in part because of this. show less

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The comic adaptation of Return of the Jedi has only four issues, rather than the six for the two previous films. The action sequences, which are after all the main point, are well done.

In general I approve of the tightening up, yet I felt that we skipped a couple of interesting points here; most notably the ghost scene at the end with the shades of Anakin, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi is absent, and though it's a bit silly I felt it gave closure to the show more story. show less

This book was most likely aimed at boys born round-about 1970 who would have been around 12 to 13 years old when Blade Runner was released in the cinema, and subsequently too young to secure a seat; as such what you have here is basically a comic book version of the (15) rated movie with mild nudity sanitised out - which only enforces my earlier claim that the book was aimed at children rather than a more mature market. Stan Lee's name is also used on the inside cover in order to give the show more book more status in the total absence of any mention at all of Philip K. Dick anywhere! Harrison Ford gets a mention on the back cover naturally.
Such publications were popular in the days when films took an eon to arrive on TV and then only at Christmas; so, the only way to 'view' it was either a dodgy 100th generation tape from the local pirate video shop, MAD's own spoof version, or if you were very lucky a reasonably faithful facsimile such as this one for Blade Runner. I'll warn you though that the artwork is about as dynamic as a 16th century woodcut and the text is only there to spoon feed the reader the original script in the least thought provoking way. As such you finish the book feeling rather hollow and unfulfilled. A nice item to stick on the shelf of a Blade Runner memorabilia collector's hoard perhaps? Good news is that as a result most copies you will come across are likely to be pretty crisp and little read, as my own copy certainly is. Saying all that, I'm sure I'd have probably sold the shirt off of my back for a copy of this book back when I was 13 ! Today, I'd recomment you save your time and just watch Ridley Scott's movie instead. show less

If you've seen the film version of The Empire Strikes Back, then you've read this book, and vice versa; it's a fairly faithful adaptation. What really makes this book stand out is the remastered coloring. Marvel took the original plates for the art and had them recolored using contemporary coloring techniques, and the result is fantastic. The book just looks beautiful. If you're just a casual fan, this probably wouldn't interest you too much, but for the hardcore Star Wars fan, I think this show more would be a great addition to their library. show less