Carlos Garzon

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 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.… (more)

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 would be a great addition to their library.… (more)