Star Wars: Chewbacca | Darko Macan, Brent Anderson, ...

Star Wars: Chewbacca | Darko Macan, Brent Anderson, ... | a great tribute to Chewie

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Star Wars: Chewbacca

	Star Wars: Chewbacca Darko Macan, Brent Anderson, ... Dark Horse, 2001 - 96 pages average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

When the Star Wars galaxy`s greatest Wookiee met his heroic end in the New Jedi Order novel Vector Prime, shockwaves ran through the ranks of Star Wars devotees everywhere. And now Dark Horse presents a commemorative collection detailing, for the first time ever, the history of the mighty Chewbacca! Written by longtime Star Wars writer Darko Macan, Chewbacca features a series of tales narrated by the characters who knew him best -- including Lando Calrissian, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker -- that reveals special glimpses not only of Chewbacca`s heroic history, but of the mysterious and fascinating culture of his noble species. Don`t miss the opportunity to say goodbye and farewell to this beloved character!

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Remembering Chewbacca

Yes it's hard to believe but prior to the release of this comic series we had never truly seen our hero's in the midst of grief. The novels from Bantam were under strict orders not to kill off any of the main cast from the movies, which left them at somewhat of a dramatic quagmire as there are only so many times Luke can go to the dark side, the Jedi children can get kidnapped, Boba Fett is resurrected, the Empire is reborn, or the death star gets rebuilt before it becomes old had. The New Jedi Order was made to overcome this. It would add a formidable new enemy that would challenge and menace our hero's. Kill off beloved characters, shake up the galaxy by remaking or destroying several worlds, and just genuinely cause a lot of pain and growth in the characters. And to start it off, the creators of NJO decided that a character from the original trilogy had to die in order to really shake things up, Lucas forbade Luke, Han, Leia, or Lando getting the axe, so the decision was made to "shoot the family dog" as the writers put it so eloquently in a past interview. This graphic novel deals with the consequences of that decision.

I personally like this novel because it shows something that the novels, or movies have never shown in depth. It gives us in depth glances at our characters at their worst. While they are in their lowest and most pained hours. Each story is in essence a flashback as our hero's remember Chewbacca at his best. Chewies wife remembers the first time she tried to show her feelings for him, which lead to a rather comic and near tragic misunderstanding. Wedge Antilles remembers a rather comical mishap that occurred when he thought chewie was finished fixing his ship, and he took off with the wookie still entangled in his fighters innards. Luke recalls the disturbance in the force he felt when chewie died, and han recalls chewie saving the life of one of his children, and how much they loved him. Some of the flashbacks are comic, some action based, some focus on the noble character of chewbacca and others focus on the tragic aftermath of his death and the feelings grief in our hero's. But there is one thing all these stories have in common, the sobering note they all end on. Despite Wedge's rather humorous tale, a tale that was so silly it was never put in the history holovids, he states in the final line "I certainly got a lot of laughs telling it. Not recently of course... before." Despite the amusing and comical nature of a few of the flashbacks, all the storytellers end the tale with a heartfelt and sad comment. It makes it plain that despite the fond memories, this is a moment of great pain for them. They now doubt if they were as good to chewie as he was to them. They wonder what the universe will be like as they continue on without their friend. Its the first time such serious subject matter has been dealt with in Star Wars due to lucas's previously policy about not killing off main movie characters, and thus it allows as unique a SW tale as you will read in graphic novel or novel format.

The stories themselves are all drawn and written well enough, the moments of humor, of heroics, and moments of grief transition with nary a hitch or moment where you wonder why the tone changed so quickly. The writing, despite using a different writer for each tale, is always well done so that the intended emotion or tone of the moment is carried. Leia's fear about being alone as her children train to be Jedi and han isolates himself is just as heartbreaking as the poignant, final lines of Chewbacca's father in his tale. The main characters are definitely not at their best, which as you can see by the other reader comments, will be jarring to some used to seeing luke as the noble Jedi and not consumed by self loathing and helplessness as he compares the greater grief of losing chewbacca to the lesser grief of losing a planets population as it is destroyed. But this novel feels more down to earth and more serious then many past tales set in the Galaxy far far away, and thus deserves to be read by those previously alienated by the more fantastical nature of the Star Wars universe.

As for the art, the style changes from tale to tale, which may be jarring to some readers. But a person who has been reading comics for some time should be used to changing artists and art styles.

I personally enjoyed all the stories contained in Chewbacca, it shows why this character was so deeply loved by the fans, and gives those fans one last glimpse at our favorite family dog in a Galaxy Far Far Away. But more then this, from a storytelling concept it is the most original and groundbreaking piece of star wars storytelling Ive seen. Too many times we see incredible space battles, intense blaster fights against impossible odds and jedi performing superhuman acts as they wrestle with the darker nature of their characters, this is a star wars tale without all the grandeur and flash, its about character and heartache, grief and loss. A rare thing in the SW universe and something definitely worth checking out as it was done with care, and heart.

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a great tribute to Chewie

Chewbacca was just a superb graphic novel. It begins with Threepio and Artoo going around, asking people who knew Chewie to contribute information about him in honor of his life. Wonderful art that varies from story to story (each "chapter", or about 10-15 pages, was by a different artist). This book also has an intro with Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca. The stories were also well done, my particular favorite was told by an Transoshan ex-slaver who captured chewie and other Wookies, only to have Chewbacca unite them all in a slave uprising. Other chewie tales were told by Lando, Han, Luke, Leia, a bounty hunter, and two Wookies who knew him. Great stories, great art, everything. Chewbacca would be proud.

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A very good graphic novel

After the death of Chewbacca, C-3PO and R2-D2 set out to collect stories about the Wookie hero. This book is a collection of ten graphic short-stories about Chewbacca, told by old friends, and old enemies. Included here are stories of what Chewie did, how he thought, and what he meant to those around him.

Now, even though the stories in this graphic novel are all written by Darko Macan, they are illustrated by a number of different artists, which means that there is quite some difference between the stories. In most of them, the illustration work is quite excellent, but in some it leaves something to be desired. But, having said that, I must say that I did enjoy these stories. My eleven-year-old son read the book up to the fourth story, where a young female bounty hunter is horribly burned and left for dead, at which point he abandoned the book.

So, overall, I would say that this is a very good graphic novel, with a collection of interesting stories, some of them quite intense. I highly recommend it, but not for younger or more sensitive readers.

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Star Wars: Chewbacca

Dissapointing. Chewbacca should not speak english ever the way it is handled in the movies and so many other books should have carried over here. The stories are just not that great. Hardcore fans only.

A flawed tribute

Many fans, including myself were upset when Chewbacca was killed in New Jedi Order: Vector Prime. This volume is a tribute to Chewbacca, with C-3P and R2-D2 interviewing Chewbacca's friends and family. Darko Macan scripts the entire volume, but a different artist provides art for each of the characters. The pairings are

*** Brent Anderson - Mallatobuck
*** Igor Kordey - Attichitcuk
*** Jan Duursema - Ssoh
*** Dave Gibbons - Mala Mala
*** Dusty Abell - Tvrrdko
*** John Nadeau - Wedge Antilles
*** Martin Egeland - Lando Calrissian
*** Kilian Plunkett - Leia Organa-Solo
*** Rafael Kayanan - Luke Skywalker
*** Dusty Abell - Han Solo

A few of the stories are brilliant, but most are average at best. Several of the characters aren't quite themselves, including Leia, who is portrayed as a very selfish child throwing a temper tantrum.

I recommend Star Wars: Empire graphic novels for a good classy Star Wars read which can be enjoyed by all, which sadly this isn't.

This reprints Chewbacca #1-4 published by Dark Horse.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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