DJ Mauls Ultimate Star Wars Toy Room Tour, Part 18

I told you it wouldn't be long before I was back with another installment of DJ Maul's Ultimate Toy Room Tour Of Tours Festapalooza Extravaganza!!!! Now with only HALF the fat!

I'm not going to link to all 17 other chapters at this point. If you are new to the tour and wish to check it out, you can start at part one and then follow the link provided at the end to the next chapter, and so on.

When I wound up the last chapter, I mentioned that there were several things that I had only kind of touched on in the course of the tour that I could come back to in more detail later, and this chapter will do just that by covering my collection of Star Wars comic books.

A bit of a sad story though first.

When I was a kid, I was VERY into comic books and of course that included the original Marvel Comics Star Wars series. I had most of the original Marvel run from ANH up through and after ROTJ.

The problems started when my mother went on an anti comic book kick. She was...well...a bit TOO zealous in her religious beliefs, and decided comic books were sinful.

So, I would come home at times to find many of my cherished books simply disappeared. We fought long and hard about it for awhile, but eventually I was told to either sell them or they would be thrown out.

So, one day, I reluctantly carted almost all of my old comics down to my local comic book dealer, who proceeded to rob me blind for them.

I did manage to save SOME by hiding them at my cousin's house. Sadly, the Star Wars collection was not part of that.

The sad part is, many years later and my mother admits NOW she "may have been too strict" about that....gee, thanks mom.

Still, I love her....she IS my mom.

I have more or less drifted AWAY from comic books in the past few years, but I still pick up some here and there to read, just for fun.

Anyway, after the Marvel Comics line died out, Star Wars was missing from the comics world for several years, until the license was picked up by newcomer at the time Dark Horse Comics.

Their very first Star Wars series (if I am not mistaken) was the now classic Star Wars: Dark Empire #1 - 6 that came out in 1991.

It was followed by a sequel, Dark Empire II in 1994. I think both of these series are still being reprinted in trade paperback form.

This was all right around the same time (give or take a few years) that the EU was really starting to take off, what with novels like Shadows Of The Empire (also a fantastic video game!) and the Timothy Zahn series which was eventually adapted into comic book form by Dark Horse, of which I only have the first two issues (1995) for some reason.

Dark Horse also created some of their own, original additions to the EU, with stories like Tales Of The Jedi (1993) and it's follow up Tales of The Jedi: The Freedon Nadd Uprising (1994)

When the prequels came along, of course Dark Horse was there, not only adapting Episode I (1999) as a comic series but adding four solo character issues featuring stories that took place OUTSIDE of events from the film.

Episode also gave Dark Horse the chance to focus stories on new characters, such as Darth Maul, who got his own mini series, of which I have issue one and issue four (2000) ...I don't know why I'm missing the two in the middle, I may have to fix that soon.

When Episode II came out, again Dark Horse made a four issue film adaptation (2002) and again a few solo stories of some new characters, Jango Fett & Zam Wessell.

And of course, more recently, we have the Episode III adaptation, (2005) this version the trade paperback edition, which I purchased while at CIII and had signed by the writer Miles Lane & artist Doug Wheatley at the Dark Horse Comics booth!

Of course, there have been lots of great comics featuring characters old and in some cases brand new but all of which feature some fun, amazing Star Wars Tales.

While I haven't been able to keep up with ALL of the various series, I still enjoy them here and there, and recently I just started getting back into the comics with the release of the new series Star Wars: Legacy which so far I've been impressed with and will probably try and keep up with each issue.

Besides the comic books, there are also a few books I've collected along the way, only some of which I showed in an earlier chapter.

The rest of my book collection includes the three Prequel novels, and also a few more EU books like Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter and the two "bookends" to Episode III, Labyrinth Of Evil & Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, both by James Luceno.

Also, I have the Han Solo Trilogy of novels by A.C. Crispin, that feature Han's origin as a child right up to where he meets Luke & Ben at the Cantina.

Just recently added to the collection is Betrayal, the first in the "Legacy Of The Force" series that again, I just may keep up with as it's a great read.

Besides the EU stories & novels, I also have two Star Wars technical books each of which feature various blue prints of the ships & other technology from the films, and also The Star Wars Cookbook that was another gift from my wife. It's got some cute recipes for "Wookiee Cookies" and lots of other stuff.

There's even this cute little Ep. I "Who's Who Pocket Book that's a tiny little book that tells about each character from TPM, that was a gift from a friend.

Lastly, let's look at a few more magazines I've collected over the years that got missed the last time.

There's a couple of Episode I covers from Rolling Stone Magazine and also this one from Premiere Magazine, and of course Ep. I made the cover of TV Guide as well.

And when Episode II came out, Vanity Fair featured this great cover of Hayden & Natalie in character.

I think that's all of them at this point, unless I again somehow missed something, in which case I'm sure you'll see it eventually.