30 Years of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - part 8

Dynamite magazine was the pop culture magazine for kids between 1974 and 1984 when it went to a slimmer format and a less frequent publication schedule until 1992 when it ceased publication. It was published by Scholastic and only offered through their monthly book club orders through schools (you could also subscribe to the three summer issues). 

This is taken from issue #76, from September 1980, which means that by the time kids read it, they'd all seen THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK at least once. 

Some interesting tidbits from the article are Harrison Ford stating that according to George Lucas the next STAR WARS movie was to be set fifteen years after events in EMPIRE. I'm wondering if Lucas had talked with Ford about his notions of doing a sequel trilogy staged during the rebuilding of the Republic, and if this is what he was referring to.

Ford and Carrie Fisher also seemed to be prescient about their post STAR WARS futures, as these are the characters they are best remembered for.

In the top photo on the page with Darth Vader and C-3PO, the actor portraying the Imperial officer holding Princess Leia is Jeremy Bulloch, who also played bounty hunter, Boba Fett.

The cover uses a still that's always bugged me. Obviously the lightsaber blade was airbrushed onto the photo as was the custom back in the days before photoshop, with it's wide lower half and ongoing length. What's at issue here is Luke holding onto the blade of the lightsaber. Had he actually done this in the movie, there would have been no need for someone else to go chopping his hand off later. He would have managed just fine on his own.

For more great reading and visual imagery connected to THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK visit these fine upstanding blogs:

Wonderful Wonderblog

My Two Yen Worth