8. The Early Adventures

I was a little hesitant when I opened this book. I knew that it was a reprint of the newspaper strips that were written by Russ Manning, and I was worried that this format would make the stories hard to read and follow. On the contrary, once they are all put together in a digest such as this, they are actually easier to read than the Marvel comics. In addition, the stories are better and the characters introduced in these comics are more interesting than the ones introduced in Marvel's comics line. Even the art was better.

There are several stories included in this paperback. The first is "Gambler's World", and follows Luke, Leia, and the droids as they attempt to make contact with a rebel spy. They are pursued by a mysterious figure called Blackhole, who is working on behalf of Darth Vader. They are forced to work alongside a young street gang called the Freelies in order to escape from Blackhole and his special cadre stormtroopers in black armor.

"Tatooine Sojourn" is a short story that involved Luke returning to Tatooine to investigate some Imperial activity there. "Princess Leia, Imperial Servant" follows Leia on a mission to start an uprising on an Imperial mining colony. There she discovers the widow of Grand Moff Tarkin, and is forced to escape from her.

"The Second Kessel Run" tells the story of Han and Chewbacca who accidentally pick up a stowaway that is hiding from the Empire. The stowaway's father is being forced by the Empire to use his invention that controls the weather as a weapon. Han, Chewbacca, and Luke work together again to rescue the father and save the planets affected by his device.

In "Bring Me the Children", Luke is on a mission to deliver books to a rebellion friendly school when he interrupts a kidnapping attempt by the Empire. This story is interesting because it features an Imperial officer that is not human, which was almost unheard of in the Empire.

"As Long as We Live" is interesting because the story is set on a neutral planet that manufactures targeting systems for star fighters. While they have been selling these systems to the Rebellion, there is a spy for the Empire that is turning these systems against the Rebellion, giving the Imperial pilots the advantage in combat. Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca investigate to find out who the true villain is.

"The Frozen World of Ota" is probably the most famous of these stories, because it features the first print appearance of Boba Fett. Boba Fett crashes on the planet while flying in a TIE fighter, and Luke, who was pursuing him, crashes as well. They are both captured by the native Snogars, who coerce them into fixing the device that keeps their city warm. Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca make an appearance to rescue Luke, and they must work with Boba Fett to escape the Snogars. Upon their escape however, Boba Fett attempts to collect on the bounty he was pursuing, which was not Han Solo at the time, but is thwarted by the heroes.

I would highly recommend these to any Star Wars fan. The stories are the best that were published at this time. I'm glad that these were republished into the trade paperback format. They flow better than the Marvel comics and it's hard to tell where the breaks appeared originally. Dark Horse also did a wonderful job with the coloring, since most of these were originally published in black and white.