Comical Books: "Splinter of the Mind's Eye"

This is a 2016 review of a 1996 graphic novel adaptation of a 1978 cash-in sequel book to an obscure 1977 movie (Star Wars).

THIS...is Splinter of the Mind's Eye.

Author Alan Dean Foster did the Star Wars novelization and George Lucas asked him to go ahead and also write this thing as an outline for a low-budget follow-up film. Just in case money was tight for the sequel. You know, just in case the first film wasn't a huge hit. Well, guess what? It was a huge hit. So this thing was tossed off on the marketplace as a book. Now ya know.

Nutshell: Luke and Leia crash-land on a random planet with the droids and discover the Empire is mining for a Force-amplifying Gem MacGuffin. Our heroes get captured and Darth Vader comes down to regulate on them. And then there are some chases and fight scenes.

There's also a generic Obi-Wan Kenobi-ish wise old Jedi master. This person is not interesting.

Han Solo never appears. At all. No Chewbacca, to boot. Did Foster think that the best way to keep costs down on this sequel was to cut the cast in half? (Harrison Ford couldn't have been THAT expensive in 1978!)

Speaking of cutting in half- that happens here.

People are pretty murder-hungry throughout this book. A guy threatens to beat our heroes to death.

Not to mention Darth Vader, who constantly threatens murder and torture on two people he knows are his CHILDREN.

Though I doubt Foster or even Lucas knew Vader was the father at the time. Vader hadn't appeared on Maury yet. (Now that I think about it- Vader brutally tortured and interrogated Leia in the first film, too. Bad daddy.)

Also worth noting- Vader is ridiculous throughout. He doesn't talk AT ALL like he does in the movies.

They used elements of this book in future films, like escaping from a bad guy and realizing they're on a giant worm.

Also crash-landing on a planet of fog and swamps. Not to mention ending up in a net and experiencing confusion with the natives.

There are a bunch of monsters and aliens and stuff happens and it all ends on a pretty silly WA-WA, WAH-WAH note.

I don't know how much of this is due to the source material and how much is comic-only. (And I'm not going to investigate any further.)

Either way- this is an interesting artifact, but it doesn't fill me a gnawing hunger for more Star Wars franchise fiction.

But hey, it's better than the Star Wars Holiday Special.


-Phony McFakename

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