Well, that’s it for Star Wars… or as it is known today “Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope”. We have a couple of additional flashback strips to one or two scenes that we missed at the time which we will eventually upload, but for now we are moving on. We’re moving into that in-between void in which Luke taught himself more about the Force, Leia and Han started angsting for one another and Vader started searching for Luke. It’s actually quite a significant gap.

It always surprised me just how much time seemed to have past for the rebels and the main characters. I felt like I was being cheated one more rip-roaring adventure in the style of A New Hope before things got all dark and grim. Don’t get me wrong, I love Empire Strikes Back, but I basically wanted a full year long series of Star Wars to precede it. Blue Milk Special isn’t exactly going to fill that void in any serious sense. That’s a bit outside our scope as a fan webcomic strip, but we will be running with some spin-off ideas of our own, based on loose-ends and interesting extras. Then, of course there are the Holiday Special and the novelization Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. Both NEED to be BMSed perhaps more so than the trilogy.

But, at three strips a week The Empire Strikes Back is not far away. We can’t start Empire right now even if we wanted to skip the spin-off material because Leanne (the primary artist behind BMS) is wrapped up with professional commitments for another month. A lot of the material you’ll be seeing in the interval has been put together by myself, not just to keep the strip going, but to explore a lot of really fun ideas and silliness that can occur more freely outside the plots of the movies.

As an extra bonus we thought we’d link to Leanne’s very first Star Wars strip. It’s a commentary on the travesty that was the hamfisted Peter Cushing mockery standing in as a younger Grand Moff Tarkin in Revenge of the Sith. This could very well have been the strip that inspired Blue Milk Special into existence!

We seldom discuss the Prequels here at BMS for good reason. We have even entertained the idea of eventually BMSing the Prequels albeit in a more abridged format than with the Original Trilogy, however I am afraid that rather than writing gags, I’ll just be spitting vitriol and deconstructionist commentaries. It’s far easier to poke fun at The Original Trilogy which is far more honest about its flaws, but much more cohesive and meaningful as a piece of storytelling. With the prequels its hard to know where to start and where to stop. Plus… becoming that negative could turn me to the dark side.

Just a final note that we appreciate all the support that we’ve gained through the first year of our webcomic adventure. Our following may be tiny, but its the quality of the followers that counts. Starting next week we will be posting one rare Star Wars photo per day via our Twitter account. You can also join our Facebook group and join in a conversation about your favorite strip to date. We LOVE hearing from you. Just remember, we don’t get paid to do BMS. We do it for love and share it in the hope that others will be able to understand and hopefully laugh every now and then!

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