c.1983?|age 14/15? Panel 1 is lifted from Chaykin’s version. I don’t like Han in that one. He looks like Robert Wagner in Hart to Hart.

“And togedder… dey was moider!” Wacka—wacka, chicka-wah-wah!

I liked Wagner in one of the Austin Powers movies—oh wait, maybe that was Rob Lowe. And in panel 3, Han’s being played by Oliver Tobias. What the hell?

But Han also looks like a lobotomised zombie in that same panel 3. Maybe he’s just rolling his eyes to the heavens, thinking “more mumbo-jumbo…”

As kids, we loved the way Chewie’s popped his head up from under the floor, and gave a plaintive growl. Like a “Not again, Han!” Almost as if he thinks, “Solo’s got us into a real mess this time. When will I ever learn?” But Han gives Chewie an affectionately reassuring pat.

Ben’s Philosophy: lesson #2

As a follow-up to Ben’s previous philosophical musings we get this. And to be honest, it’s a really good one. I’d love it even more if my version was:

“Who’s the more foolish? The fool, or the second fool who foolishly follows the first fool like a great big foolish fooly fool?”

But it’d probably be too much hassle to write, when I could be drawing and colouring instead.

Star Wars Convention Tales 2: Meeting Garrick Hagon

In the «previous instalment I told you about how «I met Paul (Greedo) Blake at Invasion.ie. Well I also met Garrick Hagon! I showed him this comic, and he exclaimed, “Alright, that’s my page!” and then called over to Paul (Greedo) Blake, holding it out for Paul to see it, “Look Paul, the Fixer goes ‘BLARP!” (laughs)

“I didn’t know you were back! When did you get in?”

So on Easter Sunday 2011, I met the man who played the legendary—you might say almost mythical Biggs. A character in Star Wars who sort of semi-existed. In the days before we had DVDs or even video tape in our homes, we read about and got accustomed to seeing Luke’s best friend by way of the novel, the Storybook, the Marvel comics, the 1981 radio series and maybe even the collectible cards. So much so that I actually can’t remember whether Biggs made it into the original release or not. Did Luke even meet him on Yavin—or was that in the Special Edition 2 decades later?

“I’m quite happy to talk about Star Wars, but… I heard a great story about Alec Guinness…”

—Garrick Hagon

I was looking forward to meeting Garrick Hagon at this year’s event and felt that his signature on my childhood artwork would be a wonderful thing to have—even if he is almost only spectrally in the film itself.

I’ll publish an expanded version of this meeting in the Blog section soon, but for now I can tell you that he’s the most charming fellow to meet. He immediately makes you feel welcome and at ease. Paul ‘Greedo’ Blake stepped over when he saw the comic, as Jeremy ‘Boba’ Bulloch had done earlier (things were slow on Easter Sunday) and the pair made an engaging and funny double-act. As with Paul, we really didn’t discuss Star Wars—although he’s always very happy to do so. And he did tell us that funny story about Alec Guinness asking the mother of a kid he met—who was a huge Star Wars fan and had seem it countless times—to never let him go to Star Wars again.

My wife and I actually mentioned his role as an American character in BBC Radio’s soap series The Archers. On hearing this, Paul Blake jumped in to point out that he’d played a burglar in the British TV soap Coronation Street! “Oh really?” We asked politely. He chuckled, and quipped that he’d had one scene, in which he climbed in through a window!

I mentioned his deleted scenes and how great I thought it would be to see an official release with the option of viewing the film with the Biggs scenes restored. Garrick heartily approved of this, and it’s not surprising that he’d like to be in one of the most successful and maybe the most iconic movie of all time. Later we went back over to him—slightly apprehensive about being pests—to tell him about Biggs’ major role in BlueMilkSpecial webcomic’s adaptation of Star Wars. I wanted him to know about it because I know Rod and Leanne, and how they’ve made their version of Biggs into a hugely popular character amongst fans of their webcomic. I also know that Rod and Leanne were dying to meet him someday too! He was pleased to hear of it, and when Rod and Leanne finally did meet him a year or two later he actually mentioned meeting me!

So I needn’t have worried about being a pest. Besides, in another humorous moment on the day, my wife and I excused ourselves saying that we’d better not keeping hogging their time and attention, to which, Paul and Garrick glanced out at the hall—which was pretty poorly attended on that Easter Sunday—and there was no one queuing behind us, and mock-pleaded with us not to go.

I haven’t met many celebs, whether major, minor or in-between—but Garrick and Paul were easily my favourites.

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