Blue Milk Special

We never really shied away from the Luke / Leia love thing during the Splinter of the Mind’s Eye parody. A few strips back we parodied the deleted scene in which Luke and Leia nearly kissed in the medical bay, shortly before Han and Chewie entered. We went for something different, but equally awkward. Although we avoided the infamous Leia / Luke kiss in the Echo Base medical bay, there was a kiss that occurred that was never part of the film. Some of the promotional photos taken on the set of The Empire Strikes Back placed the film’s two stars, Mark Hamil and Carrie Fisher in a romantic embrace and kiss!

In the early days of filming, there was a romantic subplot between Luke and Leia. This subplot was vaguely hinted at in the original 1977 Star Wars film with several tender moments between the hero and the princess. We all know that this romantic pairing would end up being downplayed as production went on in favor of a Leia and Han relationship. The Luke / Leia romance would only survive in the final edit where she kisses Luke to make Han jealous.

At one point there would have been a real love triangle between Leia and Luke and Leia and Han (there is evidence of this in the Marvel comics as well). One early draft of The Empire Strikes Back would have pushed Luke towards the Dark Side through envy and jealousy over the Han / Leia relationship. This would have been his test and he would have broken away from the heroes until he could resolve his inner demons.

In the existing treatment, just before Han and Chewie entered the medical bay, Luke and Leia came very close to a natural romantic kiss, although C3PO made a timely entrance. You can see that scene here as well as our parody of it here. Lucas and Kerschner dropped this theme and the scene did not make it into the final movie. Ultimately, Luke instead became Leia’s brother. Here, BMS gives a fitting explanation for the production photos that showed Luke and Leia in another intimate moment somewhere in the lonely ice tunnels of Echo Base. The marketing for the film indicates how late the revisions came, steering away from a Luke and Leia subplot in early production.

We have a brand new incentive strip starting today featuring Darth Vader and the Imperial Fleet. Don’t miss it! Check it out here. –edit: Oh, and I should mention, the current voting incentive strip was inspired by T. Gatto himself! –end edit.

Our new poll question can be found on the right of the page. “Would you be interested in purchasing a BMS Sketchbook/Artbook?”

It is common at comic conventions for artists to print a sketchbook collecting their work in the last year and offer it for sale at their table. Leanne has done this in the past for her broader range of work. We see a lot of people profiting from Star Wars by selling T-shirts or other products while we sit here trying to keep a halo over our heads when it comes to respecting Lucasfilm’s copyright. However, commissions and sketchbooks are a little different than commercial products. We started wondering what our readers would think of the idea of a book that collects BMS sketches and pinups. We would only pursue this if we have enough interest. Please let us know what you think.