Imperial Surprise
New York Comic Con – October 8 – 10, 2010 at the Jacob K. Javits Center.
Our location at New York Comic Con this Friday, Saturday and Sunday has been revealed!!! We will be at Leanne Hannah’s table in artist alley at K-14 (row K, table 14). Click on the image of General Dodonna on the right to view or download the map with Dodonna’s instructions on how to reach us promptly and get your sketch request in early. Scroll down to see some of the great things you can get by visiting our table and keeping us from being lonely!
Re: today’s strip: Rumor has it that LucasFilm twisted the arm of Dark Horse Comics so that the Splinter of the Mind’s Eye comic adaptation would not show helmetless Stormtroopers. In the novel the off-duty Stormtroopers are chilling out, but this was written back in 1978 before George Lucas had decided that the mysterious nondescript clone angle needed to be enforced. I don’t really know if that was the reasoning or why this was important enough to change, but supposedly the decision from LucasFilm is responsible for this minor deviation from the novel. Makes for a good anecdote anyway, which probably means its actually all bullshit. Perhaps artist Chris Sprouse just messed up?
Oh… so some of you might be wondering why we threw in a Colonel Sanders reference. You know, we weren’t being completely random. We were inspired by the shock of seeing one of the fans beneath a Stormtrooper helmet during the Triumph the Insult Comic Dog segment of Conan O’Brien where he ripped into the Star Wars fans awaiting the premier of Attack of the Clones. It was one of those WTF moments that is still hilarious to this day.
If you would like to volunteer to hand out our exclusive (now in much more limited numbers) Blue Milk Special promo cards, which we are giving away for FREE at the show, then get in contact with us. We’re looking for eager ass-kicking fans who can distribute the promo cards to those good people suffering in the long lines before and during the show.
As usual we will be doing sketches and will have a new BMS milk carton available! We may have other goodies, you’ll just have to stop by and find out.
New to Blue Milk Special? Start reading from the beginning!
I thought they stopped suing clones after the empire came into power ?
God knows!
I always suspected he was a Star Wars fan…
I believe that is, in fact, correct. But cannon keeps changing, so who can keep up? I mean, Han was actually, at one point, at the Imperial academy to join up… so, that seems to enforce the anyone can sign up feel. Then again, Leia told Luke he was too short for Storm Trooper-ing, implying there is, if not a standard height, at least a height requirement. Interpret as you wish.
I figured it was a height requirement thing I mean you cant just build armor for every size.
I think your right about the Han thing, I figured he had some Imperial experience and thats how he knew about the trash dumping thing.
Wasn’t Han at the Academy for pilot training, like Biggs was, and Luke wanted to be?
I can’t recall offhand anyone who had signed up to be a stormtrooper, but there might be such stories in the Marvel or Dark Horse comics.
(Someone posting issue and page number in 5 . . . 4 . . . .3 . . . .)
I read a Dark Horse comic that showed Chewbacca being captured with other Wookiees. They ended up wining their freedom through combining various parts each Wookiee had on them into a weapon then overpowering the ships crew but damaging the ship so they were doomed to a slow death.
As the Wookiees were about to die they were rescued by an Imperial ship but the commander of that ship wanted to, “Eliminate all Wookiee vermin.” The 2nd in command did not take kindly to this and shot the Commander and introduced himself to Chewbacca as Han Solo
Sorry for the long explanation but I felt this showed the reason why Han and Chewbaccawere so inseparable and that Han was in the Imperial command structure for a while
Of course this is all EU
I also was of the impression that after the “prequels” that canon treated post-Clone War stormtroopers as recruits. The argument was that it was to siphon all hominids of a certain age into serving for the Empire instead of for their homeland, or something in that line.
“After the Emperor decided that an army of clone soldiers based on one template was too susceptible to corruption, the stormtrooper ranks were opened to not only clones of various genomes other than Jango Fett’s DNA, but also millions of recruits as well. For a time, the stormtroopers were evenly balanced between clones and recruits until cloning became a rare commodity that the Imperial Remnant couldn’t afford. If a man between the ages of 18 and 30 scored in the top fifth percentile, an Imperial recruiting agent would contact him and presumably arrange DNA sampling for cloning. Men who didn’t score that high were still wanted as regular soldiers. Also, it was preferable if stormtrooper recruits met a certain standard in height and weight. Princess Leia Organa was seemingly familiar with these standards by 0 BBY, perhaps as a result of her work with the Imperial Senate.” Wookiepedia, the font of all Star Warsy knowledge 🙂
We look the same under the Shadow Stormtrooper helmets, only our beards are black! =P , lol
LOL
Next thing I’d expect would be a Wendy’s girl under a Boushh helmet.
Am I the only one who thinks he looks like Ewan McGragor if he grew out his beard ?
Leave the poor guy alone, he probably had to go fight at a Gettysburg reenactment after the Storm Trooper Gig.
Besides all those bland Imperial Storm Trooper rations would probably benefit from being served with a dozen herbs and spices.
BTW Congrats on the recent gains at Top Web Comics (now #30). 🙂
I predict single digits before the end of Empire.
How about a bonus strip for every 10 places upwards we can vote you into, or some wallpaper, or something?
We have a few more Jabba / Boba strips ready to go as incentives, as well as a whole new gimmick we’re saving for the near future taking full advantage of some popular Cantina denizens that I think will go over really well. 🙂 So we have plenty lined up. But I’m not sure more than a few people like yourself are dedicated to the voting and consciously working to push us up the ranks. If we get enough readers, our chances will improve. How’s that Mid Ohio con invite looking? LOL 😉
We may debut another incentive strip mid-way through the month. But I do think our current one is a goodie. 🙂
It’s $135.00 for a table. I’ll donate some $ towards it, if we can not get you in some other way.
I’ll even throw in a pizza if that will help get your attention.
Anyone else willing to help out, to get the BMS team to Central Ohio?
I’m off work that week, and wanted to get a Sergio Aragones autograph anyway.
Aw thanks. But all we need from you guys are you to request that we be invited. 🙂
I miss the Jawa/Beru incentive strip. Anywhere I can download it from to keep for personal amusement? I role-play a womanizing Jawa, so he’s near and dear to my heart.
You must be referring to the sequel with Smoking Jawa returning to find what has become of Beru Lars. I will add the strip into continuity later this evening, placing it between A New Hope and our Little Alderaan interquel. Glad you like it. And we’re intrigued to hear more about your roleplaying character.
You guys are seriously the best!
Yeah, Jiv? He’s a Jawa with enough business sense to expand. He opened a discount chain store that has locations all across the galaxy. Utini-Mart. I’ve written commercials that look closer to being used car dealership ads: Complete with awkward looking fake- grinned alien chicks in bikinis, explosions of confetti, and a few inflatable flailing arm men.
Jiv may be a rodent under a silk hood, but ladies loves the cash. And simply for irony’s sake, I had to… he’s a leg man.
I was always under the impression that while the Stormtroopers were clones (which is why Leia would insist that Luke is too short, because the clones are all the same height, ie. taller then Luke) while higher ranks were recruited from academy after completing officer training.
This makes sense to me. Obviously the officers weren’t clones of each other, so they had to be recruiting from somewhere. Clones/Storm Troopers were just the expendable canon fodder types.
I also read a theory somewhere that blamed the height variation and lack of aiming skills of STs in the original trilogy on degredation of the clones because they were making too many too quickly or some such. This was clearly invented after the prequels, but it sort of makes sense in that way only SW ret-cons can.
Love that explanation, F.G.!!! Like making copies from copies and picking up all sorts of flaws. Heh heh… ideas are forming! 😉
Most storm troopers were clones but like 30% were recruited by the empire to “keep the peace” cause it takes 10 years to make a clone but 10 minutes to recruit some guy who needs money. and the clones were made for battle and there weren’t enough clones to “keep the peace” in the entire empire so they had to recruit some cold heartless civilians to help out.
aw man comic con is in new york? I’m stuck in vermont! so close yet sooo far away. *SOB*
I think they saw you… that one guy waved at you… Oo
:O
LOL!!!
Wow, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one that remembered that dude 🙂
I’m sorry, but my first thought wasn’t that they looked like Colonel Sanders. Did anyone else first think they looked like Don Quixote?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zWNJHS9PBE – the triumph dog links does not work, this does; for now.