Welcome back, everywookiee, to another retro comic review. Today, I’m actually taking a look at a magazine: Star Wars Galaxy Magazine #5, published Fall of 1995 by Topps Publishing. Reason being, I got to talking to some friends over on the CHU Forum about how undervalued Star Wars Galaxy Magazine currently is in the white hot Star Wars comics market we find ourselves in in 2020/21. You see, much ado has been made about a particular Boba Fett impostor’s first appearance in a Dark Horse Comic called Twin Engines of Destruction.
Many lists around the comic collector blogosphere have noted the book pictured to the right (below on mobile) as the first appearance of Jodo Kast, a man who posed as Boba Fett to demand high bounty prices during Boba Fett’s ostensive death inside the Sarlaac pit.
Why this matters at this point is speculative. A Boba Fett impostor who is not Jodo Kast appeared in The Mandalorian Season 2, but everybody is currently looking for that next book that will spike in value when an otherwise overlooked character appears in Disney’s impressive live action plans.
The 32 page graphic novel, Boba Fett Twin Engines of Destruction was published in January 1997.
The reason Star Wars Galaxy Magazine #5 has my attention is because, published in October of 1995, this magazine prints the first installment of Boba Fett Twin Engines of Destruction!
First of all, I don’t want to skip over the absolutely stunning cover by Tim and Greg Hildebrandt. There’s a feature on their work inside, but I don’t want to bury the lead.
As you can see, Twin Engines of destruction begins in issue #5. Now, Jodo Kast appears on page 2 of the comic, but isn’t revealed to be an impostor until later. At this point, we all assume he is Boba Fett. That is, until somebody who knows better comes along:
Dengar’s familiar with Boba Fett’s style, and this ain’t no Fett. There on page 7, we get a name to this mysterious impostor, Jodo Kast. Then there’s the piece on the twin-brother Hildebrandts’ work. It’s not all Star Wars here. You’ll see Spidey and Tolkien images in the article as well.
The other remotely comics-related item in the issue was a piece on Dark Horse Comics and its founder. You’ll find preview images for Heir to the Empire and other upcoming Dark Horse titles. First appearance of Grand Admiral Thrawn? Those Marvel preview 95 fans might say so.
Besides this awesome inclusion from Dark Horse Comics, Star Wars Galaxy Magazine was a little more consumer-facing than other magazines like say, Star Wars Insider. The polybagged subscription editions had a sampling of Topps’ upcoming products and promotional materials to whet your appetite and entice you to search out Topps trading cards.
This issue in particular came with a regular sized card depicting the Hildebrandt art, a Widevision card with a scene from Return of the Jedi, an oversized McQuarrie card, and a McQuarrie poster.
Inside, there were features on upcoming collectible products from Topps and other Lucasfilm Licensees.
If you want to summon some nostalgic anticipation for Star Wars micromachines, ties, metal cards, and even the THX remastered VHS set for the original trilogy, there are highlights on those upcoming releases. You can see what passed as cutting edge video game graphics for the upcoming Rebel Assault game.
Finally, Star Wars fiction also got published in Star Wars Galaxy Magazine. Here it was a short story called “Double Cross on Ord Mantell.”
So, if you want what is an undervalued comics publication right now, I’d take a look at Star Wars Galaxy Magazine. Join me next time when I dig into more issues of Star Wars Galaxy Magazine!
