The Phantom Menace

Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, adapted by Henry Gilroy (based on screenplay by George Lucas), art by Rodolfo DaMaggio.

I found this graphic novel again when I was reorganizing some bookshelves in my bedroom last week. I purchased it on the eve of the movie's premiere back in the fall of 1999. Unable to wait to see the movie, this is one of the few times that I indulged in a huge spoiler. The original Star Wars trilogy was probably my most significant movie experience as a child. The very first movie I ever remember seeing was as a six or seven year old, accompanying my parents to the drive-in to see the original Star Wars movie in 1977. Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace is also the first graphic novel I'd ever purchased.

I was expecting to get a major nostalgia fix with the second set of films, which so far have not met my expectations. That isn't to say that they haven't been entertaining --and maybe such high expectations are impossible to fulfill. In retrospect I think I might have enjoyed the film even less had I not indulged in the graphic novel the night before. I'm sure most of us would rather forget about Jar-Jar Binks, but I could actually understand his horrible dialogue because of reading it and decoding it in printed format first.

If you did enjoy the movie, however, and are looking for a good keepsake for your bookshelf, I heartily recommend the graphic novel version. It tracks the movie script almost word-for-word. It follows the movie so closely that even many of the frames are drawn from points of view reminiscent of camera angles shot in the movie. Unlike other Star Wars graphic novels (Star Wars: Dark Force Rising comes to mind), great pains were taken in this one to make sure that the characters looked like the actors in the film.

More than anything, this book reminds me of an adult version of those "Star Wars Storybooks" published by Scholastic when I was a kid. You know, the ones where the story is retold in very abridged text, with a large still picture from the movie on every page. I couldn't afford to see Star Wars 20 times, but must have read my Star Wars Storybook more than 200 times. For all I know those Storybooks are collectors items now --I wish my younger brother hadn't gotten to mine and scribbled in goatees on Luke and Leia on practically every page.

PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics; (1999); ISBN: 1-56971-359-6