“The Jedi Doth Return” by Ian Doescher (Book & Poster)

“The Jedi Doth Return” came out at the beginning of July and is the third in a series of Ian Doescher’s series of “Shakespearean Star Wars” books. They tell the Star Wars stories, but are written in a pseudo Shakespearean style that is strangely compelling. Jabba himself still speaks in Huttese, which seems a little odd in places — especially since Salacious Crumb actually has a number of lines in English.

Here’s a sample from the scene where Luke and Han are about to be thrown in to the Sarlacc.

JABBA: Koneetah!

C-3PO: –Hear ye! Victims of the great
Almighty sarlacc: Jabba of the Hutt,
His excellency, hopeth ye shall die
With honor. Should ye wish for mercy now
To beg, great Jabba of the Hutt shall hear
Your pleas.

HAN: –Nay, 3PO! Say thou to that
Vast slimy piece of filth bestrewn with worms
He shall have no such pleasure out of us!
Now that I am no more a markèd man,
I shall most fully proffer my belief
That Jabba is a horrid murderer
Far worse than any I have ever known.
Who here shall prove me wrong or argue, eh?
‘Tis right, good Chewie, I speak true?

It’s impressive that Doesher was able to write not only one book but three on the back of what is essentially just a gimmick. But it’s well done. And the characters from Star Wars lend themselves surprisingly well to this kind of thing. I suppose part of it is that they were created as archetypes in a tradition that can be traced back to Shakespeare and beyond.

The book includes some excellent line drawings by the artist Nicolas Delort. Of course Jabba himself is on the cover (along with his barge), but there is also a nice drawing of Bib Fortuna and Salacious Crumb inside. I imagine that Crumb was originally envisioned as a court jester, so making that more literal makes sense.

And here’s the Rebo Band.

I also got this promotional poster that was handed out at Wizard World Comic Con. It’s 14″x24″. I’d like to get it framed. I love collecting different oddball versions of Jabba, like “Jabba the Robber Baron” that I commissioned from Greg Peltz that was eventually turned into “Kingpin” from ACME Archives.