Page 95 - Star Wars Insider (Special Edition 2019)

Opposite page:
Diana Attias poses
outside the Star Wars
production offices circa
1979. She first worked
for Star Wars producer
Gary Kurtz before
joining Titelman’s
editorial team. (photo:
Diana Attias); (inset)
Valerie Hoffman went
from editing Star Wars
books to teaching
psychology at San Jose
State University.
This page: Russ Helm
penned the script for
“Planet of the Kadril.“
The Empire Strikes Back
novelization by Donald
F. Glut.
Empire of Tales
Emp
E
ucas’s decision to finance (with Fox distributing)

The Empire Strikes Back himself indicated that the
Star Wars universe would continue to expand.
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ed
approved storylines, while Del Rey Books tempted Empire
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Manning’s failing health made it impossible for him both to
write and draw the strip, so editor Lindsay Smith hired her
friend, Russ Helm, to pen the scripts. Helm enjoyed twisting
he publishing division’s primary task was his stories around current events. The Soviet invasion of
to maintain Star War’s continuity, from Afghanistan inspired him to write “Planet of Kadril”, the
checking names on action fi gure cards story arc penciled by Alfredo Alcala that ran from August
Tto counting the toes on Chewbacca’s foot. to October 1979. In the strip, Rodno, a gentle Kadrillian
To this end, the editors generated a style sheet scientist, helps the rebels sabotage Darth Vader’s plans to
of word spellings and capitalizations. Within use a new Imperial weapon called “pacifog.”
months, the sheet had swelled into what “The pacifog idea came out of the fact that Russian
Hoffman called “the Star Wars bible.” It included troops were using sarin gas against the Mujahideen freedom
everything from the color of characters’ fighters in Afghanistan and it was a United Nations issue. The

lightsabers to the food Luke ate in a specifi c terrain in the strip looked like Afghanistan, mountainous and
story, essentially becoming Lucasfi lm’s fi rst rugged. Rodno was a small humble hero chameleon in
“Holocron”—the immense database of Star Wars contrast,” says Helm.
story continuity Lucasfilm uses today. Lucas held Though Leia never received her own novel, Titelman and

a few early “lectures” where he set down the Del Rey had other books in the pipeline. Donald F. Glut, who
characters’ backgrounds. initially had declined to write the Star Wars novelization, took

Sometimes overseeing the continuity led to Lucasfilm’s offer to pen a Wookiee character novel. But
interesting discussions. When editing both The Lucasfilm axed the plans for a Wookiee book and instead

Wookiee Storybook and the scripts for the Star offered Glut the Empire novelization duties. This time,
Wars Holiday Special, Hoffman had to decipher Glut accepted.
the structure of Wookiee families. She wrote Script revisions obliged Glut to write three drafts in six
a list of questions for Lucas, one which asked weeks. The process went right down to the wire. The night
how Wookiees reproduced. On a tape-recorded before the book was due, editor Diana Attias sat in Glut’s
response returned to her, she remembers living room and vetted pages as fast as Glut could type them.
Lucas’s hesitation: “That is a very sensitive “It was intense,” Attias recalls. “We had to respond to the
issue... Wookiees have litters.” changes [immediately].”
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