2009 December | A Distant Soil by Colleen Doran

I have a vague memory of catching this the one and only time it aired, and as undiscriminating as I was at that tender age, I recall I didn’t care for it.

Over the years, I could not retain the painful memory of Harvey Korman in full drag playing an alien cooking instructor, and I blocked the trauma.

Nearly ten minutes of the opening of this thing is devoid of dialogue because it takes place in a wookie household. So we get to watch big hairy people growl and pantomime at each other.

If you can’t bear to sit through all two hours of this thing, check out this excerpt in which Princess Leia sings the Star Wars theme to celebrate Life Day!

No wonder Carrie Fisher started doing drugs.

Thrill to Bea Arthur in a guest starring role which may actually be the best acting in the show. This RiffTrax vid is much funnier than the actual film. (Hat tip: Brad Parnell.)

The most notable thing about this special is the Nelvana animated sequence that introduced Boba Fett. This may be the most inauspicious intro in Star Wars history, as Lucasfilm considers this story canon. Here is an unofficial fan page dedicated to this holiday treat.

Since the family wee ones are big Star Wars fans, I dug this up to share it. But after watching it again, I can’t bear to ruin their childhood, too.

The wee ones are sort of clueless about what my job is, and don’t really understand that when I make pictures of Star Wars people and whatnot, I don’t just do it for fun.

The other day, I tried to have a discussion about the meaning of intellectual property law (boy, Christmas is fun at my house!) and how film and movie rights get sold, and what makes it to the final screen is not necessarily what the author intended. The point went sailing right over their little heads, crowded out by visions of sugarplums. No kid wants to talk legalese over Christmas, I guess.

Regardless, I will bring this up if we ever have this discussion again.

Terrible things happen to intellectual property when it is not carefully managed.

That said, I hope nice Mr. Lucas doesn’t get mad at me for posting this. I like my Star Wars gigs.

I have nightmares about this sort of thing happening to my work, and of course we’ve all seen creators do terrible things to their cherished works for goodness only knows what reasons.

I promise no A Distant Soil characters will ever be drawn as sexualized children wearing nothing but thongs.

Just sayin’.

UPDATE: Nice Mr. Peter Vinton points us to this CRACKED examination of the Star Wars Holiday Special phenom, once as legendary as Yeti or Mothman.

└ Tags: film, Humor, Star Wars

17 Comments

12/24/2009

by Colleen Doran on December 24th, 2009

Posted In: A Distant Soil Webcomic

The comic returns on Monday for five days a week space opera goodness! Thanks so much for reading!

If you’re arriving here the first time, enjoy your holiday, sit back, and have some webcomics!

If the traffic on the site continues to improve, I can maintain the five days a week updates through 2010. If not, I may cut back to 3 or 4 days. We will see. I was going to cut back in January, but I will keep up the five days posting until March at least. Let’s see what happens!

Your vote makes me dance and sing! YAY! Thank you!!!

And if you want to take a moment and comment about your Christmas, that would be cool!

└ Tags: A Distant Soil, Comics, Image Comics

7 Comments

Christmas Dispatches

by Colleen Doran on December 23rd, 2009

Posted In: Blog

I cannot get out.

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One of our kind neighbors brought a snowplow to clear our drive way, which has been blocked for days. Alas, he got a bit off course and plowed through my garden, so there goes the lavender. Very vexed.

I think there may be only three plants left, but it is hard to tell because the snow is still too deep. Doubtful harvest next year.

More wintery hijinks: Happy to see the greenhouse still standing. But as soon as I stepped inside, one of the panels collapsed on my head. The greenhouse is now full of snow. Very vexed.

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It was no trouble to put the panel back up and scrape the snow off the remaining roof, but that cold blast down my coat was a real wake-me-up.

Fortunately, the camellia appears undamaged, and I am hopeful for blooms in a week or two.

All is a small price to pay for the most perfectly beautiful White Christmas.

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And it is warm and cozy in the farmhouse. The family is gathered round, we are playing games, and sledding. I am here in the office, and there are people in the other room making mighty guffaws at Black Adder’s Christmas Carol.

I am doing so much baking and cooking, I have moved my work onto the kitchen table to keep an eye on the stove. Here are some of my efforts.

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Big fat meal for the family who arrived yesterday: Choucroute A L’Alsacienne. Never made it before, but I love German-style foods. Full of pork, knockwurst, bacons, yum! It took me over three hours!

I was so proud of the final result, I took a picture for you! We all ate ourselves sick, but it was such a huge dish we’ll have leftovers for days. There’s no more room in the fridge, so bottles of cider are out in the snow, and the leftover dinner is in the wellhouse.

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