Xizor want’s Luke dead, but how did the villain secure Leela’s and Bender’s service? There’s more to tell, but not yet. I want to keep moving forward with Shadows first. I know she was shot, but don’t rule Leela out of further appearances. Leanne was really resistant to Leela being shot. In the comic, the traitorous tech officer is actually Viera Cheran and she does not survive Wedge’s quick reflexes. Leanne was concerned about the repercussions of whimsically killing a popular Futurama character. We discussed it at length for about 20 seconds… perhaps 30 if you count pausing for thought. Anyway, look for Leela to appear again around August. 😉

Thanks to T. Gatto for the nice Rebel Wall Sections backgrounds!

Are we going to heavily abridge Shadows of the Empire, or not? Feedback has been encouraging and it seems the main concern for people who aren’t passionate about Shadows, is that some of the jokes are too dependent on the storyline. Or in other words, too obscure. Naturally, the strips that work for everyone are the ones whose gags standalone. So, yes, we will be a lot pickier about the amount of content that still lays ahead of us. But crucially, I’ve decided to go back to a 3 strips per week schedule. Starting next week, you will get BMS on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for as long as we can manage. Hopefully until we reach the end of Shadows. This will wrap Shadows up more promptly than it would if we continued at our current pace, and it will allow us to avoid skipping too much material. Hopefully it will be a good balance for everyone.

And now…. it’s time to announce the winner of the Return of the Jedi 11×17 print contest!

11x17-bms-rotj-print-lr

The winner is Roy Scales!

Roy, shoot me an email with your details and we will get the print mailed off to you.

The rules were simple. Follow us on Twitter and answer a trivia question correctly to be in the draw to win a signed print of our Blue Milk Special Return of the Jedi pinup.

The question was “Who was Lucas’ first choice to direct Return of the Jedi?” Turns out the question was tricky for some, as the internet has a number of trivia sites that imply there isn’t a clear answer. However, the Empire of Dreams documentary clearly states that Steven Spielberg was the first choice for the director’s chair. Spielberg had to decline because he is a member of the Directors’ Guild (Lucas dropped his Guild membership over disagreements about Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back. Spielberg also approached David Cronenberg and David Lynch with the offer, before hiring the relatively unknown (and at the time non-union) Welsh director Richard Marquand.

Here’s the clip. Skip to 8.30 seconds in.

Congratulations, Roy! And thank you to everyone who entered. And before any of you throw your hands in the air and curse us… don’t worry. There will be more competitions VERY soon. And I’ll try to make the questions a little less challenging!

Thanks for sticking with us and supporting BMS!