[May the Fourth is a date for celebrating Star Wars and James Bacon’s birthday, and connecting the two, is the release date for a special issue marking 10 years of Journey Planet.]

By James Bacon: May the Fourth be with you – we offer you Journey Planet:The Star Wars issue

With a stunning cover by Sarah Wilkinson, this issue of Journey Planet sets out to explore the Galaxy Far Far away. Edited by Chris Garcia, James Bacon and John Coxon, we’ve interviews with Tom Vietch, Timothy Zahn, Ruairí Coleman, Sean Williams and Will Sliney.

Andrea Swinsco and Jeannette Ng have very different views on The Last Jedi.

Craig Miller offers considerable insight to his times working with Star Wars, and also provides an obituary remembering Carrie Fisher.

We have  An Islamic Perspective of Star Wars by Irfan Rydhan and a consideration of contemporary cultural narratives in Imperfect Worlds by Charlotte Cleo Wolf, while Micheal Carroll shares his scrap-book clippings.

James Mason looks at visual concepts, David Ferguson looks at characters and Juan Sanmiguel looks at  Star Wars on the Radio and we have a Holiday Special survival guide by Helena Nash

Dr Anthony Roche reviews  Alan Moore’s Star Wars comics, James Shields sources input about Star Wars Lego, from Hoth to Millennium Falcons and Will Frank considers the Lucasflm Buy and Fanwork.

We also have articles on the female pilots who never made it on screen, and those who did, Irish Connections in Star Wars, The Five Greatest Star Wars Games of All Time and Hardware Wars the latter two by editor Chris Garcia.

This has been a tough issue for one of the editors, Chris Garcia noted: ‘I am writing this from a tiny nook in Santa Clara’s Kaiser hospital. Vanessa, my loving wife, is having a ten hour surgery upstairs. I am downstairs. I’ve had my coffee, some tater-tots, a couple of pieces of bacon, and an orange juice. I’m listening to podcasts, specifically Last Podcast on the Left about the late, great Art Bell. I am more scared at this moment than any other in my entire life.’

“Hope.” — Leia Organa

We hope you join us in celebrating Star Wars today, and even if you are not a fan, enjoying reading views and opinions and thoughts on this wide-ranging universe that so many love so much. And if that fails, we offer you in desperation, the raising of a pint as one of our editors celebrates their birthday today and this issue marks ten years of Journey Planet.

Cheers Nerf Herders!

The zine can be found here:

http://journeyplanet.weebly.com/journey-planet/a-fanzine-far-far-away-journey-planet-star-wars