c.1982/83? | age 14/15? This ‘Sith Gods’ line is one which I think only ever appeared in the Marvel Comic

There are Gods in Star Wars? Apparently so, and even the evil Sith ones will smile on you on occasion. By explanation: I present a recently received present of a Dejarik game with a hand-painted board! They must have inspired the immortal  T.Gatto, whom you’ll probably know of if you ever read the comments here… ever read ’em? Eh? Eh?

(…ooooosssssh…. tumbleweed blows across comments section …..)

Yes, the poor neglected comments section. But I’ll get to that later.

T. Gatto!

Yes, T. Gatto, one of the top posters here on the site and on Facebook⇑—God love him—sent myself and wee Johnny a terrific present last week. A Dejarik game (Er, that’s «3D Holographic Space Chess to you) all the way from the US to Ireland. Our Johnny loves it! (See Fig.A)

Fig.A. One Happy little boy (note the BlueMilkSpecial postcards)

Actually, come to think of it, it’s probably prudent to prove to you that wee Johnny is actually my son and not some figment of my split-personality brought about by extreme nerdiness and general disappointment with my creative life. Just as it’s also true that I don’t keep children—or chimpanzees—locked in the basement turning out ‘9 year old looking’ comic pages 🙂

Dejarik

But I digress… Tom’s present is much appreciated. And do you know, one of these days I’ll get around to reading the rules of Dejarik that he emailed me. Johnny’s rules tend to be unfathomable, fluid and uncannily always bring about the same result. We tried a draughts style approach which was quite good. Jumping opponents and taking them diagonally. The centre space was a ‘den’ where you could sit safely for one turn—4 times per game. You’re not allowed to attack from the den though.

Thanks again T!

More Thanks

I’d just like to thank the many people who’ve enjoyed and supported this odd site which—let’s face it—was always going to be of limited appeal. I originally put the comic online because I had to scan it anyway to preserve it, and then I thought, “what the heck? Maybe other people—especially Star Wars fans—will enjoy its oddness too!”

The first big supporters were Rod and Leanne Hannah of Blue Milk Special.com. BMS has promoted this site on and off over the 2 years it took to do. Big thanks to them! They even interviewed me for a BMS Podcast show. Sadly, it never ‘aired’, probably because we recorded 2 or 3 hours of chat, and editing it would have been a huge task for 2 people who are already very very busy—and up to their eyes with all sorts of creative work!

Comments—I love ’em!

Then there more of you who discovered the site on Facebook and have been the biggest commentators here and on FB.

So: HUGE honorable mention for all the comments and posts which have kept this site alive—especially when I wondered, “Am I just wasting my time here? I thin I’ll chuck it all in.” —that goes to:

Tom Gatto – with over 160 comments!

Neil Baker over – 130!

Blue Milk Special / Rod Hannah – 45

Also:

Casey Chiwenko

Dan Pollard

Niall F.

and Damien Slattery

And can I say that as well as BMS/The Hannahs; Neil Baker and Damien Slattery have been great advocates and for the site and given me lots of encouragement too. Do you know, that it was thanks to Neil that Bonnie Burton over at LucasFilm started following the comic, and she had the Star Wars Twitter account become a follower of SWa9 on Twitter! Wow! That was nice. And lets not forget, if it wasn’t for Neil—again!—Mark Hamill wouldn’t have taken a look at the comic! Mark freaking Hamill! Luke freaking Skywalker! Some day, when I do a Kickstarter, and print this thing as a lovely book, I’ll know who to send free copies to. And it won’t just be Mark Hamill.

There are many more of you to thank – you know who you are. Robert Pierce, Gorka Salgado Sautu, Becky, Niall F, Niall B…

Corrrr… Thanks Neil! (Enlarge)

. . .