Even though for me Indiana Jones is very distant from my passion for Star Wars, I've been buying the novels and comics over the years. I've amassed a good collection, from the Marvel series, "Find Your Fate" gamebooks and the Young Indiana Jones junior novels to the Bantam Books, video games and Dark Horse Comics series. I've been waiting all these years for an opportunity to read them. That opportunity has now come in the form of the new movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

In order to prepare for my viewing experience, in May 2008 I read all three novelizations and watched all three movies on DVD, and I also started to read some of the Expended Universe material as well (and resumed my game of Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb that I started a few years ago). Being a Star Wars geek, I couldn't help but notice some problems with dates and chronology. I'm not referring to the novels and comics, but within the movies themselves.

What's different from Star Wars is these adventures take place in the real world, with references to real-life locations and events (with some cool fictitious ones thrown in). Watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, I noticed that on the plane to Nepal one passenger (a cameo by ILM's Dennis Muren) is reading an issue of Life Magazine. Doing a quick search on the internet I found that this was the second issue of the magazine published on November 30, 1936. In the new Junior Novelization by Ryder Windham, there is a cool reference to the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin a few weeks before, but those were held during the first two weeks of August. On top of that, the new Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide places this story in April. So which date is correct? I'm ready to discount the Life Magazine reference, but is it April or August?

For Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a prequel to Raiders, the only reference to a date is in the new Junior novelization by Suzanne Weyn, and it states December 1935. But the Ultimate Guide says it takes place in June!

As for my favorite of the trilogy, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the original novelization by Rob MacGregor clearly starts out in the spring (after the 1912 prologue) and when Indy returns to teach at Barnett College it is a week after the end of the semester break (thus missing one week of work, which becomes a minor subplot in the book). Based on that I figured it took place in March or maybe April but again the Ultimate Guide says it takes place in June of 1938.

Most of these sources are very recent, coinciding with the release of the new movie. With the experience they had with the Star Wars license, I would have thought that Lucasfilm and the various licensees (Scholastic, DK Publishing, etc.) would be better able to coordinate and oversee such basic information as the dates the movies take place on.

Of course, it may take a while before we find out which month in 1957 Kingdom of the Crystal Skull takes place...