I keep falling behind on these annotations, but better that than falling behind on the strip, I suppose. Here are some notes from the past couple of weeks, which have been pretty straight-forward action.

Monday, Strip 39 -- Smiley's tossed glowrod has had a chain reaction of sorts, drawing the vynock to the stormtroopers' tasty power generator, and knocking the E-Web blaster askew.

Tuesday, Strip 40 -- The rest of the Rookies take advantage of the distraction to shuffle across the expanse. Raal's line is meant to echo Han's on the Death Star a bit. As you'll recall, the Rookies needed to cross the corridor to get to the passageway that leads a level down to where their escape vessel awaits.

Wednesday, Strip 41 -- Cut back to Barezz to see what he is up to. Stormtroopers blasting through doors has always seemed to be an underused talent in the EU, given how memorably it was featured in Episode IV. Barezz's dialogue is paraphrased from the somewhat snarly and more specific villain dialogue he was given in the original text:

"Rebels, I grow weary of this hunt. You have 30 minutes to throw down your weapons and surrender. After that I seal every entrance to this mine and watch cheerfully as it collapses in upon itself -- with you trapped inside."

Thursday, Strip 42 -- Now, I don't want anyone to think Raal's a yellow belly. It's just that this is rather far removed from the velvet-lined card tables on Ord Mantell. Also, a bit of a hint towards Kestrel's background.

Friday, Strip 43 -- Sammie offers some hard-edge reasoning.

Monday, Strip 44 -- Another ANH echo, complete with exact dialogue.

Tuesday, Strip 45 -- Some more contrast between the born warriors (Sammie and Kestrel) and the duck out of water (Raal). Good thing they're not keeping track of successful shots.

Wednesday, Strip 46 -- Raal has got himself cornered somewhere, and mistakenly thinks he can catch his breath here.

Thursday, Strip 47 -- Again, keep in mind Raal's weapons are his charms, which really don't work against a stormtrooper. That obnoxious sound effect was last heard aboard Raal's ship when Smiley disarmed Kestrel and Sammie.

Friday, Strip 48 -- Smiley's little tractor-driven garbage grabber is a handy weapon, unless you're stronger than he is, as this stormtrooper evidently is.

That's it for now.

ph