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BooksStar Wars

Star Wars Notebook Collection by Lucasfilm Ltd. (a lined book review).

Complete with a silver 40th anniversary sticker on the front of the packet, the ‘Star Wars Notebook Collection’ from Abrams is a set of three 192 page ruled notebooks for you to record your shopping lists, school notes or dark thoughts worthy of the Sith. You may well ask why Abrams, as a noted publisher of ‘Star Wars’ material has branched off into the stationery space? Well, the answer is that these notebooks are beautiful items, worthy of a fan’s time and attention.

Star Wars: A New Hope Notebook Collection (Chronicle Books, £10.99)
Copyright © 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd.

The front, back and inside front cover of each notebook contain a full A5 page of artwork, all of which were used in the marketing of ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’. Each piece of art is unblemished with blurb or wording, really allowing the artwork to breathe. The notebook parked at the front of the pack features Tom Jung’s iconic film poster with a ripped Luke holding aloft his lightsabre and a leggy Leia brandishes a pistol next to him while Vader and the Death Star loom behind. Many fans recognise this as THE definitive poster for ‘Star Wars’. The inside back cover features Jung’s more detailed Vader portrait with a starfield behind him. The back cover was especially exciting as it was featured on my father’s ‘Star Wars’ soundtrack album. This artwork was by John Berkey and was created before Berkey has seen the movie. This explains why the artwork, a depiction of the Battle of Yavin features more than one Millennium Falcon.

The next notebook is a Ralph McQuarrie special. The cover features the ‘Star Wars’ one sheet poster that McQuarrie devised during the film’s production as conceptual art, while the back cover illustration is more early pre-production work featuring early designs for Luke, Chewbacca and the Droids. The inside front cover is a black and white reproduction of the original cover for ‘Star Wars, From The Adventures Of Luke Skywalker’ that was released in 1976 before the arrival of the movie.

Star Wars: A New Hope Notebook Collection (Chronicle Books, £10.99)
Copyright © 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd.

Making up the three notebooks, the last one was perhaps the most surprising of all. Here the artwork was created by Del Nichols as promotional posters for Burger King, during the movie’s original release in 1977. Each piece of artwork here is a montage, the front featuring the oranges and golds of Tattoine, with Luke, Obi-Wan and the droids, while the back cover is blue, black and purple, featuring Vader, TIE fighters and Grand Moff Tarkin. The inside cover is another black and white reproduction, this time of Han, Chewbacca and Obi-Wan. These three pieces of art were genuine surprises for me and made me appreciate what Abrams had gone out of their way to create for these notebooks.

Star Wars: A New Hope Notebook Collection (Chronicle Books, £10.99)
Copyright © 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd.

Each notebook is lightweight, but have plenty of pages for writing in. Some of the pages contain quotes from the original movie, too. Overall, these are subtle and enjoyable pieces of merchandise stationery, that celebrate the epic feel and grandeur of ‘Star Wars’ from when it was released forty years ago. Perfect for jotting down your own science fantasy masterpiece.

John Rivers

September 2017

(pub: Abrams. 3 x 192 page illustrated notebooks. Price: £10.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-45216-274-4)

check out website: www.abramsbooks.com

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