Simply Sci-fi
Jedi Knight
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2014
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This week brought the extremely sad news of the passing of Felix Dennis. Many obituaries have been written on the internet but I thought that I would highlight his contribution to Star Wars.
Felix Dennis; the man who instigated the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
On the surface it appeared to be little different from any other cash in magazine title, but the Star Wars Official Poster Monthly took the concept to a much higher level. The British writing team that Felix Dennis recruited into his company Bunch Associates flung themselves whole heartedly into Star Wars. Completely independent from Lucasfilm, they produced articles covering the “making of” aspect and also the wider universe. They picked over every detail of the Star Wars novel, magazine interviews and their memories of seeing the film in order to bring all of the known information together in one source. This was extremely beneficial to the embryonic Lucasfilm because it did not have the staff to produce their own Star Wars bible, except for a few notes on how many toes Chewbacca had and the correct spelling of names. The Official Star Wars Poster Magazine was translated into many different languages, taking news of the film all around the world.
George Lucas had only mentioned the origin of Darth Vader in a fairy obscure interview with Rolling Stone but Poster Magazine writer John May seized upon the information and fixed it into the consciousness of fellow writers and fans alike. If George Lucas had changed his mind about Vader falling into a volcanic pit following a lightsabre duel with Ben Kenobi and him wearing his suit like an iron lung, there was no way it could be changed. Anthony Fredriksen’s description of Stormtrooper armour would become the standard, even up until the present day. His imaginings (again independent of LFL) that Stormtroopers were clones was bang on and the description of their creation matches the scenes in Attack of the Clones perfectly (the film inspired by the article?). Other aspects of Star Wars such as Chewbacca’s life debt to Han was a creation of the Poster Magazine. The description of life on Tatooine and Chewbacca receiving his medal after the main ceremony would wind up being depicted in the Star Wars comic.
Felix Dennis expanded his Star Wars activities by producing the poster magazines for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, along with the collectors editions of both films and many other related publications. The ESB poster magazine brought information from The Empire Strikes Back Sketchbook to a much wider readership, such as At-AT being an acronym for “All Terrain Armoured Transport” and Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer being called “The Executor.” It is telling that the information on the Rebel vehicles included in The Empire Strikes Back Sketchbook has been lost to obscurity. It would probably be very different if the ESB Poster Magazine had run long enough to include an article on Rebel vehicles.
In the present day “Den of Geek” is produced by Dennis Publishing and half of the magazines found in W.H Smith.
Star Wars fans owe a debt to Felix Dennis and his company Bunch Associates for producing high quality Star Wars publications that filled their minds, crowded their bookshelves and covered their walls with wonderful posters. The expanded universe in all of its different forms drew information from Bunch publications and our view of the wider Star Wars universe would be much different without them.
http://www.felixdennis.com/content/wp-content/files_mf/3326.pdf
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/23/felix-dennis-dies-aged-67-magazine-publisher-oz
Felix Dennis; the man who instigated the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
On the surface it appeared to be little different from any other cash in magazine title, but the Star Wars Official Poster Monthly took the concept to a much higher level. The British writing team that Felix Dennis recruited into his company Bunch Associates flung themselves whole heartedly into Star Wars. Completely independent from Lucasfilm, they produced articles covering the “making of” aspect and also the wider universe. They picked over every detail of the Star Wars novel, magazine interviews and their memories of seeing the film in order to bring all of the known information together in one source. This was extremely beneficial to the embryonic Lucasfilm because it did not have the staff to produce their own Star Wars bible, except for a few notes on how many toes Chewbacca had and the correct spelling of names. The Official Star Wars Poster Magazine was translated into many different languages, taking news of the film all around the world.
George Lucas had only mentioned the origin of Darth Vader in a fairy obscure interview with Rolling Stone but Poster Magazine writer John May seized upon the information and fixed it into the consciousness of fellow writers and fans alike. If George Lucas had changed his mind about Vader falling into a volcanic pit following a lightsabre duel with Ben Kenobi and him wearing his suit like an iron lung, there was no way it could be changed. Anthony Fredriksen’s description of Stormtrooper armour would become the standard, even up until the present day. His imaginings (again independent of LFL) that Stormtroopers were clones was bang on and the description of their creation matches the scenes in Attack of the Clones perfectly (the film inspired by the article?). Other aspects of Star Wars such as Chewbacca’s life debt to Han was a creation of the Poster Magazine. The description of life on Tatooine and Chewbacca receiving his medal after the main ceremony would wind up being depicted in the Star Wars comic.
Felix Dennis expanded his Star Wars activities by producing the poster magazines for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, along with the collectors editions of both films and many other related publications. The ESB poster magazine brought information from The Empire Strikes Back Sketchbook to a much wider readership, such as At-AT being an acronym for “All Terrain Armoured Transport” and Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer being called “The Executor.” It is telling that the information on the Rebel vehicles included in The Empire Strikes Back Sketchbook has been lost to obscurity. It would probably be very different if the ESB Poster Magazine had run long enough to include an article on Rebel vehicles.
In the present day “Den of Geek” is produced by Dennis Publishing and half of the magazines found in W.H Smith.
Star Wars fans owe a debt to Felix Dennis and his company Bunch Associates for producing high quality Star Wars publications that filled their minds, crowded their bookshelves and covered their walls with wonderful posters. The expanded universe in all of its different forms drew information from Bunch publications and our view of the wider Star Wars universe would be much different without them.
http://www.felixdennis.com/content/wp-content/files_mf/3326.pdf
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/23/felix-dennis-dies-aged-67-magazine-publisher-oz
