“Sergio Aragones Stomps Star Wars” (2000) is one of those comics that inspires mixed feelings: On one hand, with all the unexplored corners of the actual lore, why is Dark Horse spending time on a parody comic? On the other hand, I did read the comic (as it’s in “Wild Space” Volume 2, which I recently picked up in order to get “Podracing Tales”), and it’s harmless fun.
“Stomps” is not in the same league as “Tag & Bink,” and it’s initially off-putting that it doesn’t parody the “Star Wars” films specifically, but rather George Lucas’ vast filmmaking empire. The main characters are the comic creators themselves: Spanish cartoonist/writer Sergio Aragones (a MAD Magazine legend) and co-writer Mark Evanier, who are getting a tour of Lucasfilm from Lucy Wilson.
(As an interesting side note, Aragones’ connection to “Star Wars” dates back to 1978. Writer Roy Thomas named the villain of Marvel Issues 8-10 Serji-X Arrogantus, obviously a play on the cartoonist’s name. Artist Howard Chaykin also based the character’s look on Aragones.)
Because the writers are self-deprecating every step of the way, it blunts the egotism of making themselves the main characters. “Stomp’s” Aragones is a tech laggard to the same extreme that Lucas is a tech pioneer. Speaking in broken English, he expresses his love of “Star Wars” in a childlike way, and watching “The Empire Strikes Back” on a VHS rental is good enough for him – things like digital transfers are just so much techno-babble. Evanier, for his part, tries to get Aragones to not touch anything during the tour.
The villain of the piece is an amateur director named Grudge, who aims to sabotage the “Star Wars” films so people will notice his movies instead. In “Stomp’s” initial bit of magic realism, Aragones gets sucked into the classic trilogy, which the picture and sound technicians are transferring to digital. As an X-wing pilot, Aragones awkwardly expresses his love for Princess Leia, inspiring her to think “I never thought I’d be rooting for the Death Star.” He then gets transferred to other parts of the trilogy by the video technicians.
With all the background details in each panel, “Stomps” gives an excellent flavor of the hopping Lucasfilm studios during the heyday of the prequels and the original trilogy’s shift from film and videotape to digital (it debuted on DVD in 2004, which was relatively late in the game by most fans’ estimation). While I initially greeted this one-shot with a scoff, it reads today like a sweet love letter to Lucasfilm circa 2000.