Here we are celebrating May The 4th, also known as Star Wars Day, once again. And I was going to try and write up something based on the new movie coming out or something cool about the cast…but I decided to go a different route. Today, I’m going to tell you about some of the most influential Star Wars-related things that have occurred in my life, starting with the original movie.

I was six when the first Star Wars film hit theaters and, as we all know, that’s a highly impressionable age. The film amazed me, as I’m sure it did virtually everyone. But the true influence at that time was the line of toys that accompanied it. My first three figures were Darth Vader, R2-D2, and C-3PO. I remember being angry that the local stores were sold out when we were out shopping, but my ever-awesome Aunt Cathy managed to find those three action figures somewhere and gave them to me for my birthday about a month after the movie came out. It was the beginning of 35 years of collecting, though I had no idea of that at the time.

May the Force be with you all! Geeks of Doom will be posting a couple of Star Wars articles today, May 25, for Universal Day of the Jedi, which celebrates the anniversary of the release of the first Star Wars movie.

This year, Universal Day of the Jedi also celebrates the anniversary of Timothy Zahn‘s novel, Heir to the Empire. The initial release of this novel 20 years ago this month is significant, because it was quite literally groundbreaking: its impact would open the floodgates for an amazing deluge of Star Wars novels and comics – turning the Expanded Universe into an EXPANDING Universe.

Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy, of which Heir to the Empire is the first part, is widely regarded by many fans as one of the best series of Star Wars books to ever have been released. Some fans even consider the trilogy to be the equivalent of the closest we may ever get to a Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. Timothy Zahn has continued his journeys into the Expanded Star Wars Universe through the years – exploring deeper into the history and legacy of Grand Admiral Thrawn, the continual growing relationship between Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade, and also the mysteries behind the enigmatic Outbound Flight.

I figured with this month being the anniversary of Zahn’s masterpiece, and also with today being Universal Day of the Jedi, it would be a good opportunity to take a look back at some of the finer examples of Star Wars novels over the years.

We here at Geeks of Doom love our sci-fi movies like Star Wars and Star Trek, but another thing we love is parodies of these movie franchises. May I introduce to you Blue Milk Special, a Star Wars comic strip parody site. Not only does this site do parodies of the events in the films, but it also spoofs all the Expanded Universe titles and characters. The featured strip for this month is the Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, which is currently up to part 12.

While this site, like the site Motion Picture Comics, parodies this beloved series, it does pay tribute to it at the same time and makes us ask questions like, “How is Darth Vader able to drink coffee?” Not only does this site poke fun at mainstream characters it also brings the secondary characters to the spotlight by giving us a little insight in their lives. Readers will see that not only did Greedo go after Han Solo, but so did his cousins after his death. In another strip we see Boba Fett riding a dinosaur and someone calling him a “badass” for taming it but the punchline is that he rented it for $20 an hour.