Tatooine Sojourn

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

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"I was sent here to investigate a transport capsule!"
"No, Luke! To crack an intelligence operation!"

―Luke Skywalker and Anduvil^[3]

Tatooine Sojourn is a comic strip that was distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and published in U.S. and Canadian newspapers. The series was written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Russ Manning. It was collected in Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures 4, and was also available in the Webstrips section of Hyperspace. It was the first comic strip to appear in both the Sunday and Weekly strips, as the prior strips were either Sunday-only ("The Kashyyyk Depths" and "The Constancia Affair") or Weekly-only ("Gambler's World").

It was among the strip's first five story arcs, which were licensed by the short-lived Lucasfilm subsidiary Black Falcon.

Plot summary

A capsule lands on the planet Tatooine. Jawas check it for traps then bring it to one of their sandcrawlers. Inside the capsule are Squills, which Jawas like to eat. Stormtroopers are looking for the capsule and are upset the Jawas took it, as by the time the Jawas eat them, their "dead little eyes would be impossible to read."

Luke Skywalker is on a ship with droids R2-D2 and C-3PO when he gets orders to go to Tatooine to track the capsule. Luke pilots the ship to Tatooine and when he gets close he gets a message to go to the Mos Eisley Cantina and ask for Anduvil. Luke lands and makes his way to the cantina. The Galactic Empire has now set up a permanent base on Tatooine. Luke leaves the droids at the door of the cantina and enters.

Luke has a flashback of the first time he came to this cantina with Obi-Wan Kenobi. While lost in thought a bounty hunter shoots at Luke, but in turn is shot by Anduvil, causing him to miss. Anduvil explains that the capsules have been landing at other planets bringing with them Bledsoe's disease. Just then, a Jawa in the cantina falls over dead with the disease.

Luke, Anduvil and the droids make their way to Ben Kenobi's hut. Tusken Raiders hear them talking and attack the hut. Luke defeats them, though their landspeeder is destroyed. They get on the banthas that belonged to the Tusken Raiders and ride off to a sandcrawler. Stormtroopers are inspecting the dead Jawas from the sandcrawler, who all have died from Bledsoe's disease. Anduvil tells the troopers that Luke was bitten by a Squill, so they take them to the Imperial base.

Once at the base, Luke's eyes become starry windows, meaning he has contracted the disease. Dr. Kaaldar quarantines Luke instead of curing him, though Luke escapes. Luke and Anduvil force Kaaldar to provide the serum. Kaaldar explains that the starry eyes have allowed the Empire to track down Rebel bases. The sandcrawler piloted by R2-D2 and C-3PO enters the Imperial base, though it gets stopped.

Luke sees the droids in trouble and tries to get the commander to call off an order to junk the droids. Meanwhile, Anduvil finds a hangar of TIE Fighters and sabotages them to explode. They explode right before stormtroopers can fire on Luke. The troopers are killed, and Luke, Anduvil, and the droids can safely leave the base. Luke, Anduvil and the droids can now leave Tatooine in Luke's ship, while the Imperial commander comes to ensure their safe departure.

Development

Tatooine Sojourn was originally to have had Princess Leia being held hostage throughout the mission. To find out where Leia was being held, Luke needed to capture a living Tusken Raider.^[4] This subplot did not make it into the published strip, but Hyperspace included six panels of it when it republished this story arc. Hyperspace did not integrate these panels into the rest of the storyline, and this subplot is unresolved in these panels.

In these six panels, Luke plans to have C-3PO and R2-D2 act as decoys while he knocks a Tusken Raider unconscious. However, a small hitch in the plan occurs when a trio of Raiders ambushes them, forcing 3PO to tackle Luke to save him from the ambush. Luke fights off one while the other two are attacking 3PO and R2. Eventually, 3PO, per R2's suggestion, fires a blaster at the remaining two Tusken Raiders, forcing them to flee, while Luke blasterwhips the remaining Tusken Raider into unconsciousness. Luke then states that they need to securely tie the Tusken Raider, and also prepares to unmask the Tusken Raider.

Continuity

Classic Star Wars 4 slightly modified the original comic. Besides printing it entirely in color, it depicted Luke's "stars in the eyes" effect differently: Originally, Luke had a ringed planetary body among the window effect, while the Classic Star Wars version removed this.