The Empire Strikes Ken

The last issue i ever saw of Rocket's Blast Comic Collector was #152. That issue didn't come out until 1982. By that time conventions were commonplace and the dealer's room aspect of the zine had faded away, no longer serving a vital need. Now there were more articles and artwork, and it was the first "New Look" issue with all of the content now typeset, leaving behind the old unpolished zine feel.

I like to think that the RBCC continued for a good while after that time but, as i said, i never saw more issues. I'm not sure if i saw any further issues of James Van Hise's other zine, Enterprise Incidents either. Around that time life was pretty strange with young children and multiple jobs and job changes - it was still a few years before artist became my full-time occupation. (I think i was working as an electronics tech about that time, but i've mentioned how tenuous my relationship with time is previously) So conventions tapered off around then, and i lost my window on that world.

Anyway...  What we're doing here today is a little mini-comic that appeared within the aforementioned issue - The Empire Strikes Mitch. Mitch being artist Ken Mitchroney, a semi-regular contributor in those days to both magazines, who decided to have fun with a bunch of Star Wars cartoons.

If you're wondering why you haven't seen more of Ken's work - you probably have.
His designs, storyboards, and animations can be seen in many places over the last few decades in places like Tiny Toon Adventures, Mosters, Inc., Toy Story 2, Shrek 2, The Lego Movie...  lots of places. And, last i knew, he was a supervising director for Cartoon Network.

So, he's a little busy for the comics these days.

pages by Ken Mitchroney for RBCC #152 (1982)