Fans who have been keeping up with my YouTube channel or Patreon get monthly updates on the status of my various projects, including the second edition of A Saga on Home Video. Fans can also follow my posts on the Star Wars Home Video Facebook Group (where I share some preview images at times) or my Facebook author page. However, in an effort to use the site a bit more, I thought I’d finally post a detailed update as to the progress of the book as of April 2021, just weeks shy of the 4th anniversary of the first edition.
Here are the key takeaways for the project’s current status and some details for each:
It’s No Longer Just One Book… It’s Three!
A while back, Microsoft Word (even on my relatively new PC) started to choke on the working file for the second edition. This forced me to consider the length of the guide, and I decided that with as large as it was getting, a change was needed.
I have now split A Saga on Home Video into three separate volumes for the second edition. Each volume is numbered without a subtitle (though I considered a few subtitles that were eventually abandoned for simple numbering). So, what is in each volume?
Volume I covers through right before the home video release of The Force Awakens. In other words, it includes: the original introduction; Glimmers of Hope; The Great Format War; The Original… One Last Time; See It Again… for the First Time; Rise of DVD, Demise of VHS; and The Lucas Films in HD. No chapter names have changed since the first edition, and no new chapters have been added, though content is heavily revised with a lot of new additions.
Volume II covers the live action films in the Disney era, so it includes material covered by the chapter Enter: Disney in the first edition (with plenty of expanded content), plus two entirely new chapters: Rise of 4K, Demise of 3D and All Together Now. Each chapter is rather large, hence only three in this volume that is comparable in size to the other two.
Volume III then covers everything that isn’t a live action theatrical film. This includes the Droids and Ewoks cartoons, plus the Ewok telemovies and a brief mention of The Star Wars Holiday Special in the chapter Teddy Bears, Towanis, and Trouble Again. That is followed by the Clone Wars 2D Micro-series in the chapter Genndy Goes Micro. (These two chapters were originally a single chapter in the first edition: Droids, Ewoks, and a Guy Named Genndy.) It then covers The Clone Wars and Rebels in Rewriting the Clone Wars and Joining the Rebellion as in the first edition (with expanded content), followed by a new chapter on Resistance, entitled A Home Video Kaztastrophe. Before diving into parody fare, there is also now a new chapter that is currently entitled The Baby Yoda Show that looks at The Mandalorian and its accompanying Disney Gallery series, but I’m not sure if that will remain as it is now, which would necessitate another very short chapter on The Bad Batch, or if those Disney+ series will end up merged into a single, renamed chapter. LEGO Star Wars items are then covered, as in the first edition (with more content), via the chapter Brick by Brick. The original chapter that followed, entitled Behind-the-Scenes and Other Oddities in the first edition, has been split into two and expanded: Behind the Curtain for behind-the-scenes materials and A Cantina Full of Oddballs for miscellaneous items. The chapter Tips for Star Wars Home Video Collecting has been renamed This is the Way and, of course, expanded. This volume also now includes an afterword for the entire three-volume guide, entitled Into the Unknown.
Each volume also now includes its own preface, along with a guide to its content and the various types of sidebars.
Expanded Sidebars
The first edition included four types of sidebar:
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- Meanwhile in… (covering some notable foreign releases)
- Forever Tinkering (brief opinions on changes to the live action films)
- Changes for Better and/or Worse (detailed breakdowns of changes to TV episodes)
- For a More Digital Age (info on digital releases)
The second edition introduces three more sidebar types:
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- Go Figure: Hasbro Commemorates Home Video (info on home video tie-in action figure packs that celebrated home video without including home video items within)
- Spectacles for the Spectacle (a look at the various Star Wars RealD 3D glasses available out there, since RealD passive 3D can be used at home)
- Across the Galaxy (images that place releases from multiple regions side-by-side without commentary)
ICYMI Above: Everything is Updated!
All chapters have been revised with new and/or updated content for the second edition. (Even the chapter Glimmers of Hope has new content, thanks to a sidebar on the Italian Minicinex.) Between these updates and all-new chapters, each of the three volumes of the second edition will be about the same size as the original first edition (approx. 250 – 350 pages per volume).
More Pictures… and in Color!
The first edition of ASOHV included about 300 grayscale pictures. All grayscale pictures have been replaced with color pictures. (Only five or so are color versions of the original pictures, so nearly all are brand new pictures.) There are also many, many new color pictures that have no counterparts from the grayscale pictures in the first edition. Across the three volumes, there are over 1,200 color pictures in the second edition. (We may cross 1,300 before work is complete.)
Cover Concept
Rather than making the cover look like a VHS cassette like the first edition cover, my current plan is to make all three volumes look similar to the 2000 Original Trilogy VHS release covers, probably all in white (but that’s not decided yet). The images in the boxes would be of various items together that are covered in that volume. (I can’t work on cover art much until I have final page counts due to needing to account for spine width, unless I don’t use custom spine art.)
Formats
Assuming all goes well, the three volumes will be available in paperback like the first edition but also as an eBook for non-eInk Kindle devices, thanks to Kindle Textbook Creator. Even for Kindle, however, it will be three separate volumes, as the text has been altered to fit the three-volume format.
When?
At this point, I can’t say exactly when the three-volume second edition will be ready for release. It should definitely be in 2021, and I’m hoping for second or third quarter. I don’t foresee it being pushed back into Q4 of 2021 or into 2022, as it’s nearly ready. I expect at least another one or two full hand-edits, but the number of photos still to take is minimal, and I’m slowly whittling away my current to-do list for other minor topics to mention/cover.
Future Editions
I’ve been asked what to expect after the second edition. Is that it? Will there someday be a third edition? At the moment, I don’t really know for sure. What will probably happen is that when enough new content is released, I’d release some kind of separate update book that would be a supplement to the three-volume second edition, rather than updating all three files all over again, or perhaps I’d offer both as options: a revised third edition or just a separate book that contains new content only. Honestly, we’re years away from anything like that I’d expect, so I’m not too worried about making that decision just yet. We’ll have to see what happens in the Star Wars home video market in the years to come.
Thanks!
My thanks to all of you who have bothered to read this far or have been keeping up with the project by other means. It’s definitely a labor of love, and I’m eager to get it out there.