The Willow Sourcebook
Intended as a companion piece to The Willow Game, this fantastic reference book was written by Allen Varney and published by Tor books. Its 90 pages include extensive background information on every character that appeared in the movie, from Willow and Madmartigan to Ethna and Llug. It also featurea rich, encyclopedic descriptions of the various creatures in Willow's world; a detailed map of the lands Willow travelled; eight pages of color photos; and suggestions for creating your own Willow roleplaying game.
Thanks to Andrew Pitino for letting me know about the Sourcebook.
The Art of Willow
Amazon.com has a listing for this book, produced by Lucasfilm Ltd. and published by Ballantine Books in 1989. If you have any more information about this book, please e-mail me.
The Willow Comic Book Adaptation
Marvel comics published a serialized, three-part adaptation (shown above) in August, September, and October of 1988, respectively; shortly afterward, all three were collected into a one-volume graphic novel (cover art shown right). The adaptation features several scenes deleted from the movie, including the infamous sea monster scene. The comic's credits (for those of you interested) are as follows: Jo Duffy, Writer; Bob Hall, Penciler; Romeo Tanghal, Inker; Joe Rosen, Letterer; Bob Sharen, Colorist; Bob Budiansky, Editor; Tom DeFalco, Editor in Chief.
ChimChim sent me these scans from the graphic novel. They're of the famous "lost scene" where Willow confronts the sea monster. Check them out here: page 1, page 2, page 3.
Willow, The Illustrated Version
Ballantine published this pocket-sized edition of Marvel's adaptation. Released in July of 1988, it featured 192 pages of black-and-white illustrations.
The Willow Novelization
The very first novel in the saga is actually the novelization
of the movie, written by Wayland Drew (author of The Erthring Cycle).
Two editions were printed, both paperback: the first was released well before
the movie and featured exclusive cover art; the second was released the same
time as the movie; its cover is shown right (click on thumbnail for the full image), and featured an eight-page insert with
photos from the movie.
The book contains several scenes cut from the film; click here to read an excerpt from the book describing the scene where Willow fights a sea-monster on the way to Fin Raziel's island, and in the process uses the second magic acorn given to him by the High Aldwin. (It always bothered me that he only used two of the three in the movie.) In addition, the novel adds interesting background information about Bavmorda, Fin Raziel, Madmartigan, and the Nelwyn warrior Vohnkar. All in all a must-read for true Willow fans.
Shadow Moon
The First in the Chronicles of the
Shadow War was written by George Lucas and Chris Claremont and published
by Bantam Spectra Books, originally in hardcover, with a paperback version
following several months later. The book is rather lengthy (nearly five-hundred
pages), and even I thought that it moved pretty slowly in the beginning.
Once I got used to the deliberate pace, however, I began to really appreciate
Claremont's eloquence as a writer, and the story, of course, kept me mesmerized
the whole time. This series is the only way to keep up with the saga,
and therefore is essential reading for every fan.
Shadow Dawn
The sequel to Shadow Moon
was just published in hardcover January 1997 by Bantam Specter; the paperback version should be out April 1, 1998 (according to Amazon.com). The cover indicates that it was penned entirely by
Claremont, with Lucas taking credit for the story.The style and feel of the
book is exactly the same as original, leading me to believe that Claremont
actually wrote most (if not all) of Shadow Moon. Again, a
must-read.
