Starstruck Deluxe Edition, by Elaine Lee, Michael Kaluta, Lee Moyer ★★★★½

[mithriltabby]

divertimento introduced me to Starstruck back in the mid-1980s, and I was impressed at the depth of creativity involved in the stories of a far-future galaxy. The storytelling is nonlinear, and the entanglements between the characters tricky to follow, but the richness of the universe makes it worth the effort. As Tym Stevens puts it, “You didn’t read STARSTRUCK...you held on like a rollercoaster and tried to keep up.” So when I found out that the whole thing was being collected and republished, I put in a preorder.

The good news: the deluxe edition fills in more of the back story that was hinted at in the original comics, giving more perspective on the multilayered intrigue going on. It also comes with a lot of extra fun details, tales of Brucilla’s past among the Galactic Girl Guides, writings and postcards from inside the universe, and bonus art.

The bad news: there’s still a big honking To Be Continued hovering there. According to an interview with Elaine Lee, this is about ⅓ of what she has planned. So if you’ve been waiting for a quarter of a century to find out what happens next, you have to wait some more— but you should pick up this volume now to encourage the next one to come out.