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Battlestar Galactica Classic...or "This is a bunch of feldercarb!"

By Bob Vosseller, Battlestar Achilles BSR-39

For months I've been pestering the comic book shop managers in my area as to when I could buy a copy of the new Dynamite Entertainment Battlestar Galactica "Classic" comic book. That's the version where Starbuck was a male and Richard Hatch's image was used for Apollo not the sinister political manipulator Zarek.

I know we in the CDF tend to focus more on the new version but the classic BG was a must read for me and I thought I'd share my thoughts.

Oh don't get me wrong, while not a big fan of reimagined sagas (like Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes) I am a big fan of the new Battlestar Galactica or I wouldn't be a member here. Even with new Galactica coming to comics several months ago, I wanted to get a classic Galactica fix.

I'm sure we've all pondered what if the original Galactica survived a few more seasons and never morphed into the disappointment we came to know as Galactica 1980.

Well if you are asking that question, don't bother to pickup Battlestar Galactica (classic). Despite some extraordinary cover art and the interior artwork by Carlos Rafael the first issue at least, featured imposters who resembled our favorite Colonial Warriors.

Right off the bat on page 1 you have Starbuck spouting off "Come on Adama, even if those relics did somehow survive, last report I read says there's three (Cylon) mother ships down there.''

Col. Tigh quickly curbs the officer's questioning but he also sounds way to nasty in doing so. The only characters that sound right are Boxey and possible his pet daggit, Muffit.

Starbuck may have been the reckless, maverick pilot but he always demonstrated respect to Adama so unless this is some alternate universe..something is wrong. He comes off pissy and petty in this story which is set at some point early on in the TV series as Serina is still alive.

That is probably a weird place to start this series but there may be a reason.

Ironically, Dynamite Entertainment is based in Runnemede New Jersey a short distance from my South Jersey apartment and from where our Commander lives.

I'm really tempted to stop by with a Colonial blaster armed with a DVD series of the original show and have writer Rick Remender watch each episode to truly get a feel for how Starbuck talks.

The story itself is intriguing but the characters just don't sound right. I was thinking wait a centon here, Starbuck wouldn't react this way and Apollo wouldn't say this...what gives..is Baltar writing this comic?

Battlestar Galactica, like Star Trek has had a long history with comics and multiple comic book companies. BG began with a comic book adaptation of the pilot movie by Marvel Comics and a series that ran about 20 or issues or so afterward. There series took certain liberties at time but was fairly good.

Later another comics company helmed a new series of BG comics which even spawned a new line of action figures. That was in the mid 90s when no one ever really thought that BG would ever be back on the small screen.

Maximum Press had the series for awhile. In total there have been either four or five companies handling the property. Now Dynamite Entertainment has it. They are associated with DC Comics and have produced a top notch version of Red Sonja the red haired sword and sorcery heroine created by Robert E. Howard. Ironically, the comic book rights to Howard's more well known hero Conan, are in the hands of another company so we won't see any cross overs.

Dynamite is also producing another female warrior book which sprang from TV, Xena Warrior Princess. Another property they have is Highlander.

I find myself, so far, enjoying the Maximum Press version of comics which I only now am getting around to reading which seem to feature characters (if not the actual likeness of the actors who portrayed them) that are more familiar.

I'd like to hear what other BG fans think. Feel free to submit a review of your own or a review of a later issue or one of the new BG comic. It’s really too bad that after the long wait, the book seems to be just so much feldercarb!