Japanese Star Wars Cover Art

I hit on something in writing my post last night that I had forgotten for quite a long time- how cool the Japanese Star Wars novel covers are. So, I did a little digging around the web this evening and found out that all the covers are posted in hi-res scans on TheForce.net. They actually have a whole section of the site dedicated to foreign covers.

The covers are unique in a couple of different aspects. First, the art is so much better than what we got on the US novels, at least in my opinion. A lot of the non-movie characters got almost no depiction on the US covers, while the Japanese ones featured some of those characters in great detail. Second, each cover is actually designed for two books. Most novels had to be split into two volumes for publication in Japan due to the amount of space it took to translate the books into Japanese characters.

Here are a few examples of my favorites:

This one features Corran Horn on the left behind Tahiri Veila. Jaina is on the right side, behind Han.

Kyp Durron is on the right behind Jaina on this set of covers, while Mara Jade Skywalker is on the left with newborn Ben.

This next cover features Ganner Rhysode, who meets a most spectacular end in this book.

The final two covers I'm including both feature excellent artwork of the Solo twins, Jacen and Jaina.

In my quest to find the novel covers, I came across a few interesting articles concerning them. This one from Nerdvana is especially good. For more fun reading, check out this article, also from Nerdvana. I just loved this quote- it summed up the series so perfectly:

The books have been slowly setting up the most anticipated duel since Anakin vs. Obi-Wan in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: Jacen vs. Jaina. (Because Uncle Luke just can’t seem to take the brat out himself.)

Finally, StarWars.com features many of the Japanese covers here and here.

Okay, enough of my obsessive ramblings for the night. I'm going to go watch some Stargate...