What do you think?
Rate this book
Star Wars Adventures: Vader's Castle #1-3
Star Wars: Vader's Castle - The Deluxe Library Collection
Horror comes to a galaxy far, far away! The complete stories of the iconic villain’s spooky lair are collected in an oversized hardcover for the first time, including creepy new cover art and the only reprinting of Shadow of Vader’s Castle.
Revisit the scariest place in the galaxy with this comprehensive collection!
Exhumed from the lava mines of Mustafar comes the complete legends of Darth Vader’s castle: a shadowy tower haunted by the dark side. Join Rebel Commander Lina Graff, Lieutenant Hudd, and their friends as they sneak through the citadel’s dank corridors in search of escape. Along the way they trade terrifying tales of Obi-Wan, Han, Chewie, the Ewoks, and other galactic heroes facing off against interstellar creeps: menacing Sith, soulless stormtroopers, possessed droids, alien witches, mutant monsters, and more! When Hudd falls into the clutches of Vanee, the castle’s creepy caretaker, he is treated to further spine-chilling stories of the galaxy’s most vile villains, including Darth Maul, Assajj Ventress, Jabba the Hutt, and Vader himself! Even after the band of rebels flee the fortress, they are pursued by nightmares of rampaging were-Wookiees, Dagobah swamp monsters, and other ghouls!
And for the first time, the Shadow of Vader’s Castle one-shot is collected here, in which the Mustafarian locals share their own hair-raising legends about the villainous stronghold.
Are you brave enough to set foot in the Sith Lord’s fortress of fear?
Written by Cavan Scott, author of Star Wars: Tales from the Death Star and Star Wars: Tales from the Rancor Pit, and rendered in ghastly detail by acclaimed illustrators, including legendary horror artist Francesco Francavilla!
Collects Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle, Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle, Star Wars Adventures: Shadow of Vader’s Castle, Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle, and the Star Wars Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2019 short story “Droid Hunters”.
Revisit the scariest place in the galaxy with this comprehensive collection!
Exhumed from the lava mines of Mustafar comes the complete legends of Darth Vader’s castle: a shadowy tower haunted by the dark side. Join Rebel Commander Lina Graff, Lieutenant Hudd, and their friends as they sneak through the citadel’s dank corridors in search of escape. Along the way they trade terrifying tales of Obi-Wan, Han, Chewie, the Ewoks, and other galactic heroes facing off against interstellar creeps: menacing Sith, soulless stormtroopers, possessed droids, alien witches, mutant monsters, and more! When Hudd falls into the clutches of Vanee, the castle’s creepy caretaker, he is treated to further spine-chilling stories of the galaxy’s most vile villains, including Darth Maul, Assajj Ventress, Jabba the Hutt, and Vader himself! Even after the band of rebels flee the fortress, they are pursued by nightmares of rampaging were-Wookiees, Dagobah swamp monsters, and other ghouls!
And for the first time, the Shadow of Vader’s Castle one-shot is collected here, in which the Mustafarian locals share their own hair-raising legends about the villainous stronghold.
Are you brave enough to set foot in the Sith Lord’s fortress of fear?
Written by Cavan Scott, author of Star Wars: Tales from the Death Star and Star Wars: Tales from the Rancor Pit, and rendered in ghastly detail by acclaimed illustrators, including legendary horror artist Francesco Francavilla!
Collects Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle, Star Wars Adventures: Return to Vader’s Castle, Star Wars Adventures: Shadow of Vader’s Castle, Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle, and the Star Wars Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2019 short story “Droid Hunters”.
424 pages, Hardcover
Published October 8, 2024
6 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Cavan Scott
861 books442 followersis a freelance comic writer and author. He is best known for his work on a variety of spin-offs from both Doctor Who and Star Wars, as well as comics and novels for Vikings, Pacific Rim, Sherlock Holmes, and Penguins of Madagascar.
Cavan Scott, along with Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Daniel Jose Older, and Charles Soule are crafting a new era in the Star Wars publishing world called Star Wars: The High Republic. Cavan's contribution to the era is a comic book series released through Marvel Comics titled Star Wars: The High Republic.
Cavan Scott, along with Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Daniel Jose Older, and Charles Soule are crafting a new era in the Star Wars publishing world called Star Wars: The High Republic. Cavan's contribution to the era is a comic book series released through Marvel Comics titled Star Wars: The High Republic.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 24, 2025
Such a fun time reading this big 424 page short story comic and a high recommended read for any
star wars fan looking for some spooky star wars reads.
Another A+ writing performance from cavan and i have to say all the variation in art style's from story to story was great to see and the whole comic run had a good balance of new characters to fall in love with along with some surprise appearances of OG and prequel characters.
star wars fan looking for some spooky star wars reads.
Another A+ writing performance from cavan and i have to say all the variation in art style's from story to story was great to see and the whole comic run had a good balance of new characters to fall in love with along with some surprise appearances of OG and prequel characters.
May 27, 2025
(Review is largely adapted from my individual reviews of Vols. 1-3)
2.5-3.0?
I stumbled upon a deluxe edition of Vader’s Castle at my local library: hardback, glossy colorful pages, black-edged pages, a black ribbon book mark, and overly large. It’s the beginning of this teacher’s summer break. How could I resist?
I’m clearly not the target audience for these comics. They’re definitely intended for younger readers (my guess is middle grade readers). But that’s okay! Star Wars has been forced to mature over the past decade or so. This collection takes Star Wars back to its family friendly, pulpy style.
In Vol. 1 a group of rebels have to make an emergency landing on Mustafar, where Vader’s castle is located. One of the rebels, Hudd, is captured by Vader. Vader’s lackey, Vanee, tells Hudd horror stories while torturing him (not the most convincing narrative move). Vol. 3 continues the format. Each of these stories features some kind of horror element and a Star Wars fan favorites from the movies and TV shows. They’re all here: Anakin, Padme, Qui-Gon, Darth Maul, C-3PO, R2-D2, Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Yoda, Jabba, and, of course, Vader. Since this is for kids, none of the stories are particularly scary.
The focus is clearly the short stories, not the main plot, which is a shame because the main plot was sort of interesting. The short stories feel so formulaic and incomplete. By the time you get into one story, it ends with little to no resolution.
The art was fun: bright, colorful, pulpy. The horror elements were aptly scary looking. Some of the “normal” characters are a bit on the cartoony side, but again, this is for kids. The lettering often looks like vintage horror movie poster lettering.
Combining vintage horror with Star Wars is a great idea, but the execution is not great.
This is probably a 2-star read, but I’m generously giving it a 3 for art and presentation.
2.5-3.0?
I stumbled upon a deluxe edition of Vader’s Castle at my local library: hardback, glossy colorful pages, black-edged pages, a black ribbon book mark, and overly large. It’s the beginning of this teacher’s summer break. How could I resist?
I’m clearly not the target audience for these comics. They’re definitely intended for younger readers (my guess is middle grade readers). But that’s okay! Star Wars has been forced to mature over the past decade or so. This collection takes Star Wars back to its family friendly, pulpy style.
In Vol. 1 a group of rebels have to make an emergency landing on Mustafar, where Vader’s castle is located. One of the rebels, Hudd, is captured by Vader. Vader’s lackey, Vanee, tells Hudd horror stories while torturing him (not the most convincing narrative move). Vol. 3 continues the format. Each of these stories features some kind of horror element and a Star Wars fan favorites from the movies and TV shows. They’re all here: Anakin, Padme, Qui-Gon, Darth Maul, C-3PO, R2-D2, Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Yoda, Jabba, and, of course, Vader. Since this is for kids, none of the stories are particularly scary.
The focus is clearly the short stories, not the main plot, which is a shame because the main plot was sort of interesting. The short stories feel so formulaic and incomplete. By the time you get into one story, it ends with little to no resolution.
The art was fun: bright, colorful, pulpy. The horror elements were aptly scary looking. Some of the “normal” characters are a bit on the cartoony side, but again, this is for kids. The lettering often looks like vintage horror movie poster lettering.
Combining vintage horror with Star Wars is a great idea, but the execution is not great.
This is probably a 2-star read, but I’m generously giving it a 3 for art and presentation.
July 22, 2024
More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
This rather massive collection combines three other collections (Tales from Vader's Castle, Return to Vader's Castle, Ghosts of Vader Castle and Shadow of Vader's Castle) into a single volume - a total of 17 comic issues in one set, with a bonus 'Making Of' added on.The 'Vader's Castle' set is a collection of mostly disconnected short stories in the form of classic ghost (or horror) stories with a thin overarching plot tying them together. It's kind of nice that the overarching plot continues from collection to collection, though by the end it starts to feel stretched out.
The main meat is in the individual stories, which are best thought of as 'what if' style elements. Most of the stories are a bit modeled after well known ghost/horror stories or movies adapted into the Star Wars Universe - fans of classic horror will be able to identify the origin of most, even by just the title (such as "Bop She-Bop, Little Sarlacc Horror," "Attack of the 50 foot Wookie" and "Dawn of the Droids"). As you can imagine, some adapt better than others.
Given their nature as a ghost story it's never clear whether the tale is completely made up by the story teller or just embellished to extremes; this gives leeway where almost anything can happen. I liked this approach as even the silly ones could be good fun. The flip side is that most are also very forgettable as most are too fanciful to be taken seriously. Occasionally I felt like the writers just pulled out classic horror titles from a hat and then crafted a story around them.
Of the good ones, I enjoyed "The Curse of Tarkin", "Vault of the Living Brains" and "Count Dooku: Prince of Darkness." Honorable mention for casting Dooku as Dracula, the role from which made Christoper Lee famous.
The art style varies from issue to issue but overall it's 'passable'. I wasn't overly impressed by the art in any of them but neither were there any where they subtracted from the story. In some, the cartoonish appearance takes away the 'horror' it was trying to convey, though classic horror today is of course not really scary anymore.
I'd recommend this to Star Wars fans looking for something a bit different and it probably works equally well whether you are a hardcore fan or a casual Star Wars enjoyer. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
August 22, 2024
Star Wars: Vader's Castle - The Deluxe Library Collection is a nice big chunk of fun Star Wars comics that gives us an anthology of horror tinged tales from the galaxy, far, far away. I really loved seeing all the great deep cuts and homages to classic horror films. I like it when I can just give myself over and be completely entertained by Star Wars comics without having to worry so much about continuity and where it all fits into the larger galaxy. I hope this is still only the beginning of these Vader's Castle types of stories.
Special Thanks to Dark Horse Comics and Edelweiss Plus for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.
Special Thanks to Dark Horse Comics and Edelweiss Plus for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.
December 28, 2025
The story is a bit YA and decent overall, but this was a seriously missed opportunity to make something cool… If the tone had been darker, more adult, with detailed art, it would have elevated this to a top seller and one of the best graphic novels out there… Instead we got a mediocre story and comic strip style art.
March 27, 2025
The art and writing are overall a bit juvenile.
June 3, 2025
That was good fun, and the artwork is fun too. A nice change from the standard Marvel fare.
November 4, 2024
Star Wars gets spooky with these Halloween tales for kids. The larger story revolves around some Rebels who wind up in Vader's castle on Mustafar. A story gets told each issue while the framing story progresses. There's nothing too scary here so it's an easy one for the kids to read at Halloween. There's enough fun stuff there for Star Wars fans of all ages though.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews