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Jabba the Hutt: The Art of the Deal #1-4
Star Wars: Jabba the Hutt - The Art of the Deal
Jabba the Hutt lives to negotiate, and the art of the deal is his only discipline. But the goods he trades are the lives of others, and in that line of business you can't lose your head. These stories hold a valuable lesson: In a deal with the devil, you can always refuse. In a deal with Jabba, it's not advised. Follow his adventures into the seediest corners of the galaxy as he encounters vile gangsters, hungry princesses, and back-stabbing opportunists. You've seen how Jabba handles negotiations -- but how will he handle betrayal?
104 pages, Paperback
First published June 3, 1998
5 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Jim Woodring
172 books242 followersJim Woodring was born in Los Angeles in 1952 and enjoyed a childhood made lively by an assortment of mental an psychological quirks including paroniria, paranoia, paracusia, apparitions, hallucinations and other species of psychological and neurological malfunction among the snakes and tarantulas of the San Gabriel mountains.
He eventually grew up to bean inquisitive bearlike man who has enjoyed three exciting careers: garbage collector, merry-go-round-operator and cartoonist. A self-taught artist, his first published works documented the disorienting hell of his salad days in an “illustrated autojournal” called Jim. This work was published by Fantagraphics Books and collected in The Book of Jim in 1992.
He is best known for his wordless comics series depicting the follies of his character Frank, a generic cartoon anthropomorph whose adventures careen wildly from sweet to appalling. A decade’s worth of these stories was collected in The Frank Book in 2004. The 2010 Frank story Weathercraft won The Stranger’s Genius Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for that year. The most recent Frank book, Congress of the Animals, was released in 2011.
Woodring is also known for his anecdotal charcoal drawings (a selection which was gathered in Seeing Things in 2005), and the sculptures, vinyl figures, fabrics and gallery installations that have been made from his designs. His multimedia collaborations with the musician Bill Frisell won them a United States Artists Fellowship in 2006. He lives in Seattle with his family and residual phenomena.
-Walter Foxglove
He eventually grew up to bean inquisitive bearlike man who has enjoyed three exciting careers: garbage collector, merry-go-round-operator and cartoonist. A self-taught artist, his first published works documented the disorienting hell of his salad days in an “illustrated autojournal” called Jim. This work was published by Fantagraphics Books and collected in The Book of Jim in 1992.
He is best known for his wordless comics series depicting the follies of his character Frank, a generic cartoon anthropomorph whose adventures careen wildly from sweet to appalling. A decade’s worth of these stories was collected in The Frank Book in 2004. The 2010 Frank story Weathercraft won The Stranger’s Genius Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for that year. The most recent Frank book, Congress of the Animals, was released in 2011.
Woodring is also known for his anecdotal charcoal drawings (a selection which was gathered in Seeing Things in 2005), and the sculptures, vinyl figures, fabrics and gallery installations that have been made from his designs. His multimedia collaborations with the musician Bill Frisell won them a United States Artists Fellowship in 2006. He lives in Seattle with his family and residual phenomena.
-Walter Foxglove
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
June 5, 2018
So... this is a thing that exists. A four-issue Jabba the Hutt mini-series. Each issue follows Jabba as he travels the galaxy (yes, he is quite mobile!), outsmarts and kills all of his enemies and ends up being the baddest, cleverest, ugliest boy on the block. Sounds compelling? Not really. The stories are all quite dull and follow the same basic structure — at first Jabba seems to be in a losing position, but then it turns out that it was his game all along and everything goes just as he planned. Repeat four times. The book title's allusion to Trump is amusing, but besides some visual and personal similarities between the two, I really don't see what the writers (or, more likely, the editors) were going for here. The artwork by Art Wetherell looks quite nice. That's about everything I can say about this book.
February 5, 2022
Loved seeing Jabba's mouth always covered in drool and they kept pushing him to be as gross as possible. Otherwise there's colourful art, dopey Star Wars stories, all the critters and goblins you love from the movies. Can't ask for more than that from this sort of thing.
July 19, 2020
When all four of the Jabba-centric one-shots are read together, as they are neatly compiled in this TPB here, a strongly detailed character is evinced. Contrary to the sluggish and slimy depictions of the movies, Jabba is preternaturally cunning in all his horrific glory. And as the collection trails on, he is more than willing to get his grubby hands dirty resulting in multiple murders, most notably involving smothering via pillow and in at least one instance, outright cannibalism. This Godfatheresque approach to criminal enterprise is remarkably and consistently violent throughout, resulting in a particularly blood-soaked collection of one-shots. In fact, if not for the uniform peopling of cast by aliens, a purely human version of this would be utterly unsuitable for the children these were obviously aimed at.
October 17, 2020
Deeply timely. Now more than ever, it is time to revisit Jabba the Hutt: The Art of the Deal.
April 24, 2021
The humor on this one wore thin really quickly. Good for a few chuckles.
June 3, 2019
Star Wars Legends Project #202
Background: Jabba the Hutt: The Art of the Deal, released in June 1998, collects the four previously released Jabba one-shots:
The Gaar Suppoon Hit (April 1995), The Hunger of Princess Nampi (June 1995), The Dynasty Trap (August 1995), and Betrayal (February 1996). All four were written by Jim Woodring and drawn by Art Wetherell. Woodring has done very little other Star Wars writing, but is well-known for his own work in comics outside of Star Wars. Wetherell also did the art for one issue of Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith.
All four are set about 5 years before the Battle of Yavin. Jabba the Hutt and Bib Fortuna are the main characters.
Summary: In The Gaar Suppoon Hit, Jabba arrives at the stronghold of one of his chief rivals intent on making a deal. It isn't the deal his rival thinks it is, but there may be a few surprises even Jabba hasn't anticipated. (Spoiler alert: There are not.)
In The Hunger of Princess Nampi, Jabba is on his way home laden down with treasure when he falls into a trap set by Princess Nampi, a being even larger and more ravenous than himself. Can Jabba outwit her, or will he lose his hard-won riches and perhaps even his life?
In The Dynasty Trap, hoping to quickly off-load some of his ill-gotten merchandise, Jabba connects with an old contact but finds himself caught in the midst of a backstabbing battle for succession where anything goes and no body count is too high.
In Betrayal, Jabba finally arrives back on Tatooine considerably richer than when he left, but even here he isn't safe. For someone like Jabba, betrayal lurks around every corner and can come from any direction.
Review: First of all, yes, the title is exactly the reference that you think it is, and that feeds my soul here in 2019. But, inspired titling aside, I wasn't sure what to expect or hope for from a series where Jabba is the . . . hero? Okay, there's definitely nothing heroic happening anywhere in these stories, but the writer made the wise decision to surround Jabba with antagonists who are even less admirable than he is, so it works.
The first of the four stories is the best at delivering what you'd most expect to see . . . Jabba as master "negotiator" who always has one more card up his sleeve, no matter how many double-, triple-, or quadruple-crosses come at him. He's the smartest guy in the room because he's the most devious on an order of magnitude his opponents can't conceive of, and there is literally nothing he won't do. The second story is pretty well-plotted as well, and leans heavily into the other thing you'd expect from a Jabba series: It's super-gross. Like, do not be in the middle of eating anything when you get to the denouement of this one. The other two stories are fine, if nothing particularly special. Overall, I'd say this is definitely worth checking out. It's an odd little artifact of the Expanded Universe that ends up being more entertaining than you might expect.
B-
Background: Jabba the Hutt: The Art of the Deal, released in June 1998, collects the four previously released Jabba one-shots:
The Gaar Suppoon Hit (April 1995), The Hunger of Princess Nampi (June 1995), The Dynasty Trap (August 1995), and Betrayal (February 1996). All four were written by Jim Woodring and drawn by Art Wetherell. Woodring has done very little other Star Wars writing, but is well-known for his own work in comics outside of Star Wars. Wetherell also did the art for one issue of Tales of the Jedi: Dark Lords of the Sith.
All four are set about 5 years before the Battle of Yavin. Jabba the Hutt and Bib Fortuna are the main characters.
Summary: In The Gaar Suppoon Hit, Jabba arrives at the stronghold of one of his chief rivals intent on making a deal. It isn't the deal his rival thinks it is, but there may be a few surprises even Jabba hasn't anticipated. (Spoiler alert: There are not.)
In The Hunger of Princess Nampi, Jabba is on his way home laden down with treasure when he falls into a trap set by Princess Nampi, a being even larger and more ravenous than himself. Can Jabba outwit her, or will he lose his hard-won riches and perhaps even his life?
In The Dynasty Trap, hoping to quickly off-load some of his ill-gotten merchandise, Jabba connects with an old contact but finds himself caught in the midst of a backstabbing battle for succession where anything goes and no body count is too high.
In Betrayal, Jabba finally arrives back on Tatooine considerably richer than when he left, but even here he isn't safe. For someone like Jabba, betrayal lurks around every corner and can come from any direction.
Review: First of all, yes, the title is exactly the reference that you think it is, and that feeds my soul here in 2019. But, inspired titling aside, I wasn't sure what to expect or hope for from a series where Jabba is the . . . hero? Okay, there's definitely nothing heroic happening anywhere in these stories, but the writer made the wise decision to surround Jabba with antagonists who are even less admirable than he is, so it works.
The first of the four stories is the best at delivering what you'd most expect to see . . . Jabba as master "negotiator" who always has one more card up his sleeve, no matter how many double-, triple-, or quadruple-crosses come at him. He's the smartest guy in the room because he's the most devious on an order of magnitude his opponents can't conceive of, and there is literally nothing he won't do. The second story is pretty well-plotted as well, and leans heavily into the other thing you'd expect from a Jabba series: It's super-gross. Like, do not be in the middle of eating anything when you get to the denouement of this one. The other two stories are fine, if nothing particularly special. Overall, I'd say this is definitely worth checking out. It's an odd little artifact of the Expanded Universe that ends up being more entertaining than you might expect.
B-
January 15, 2020
A surprisingly unique offering, exactly the sort of the a character one-shot ought to do. I don't know that Jabba's characterization quite matches the idea you get of him in RotJ, but it's still quite fun and I don't really mind. They're a pulp counterpart to something like Aphra, where the dark corners of the underworld aren't a scary place but something to gleefully roll around in. Jabba isn't a marginal figure in this world but on top of it, so all of the twists of fate and double crosses and betrayals that roil around him aren't world shaking blows, they just are his world. He rolls with all of it and always comes out on top because he's always the most devious and ruthless guy in the room. It's not deep but it's a lot of fun. It's also just nice to have a Star Wars story that's only concerned with self-interest and draws no broader moral angles, to remind us this isn't a place concocted purely as a setting for morality plays.
Ooh, plus! A replica droid full of murder-weasels in jumpsuits!
Ooh, plus! A replica droid full of murder-weasels in jumpsuits!
January 2, 2019
Where the previous Droids books were gentle and childish, this volume is gruesome and brutal. Jabba proves to be a deadly being even when caught alone and without his aides. He’s always three moves ahead of his opponents and can make things go his way either by using his wits or his superior bulk. The stories were, perhaps, a little simple but were very satisfying.
December 26, 2019
I love Star Wars! But I really loved how read and see at how the villains operate! Definitely check this out if you are interested in how Jabba the Hutt does his business deals!
July 30, 2020
One shots for the oversized gangster in the unmistakable style of the 1990s
January 5, 2022
The art and stories are really bad. Not worth hunting down.
July 22, 2025
3 of the 4 issues of the 1995 Jabba the Hutt comic collected into a little graphic novel by Boxtree. Picked this up cheap because I thought it was funny they’d even attempted a Jabba comic series, and it turned out to be actually quite funny! The art is a bit flat and functional, but the sheer ruthlessness of Jabba and some surprisingly excessive gore made this bizarrely shocking and entertaining. I feel like the goal was to show Jabba as a mob boss who’ll double cross everyone to score some loot which is quite a solid angle for a comic series about him. It also made me laugh that Jabba was always on a floating platform because this was produced prior to his appearance in the 1997 special editions. The book just kept escalating into more double crosses and violence and I just couldn’t imagine Disney okaying anything like this for modern Star Wars. A unique little book that showcases the Wild West of the old expanded universe.
February 12, 2018
Not the Trump story I expect— just kidding! But seriously, I guess I was just expecting more, they completely wasted an interesting character like Jabba in this. I get that these were meant to be fun one-shots but they were primarily just predictable, over-the-top, and filled with too many coincidences. You’d think a miniseries based on the galaxy’s most cunning crime lord would be more interesting.
June 10, 2018
Jabba the Hutt became famous for many reasons, but one of it was his ability to negotiate. He was true master of the art of "there is offer you can not refuse" He moved on his business trips to arrange deals here and there while encountering even more vile life form. Jabba was smart and even likable here to some extent.
April 12, 2015
Three stories of Jaba the Hutt coming out on top of criminal dealings. It is of its time, but the twisted humour makes it a fun read. I particularly liked the last story where a criminal family try to use him as an assassin. A good read.
February 23, 2009
I would rate the art at least three but the subject a one.
August 21, 2008
space al capone.
Read
July 10, 2015I have not read this book, but Goodreads thinks that I was reading it.
December 25, 2015
liked the premise of the series and showing more background on Jabba. could have done some more or gone though more details about the hutts on it.
April 26, 2018
This was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. I would love a Jabba ongoing series. He was funny and kind of clever. And less of a slimebag than our current President.
March 14, 2020
Loved exploring these legends Jabba stories. Jabba was quite the schemer and wealer and dealer. Until he met the Huttslayer :)
May 1, 2021
I really enjoyed this comic but I found some of the stories to be a bit boring.
July 24, 2021
Surprisingly good dark comedy in the Star Wars universe! Gives off some strong Ricky and Morty vibes.
January 13, 2023
It was one of the worst Star Wars content I've ever read. It was so bad that I giggled a few times. I don't regret it though, at the end of the day it's Star Wars.
Read
February 8, 2023Fun, quick read. It paints an enlightening picture of Jabba and why he possesses such power and inspires such fear, and why he isn't just another thug with an inflated ego.
February 22, 2024
I wasn't expecting much from this TPB and I'm pleasantly surprised by it. The stories are thoroughly entertaining, often amusing, and somehow make Jabba appear fascinatingly complex.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews