In January, 1998, the staff at West End Games prepared what they thought was to become the next addition to a growing body of work called The Official Star Wars Adventure Journal.   Each of the fifteen volumes were comprised of novellas, short stories, RPG articles (that's roleplaying game material to those of us who've been around awhile) and lots of illustrations.  Many new writers (and illustrators) appeared in these pages, luminaries in the Star Wars pantheon, like Tim Zahn, Kathy Tyers, Kevin J. Anderson, Barbara Hambly, John Whitman and Michael Stackpole, who often contributed new tales to help make the Adventure Journal a popular title amongst the West End Games' canon of ever-growing Star Wars material. 

The Adventure Journal ran from 1994 to 1997 when the company's financial woes cost them the Star Wars license (due in no small part to the fact that they were tied to the owner's failing shoe company) just as the Star Wars franchise was gearing up to launch into the prequels.  Fans bemoaned the loss of West End Games and the Adventure Journal with its roster of short stories of lesser-known characters and places far removed from the Heroes of Yavin.  In truth, the magazine filled a nice niche in the market that catered to a more specialized Star Wars reader.  And at a nearly 300 pages of material for $12.00, fans got plenty of bang for their buck! 

Apart from the prose fiction, there were quite a number of gems to be found in the Journal's vast pages.  "The Galaxy-Wide Newsnets" were an in-universe news report from across the galaxy, which eventually gave birth years later to the Holonet News which broadcast Clone Wars news in the pages of the Star Wars Insider and on the Official Site.  The interior artwork was often a grab-bag of quality artwork. Among the roster of writers, it wasn't uncommon to see works by now-famous Star Wars freelancers and employees, Pablo Hidalgo, Dan Wallace, Rich Handley, and others from the editorial staff, Bill Smith, Peter Schweighofer, Eric Trautmann, Paul Sudlow, etc.  And some of the Journal's best works came from the female branch of fan-turned-author, such as Charlene Newcomb and Patricia Jackson.

The presentation you see here on this site is part and parcel of what would have become issue #16.  The materials given me were in a rough state, and I've done my best to present them in as readable a form as possible.  It's hardly perfect, and you'll have to forgive me for slightly slanting, mismatched-sized pages.  I've eliminated most of the ads and tried to clean up obvious problems with the limited tools at my disposal.  Both the cover and the Table of Contents page are of my own design (there is no remaining materials indicating what they would have looked like.) 

With issue #17, a mock-up cover in b&w was provided (and is presented here for the first time albeit in rough form), and much of the Journal's back-up features and ancillary material is no longer extant.  Of the four main stories provided, only Jean Rabe's "Shifting Gears" is presented here exclusively for the first time.  ("Love is a Warm Blaster" has been available on the SWFA's site for some years now.)  Pablo Hidalgo's Jarnollan Expedition remains unpublished. Nevertheless, this is the only place you'll find the stories presented as they would have appeared, with the original artwork intact.  Enjoy!