I hold in my hot little hands a galley for The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia by Steve Sansweet & Pablo Hidalgo with several contributors that hits shelves December 9. Sansweet first tipped me off to this title last April at the New York Comic-Com, and I;ve been anxiously awaiting it. The review galley is a 450-page sample of the final 1200-page, three-volume A–Z encyclopedia that draws from the six feature films and the hundreds if not thousands of novels, graphic novels, and other resources in the Star Wars expanded universe. Starting with the A-1 Deluxe Floater and ending with Zzzanmxl (that was a new one on me, too) this covers anything and everything from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The text is riddled with tons of illustrations of characters, ships, weapons, you name it (click through for pix. Trust me it's worth it.)

The galley I received, alas, is a no frills xerox of the page proofs so the art is in B&W. Here are some samples.