Here's some good news for fans of the High Aldwin! A new audio book called Highlights from Within Reach was released last month. This audio book is based on the print book Within Reach: An Inspirational Journey into the Life, Legacy and Influence of Billy Barty by Billy's nephew Michael Copeland and his wife Debra Copeland. Click here to visit the Official Billy Barty website for more information on the audio book including audio clips, and here for Amazon.com's listing of the paperback book.

Fans of the Sourcebook project will be happy to learn that the chapter on dear old Llug has been added. Although he's a very minor character, he certainly added some fun to the movie.

Today's update features a couple of fan-based efforts that will interest and inspire the rest of us.

Check out JMP's Homepage to see a set of custom-made Madmartigan armor that is currently under construction by Phil Cline, the webmaster of the page. Click on the page's "Madmartigan Project" link to see what has already been done and to get an idea of what will be done in the future. This is a long-term project, and Phil's goal is to get it done in time for the San Diego Comic Con in July 2006. Warwick Davis sometimes appears at the San Diego Comic Con - that's where I met him for the first time back in 2001 - so it would be a real blast if he's there next year and Phil gets to show off the armor for him.

The Madmartigan armor looks great so far. This is Phil's first attempt at Willow-related costume making, but he has already made several great-looking Star Wars costumes that are available for viewing on the page.

The next news item is an opportunity to acquire a large, dealer-size collection of Willow toys and action figures, including the ultra-rare Sears exclusive vehicles. As a matter of fact, these are the very same vehicles that are shown on this webpage in the Merchandise/Action Figures section. The seller, who contributed those pictures just a couple of months ago, obviously put a vast amount of time and expense into acquiring this extensive collection, but now he is moving and has to sell off a lot of his stuff.

The Sourcebook section now includes a chapter on Vohnkar. Now you can read about his troubled childhood and his wanderings as a young man.

The Pictures section on the page was first created about five years ago, when the movie was not available on DVD. Unfortunately, it's very difficult sometimes to get good screen captures from a VHS tape and Willow was one of the tougher ones to work with. In addition, scanner technology was relatively primitive back then and frequently didn't do a very good job on magazine photos because the technique that's used to print them in the magazine isn't very scanner-friendly. As a result, the picture gallery was as good as I could make it but it wasn't spectacular.

But recently my picture-making capabilities have improved, with a new scanner and a better technique for getting DVD captures. Therefore, I've begun a program of replacing many of the images in the Pictures section. Today I've put in new screen caps that are a dramatic improvement over the old ones. Over the next few months I'll replace many of the magazine photo scans too. This will be an ongoing process and I won't make an announcement every time I post some new photos. So just check out the picture gallery every now and then to see how things have improved!

It was hinted at in public recently and I've been hearing private rumblings for months, but now it's official. Val Kilmer will rejoin his Willow co-stars Warwick Davis and David Steinberg onscreen in Warwick's upcoming movie Agent One-Half. Incidentally, that link leads to detailed information about the movie on my other webpage, with links to still more information including the official site.

The first confirmation of the news was in this Warwick Davis interview on The Boston Channel. According to this article, Val plays Agent Lance Stone, who defects and joins forces with The Heel, the archvillain of the piece who will be played by an as-yet-unnamed actor who is even shorter than Warwick according to this SciFi Wire article. Is anybody besides me thinking of Verne Troyer here? He and Warwick certainly know each other, as this picture on Warwick's page indicates.

Whoever they cast as the villain, this movie is guaranteed to be fun just for the opportunity to see so much of the Willow cast reunited. And that's not all the Willow-related news. The article also had this to say about Warwick's conversation with George Lucas recently at Star Wars Celebration III:

"When I got to talk with him, I asked, 'What about "Willow," George?" People are crying out for another movie. I get asked about it all of the time," Davis explained. "He said, 'There probably won't be another movie, but we have thought about doing a TV series. He said, 'That would keep you busy, wouldn't it?' Actually, the fans asked him the same question and he gave them the same response."

Yesterday George Lucas made his first convention appearance since 1987 by giving a talk at Star Wars Celebration 3 in Indianapolis. There is a misdated report on this event here on the official Star Wars website. The section that concerns Willow fans says:

Beyond Indy, Lucas also answered a question about another popular Lucasfilm character, Willow Ufgood. His response to a fan who asked about the possibilities of Willow II: "I was actually just talking to Warwick Davis backstage, and we were communing on the possibility, wouldn't it be wonderful to someday do a Willow TV series. I can't say that we'll do that, but, [Lucasfilm] is moving into television, and a lot of ideas are popping up."

Want to learn more about the adventures of Ethna the midwife while she was roaming around looking for a safe place to hide with Elora? Well, the new chapter that's been added to the Sourcebook is your opportunity to do just that.

Every time I think I've exhausted the subject of brownie arrows, something new turns up. Check the Art/Props section for the latest information in this area.

A chapter on Meegosh has been added to the Sourcebook. You can now read about his adventures on the way home from the fairy forest.

Today's new Sourcebook chapter is all about Kiaya, Ranon and Mims. Most of it is the story of how Willow and Kiaya fell in love and got married. This particular chapter has always been a bit too silly for me, so as far as I'm concerned it didn't happen that way!

I've added two new pictures of prop weapons to the Art/Props section.

To kick off my first update of the new year, I've added a chapter on the High Aldwin to the Sourcebook. Trivia question: what is the High Aldwin's name? You can find out in this chapter, and also learn how he averted a Nelwyn war in his younger days.

I've added a new picture of a prop axe to the Art/Props section.