God I love this
I loved this book, and I have the comic somewhere. You're totally right, the comic doesn't do the book justice and the art leaves something to be desired.
As far as my personal canon goes the longer a book is published after Return of the Jedi the less canon it is. So in my head something published in the early 1990's is more inline with my star wars story that say anything after 2000. Although my approach makes the Thrawn Trilogy higher canon than say the Prequal films which of course I'm perfectly fine with.
Also the NJO and everything after never happened, Chewie,Mara, Anakin Solo, and the rest of the gang are still alive and the Empire and the New Republic are at piece just like the end of the Zahn duology ended. Although Luke and Mare did get married...of course
I always thought Mara got a little too emotional from the beginning toward Luke, and right from the start I knew those two had to get together.
I really don't have a point, I just love this story so much, it got my into Star Wars more than even the films did...this book right here, this is why there are three more films, a ridiculous amount of books and the new cartoon. I wish Lucas himself at least gave this story a little more respect.