Ryan McAvoy said:
I could never love Moore's acclaimed 'The Killing Joke' because it's so short.
I could never love it because it's an overrated story that's only as popular as it is because of the amazing artwork.
Tack said:
TheBoost said:
This started Mr. Lucas on the long trend of combining characters for narrative efficiency that eventually gave us (General Vader+Prince Valorum+Starkiller=Darth Vader) and Leia as Luke's sister.
You know, I think I just realized the fundamental problem with the prequels...
The rushed time frames the scripts were produced in.
You need to have time for rewrites, because you need to get the script to that level of quality that comes when you revise it from the script.
You don't start the script in pre-production, you start pre-production once you've finished the script.
(for the record, I'm in the middle of a massive rewrite of my own script right now, and it's rather cleansing)
That is only true on episode II and III which really began in the art department. Episode I was started in nov 1994.
On the originals Lucas had other writers, people who contributed ideas and criticism.
He had no such collaboration on the prequels unless Jonathan Hales had a great deal of influence over episode II.
“Always loved Vader’s wordless self sacrifice. Another shitty, clueless, revision like Greedo and young Anakin’s ghost. What a fucking shame.” -Simon Pegg.
DuracellEnergizer said:
Ryan McAvoy said:
I could never love Moore's acclaimed 'The Killing Joke' because it's so short.
I could never love it because it's an overrated story that's only as popular as it is because of the amazing artwork.
It probably is overrated but it is still brilliant and so what if it's short?
SIZE QUEEN!!!
Well, I read the entire adaptation. Here are my basic thoughts on it.
The writing isn't anything stellar -- the love dialogue in particular is just awful. But as this is meant to be a faithful adaptation of a Lucas-penned early draft -- warts and all -- I'm not going to hold that against it. Still, it's pretty good for a purely Lucas effort; on a scale of quality, I'd say if falls somewhere between ROTJ and the PT.
The sexual escapade that Annikin had with some anonymous female character in the actual script was all but omitted from the comic. There are a few shots in the comic, though, where Annikin and the aforementioned female character check each other out, so I wonder if the stuff with them having sex was actually written and drawn out but was removed by editorial decree before publication.
I noticed that while Jedi and Sith both wield red lightsabers, stormtroopers wield silver lightsabers, and I can't help but wonder why the writer/artist went that direction. I feel all three factions should have either all wielded red lightsabers or had their own individual lightsaber colours.
While I liked the art for the most part, like too much comic art these days, the images where pretty static; movement just wasn't depicted very well by the artist.
Finally, I'd just like to say that I was disappointed that Darth Vader's likeness wasn't patterned after David Prowse; it would have been a nice tribute to the actor to finally assign his face to the character even if it isn't the exact same character as the one from the movies.
I doubt Dark Horse could do that even if they wanted to, as Prowse is still "banned from the ranch" for lack of a better term.
Where were you in '77?
I haven't finished it yet but the Star Destroyer fighters just being mini-Star Destroyers was ridiculously lazy and nonsensical. They have little mini-conning towers!
I pictured the fighters looking like mini-star destroyers when I originally read the script, so it didn't bother me. I do agree the towers were rather silly, though.
Keep the wedge shape sure, but don't just literally shrink a Star Destroyer down to fighter size and call it a day.
Speaking of sex that was deleted from the comic adaptation...
Re-reading the rough-draft script, I noticed that Leia is described as being "half-naked" when she's abducted on Yavin. The sight of her partly undressed so enrages Annikin Starkiller that he immediately attacks the trappers who have kidnapped her, but he fails to prevent her being turned over to the Empire.
All the way through the various SW 1977 scripts, there's some serious goddess symbolism going on with Leia's character; she's the embodiment of the freedom our heroes are fighting for. Ralph McQuarrie noted that Leia's white robe in the final film was meant by Lucas to evoke the Virgin Mary.
With that in mind (and given that Lucas clearly had political ideas on the brain when he wrote the early script), I wonder if Lucas wasn't trying to invoke some revolutionary symbolism in the rough draft. Namely, Delacroix's famous painting Liberty Leading the People, which presents Liberty as a barefoot, bare-breasted goddess storming the barricades of tyranny.
All that is to say, for most of the rough draft Leia would likely have worn the white dress that Carrie Fisher has in the final movie. But in the third act, when Annikin and Valorum are breaking her out of the Death Star, Leia might well have been reduced to wearing a ragged skirt and nothing else.
(Shades of pulp SF here--including such stories as Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom books, and Leigh Brackett's Lorelei of the Red Mist.)
But in the Dark Horse comic adaptation, Leia is wearing the outfit that Ralph McQuarrie designed for female Luke; she loses an arm and a leg of its fabric, but nothing else.
Likewise, although the arena scene in AOTC is clearly an updated variation of the Death Star escape from the SW rough draft, as both scenes feature a girl and two Jedi, Padme's white outfit there only loses one arm and its midriff. All of which suggests that SW is certainly a lot more family-friendly now than it started out being.
FWIW, the idea of the heroine in a white dress that gets torn up also reoccurs in Raiders of the Lost Ark, with Marion in the Well of Souls.
“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”
I just read this and rather enjoyed it. I only hope that the teased sequel on the last page is something Disney would be interested in publishing. My guess is that it was done merely in the spirit of pulp fiction rather than a genuine plan, but who knows? With Dark Horse no longer holding the license for comic publishing I doubt we'll see it. Still, I can hope.
A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em
bkev said:
I just read this and rather enjoyed it. I only hope that the teased sequel on the last page is something Disney would be interested in publishing. My guess is that it was done merely in the spirit of pulp fiction rather than a genuine plan, but who knows? With Dark Horse no longer holding the license for comic publishing I doubt we'll see it. Still, I can hope.
I'd love rough/first draft adaptations for ESB and ROTJ.
bkev said:
I just read this and rather enjoyed it. I only hope that the teased sequel on the last page is something Disney would be interested in publishing. My guess is that it was done merely in the spirit of pulp fiction rather than a genuine plan, but who knows? With Dark Horse no longer holding the license for comic publishing I doubt we'll see it. Still, I can hope.
Rinzler could always pitch the idea to Disney and see if they go for it. Hopefully, they won't be opposed to new out-of-continuity storylines co-existing alongside their new streamlined canon.
DuracellEnergizer said:
bkev said:
I just read this and rather enjoyed it. I only hope that the teased sequel on the last page is something Disney would be interested in publishing. My guess is that it was done merely in the spirit of pulp fiction rather than a genuine plan, but who knows? With Dark Horse no longer holding the license for comic publishing I doubt we'll see it. Still, I can hope.
Rinzler could always pitch the idea to Disney and see if they go for it. Hopefully, they won't be opposed to new out-of-continuity storylines co-existing alongside their new streamlined canon.
Rinzler would likely discuss it with the Lucasfilm Story Group and then pitch it to Marvel.
**A FEW SPOILERS**
Finished reading "The Star Wars". I'll start with the flaws...
Mike Mayhew's artwork is stunningly beautiful on first inspection but it doesn't read too well once you try and follow the action. IMHO I don't think he truly understands how to tell a graphic story, as the panels often felt disconnected and confused.
To be fair he's not helped out by Rinzler/Lucas' script though. Characters often just say things to each other, instead of having conversations. Many parts of the dialogue were also absurd or confusing. However, it's based on a draft-script, so that's to be expected.
Some parts of the plot were insane. The Sith are the sworn evil enemies of the Jedi... right up until they are suddenly best mates? General Skywalker trains a primitive Tribe of Wookiees(sic) to be ace Star-Pilots in an afternoon. Things like that. Again it's a draft so no foul. Lucas' influences (Dune, Kurosawa etc) are far more obvious here which is probably were the Wookiee-Pilots subplot comes from. Seven Samurai training a group of peasants to use spears over many days is fine, but this was just silly.
On the plus side...
It's fascinating reading this version of Star Wars that feels ripped from an alternate timeline. I love the old grizzled General Skywalker, who is in many ways similar to how I'd imagined Clone Wars Ben was like. The Anakin we see here is also more like I'd have imagined him to be. It feels so much bigger and stranger than the SW universe we are used to. The costume and prop design is fantastic, combining alternated versions of the stuff we know, early concepts and vert influences from other stuff like Flash Gordon.
Some have mentioned that it feels like the Prequels but not for me. If the prequels had this much action, excitement, scope and drama then they'd have been better films.
In conclusion... if you go in expecting imperfection, you'll be delighted with this interesting glimpse of what might have been. I reccomend this one for the Christmas list :-)
VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.