logo Sign In

The original Marvel Star Wars series — Page 4

Author
Time

As Jaxxon hasn’t been in a SW comic since 1978, (not counting those recent variant covers) I’ll take what I can get. : )

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

I know, I was just saying the particular meme didn’t technically work because it says “Dear Marvel,” and I’m no fun.

.

Author
Time

Is IDW a sister outfit or a totally separate entity?

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time
 (Edited)

suspiciouscoffee said:

Not technically, since I believe IDW’s Star Wars Adventures is seperate from Marvel’s Star Wars titles, and I’m not sure of it’s official canonicity. Still, it is exciting news.

If it’s not official canon, I may actually read it.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

screams in the void said:

I am wondering if there is a difference between colors in the various reprint trades.

You should see what they did to the original Marvel comics in Scandinavia. Not only did they have their own colours, but they even edited the art itself to make it all fit within these big album sized comics.

Imgur

Some examples of the editing they often did;
2 pages from the restored version of issue #31 “Return to Tatooine” (from the Dark Horse “A LONG TIME AGO” TPB) on the left, and the Norwegian album version from 1982 on the right)

Imgur

LINK to full img.

Imgur

LINK to full img.

LINK to another example from issue #34 “Thunder in the Stars”

(PS. The movie adaptation of ANH didn’t even bother to make the colours similar, but they did at least never altered the art in any serious way.)

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

screams in the void said:

what are people here’s favorite issues or story lines from the series ?

Pretty much any of the issues written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Carmine Infantino. Those really are the highlights of the entire original Marvel run for me. Everything after ESB, is fine, but to me they don’t quite have the same charm and great mix between cartoony and serious that Goodwin managed to pull off.

One of my goals whenever I’m visiting the US is to get original copies of all of the Goodwin/Infantino issues (plus whatever else I can get my hands on from both orig. Marvel and Dark Horse).

So far I only have the first storyline with the Dragonlords, and some of the stand-alone stories set in between the Baron Tagge storylines.

Imgur

I’m personally not a big fan of the Aduba-3 storyline, the Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven in space idea was a pretty cool idea, but it was a tad too silly for me. However, does anyone know why Chaykin stopped writing SW after this storyline and why he was replaced by Goodwin? I’ve heard that Lucas didn’t like the way he was handling the stories so he requested he be replaced. Can anyone verify is that’s true or just speculation?

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

Author
Time

I bought three of the five omnibus volumes that Dark Horse put out a few years ago, but I only read the first one. I need to get back on that, they’re a lot of fun. Certainly not what I’d consider “my” Star Wars, but they form an interesting little alternate canon in my mind with the OOT, the Han Solo and Lando books, and Splinter.

Author
Time

ZkinandBonez said:

screams in the void said:

I am wondering if there is a difference between colors in the various reprint trades.

You should see what they did to the original Marvel comics in Scandinavia. Not only did they have their own colours, but they even edited the art itself to make it all fit within these big album sized comics.

Imgur

Some examples of the editing they often did;
(The Dark Horse “A LONG TIME AGO” version of issue #31 “Return to Tatooine” on the left, and the Norwegian album version from 1982 on the right)

Imgur

LINK to full img.

Imgur

LINK to full img.

LINK to another example from issue #34 “Thunder in the Stars”

(PS. The movie adaptation of ANH didn’t even bother to make the colours similar, but they did at least never alter the art in any serious way.)
wow ! I have never seen some of those covers thank you for sharing ! they really stripped the colors out of some of those panels !

https://screamsinthevoid.deviantart.com/

Author
Time
 (Edited)

ZkinandBonez said:

screams in the void said:

what are people here’s favorite issues or story lines from the series ?

Pretty much any of the issues written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by Carmine Infantino. Those really are the highlights of the entire original Marvel run for me. Everything after ESB, is fine, but to me they don’t quite have the same charm and great mix between cartoony and serious that Goodwin managed to pull off.

very cool , those were great issues , nice collection ! I have all of those as well .

One of my goals whenever I’m visiting the US is to get original copies of all of the Goodwin/Infantino issues (plus whatever else I can get my hands on from both orig. Marvel and Dark Horse).

So far I only have the first storyline with the Dragonlords, and some of the stand-alone stories set in between the Baron Tagge storylines.

Imgur

I’m personally not a big fan of the Aduba-3 storyline, the Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven in space idea was a pretty cool idea, but it was a tad too silly for me. However, does anyone know why Chaykin stopped writing SW after this storyline and why he was replaced by Goodwin? I’ve heard that Lucas didn’t like the way he was handling the stories so he requested he be replaced. Can anyone verify is that’s true or just speculation?

https://screamsinthevoid.deviantart.com/

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Since the 2015 recolouring of ANH was so heavily criticized earlier in this thread (and I agree that it’s not very good) I’m curious about what people here think about the 1997 “special edition” re-coloured version.

I personally kind of like it. I had both the 1977 (Scandinavian colours) and the 1997 versions as a kid, and though I’ve always preferred the crazy 70’s colours, or anything that is original for that matter, I do think that the 1997 version managed to make the comic look more like the movie without resorting to all the gimmicks that the most recent version did.

Imgur

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

Author
Time

The attempts at revising the comic are laughable. It’s a product of it’s time like the original film. Even Hasbro was faithful to the original colors with their comic packs line.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time
 (Edited)

SilverWook said:

Even Hasbro was faithful to the original colors with their comic packs line.

Neat. I don’t really collect figures unless they have some display value alongside my SW books, but I definitely need to get some of these (and my Thrawn figure could use some company).

Did these figures come with copies of the original comics like a lot of the Hasbro figures did back then? It’d be interesting to see what they looked like. Was this before or after the ‘restored’ comics that Dark Horse released in 2002? EDIT: They are from 2007.

Weird that they included the ball-droid, as the droid in the actual comic was more human-like in shape. At least they made it green.

Imgur

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

I suspect they had no production photos of Dr. Ball when the comic was being drawn and just winged it. Much like they used one of the background aliens for Jabba.
Most of the initial offerings were repaints of existing figures except for Han and Luke in trooper disguise. They got into new sculpts for characters from the Dark Horse books though. Really dug the Infinities Vader design.
http://jedibusiness.com/figureDetails.aspx?id=466

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

^When I clicked that, I expected to see the white armor Vader I saw exactly once in a store and regretted for years that I didn’t buy it.

.

Author
Time
 (Edited)

SilverWook said:

I suspect they had no production photos of Dr. Ball when the comic was being drawn and just winged it. Much like they used one of the background aliens for Jabba. Did they ever make a figure of Marvel Jabba?

Oh, I’m not the least bit surprised at the presence of the green bug-eye droid from the comic, especially considering, as you mentioned, how Jabba turned into a tusk-less yellow walrus in an orange imperial uniform. I just thought it was funny that Hasbro decided to repaint Vader, Tarkin and the Rebel soldier to make them more retro, but instead of copying the comic interrogation droid, they just took a ball-droid and painted it green. I’m surprised they didn’t just take a Death Star Droid and repainted that green. I would assume that is what Chaykin used as reference.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

Author
Time

There’s one storyline that was interesting, that makes it apparent that the writers of it were part psychic: the storyline about the water world of Drexel, this was roughly 24-25 years before seeing the water world of Kamino in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones!! Good job, guys!! 😃

One thing I like about the Star Wars saga are the planets, especially the ones wet with rain, hahaha! Kamino, Eadu, and Ach-To - all three of them have enormous amounts of rain, it seems. 😃

Author
Time
 (Edited)

Marvel got ahead of Lucasfilm more than once.


The SW comic that ran in Marvel’s Pizzazz magazine featured an ice planet before ESB.

There were also furry little alien allies that had to be hurriedly redrawn with the Ewoks waiting in the wings.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

Author
Time

Forceboat said:

There’s one storyline that was interesting, that makes it apparent that the writers of it were part psychic: the storyline about the water world of Drexel, this was roughly 24-25 years before seeing the water world of Kamino in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones!! Good job, guys!! 😃

Yeah, this. Or a water planet is just a really obvious choice to continue the “the whole planet is one big X” theme, if there was already a desert planet, a jungle planet, a forest planet and a city planet.

Ceci n’est pas une signature.

Author
Time

Frank your Majesty said:

Forceboat said:

There’s one storyline that was interesting, that makes it apparent that the writers of it were part psychic: the storyline about the water world of Drexel, this was roughly 24-25 years before seeing the water world of Kamino in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones!! Good job, guys!! 😃

Yeah, this. Or a water planet is just a really obvious choice to continue the “the whole planet is one big X” theme, if there was already a desert planet, a jungle planet, a forest planet and a city planet.

And a jello planet.

Author
Time

awesome stuff folks ! thanks for posting it , that Starlog interview was great and yeah ,Marvel did come close a lot , they even got a cease and desist when they wanted to do a second Death Star so they made The Tarkin battle station story in 51-52 instead . and as was posted earlier , the debut of the Hoojibs issue had Rebels on early Speeder Bikes , a few issues down the line the furry little Lahsbees on hang gliders etc …also , here is a forum I found where someone reviews every single issue …,do not agree with everything but we all have our opinions ,interesting read anyhow …enjoy …http://classiccomics.org/thread/1039/star-wars-marvel-reviews-confessor

https://screamsinthevoid.deviantart.com/

Author
Time

I actually prefer the Marvel version of ROTJ to the movie. The dialogue is better, the compression of the story diminishes the cuteness factor, Vader is less of a lapdog, and Luke doesn’t hide under a staircase during the final battle.