Lit Early Marvel Star Wars Comics Questions

Hello everyone,

My girlfriend came home with what you see in the below image for me the other day and it got me wondering:

First, what issue number is that? I skimmed through the covers of the Marvel 70s-80s issues and didn't see it, although I may have overlooked it.

Secondly, I've read Star Wars novels and some of the modern Dark Horse comics but never gave the early stuff a go. What do y'all think of Marvel's 70s-80s Star Wars comics? Are they any good? What were some pros/cons from that run? What were some really good storylines in that long run? What were some terrible storylines in that long run?

 

I like them a lot. Even the goofy ones are fun on some level.

 

I didn't see it in the comic listings in my collecting books. Is it a comic or a poster?

 

Sorry, it is a canvas painting thing. Do you think it just might be some random Star Wars art then? I figured it was an issue given the artwork.

 

It looks like it could be a panel from one of the comics but I couldn't tell you which one. I did look through the art sections of my collecting books but didn't see anything.

 

It's the image for the TV Tropes Marvel SW page. Maybe it was for an Annual?

 

That's possible. Maybe someone more familiar with the Marvel comics than me might know for sure.

 

I looked up the Annuals and couldn't find that image. Not sure where it first originated.

 

That isn't the cover to any of the Marvel comics. It looks like a promotional poster to me.

This is really a YMMV type of situation. Most people like to point at silly elements like the Hiromi, or the Hoojibs, or Jaxxon and call it a day, but those elements actually make up a small percentage of these comics. An equal amount of darker elements like Ship, Kligson, Valance the Hunter, and Lumiya are also featured.

I like to split up the Marvel run around the release of the films because the tone of the comics shift dramatically after each film is released, obviously to cater to incoming fans. Some people like this, some people don't, but you'll probably find something there to enjoy.

The first batch of comics that were released after Star Wars originally came out are some of the campiest issues. I personally enjoy them, but they're not for everyone, and you won't find many people really singing their praises beyond celebrating the campier elements. The first main storyline involves Han Solo recruiting a band of misfits for a "The Magnificent Seven" rip-off (or Seven Samurai if you prefer). This storyline was written by Roy Thomas who also did the Marvel adaptation of Star Wars. He left the book after those first issues and was succeeded by Archie Goodwin. Goodwin began to introduce more villains into the story like Crimson Jack, Valance the Hunter, and Orman Tagge and his family.

Goodwin's first storyline involved a showdown on a waterworld with pirates, both on the planet and in space. Following this, I think the arcs begin to speed up and are a little more enjoyable. One-shot stories with various Star Wars characters are featured, including Vader, Obi-Wan, and the Big Three. All of those are worth checking out. The style is a little more Flash Gordon, but I have no problem with that.

Better storylines from that group: Our Heroes find themselves stranded on "The Wheel", a gambling spacestation. Luke has a showdown with "Vader" and the Tagges right before the release of The Empire Strikes Back.

Weaker storylines from that group: The Magnificent Seven featuring Han Solo, The Waterworld of Drexel storyline. Still a lot to like there, just not my cup of tea.

Following the Empire Strikes Back adaptation, the series also took a darker turn in tone. The comic was, I think, trying to emulate the darker feel of the second film, and some of the goofier elements were dropped. Notice, I said "some". Goodwin left the comic after a couple issues that wrapped up his storylines (most likely written before ESB was released) and David Michelinie became the main writer. Although he introduced more "serious" plotlines such as a Imperial spies in the Rebel ranks, a newly built superlaser modeled after the Death Star, and our heroes meeting Mandalorian warriors on Mandalore, he also gave us Hoojibs, telepathic bunnies that eat energy, and the "surface" of the gas giant Bespin, where the Ugnaughts live. The good outweighs the bad here, and these comics were mined for characters in the Del Rey novels, with Lumiya and Fenn Shysa showing up in those books after being introduced here first.

In the build up to Return of the Jedi, the series was given a concrete storyline that involved hunting down Boba Fett and rescuing Han Solo. Mary Jo Duffy replaced Michelinie as the main writer and would remain in that role until the end of the run. Duffy expanded the universe more than any other previous writer, introducing a variety of alien species including Lahsbees (Ewok like creatures that could transform into more monstrous versions when frightened), the Stenax, (flying demon-like creatures), the Zeltrons (pink humanoids obsessed with pleasure), and the Iskalonians (a water-based species). The stories also became a bit more comical, with villains trending towards goofy rather than menacing. The Rik Duel Gang and Lemo and Sanda's gang were mostly there to get into Loony Tunes style hijinks rather than really threaten the heroes.

Better storylines from this group: The Shira Brie saga, hunting for Tay Vanis

Weaker storylines from this group: Calrissian liberating Bespin, the majority of the hunt for Han Solo on the planet Stenos

After the release of Return of the Jedi, the storyline became a bit more campy. Probably inspired by the Ewoks of the film, cuter elements were emphasized, with an entire comic focused on the Lahsbees and the Ewoks. The extraordinarily silly Hiromi were also introduced, which was another fun element that derailed any "serious" tone the writers were looking for. The editor at Dark Horse, Randy Stradley, actually wrote a post-Jedi comic in the Marvel run, but as he explains in one of the introductions to the Marvel comics collections, he was asked after his one comic to write a storyline surrounding Hoojibs, and he refused. I think that story probably says more about Stradley than it does about Marvel, but it is telling. Marvel was looking for a lighter fare.

With the Empire basically out as the bad guy, Duffy introduced the Nagai, a slender, white-skinned species based on Japanese anime as the new villains. She also reintroduced Lumiya to face off against Luke. Just as the Nagai invasion plotline was heating up, a dwindling number of readers led to the cancellation of the comic. Duffy was forced to wrap up all her storylines in one single comic. The final issue feels rushed as a result, but it's still a satisfying conclusion.

Better storylines from this group: Luke faces off against Lumiya and the Nagai for the first time, Luke faces off against Flint

Weaker storylines from this group: The diplomacy storyline and formation of the new galactic government, most of the visit to Zeltros and the Hiromi plot (however enjoyable it may be.)

 

It's not the cover from a specific issue. It was, however, used as the back cover of one of the oversized reprints of their ANH adaptation. That's from the first issue of the two oversized books, as I recall. My copy is in storage, so I'd have to check.

As for the Marvel comics, I preferred the issues up until they finished ROTJ. The series kind of lost its way after that. You have to give them credit, though, for keeping the series going (and going quite well) between the movies, when they had no idea of what would come next and had to work under several restrictions, as a result. As for characters, I think Valance the Hunter is one of the best EU characters from any medium, and I wish they'd do more with him. And I thought Jaxxon was cool.

As long as you realize these were written before there was any proper coordination of the EU (and that the EU didn't truly exist at the time), the Marvel series is worth a look.

 

This is really good info. It almost sounds like some of them have the same campy feeling as the original Star Trek series from the 60s, which I thoroughly enjoyed! I'll have to go ahead and check out the TPBs of these then!

My girlfriend says she picked it up at Kirkland's, if anyone is intersted in also adding it to their mancave

 

You have to remember that this was back when STAR WARS was still just a fun adventure story, long before TESB added darker elements. However, the Marvel series did feature some good stories focusing on anti-droid and anti-cyborg prejudice in the GFFA, a surprisingly complex theme for the time.

I'd recommend the issues with Valance (especially "Dark Encounter"), and the movie adaptations. The early issues that recall "The Magnificent Seven" are OK, and the waterworld stories had a great finish. I'd also recommend the three-issue story featuring (for Marvel), Luke & Vader's first pre-TESB meeting; it shows Vader as a particularly clever villain. The run between TESB and ROTJ isn't as good, mainly because Han could only appear in flashback. There are also some stories that were only printed in the UK editions, but were later released in book form; those are pretty good, too (like the one showing my preferred explanation of the matter of Chewie's medal).

 

For collecting them, I strongly recommend the omnibuses. There are 5 volumes ("A Long Time Ago", and Wild Space vol. 1 collects some (non-essential) U.K. exclusive comics. They are far more cost efficient than TPBs.

 

Great find. Yes, the poster/art in the OP was originally a one-page spread (or the back cover) of one of the oversized Marvel comic adaptations of A New Hope, circa 1978/1979. I remember seeing this as a kid.

This art was also used as the cover of the 2013 "Art of Star Wars Comics" oversized calendar; I got this in late 2012. Here's a link with more info:

http://space1970.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-art-of-star-wars-comics-2013.html

Huge fan of Marvel Star Wars, since I was reading these as a kid off the stands back in the day. Yes, these DH Omnis are the best & most inexpensive way to read these (since they're more recent). And, these Omnibus reprints are complete - they include the 1983 4-issue ROTJ adaptation w/amazing art by Al Williamson.

Note that in 2002-2003, DH also reprinted most of the Marvel comics in a series of regular-sized TPB's. However, these reprints are missing the ROTJ comic adaptation.

 

TALKING BOMB. Your argument is invalid.

 

I had a lot of fun reading through them a couple of years ago. It was a rough start with Roy Thomas's Magnificent Seven parody. It was a bit frustrating, since I keep hearing positive things about Roy Thomas's reputation as a writer and creator, and the best thing he could think of to follow up on for one of the most influential films ever was a parody? I don't get why he didn't bring his A-game to the project. He couldn't even make the characters work; they were so "off" that when Archie Goodwin picked up his threads, I got whiplash from how the characters were suddenly so compelling and who they were supposed to be, with an original story that worked. Archie Goodwin had me at hello, and his run of stories were so much fun.

Micheline was very different, but his style worked for the era between ANH and tESB.

Jo Duffy is a real mixed bag. I felt like she was weak with dialog, and sometimes tried to recalibrate the direction of a story between issues. She makes some questionable decisions with some characters that undermine the seriousness of the ordeals that they go through.

Yet I was fascinated by the way she structured the ongoing stories. Someone said that post-RotJ is weak because it's directionless in the aftermath of a clear victory. Yet I found it compelling watching Duffy take leftover scraps, develop ideas all over the place, and eventually a story started to suggest itself and she built storytelling momentum. She starts to connect trouble spots throughout the galaxy, and develops the emerging idea of a new threat with the Nagai. She doesn't rely on Imperials right away, and when she does involve them, we see them return in interesting new contexts, with new allegiances. As an exercise in writing structure, it's inspirational: strike out on your own, don't rely on the safe, easy and obvious potential returning villains; and through the process of just getting on with writing the story with what you've got to start with, the new story directions will emerge naturally and organically.

Jo Duffy also was good about introducing a lot of new characters, and separating and recombining them in different ways. She had enough characters there that she could have phased out the original movie characters and I would have happily followed the adventures of an expanding cast. Also interesting is when these characters start to orbit Luke and Leia, and we see them each accumulate and entourage of followers. Leia has the beginnings of a full diplomatic staff (they're a bit screwball and hedonistic, yet the idea is there). Luke has a band of potential...disciples...who he gives pre-Jedi training in preparation for having adventures alongside him, while they wait hopefully for him to take a chance on them and start them off as new Jedi.

There's a lot of fun to be had with those early comics.

 

Great analogy, and I liked most of them. You have to remember, back then this was the only extra stuff from star wars that we got apart from the two Ewok movies (available in VHS and Laserdisc) , the Ewok/Droids cartoon series (not available) , comic books, and the 10 novels (Splinter of the Minds Eye, Han Solo Trilogy, Lando Trilogy, and the movie novelization and that was it. You appreciated more star wars for what it was than what it wasn't. To me it was fuller, and one couldn't wait to get the comic book.

 

You have to remember the tight control Lucasfilm had on the writing at the time Marvel was publishing the comics. Micheline had to change the Death Star to the Tarkin, Duffy had to change the Hoojibs due to the Ewoks.
There was a lot of bad stories in the comics but there were some fantastic runs as well. The Al Williamson ones, the Michelinie run (Shira Brie / Tarkin etc) are particular stand outs.
And as for Duffy having to wrap her story in one issue, the UK comic didn't even bother with that - it just changed some of the script in the reprint of issue 106 and left it at that.

 

I'd say it's a geek guilty pleasure or it's nothing at all. When I read any Marvel comics from that era I know I'm not reading a Milan Kundera novel or even Brian Michael Bendis' Daredevil. I see the flaws for what they are and I enjoy the good things for what they are. In a way the Dark Horse comics I've read (not so many, though, I've read more SW novels than comics) didn't do it for me because they weren't good enough for me to be totally involved neither campy enough for me tro be tripping on them, + there was no sense of nostagia (i.e. old writers have the right to be naive but the ones from my generation should know better). Those SW comics are a great read for people who enjoyed comics at the time or grew up with them, but probably gross for whoever has no emotional tie to this kind of comics.

 

Agreed. I collect quite a bit of comics and while I do enjoy some of the modern comics out, I always find myself gravitating towards comics from the 60s and 70s. Even a bit of the 80s stuff. It feels a bit more like genuine storytelling. All this information y'all are providing is excellent.

Also yes, when I had said TPBs, I mean the Omnibuses. I'm actually going to be picking up the first couple of "A Long Time Ago" Ombibuses. Looking forward to this!

 

I have the same thing happen to me, I gravitate to the stuff of yester year. Less colorful fluff but better stories. Marvel Star Wars was campy, but it was fun, something that has been lost along the way in the name of telling stories that have to fit a particular timeline. When star wars is fun, its awesome, but when it gets serious, it gets boring and repetitive.

 

Marvel Star Wars was the only EU comic series in the late '70's & '80's; other than that, we basically had the novels SOTME, the Han Solo trilogy, and the Lando Calrissian trilogy (and the SW newspaper strips, though not everyone could read those, depending on your area - I myself only remember the Russ Manning strips, not the AW ones). In any case, Marvel SW remains my favorite Star Wars comic series.

A lot of my preference for the series is obviously nostalgic, but I also thought the stories were "fun". My favorite issues were the ones that took place between ANH & ESB/ESB & ROTJ. The artwork was excellent in many cases, i.e. Carmine Infantino (who drew the best Stormtroopers, IMHO), Walt Simonson, and the few issues drawn by the incomprable Al Williamson, who IMHO will always be the definitive Star Wars artist. The strength & far reach of the Empire was very evident in most of these issues, and I thought the stories were, for the most part, quite creative.

However, after the post-ROTJ issues started being released (#81-on), I honestly didn't like the comics & stopped collecting after a while. With the Empire not being a real threat, I felt the series had lost steam. However, it's interesting how time sometimes changes your attitudes about things: When DH first reprinted all of the comics in 7 Trades back in 2002-2003, I re-read (or read for the first time) these post-ROTJ issues, and really enjoyed them. The artwork by Cynthia Martin was quite good, as was the accompanying storyline with the green pirates & the punk-rock looking villains (still can't remember their names). Also really enjoyed issue #98 (with art by AW) & many of these other stories.

Actually, the two live-action Ewok TV movies (1984 & 1985) are available on a double-sided DVD that came out about 10 years ago. I would like to see this upgraded to Blu-ray, however, since the picture quality, though good, could stand to be better...

 

Just wanted to add that two of my favorite issues of Marvel SW were #56-57. I liked how it followed up on what we saw at the end of ESB, i.e. Cloud City being evacuated, etc. It was interesting to see Lobot & the Ugnaughts again, especially since Lobot "short-circuited" and attacked Lando. It was also interesting to see the surface of Bespin.

This is one of the many things I liked about the Marvel comics: They took characters/settings that had barely been seen in the films & developed stories around them. Sure, this has been done ad-naseum by the SW EU in the 1990's and beyond, but the point is that Marvel did this first....

 

I skimmed this thread a week ago, thinking that it looked like a cool piece of art. Today I came home from a trip... Someone had gotten it for me as a present.

 

I can't wait to here what Marvel has up there sleeves