Lit Newspaper Strips vs. Classic SW

Hi everyone, first post. Probably first of many

I have all the SW novels and have been collecting for years. I dabbled in the Dark Horse stuff for a time, and have decided to start back into the comics world, against my own better judgment because this **** is expensive. I’ve been learning a lot, and it has a pretty fascinating and convoluted history.

Starting at the beginning, I’m already a bit torn about how to collect the newspaper strips. As I understand it, the original strips have been recently printed by IDW in some expensive hardcover volumes, and they look nice. I think for purists, this would be the way to go, since they are unaltered.

However, I want to compare these books to Marvel’s Epic Collection: The Newspaper Strips; Volume 1 is out and Volume 2 is releasing this July. For those of you who don’t know, Dark Horse re-released most of the strips under their Classic Star Wars series back in the 90s, only they were reformatted, re-colored, and panels were even added and subtracted to make the whole thing flow better. (In the original strips, there are apparently a lot of redundancies to catch readers up.) These new Marvel books are basically collections of those Dark Horse collections, and if you’re confused, welcome to my life for the last four days of research.

The thing is, I haven’t been able to find any source comparing the two side-by-side, so I can’t decide which version to go for. I do know that each story strip is accounted for in Marvel’s collections, even a few that Dark Horse omitted, so it seems like a safe bet, considering they’re much cheaper and would look nice next to the rest of their books. Having said that, reviews I’ve read seem to prefer the IDW books for reasons I don’t know.

So if anybody has any feedback on this topic, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 

Have you already been here?
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Classic_Star_Wars

Might be useful:
https://newspapercomicstripsblog.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/star-wars/

One way of deciding might be this: What format do you prefer to read? A long, horizontal page or vertical? As the editions that reproduce daily strips in their original form will be the former but, on the whole, I'm not a fan of it. I understand the reason for it being so, but it does also, in turn, make the case for why Goodwin and Williamson reviewed and changed their work for DHC's publishing of it.

Similarly, the set size for newspaper strips means in some cases the imagery will have to be quite compressed, so DHC's run allowed Williamson greater creative latitude and the reader far better view of some dramatic panels.

Finally, do you prefer colour to B&W? Both have their merits - B&W tends to better highlight the linework of the artist and, when that artist is Williamson, it is quite something, but carefully done colouring will preserve that too.

 

The newer IDW Newspaper strip Volumes are the way to go by far, and they're not at all expensive in terms of price and value.

A close second alternative is to create a PDF of the individual strips, which are readily available online, in any format you wish and then simpky have an online service print it for you.

You do have to have the actual newspaper strips, though. Dark Horse absolutely BUTCHERED the strips when they did the Classic Star Wars editions back in the '90s. They left out several stories completely, and the ones they did keep have substantial amounts of missing material. Going the Dark Horse route is the worse possible way to experience these strips.

 

To offer an alternative opinion on the Classic Star Wars comics (originally by DH, reprinted by Marvel): they are a different way to enjoy the strips, but not necessarily an inferior one by any means. They're not a straight reprint of the original strips and didn't try to be - they are an adaptation of certain storylines into a comic book format, altering art and paneling where needed to turn the strips into a different type of reading experience. And what they set out to do, they actually do a pretty good job of. The best way to enjoy the newspaper strips, honestly, is probably both ways - read the original strips in their original form via the IDW books, and then read the Classic Star Wars comics (in whatever way you can get ahold of them) to see how they were (successfully, IMO) adapted to the comic book format.

 

All of the formats offer a slightly different reading experience.

IDW now has the best colorized version, offering a complete presentation of the panels and every story. Dark Horse omitted The Kashyyyk Depths and Planet of Kadril. For many people, Dark Horse's Classic Star Wars was the first time they enjoyed an affordable presentation of most of the stories. Al Williamson came back and added extra art for the Classic SW comics. The Russ Cochran edition is entirely in black and white but has some extras like forwards from George Lucas and Archie Goodwin. https://www.rebelscum.com/russcochran.asp

 

I bought all of the old Dark Horse Classic Star Wars collections back in the day and I love them; some of the best art and stories in all of Legends. I am trying to pick up the IDW collections as well since I've never read all of the strips in their original form. (I may even triple dip and get some of the Epic Collections as well, at least in digital form, since my old DH books are falling apart.)

As everyone pointed out, you'll be missing out on some artwork and story changes. I'll add that, having compared the Classic Star Wars issues to the original newspaper strips that had been reprinted on Hyperspace, there are a few continuity elements like references to time passing and such that aren't in the Classic Star Wars version. Any completest is going to want both.

If you're just starting to get into the comics and aren't dead set on collecting physical copies of everything to keep forever, I'd highly recommend the Marvel Unlimited subscription service. It's only about $10 a month, and it has the vast majority of all Star Wars comics, past and present, even the Dark Horse stuff. You can cancel whenever you want; use the money you'd save from buying physical copies on a nice device to read them on and tracking down the smaller fraction of comics that aren't on the service. I'm pretty sure the Classic Star Wars issues are up there, so you could avoid buying those and just grab the IDW collections.

TC

 

Thanks for your replies everyone. Sorry I’m back late, but I stopped getting notifications for some reason.

In the interim I wound up purchasing the Epic Collection and I’m very glad I did.

The first section are a collection of the Sunday comics printed in strip format aligned 90 degrees to the left - it’s an unusual choice for the book’s start but it preserves the strip format and keeps all the stories chronological.

It then moves into the Classic Star Wars reprints, which I know are contentious, but they look good.

Interspersed with the Classic collections are the strips that were never reprinted by Dark Horse. These are black and white and formatted a bit weirdly on the page, but I love that Marvel is true to the material and just keeps everything in order for the reader.

To cap it off, they include on the last pages a look into the process Dark Horse used to convert the strips into comic form. It uses a specific page as an example of how they shifted around art assets and made a completely new page without losing any of the story information. This also reiterates that they ADDED material to make the stories flow better, which isn’t something that naysayers often mention. They also claim that whatever was removed was most often just recycled material to catch up readers. I imagine Marvel pulled this section out of one of the Classic TPBs, and it’s a really cool addition.

As a purist, yeah, I may want to get the strips at some point, but for now, this seems like a great way to enjoy the stories. I’ll be picking up volume 2 when it drops in July.

 

Thanks for the advice, but I think the joy of collecting comics is to have them on the shelf. It’s so expensive though that I’ll probably have a crisis of conscience and quit before I finish, but whatever.

 

Cool insights, thank you! I’m new to comics and I’m still learning about the process. I think I have a preference for color - I find myself more impressed by (and thus drawn to) the way dramatic color is used than the linework itself. Character faces in particular give me a headache - I know it must not be easy to draw but I find there’s an inconsistency with how characters look in each panel that rubs me the wrong way. But I can get lost in a vibrant color palette and some cinematic framing regardless

 

In which case, you might find a couple of the inks in my sig to be of help to you here.

There's a couple of essential threads to keep an eye on too - one is the Marvel comics one, the other is the Releases date - I used to look that then TLJ blew a large hole in my enthusiasm so it passed onto one of my "padawans" @TiniTinyTony , who has done a sterling job on it.

 

At this point, I feel like I'm at least a "knight" by now. I'm ready to face the trials.