Back in the days when movies were "held over" in big cities and those of us who lived in small towns had to wait seemingly forever to see them, I would routinely buy the paperback novelizations, but hold off on reading the final chapter(s). That was the case with Star Wars. I got my copy through the Scholastic Book Club, and its cover proudly proclaimed "From The Adventures of Luke Skywalker." This is right around the time I was discovering such science-fiction series as Dune and Foundation (both trillogies at that time), and for all I knew there was an Adventures of Luke Skywalker series. (In any case, I had no reason to believe there wasn't.) I went to the public library but the librarian had no idea what I was talking about. (For that matter, she had never heard of "Star Wars" either).
Eventually I saw the movie. In the end [SPOILER], the rebels destroy the Death Star and Darth Vader was sent spinning into space [END SPOILER]. I had no reason to expect a sequel, but I was still interested in those other "Adventures of Luke Skywalker." Shortly thereafter, Splinter of the Mind's Eye was released, which was pretty much all I had hoped it would be. The next one I saw after that was Han Solo at Star's End and the next one after that Han Solo's Revenge. I wasn't particularly interested in Han Solo, but I felt I was getting in on the beginning of the next "Big Thing" so I bought and read them, too. Then, one day, I remember standing in the bookstore and my vision focus in on another original "Star Wars" book on the rack. Then my field of vision pulled back and I noticed another... then another, then another. I soon realized that the entire rack was filled with "Star Wars" books! It was at that point I gave up. It would be many years before I bought another original "Star Wars" book.
Then The Empire Strikes Back came to theaters. Three years had passed since Star Wars, both between films as well as IRL. I remember being a bit disappointed that the sequel didn't take place immediately after Star Wars; I was still craving those "Adventures of Luke Skywalker." I was never a big fan of Star Wars comic books (or of any comics based on movies). Marvel's Star Wars was very much along the lines of what I wanted, but I turned my nose up at them because they weren't "official" (i.e., canon). Several years ago I had the opportunity to buy seven tpbs collecting the entire Marvel series on clearance. I read through their adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back, then my interest turned elsewhere. They were about what I expected.
Last week I came a cross a bookstore in Colorado that had six copies of IDW's Star Wars Artifact Edition on sale for $26 apiece. It must have been a case of "supply and demand," because these volumes generally go for $100 or more. I couldn't pass it up. The difference between an "Artist's Edition" and an "Artifact Edition" is that the former offer complete stories (scanned at full size from original art) and the latter do not. Although I didn't care too much for them the first time through, I'm currently in the process of re-evaluating them and compiling my own version of "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker."
Replies
The "Artifact Edition" includes pages from Star Wars #1-10 (by Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin), #16 (by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson), and #38 (by Archie Goodwin and Michael Golden). Thomas's stories weren't bad, but I had forgotten that he tried to make "Star Warriors" a thing, also that he tried to give Han Solo a catch-phrase (and if you don't know what it was, you're better off not knowing). Many people disparage the inclusion of Jaxxon, the six-foot tall, green lepus carnivorus, but is he really any worse than Jar Jar Binks? I'm so familiar with the original story that having large swaths of pages "missing" didn't prove to be an impediment. Beyond that, the trick is not to read the narration ot the top and bottom of non-consecutive pages and just experience the story as a series of scenes. I was too old for a children's magazine when Pizazz came out, although I was aware of it. What I didn't know is that it also contained three-page, serialized chapters of an original story by Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin, many of which are included in the AE.
That was a good introduction to my personal "Adventures of Luke Skywalker" and it has primed the pump for what I have in mind next.
I remember having no advance knowledge of the Star Wars newspaper strip; I just opened up the paper one day and there it was. It was originally written and drawn by Russ Manning. the daily and Sunday strips told separate continuities at first. The first daily story featured Luke and Leia, the first two Sunday stories Han and Chewbacca. It was good, solid space-faring adventure, but it wasn't particularly "Star Warsy" to me. Then the daily and Sunday continuities merged, Steve Gerber took over as writer, and the story became much more like the "Star Wars" we think of today.
Gerber left after writing just one continuity, then the next four were written by either Russ Helm or Don Christensen, with Russ Manning still providing the art. The next story was written by Christensen, with the art transitioning over to Alfredo Alcala (via Rick Hoberg and Dave Stevens). The final story in this volume was written by Helm with art by Alcala.
It fun to compare how these stories differ from later canon. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader have not yet met face-to-face, but Vader does know Luke's name. If he knows anything about the young Jedi's parentage (which is revealed to be Tan and Lady Skywalker), he's keeping mum on the matter. C3PO was said to have been built "centuries ago" on the planet Alderaan. The Wookie holiday "Lifeday" (from the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special) also plays into one of the stories. Boba Fett (also from the special) is pitted against Luke and Han in another.
I would be more l; ikely to recommend this to fans of Russ Manning than to Star Wars fans.
NEXT: Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson
Volume two of Star Wars: The Classic Newspaper Comics begins with an adaptation of the Brian Daley paperback Han Solo at Stars' End by Archie Goodwin and Alfredo Alcala. Although I read the book at the time, I have no memory of reading the comic strip and I just realized why: the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, the paper my parents took, went bankrupt in 1980, and the adaptation ran from October '80 through February '81. I didn't much care for the prequel novel back then, and I don't much care for the adaptation now. Star Wars is ostensibly "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker," not "The Adventures of Han Solo."
Immediately after that, though, Al Williamson joined Goodwin and the strip entered hyperspace. Goodwin and Williamson had an advantage that Russ Manning et al did not, namely that The Empire Strikes Back was released in May of 1980, and the stories being told in the strip were set "Between the explosive end of the Death Star and the moment when the evil Galactic Empire struck back on the ice planet of Hoth," so they knew exactly where the story was headed and could write toward it. their very first continuity, "The Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell," was even referenced in The Empire Strikes Back. At the time, the movie's reference to the strip was only a month old, but the strip lasted until 1984, making one wonder why a random encounter with a bounty hunter would still be on Han Solo's mind four years later.
[It reminds me of the "Star Trek" comic strip whihc followed ST:TMP. It was set after the film, but initially featured Commander Decker and Lt. Ilea, who casual readers might regognize from pre-release publicity shots but who [SPOILER] did not survive the movie [END SPOIILER]. By the time fans were more likely to have seen the movie, those characters were quietly dropped from the strip.
Goodwin and Williamson also introduce Tanith Shire, a love interest for Luke, who was still pining for the princess he did not yet know was his sister. Han Solo also gets a new love interest, Silver Fyre. The rebel base is still set on the fourth moon of Yavin throughout this volume; Darth Vader has not yet ordered it to be attacked en masse for reasons yet to be revelaed. All of these stories (except perhaps the "Star's end" on) are canon as far as I am concerned, and I would recommend this volume equally to fans of Star Wars as well as Al Williamson.
Volume three spans July 1982 through March 1984, Return of the Jedi hit theaters in May 1983, and the strip was still telling stories set between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, a situation which Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson took full advantage of. They were able to introduce not only characters and situations from Then Empire strikes Back, but from Return of the Jedi as well. For example, the planet Hoth is discovered, and much of the volume is spent moving the rebel base there. Also, Darth Vader's flagship, the Executor, is under construction. It is not explicitly stated, but the reason the Empire delayed attacking the rebel base of the fourth moon of Yavin is because Vader wanted that attack to be the Executor's inaugural battle.
In addition to that, a story in this volume reveals how Admiral Ackbar and his people, the Mon Calamari, came to join the Rebel Alliance. Also, toward the end, the Emperor appears. And remember the bounty hunter of Ord Mantell (mentioned in The Empire Strikes Back and the first continuity of the Goodwin/Williamson run)? By the end of this volume, the story circles back there, so the movie reference is only weeks old, not years. "The Final Trap" brings this volume, as well as the Star Wars comic strip itself, to a close. AFAIAC, these strips are canon.
NEXT: The Empire Strikes Back
Before Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson collaborated on the Star Wars comic strip, they adapted The Empire Strikes Back in six issues of Marvel's Star Wars comic book, #39-44. [DAP to read it in the IDW "Artist's Edition."] The AE also includes a post-Return of the Jedi Han Solo "solo" adventure by Goodwin and Williamson from Star Wars #98, as wel as several individual "gallery pages" and pin-ups from various issues of Star Wars and Return of the Jedi.
Oddly, I'm not as concerned with the "Adventures of Luke Skywalker" in the three years (real time) between Empire and Jedi. Han Solo spent that time encased in carbonite, and I'm perfectly content to experience that gap from his POV. I'm much more interested in Luke's "adventures" post-Return.
I neglected to mention it before, but I've been listening to John Williams' The Empire Stikes Back soundtrack while reading all of this Goodwin/Williamson material. [NOTE: Although the comic strips take place between the first two movies, I couldn't have listened to the Star Wars soundtrack because each and every cut is so firmly imgained in my subconscious that I wouldn't have been able to diassociate it from what was happening onscreen.]
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S STAR WARS:
It has been said that Star Wars was written to appeal to the average ten-year-old, whereas Star Trek was written to appeal to the average fifteen year old (which is probably pretty close to the truth). Having said that, I was 13 when Star Wars came out, and it made a pretty big impact on me. By the time of The Empire Strikes Back, though, I was 16 and had read enough comic books to recognize that the franchise had fallen victim to some pretty sloppy storytelling. I mean, I knew an EYKIW when I saw one. When Yoda told Ben, "There is another Skywalker," the friend I was with speculated, "Leia?" and I distictly remember responding, "No, that would be stupid."
In my experience, most folks my age view the prequel trilogy in a negative light, but I'm okay with them. That's because I do not, I cannot, think of them as a prequel, but as a reboot... in exactly the same way ST:SNW is a reboot of ST:TOS. There are just too many discrepancies, not to mention outright contradictions, for them to be a part of the same timeline. Yet I have noticed that the generation who refer to the original Star Wars movie as "A New Hope" are perfectly fine with them.
Don't even get me started on the third trilogy. Even Mark Hamil was critical of the first one of those (until he changed his time due to studio pressure).
But the one way I can accept all nine of them as being part of the same timeline is when I read "William Shakespeare's Star Wars" by Ian Doescher.
"Verily, a New Hope!"