On Strips: Pre-Star Wars

With the new Star Wars trailer dropping yesterday, I figure we should take a look at the original Star Wars comic strip today. It was launched on March 12, 1979 and the first storyline ran until early September. It was called "Gambler's World" and was written and drawn by Russ Manning. I haven't read the whole thing, but from what I have seen, it struck me as generic sci-fi and it didn't seem like Manning had a real sense of the Star Wars universe. (To be fair, a lot of people didn't quite get the Star Wars aesthetic in those early years.)

But there were actually a dozen Star Wars comic strips done before Manning started on the ones that were ultimately published. George Lucas himself had previously asked for (and got!) classic sci-fi comic strip artist Al Williamson to adapt the first movie as a comic strip! Williams put together twelve gorgeous strips that cover the first 15-20 minutes of the movie. It moves along briskly, but clearly uses the movie for both visual and dialogue references. (Although it does depart from that for the sake of moving the story along.) Williamson ultimately wasn't able to work on the strip, which is when Manning was brought in.

So here are the original tweleve strips Williamson did, re-telling Star Wars: A New Hope...

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