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Star Wars (A New Hope) 1994 (SC TPB) 104 pages

Written by Roy Thomas. Pencils by Howard Chaykin. Inks by Steve Leialoha, Howard Chaykin, Rick Hoberg, Bill Wray. Colours: unknown. Letters: Tom Orzechowski and others.

Adapted from the motion picture written by George Lucas.

Reprinting: Marvel Comic's adaptation, which was published in various formats, including Star Wars #1-6 (1977)

Rating: * * * * (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1

Published by Dark Horse Comics

This collects the original comic book adaptation of the first Star Wars movie that was first published back in 1977 by Marvel Comics (probably before even Marvel realized what a mega hit the movie would turn out to be). Marvel published their adaptation both as the first six issues of their on-going Star Wars comic, as well as collected it more than once in treasury-sized editions and, again in the early 1980s, as a two issue mini-series. When Dark Horse acquired the rights to publish original Star Wars comics years later, they also re-published Marvel's adaptations of the movies.

Written by Roy Thomas, this adapts the movie pretty faithfully in scenes and dialogue, but with some notable alterations. For one thing, Thomas was presumably working from the original script, meaning there are a few extra scenes not in the movie -- including a meeting with Jabba the Hut (here drawn as a yellow-skinned humanoid) and a more significant role for Luke's boyhood friend, Biggs. Of course, those extra scenes were more novel prior to George Lucas re-releasing Star Wars with some of those scenes included -- some, but still not all. As such, it meant the comic was kind of Star Wars-plus. Also of significance is the Old School way of writing. Whereas modern comics often rely solely on a cinematic style of story telling, relying solely on dialogue and pictures (as in Dark Horse's adaptation of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), in Thomas's day, comics were seen as a medium bridging film and novels, with a greater use of text captions and thought balloons.

It works extremely well.

Instead of just getting a play by play of the movie, Thomas embellishes in spots, fleshing scenes out with some atmosphere that couldn't be conveyed simply with pictures, occasionally adding flesh to the characters. A comic can't quite match a movie's kinetic energy, or duplicate its same breathless action, so Thomas uses the comic sometimes to re-imagine sequences. The scene where the Millennium Falcon escapes from the Death Star and fights off Tie Fighters is, in the movie, an exciting action scene. In the comic, the same sequence is more brooding, a chance for a bit of introspection, and though slower, it's actually more suspenseful as a result. Likewise, the climactic dog fight sequence is, in a sense, darker than in the movie, emphasizing the suspense and even the tragedy perhaps more than did the movie, expanding moments in a way a movie can't -- like the scene where Luke flies through the fireball, or by adding some extra text commentary when the first rebel leader attempts (and fails) to blow up the Death Star.

In a way, it's the best kind of adaptation. Faithful enough to the movie, and long enough, that all the same scenes are there, all the dialogue and quips (though Thomas changes a few lines here or there -- but only occasionally), so that it's basically just the movie transposed to paper, which most of us probably want when buying an adaptation. But it's also given extra texture in spots so that it provides some freshness, an altered perspective, to scenes that, perhaps, have become overly familiar (after all, if you're a Star Wars fan, you've probably scene the movie a zillion times already).

Ironically, the biggest weakness here is the art -- despite Howard Chaykin having gone on to become a very hot talent. The first issue is O.K., with Chaykin inking himself, but kind of rough and crude in spots. The second issue improves noticeably with Steve Leialoha's inks embellishing the pencils, and the art takes on a moodiness, with some nice, stylish panel composition from Chaykin. But as things progress, the work looks more and more rushed, culminating in a fifth issue that's particularly poor, hurt, no doubt, by an inker who seems to be going for a Klaus Janson-style coarseness, but not pulling it off as well. I'm not sure who the inker is (the version I read -- the 1982 Marvel re-issue -- is a bit unclear in the credits). Fortunately, things pick up considerably for the final chapter -- though that's mainly a lot of whizzing space ships and heads in cockpits. Despite the shortcomings, there are still spots where the art, like Thomas' script, adds to some scenes, investing them with an atmosphere, or a moodiness, not necessarily there in the movie, while still being faithful enough to the film (though Chaykin has the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon open into the main part of the ship).

Despite some uneven art, Marvel's original adaptation holds up very well indeed all these years later. Dark Horse's presentation of it, apparently, was re-coloured using modern colouring techniques. Curiously, Dark Horse released a second adaptation of the first movie (this time by Mike Baron and Eduardo Barreto, I believe). The gimmick was to do an adaptation of the "Special Edition" Lucas released in 1997 with the extra scenes -- but, as noted, Thomas' version already has those scenes. Still, hard core fans might want to compare the two -- I'm guessing Baron's version is probably told with a minimum of text captions and embellishments.

For my money, Thomas's version hits the spot very nicely indeed.

Cover price: 

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back 1995 (SC TPB) 92 pages

Written by Archie Goodwin. Illustrated by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon. Colours: Glynis Wein. Letters: Rick Veitch.

Adapted from the motion picture.

Reprinting: Marvel Comic's adaptation, which was published in various formats, including Star Wars #39-44 (1980)

Rating: * * * (out of 5)

Number of readings: a few times over the years

Published by Dark Horse Comics

I have strangely mixed reactions to Marvel Comics adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back -- particularly since I loved it as a youth and have always remembered it well. On the plus side, it's gorgeously illustrated by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon (apparently they collaborated, as opposed to being straight penciler-inker) with a lush, elegant style full of moody shadows and that is obviously heavily photoreferenced. And the script stays faithful to the movie script.

On the minus side? Its obviously heavily photoreferenced and stays true to the movie script.

Okay, I know that doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, I'm the first to say that when I pick up an adaptation I want something that evokes the source material. But there's a danger you can end up with too much of a "classics illustrated" feel, of a comic that is only an adaptation and doesn't fully stand on its own. Whereas Roy Thomas, when adapting the first movie, stuck close to the script, but still managed to embellish upon it a bit, adding in text captions that enhanced the scenes, Archie Goodwin stays pretty tight to the script, usually using the text captions simply to bridge scenes...or to bridge panels within a scene. Which is another problem. There can be a bit of a "cut n' paste" approach, as the creators try to shoe horn movie scenes into a few panels, with Williamson and Garzon recreating a sequence with a few select "posed" panels that then Goodwin has to try and turn into a flowing scene. The action scenes at times suffer, like the climactic duel between Luke and Darth Vader which, in the movie, was a suspenseful scene of the characters playing cat and mouse as they hunted each other through the deserted corridors. Here: it's just a few panels. The scene with the big tree is, likewise, robbed of mood by its very terseness.

I'm not disputing the talents involved. Goodwin wrote some great Star Wars comics, both for Marvel, and for a daily newspaper strip, and I'm a big fan of Williamson's art. But the Star Wars adaptation by Thomas and Howard Chaykin (though the art was sometimes crude and sloppy) seemed more energetic, more as something you could read in addition to the movie -- or even if you'd never seen the movie at all! Whereas this adaptation of the Empire Strikes Back seems just that: an adaptation. Somewhat condensed, the suspense scenes not as suspenseful, the funny lines not as funny.

Since adaptations were often written from earlier drafts of the script, it's interesting to note the one addition from the movie is a little more material involving the snow creatures of Hoth -- though even that is barely more than a few panels and references (perhaps why it was dropped from the movie -- it never really gelled into anything).

Just as a minor aside (and 'cause when else am I going to get a chance to vent) the comic also reminds me of certain -- errors? Inconsistencies? -- in the movie. For instance, isn't there a time paradox when the scenes with Han and Leia seem to take only a few days at most...whereas Luke's training scenes surely encompass weeks? (Though is that any weirder than Darth saying to Luke how "Obi Wan trained you well" when that "training" amounted to a five minute sabre lesson?) And isn't it awkward having the opening gag with Lando -- when Lando had already planned to sell out Han to the Imperials?

Ultimately, this is beautiful looking, and reasonably true to the movie...but, despite most people regarding The Empire Strikes Back as the better movie, the comic isn't as satisfying as Thomas and Chaykin's Star Wars.

But I loved it as a kid -- so who am I to judge?

This is a review of the story as it was presented in a Marvel Treasury Edition.

Cover price: ___

Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi 1995 (SC TPB) 88 pages

Written by Archie Goodwin. Illustrated by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon. Colours: Glynis Wein. Letters: Rick Veitch.

Adapted from the motion picture.

Reprinting: Marvel Comic's adaptation, which was published in various formats, including Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi #1-4 (1983-1984), and represented as Classic Star Wars: Return of the Jedi #1-2, Dark Horse Comics

Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1

Published by Dark Horse Comics

This is Dark Horse's re-presentation of the movie adaptation originally published by Marvel Comics back in the early 1980s, by the "classic" team of Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson & Carlos Garzon (the three having done The Empire Strikes Back adaptation, and Goodwin and Williamson having worked on a well-regarded Star Wars newspaper strip).

I commented in my review of The Empire Strikes Back adaptation that I loved it when younger, but re-reading it recently, I'm aware of flaws in the presentation. Well, I'd never read the Return of the Jedi adaptation until now...and I'm afraid the flaws seem even more pronounced. Firstly, it's the shortest of Marvel's Star Wars movie adaptations (which may be a reflection of the movie itself being a bit thin on plot). But as such, the "cut n' paste" approach I'd noticed in the Empire Strikes Back can seem a little more pronounced here, as Williamson and Garzon sometimes seems to illustrate a sequence with just a few photo-referenced stills that Goodwin then has to try and bridge together into a scene with a lot of captions. There's not always a flow to the scenes. Of course, maybe Dark Horse chose to edit the original comics (though I haven't read that they did). But as one of the more glaring examples, we literally skip over the scene where Leia kills Jabba the Hut -- so we just have a caption vaguely alluding to it.

Even the art isn't quite as impressive as Williamson and Garzon have been -- though, hey, it's still impressive. There are still stunning panels, as the two can capture the gleam of metal or plastic, or evoke an actor as well as anyone. But there are also a few rougher panels, as if they were being a bit hasty in the work. Curiously, there are a couple of splash pages that look like the work of another artist entirely, as well as some pages in the latter half that, though it could easily be Williamson and Garzon's pencils, look like another inker was involved to finish it up.

Ultimately, if you're just looking for an adaptation that evokes moments from the movie, triggering your own sub-conscious as you read through the story, this is fine. But as a stand on its own telling of the story, something where the scenes and characters can exist regardless of the movie (the way Marvel's adaptation of the original Star Wars did)...it falls rather short.

This is a review of the story as it was reprinted in Classic Star Wars: Return of the Jedi #1-2.

Cover price: __

Star Wars: Dark Force Rising 1998 (SC TPB) 160 pages.

Written by Mike Baron. Pencils by Terry Dodson. Inks by Kevin Nowlan.
Colours: Pamela Rambo. Letters: Ellie De Ville. Editor: Bob Cooper.

Reprinting the six issue mini-series (plus covers)

Based on the novel by Timothy Zahn.

Rating: * (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1

Published by Dark Horse Comics

Dark Force Rising is a comicbook adaptation of the second novel in the trilogy by Timothy Zahn that largely kicked off the current run of Star Wars spin-off novels. There had been a lull in original Star Wars novels in the years immediately following the movie "The Return of the Jedi". Zahn's trilogy proved there was still popular interest in what some thought might be a waning fandom.

The plot here follows directly from the previous story, Heir to the Empire. Taking place a few years after "The Return of the Jedi", the former rebel Alliance is still locked in conflict with the remnants of the evil Empire, and both sides are anxious to find a lost fleet of derelict starships that could tip the balance of power in favour of whoever gets them first. But there's plenty of machinations and maneuvering going around, as Leia tries to woo an alien race to the Alliance that is loyal to the empire, and Han and Lando do some investigating connected to political rivalries that threaten the stability of the Alliance, and Luke meets up with a rogue Jedi Knight who's made a deal with the current leader of the Empire's forces, Admiral Thrawn.

Dark Horse comics has adapted the other two books in the trilogy, and how they would read all together is for another reviewer to say. I haven't read the other stories. But there's nothing on the cover, front or back, of this TPB to indicate you need to have read an earlier story. In fact, there's no mention (until you get inside and the introduction by another Star Wars novelist, Michael A. Stackpole) that this is even in the middle of a bigger story.

I think you can see where I'm headed with all this. Only it's worse than that.

The comicbook version of Dark Force Rising is, frankly, largely incoherent.

Many factors go into this.

Little effort has been made to get the reader who hasn't read the previous story up to speed, to familiarize us with new characters and concepts introduced in that previous story. People and objects and events are referred to, but rarely in a way that provides sufficient context. One minor example is that some characters refer to how they should start an investigation on "New Cov", but when next we see them, they're at a place identified as "Ilic". Maybe New Cov is a city on the planet Ilic, or vice versa, or maybe the story skipped over the vist to New Cov. Either way, it's confusing.

To make matters worse, writer Mike Baron seems to have employed the "cut and paste" approach to adapting and editing a longer work into a comic. At times it seems as though he just took snippits of dialogue randomly from the source novel, but didn't bother to see if the lines made sense on their own, or whether he had left out crucial, bridging sentences. His approach to scenes is similar, with it often being unclear how characters, or the story, move from point A to point C, because point B seems to have been discarded somewhere in the writing process. Nor does Baron bother with thought balloons that might provide needed insight into characters and their motivations.

The art by Terry Dodson and Kevin Nowlan is attractive (Nowlan being one of those inkers who can kind of impose his own style on an artist's pencils) and evokes the actors fairly consistently. But as comicbook story telling, as images that are meant to convey meaning, to get across actions, emotions, and plot, it's largely ineffective. Dodson likes to just draw whatever he thinks would look cool, sometimes resulting in panels bleeding into each other in such a way that you aren't even sure who's supposed to be in a shot, or whether a character is spilling over from another scene entirely.

There was scene after scene where I just wasn't sure what was going on or why. Nor are things helped by the fact that letterer Ellie De Ville sometimes puts dialogue in the wrong panels (presumably because Dodson and Nowlan didn't leave her enough space in the correct panel). There were more than a few pages I had to read a couple of times just to figure out how it should be read (nevermind what it meant).

Beyond all that technical stuff is the foundation of Zahn's original story. Although Zahn's books were hugely popular, to me he hasn't really captured the spirit of the movies which were, after all is said and done, swashbuckling adventures. Instead he chooses to emphasize political machinations and people sitting around discussing various alliances. Obviously this is sort of where Geroge Lucas wanted to go (as demonstrated in "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace") but it's still a bit, well, dry and colourless. Nor do the characters entirely come alive. With all that being said, there is some action and adventure...but, as noted in my earlier complaints, those scenes are often as confusing and hard to follow as the talky scenes.

And since it's part of a trilogy, plenty of story threads don't really go anywhere in this story.

Ultimately, I just found this comicbook adaptation confusing and, frankly, I reached a point where I just didn't care anymore. My recommendation? If you're really interested, try reading the novel by Timothy Zahn (actually read the trilogy) and then you can read this TPB as just kind of the illustrated highlights. But as an entertaining read in and of itself? Not quite.

In the end, the late Archie Goodwin remains the undeposed king of writing Star Wars in comics.

Cover price: $25.95 CDN./ $17.95 USA

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