My Star Wars Experience: Star Wars #1 (1977)

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing well for a Thursday. I know this was supposed to be my post on the original Star Wars movie, but at the last minute, I decided I'd include any Star Wars comic book single issues that I owned, not just the collected editions. So, the next installment of My Star Wars Experience will be on the movie itself, right now though, I have a comic book to talk about, which is the first issue of the original Marvel Comics Star Wars comic book series. So let's get into it!

This issue is even more fascinating than the novelization is. Mainly because it's our first glimpse at the visuals of the then upcoming movie, outside of Ralph McQuarrie's artwork on the front cover of the novel. It's also more compact, as comic books do have a page limit to the single issues. And with this being the first issue, it only goes up to Luke's encounter with the Tusken Raiders in the desert of Tatooine, after he and Threepio went out looking for Artoo. 

So, when I was growing up, I didn't have access to these original Star Wars comics. By the time I was comic book reading age in the early '90s, Dark Horse had the license, but they only did original issues, or reprints of the newspaper comic strips, they didn't do reprints of the comic book adaptations until 1995 when they did each one under the Classic Star Wars banner. So it wasn't until the mid 2000s, when I was almost an adult, and just finishing high school that I got to read an old issue of the original Marvel Comics Star Wars comic. My sister had found Star Wars #41, which had the third part of the comic book adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back. It was cool, but I've never read the original stories printed in the comic, between the movie adaptations, as the original comics go for a pretty hefty price on the second hand market.

Luckily, Brad gave me The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of Star Wars just before I graduated from high school. I'll be discussing that book next week. Also, both Marvel and DC have been publishing facsimile editions of their biggest issues, and one of them happened to be Star Wars #1.

While the issue itself is decent, it basically helped Lucasfilm market the movie, as Roy Thomas, the writer, and Howard Chaykin, the artist, went to Science Fiction and comic book conventions to help Lucasfilm's marketing director, Charles Lippencott, promote the film. And with both Thomas and Chaykin being pretty well known names among Marvel fans in the '70s, their involvement basically ensured the comic's success while Marvel's other attempts had Science Fiction/Space Opera comics had failed. 

I also think the front cover of the issue is interesting since Leia, Luke, and Vader are the only characters shown on the front cover who are in the actual issue. I also like the blurb on the front cover too. It says, "Enter: Luke Skywalker! Will he save the galaxy...or DESTROY it?" As if there was any doubt that Luke was the hero of the story.

I like this issue, but I really don't have much more to say about it since it's only one issue of the six issue adaptation of the movie. Instead, I'm going to wrap things up here and start on my movie post. So, join me sometime this afternoon when I put out that post, and I'll be returning to this comic when I discuss The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of Star Wars next week. Until then, I will see you all later.