Star Wars Comics

[mrc1214]

Hey guys. Im a pretty big Star Wars fan i was wondering if any of you guys have read any Star Wars comics?? And if so which ones are worth picking up??? I see them pop up occasionally but i havent picked them up cause i didnt know if theyd be any good. Another series i see from time to time is some older Planet of the Apes comic. So if anyone has read these and can give me a recommendation id appreciate it.

[J'onn J'onzz]

Hey guys. Im a pretty big Star Wars fan i was wondering if any of you guys have read any Star Wars comics?? And if so which ones are worth picking up??? I see them pop up occasionally but i havent picked them up cause i didnt know if theyd be any good. Another series i see from time to time is some older Planet of the Apes comic. So if anyone has read these and can give me a recommendation id appreciate it.

I personally have not read any Star Wars comics, but I would reccomend getting the newer ones by Ostrander simply because everything else he's done has been pure awesome.

I really should've gotten the 70's Marvel run fro 50 cents an issue when I had the chance to awhile back.

[mrc1214]

I personally have not read any Star Wars comics, but I would reccomend getting the newer ones by Ostrander simply because everything else he's done has been pure awesome.

I really should've gotten the 70's Marvel run fro 50 cents an issue when I had the chance to awhile back.

I may give that a shot. I liked his writing on The Spectre. And i find them for 50 cents but i hate picking stuff up unless i know ill enjoy it.

[swinebread]

The only Dark Horse Star Wars comics I ever read were Dark Empire, Crimson Empire, both of which were very good, and the early Boba Fett mini which was OK.

I’m a more familiar with the Marvel Star Wars comics that have a nice zaniness to them. They’re not in-continuity so they are just plain fun or weird. They make me think of what an early Star Wars tv show could have been like. They have some issues that are written for laughs. They are collected in trade paperbacks by Dark Horse but I think they are pretty spendy, so you might want to pick them at the library.

Mr. Comics just finished a POTA mini that was quite good which relates directly to the original movies. Dark Horse put out comics based on the re-imagining of POTA that Tim Burton did, but since I didn’t like the new film I never picked them up. There was a series in the early 1990s by a company called Adventure that was OK but the art wasn’t the best. The 1970s Marvel series, from what I understand, was good but it has never been collected, time for an Essential Guide there.

[Mr. Palmer]

The only ones I've ever read are from the Marvel series. And, like swinebread said, they're just good plain fun.

[DarthAstuart]

i'm a big star wars fan and I'd definitely recommend the marvel series very highly...it is PURE fun, occasionally slightly campy, and often gripping swashbuckle exactly like the original films. great carmine infantino pencils for many issues too.

like the prequels, the later comics tend to take the whole Star Wars universe so damn seriously, though I'm sure there's plenty of good stuff in there to be found.

I also think the Dark Horse collections of the SW newspaper strip are kinda fun...again, without the constraints of heavy Expanded Universe "continuity," it was more about wild, fun stories.

[The Confessor]

Well, I own quite a lot of Star Wars comics, so let me offer you my opinion for what it's worth. I'm gonna divide the SW comics up into three categories - The Marvel run, the Dark Horse run & the movie adaptions.


The Marvel Years (1977 - 1985)
The old Marvel comics are a lot of fun. They don't take themselves too seriously, which isn't to say that they're silly or juvenile, just that they capture the fun-loving nature of the original trilogy perfectly. They hark back to a time when Star Wars was just one, then two, then three films and they aren't as bogged down with continuity as the later Dark Horse comics are.

Of these comics I would particularly recommend those set between ESB and ROTJ (#45 - #80). By this time the writers and artists had really hit their stride and these issues feature really good stories and great characterisation. To be honest the series continued to fire on all cylinders for a good while after that as well, with issue #81 'Jawas Of Doom' (a story set the day after the big Ewok celebration at the end of ROTJ) being a particular favourite of mine. The comics set between ANH and ESB are pretty cool too though and well worth a look.

The key thing to remember about the Marvel run is not to let Dark Horse fanboys put you off by telling you that the stories are inferior and the supporting characters are silly. As great as some of the Dark Horse comics are, I sometimes think that they could do with an injection of the sheer wide-eyed excitement and fun that the Marvel series had. After all, this is Star Wars - not Star Trek!

I think I'm right in saying that the whole Marvel series has been re-printed in recent years by Dark Horse in their 'A Long Time Ago...' series of graphic novels but I have no idea which issues are collected in which volumes, so you'll have to do a little research on that.

Incidentally, Marvel also produced a short lived 'Droids' comic and then later an 'Ewoks' series that were heavily based on the cartoons of the same name. I've never read any of these and frankly, I don't intend to as I was never much of a fan of the cartoons.


The Dark Horse Years (1992 - the present)
Well, after singing the praises of the Marvel comics run let me say that for the most part, the Dark Horse comics are excellent as well. They just have a much more serious, grittier vibe to them and they are much more concious of SW continuity. They also offer the reader a much broader time span of adventures than the Marvel series does. There are prequel era comics like Jedi Quest and the ongoing Star Wars title (sometimes known as Star Wars: Republic). Then there are original trilogy era & post-original trilogy era comics like Dark Empire, X-Wing Rogue Squadron and the Zahn Trilogy. And finally there's the Tales Of The Jedi comics set thousands of years before the prequel era.

My favourites so far (and this is only my opinion remember) have been the Dark Empire trilogy (Dark Empire, Dark Empire II and Empire's End), the adaptation of Alan Dean Foster's novel Splinter Of The Mind's Eye and the Empire series, which is set around the time of A New Hope. That was really cool!

Also worth checking out is the ongoing Star Wars title from issue #46 - #80 (when it was called Star Wars: Republic). These issues basically cover the time span between AOTC and ROTS - so we're talking the Clone Wars. They're awesome!

Ultimately though, with Dark Horse's SW comics, it largly depends on what era interests you as to which comics you'll like. For instance, I never much liked the Tales Of The Jedi comics but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that stories set thousands of years before the films just don't do it for me.


The Movie Adaptations
Both Marvel and Dark Horse have published adaptations of A New Hope. The Marvel one can be found in issues #1 - #6 of their SW comic and the Dark Horse one was a 4-issue mini-series. The chief difference between the two is that the Dark Horse adaptation is very, very faithful to the Special Edition version of the movie. Whereas the Marvel one is based on the original shooting script and thus features scenes that were ultimately cut from the film, like Biggs and Luke together on Tatooine talking about the Rebellion.

The Empire Strikes Back adaptation appeared in Marvel's ongoing series in issues #40 - #44 and again was based on an early shooting script and so again includes a few scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor. Return Of The Jedi was a 4-part mini-series by Marvel and pretty much follows the movie exactly. Dark Horse I believe has published both of these adaptations more recently as graphic novels.

Each of the three prequel movies have been adapted as comics too by Dark Horse, each as a 4 issue mini-series. These adaptations stick very closely to the movies but I personally felt they were all a little rushed. Like they were trying to cram too much into four issues. I think it may have been better if each movie had been given 6 issues instead.


Anyway, there you have it. Phew, this must be the longest message I've ever posted on these boards! I hope some of this will be useful to folks out there.

I'm off to get something to eat now :D
May the Force be with you.

[mrc1214]

Thanks for the info guys. Does the Marvel series have a story where Boba Fett fights IG-88 who is trying to steal Han Solo. My cousin used to be a collector but couldnt remember where he read it.

[The Confessor]

Does the Marvel series have a story where Boba Fett fights IG-88 who is trying to steal Han Solo. My cousin used to be a collector but couldnt remember where he read it.


Sounds to me like your talking about the 'Shadows Of The Empire' series by Dark Horse. Specifically issue #1 which is where the events that you describe between IG-88 and Boba Fett take place.

Shadows Of The Empire was a six issue mini-series that came out around 1996 I believe. There was also a novel by Steve Perry, a video game and a soundtrack CD if memory serves me correctly. It supposedly shows the events between ESB and ROTJ, so we get to see how Boba Fett got Han Solo to Jabba as well as finding out how Leia acquired the Boushh disguise that she's seen wearing in ROTJ. The story basically revolves around the criminal organisation Black Sun (headed by the nefarious Prince Xizor) and illustrates how the Empire make use of illegal organisations like this in their pursuit of the Rebel Alliance.

It's a good series actually and well worth picking up. I also have the novel and that's worth reading along with the comic books since it adds more detail to the overall story.

[Mr. Palmer]

Thanks for the info guys. Does the Marvel series have a story where Boba Fett fights IG-88 who is trying to steal Han Solo. My cousin used to be a collector but couldnt remember where he read it.

Not sure about the comics, but I know that's a story in the Bounty Hunters book.

[tk421atpost]

Thanks for the info guys. Does the Marvel series have a story where Boba Fett fights IG-88 who is trying to steal Han Solo. My cousin used to be a collector but couldnt remember where he read it.

There was also a Boba Fett vs. IG-88 comic that came packaged with some of the Shadows of the Empire toys. My copy came from a Boba/IG-88 action figure two-pack.