When Star Wars came along, British youth were already consuming their comics in a weekly format for decades, so it was natural that the Marvel Comic Star Wars stories would be adapted to the weekly format for the British population. This publication came in the form of Star Wars Weekly, a magazine sized comic with the first issue on sale February 8, 1978. Each issue of the U.S. Star Wars adaptation was split into 2 Weekly issues, so the 6 part Star Wars story ran through Star Wars Weekly #1 - 12. Because there were more weekly issues, many new covers needed to be created for the British comic.
Star Wars Weekly #11 has an interesting cover that conflicts with an ongoing storyline in the Star Wars comic; namely Darth Vader's quest to uncover the identity of the pilot that launched the photon torpedo that destroyed the original Death Star. On the cover, Darth Vader is overlooking a view screen with the name of the pilot (Luke Skywalker) and his droid companion (R2-D2) clearly shown. The scene depicted on the cover never occurs inside the pages of the comic (remember, this is an adaptation of the movie.) It must be remembered when looking at these covers that many comic covers are sensationalized to sell comics and do not necessarily reflect the stories within.
Star Wars Weekly #11a - Marvel Comics, England (April 19, 1978) first half of Star Wars #6
The back cover of Star Wars Weekly #11 is equally as interesting with a poorly drawn Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia holding... Force Beams? In the period following the success of the first Star Wars movie, many companies tried to cash in on the Star Wars fame and one popular and easy way to do this was to create a knock off of the infamous lightsaber. It is unclear from the ad if Loydale Limited had a license to produce these Force Beams and market them as Star Wars products. The Star Wars logo is not one of the designs typically used for Star Wars items and the poorly drawn figures of Luke and Leia tends to make one believe this is unofficial merchandise.
Star Wars Weekly #11a - Marvel Comics, England (April 19, 1978) back cover
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