Friday, March 27, 2015

Retro Foreign

British Star Wars Weekly #43

British Star Wars fans were treated to a weekly dose of Star Wars comics in the form of Star Wars Weekly.  At first, the Star Wars Weekly title presented stories that were already published for U.S. readers.  Eventually, Star Wars Weekly caught up to the U.S. published Star Wars stories and new content was created for the Star Wars Weekly.  One story published in Star Wars Weekly before it was published in the U.S. Star Wars title was Silent Drifting, the first half of which was published in Star Wars Weekly #43.

Star Wars Weekly #43a - Marvel Comics, England (November 29, 1978)
first half of Star Wars #24
Star Wars Weekly #43 has a cover date of November 29, 1978.  The U.S. Star Wars #24 which contains this story has a cover date of June 1979.  U.S. comics at the time had a cover date 3 months in the future from the time the comic was on the stands. This was done so the comic had a few months to sell and the news agents knew when to pull unsold issues from the stands.  So Star Wars #24 was on sale in March 1979.  Star Wars Weekly #43 was most likely printed before Star Wars #24.  So, not all Star Wars Weekly issues are just "reprints" of the U.S. Star Wars issues.

Foreign comic collectors do not label foreign printings as reprints.  The first printing of comics for a foreign market are instead referred to as foreign editions.  So, Star Wars Weekly #43 and #44 are the British editions of Star Wars #24.

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