Over the years, many children and adults have dressed up as their favorite Star Wars character for Halloween. One of the first licensees for Star Wars products was Ben Cooper, which had Star Wars character costumes ready for Halloween in 1977. It is safe to say every year since 1977, Star Wars has been perennially represented on Halloween.
For years, comic publishers have sought ways to get comics into the hands of kids so it should come as no surprise one way they have used to do this is to provide inexpensive mini-comics for people to give away on Halloween. In 2009, Dark Horse published the Star Wars Halloween Special mini-comic. This full color mini-comic is 16 pages long and measures 5 1/2" by 8 1/2". It was sold in a bundle of 25 copies.
Star Wars Halloween Special - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (October 2009) reprints Planet of the Dead from Star Wars Tales #17 cover from Classic Star Wars: Han Solo at Star's End
The cover for this mini-comic is the cover used for Classic Star Wars: Han Solo at Star's End #1. The story inside reprints Planet of the Dead from Star Wars Tales #17 and is written by horror writer Steve Niles, best known for writing 30 Days of Night. In the tale, Han Solo and Chewbacca are forced to land the Millennium Falcon in a seemingly deserted city on a uncharted planet due to low fuel. When they disembark into the fog outside the ship, they hear a ship crashing and are attacked by undead aliens. They retreat to the Falcon and in the morning they leave the ship again to encounter a local. She explains that the undead that they confronted were the 1000 crew members from an interplanetary expedition that had crashed in the natural fog on the planet. Every night at the hour of their death, the undead crew relive the horror of the crash and haunt the site. Han decides to use cargo aboard the Falcon to help the ghostly spacecraft land by placing lights to form a landing site. That night, the spacecraft lands, freeing the undead crew's spirits. Han and Chewie are rewarded by the locals with fuel for the Falcon.
While on the subject of Halloween, in the 1982 movie E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Steven Spielberg had E.T. recognizes a child dressed as Yoda on Halloween. George Lucas returned the favor in The Phantom Menace in 1999 when E.T.'s species had representation in the Republic Senate!
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