French Star Wars Comics Collector #17 (12 Days of Boba Fett Covers)

Celebrating day five of the 12 days of Boba Fett covers!

The Star Wars Comics Collector title was published by the French publisher Editions Delcourt under the imprint Editions Atlas.  Issue #17 contains Star Wars: The Early Adventures #8 and part of #9.  Star Wars: The Early Adventures #9 reprints the story The Frozen World of Ota.  This newspaper strip was originally published from June 17, 1980 through August 10, 1980.

Boba Fett's first appearance in the story was in the daily strip published on June 19, 1980, almost a month after The Empire Strikes Back was released to movie theaters.  At one time, it was believe his appearance in the newspaper strip was his first comic appearance, but we now know several Marvel publications containing the movie adaptation proceed this story.  His appearance in the strip does proceed his appearance in Marvel's Star Wars #42, which is probably the reason for the confusion.  Regardless, this is Boba Fett's first original comic story.

The cover to Star Wars Comics Collector #17 is the same cover used for Star Wars: The Early Adventures #9.

Star Wars Comics Collector #17a - Editions Delcourt, France (September 2010)

With the comic is a 1 sheet ad for issue #18 in this series.

Star Wars Comics Collector 1 sheet ad for #18

Boba Fett's appearance in this story is strikingly similar to his appearance in the Star Wars Holiday Special.  Both stories take place before The Empire Strikes Back and initially Fett seems like a friend and helps Luke Skywalker.  Also, his treatment of aliens is harsh and he is on a mission for Darth Vader in both tales.  Unlike the Holiday Special, our heroes do know Fett is a bounty hunter, even though Luke does not recognize him initially.  Like the Holiday Special, in the end, Boba Fett is thwarted and he threatens our heroes.  In this story, Fett uses his flame throwers quite a bit.  My favorite lines uttered by Boba Fett are:

You Rebels!  You are interfering with orders from Lord Vader himself!

Seriously?  They are members of the Rebellion against the Galactic Empire!  Luke and Han's response to the Boba Fett is hilarious:

Luke Skywalker: Impressed, Han-?
Han Solo: Scared to death, kid!

Clearly Boba Fett is not the notorious bounty hunter that he will become.