Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition

The original Star Wars movie adaptation from Marvel is not the only comic book version of A New Hope.  There are several different renditions that have been published in various countries around the world.  I've posted about several of them, including the Chinese and Hungarian adaptations.  Dark Horse Comics released their own version to coincide with the release of Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition to theaters in January 1997.

Howard Chaykin admits he did not do his best work on the original adaptation and had he known the movie was going to be such a big hit, he would have done a better job.  The artwork does look rushed in places and is generally uneven from issue to issue with some issues and pages looking better than others depending largely on the inker.  Additionally, Chaykin had a compressed timeline and worked from stills before the special effects were even completed.  (Howard Chaykin did not see the movie until after he had completed his work on the sixth issue.)  Even so, as the license holder, Dark Horse published reprints of the original adaptation for several years starting with the two-issue prestige format Classic Star Wars: A New Hope in 1994.  It must have been appealing to work on a new adaptation of the movie and the Special Edition provided that opportunity.

The 4-issue mini-series Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition with artwork by Eduardo Barreto and inks by the legendary Al Williamson does look better than Chaykin's version.  Where this version is inferior to the original is in the pacing.  With six issues to tell the story, Marvel's original adaptation has more room for scenes to breath whereas the Dark Horse adaptation is extremely compressed.  Marvel's first issue ends with Luke Skywalker being attacked by the Tusken Raider on page 17.  Dark Horse's first issue has four more pages of art, but Luke Skywalker is attacked on page 9 and on page 17 Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi are talking about selling Luke's Landspeeder to pay for their trip to Alderaan.  On the final page of the Dark Horse issue, the Millennium Falcon piloted by Han Solo has evaded the Star Destroyers near Tatooine which occurs on the final page of Marvel's second issue.  The story told in the first two issues of Marvel's adaptation are crammed into the first issue of Dark Horse's adaptation!

In addition to better art, one area that the Special Edition version excels over the Marvel issues is with the cover artwork.  Dave Dorman is best known for his Star Wars artwork and his covers for this mini-series show why Dorman was a favorite of Lucasfilm.

Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition #1a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (January 1997)

Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition #2a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (February 1997)

Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition #3a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (March 1997)

Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition #4a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (April 1997)

The four covers combine to form a larger image.