Unfortunately, the sporadic publishing schedule and lack of a tight narrative for the various Steam Wars titles past the original 5-issue mini-series from Antarctic Press made it impossible for me immerse myself in the world. The number of characters and threads introduced became too much and I found myself buying the book strictly for the Star Wars imagery alone, not because I was following the stories. For this reason, I find it easier to talk about the borrowed imagery than about the content of these comics.
I did get a chance to re-read the 4 issues of the First Empire title and I found The Errant Knight in issue #3 the most accessible of the stories. It starts with Knight Sir Branton, racing across the desert in what looks like an old fashioned car when he comes across a body lying next to a broken down vehicle. He stops to bury the body and we discover he is being pursued by Count Mekk in an AT-AT inspired vehicle. The captain of the AT-AT is unsure of the wisdom in pursuing a single fallen knight across the wasteland but Mekk assures him the knight is a danger to the empire. The AT-AT fires on Sir Branton, destroying his vehicle and Sir Brandon draws his sword which glows with energy like a lightsaber as he faces off against the AT-AT. The AT-AT fires again and again, but Sir Brandon, utilizing his energy sword, is able to repel the attack and strikes at the AT-AT with lightning from his sword. The AT-AT explodes and falls to the ground as Count Mekk emerges from the wreckage.
Frustratingly, this story ends on a cliffhanger with Sir Brandon and Count Mekk about to face off. This confrontation is not shown in issue #4 and I can only guess when the Steam Wars titles ceased publication, the following chapter was never published.
The cover depicts Sir Brandon brandishing his sword as the AT-AT approaches.
Steam Wars: First Empire #3a - Antarctic Press, U.S. (June 2016)
The cover for First Empire #4 shows the same character on the cover of Steam Wars: Princess Legends #1 wearing the same Amidala inspired cold weather gear.
Steam Wars: First Empire #4a - Antarctic Press, U.S. (April 2017)
The Thrawn #1 variant cover by Italian artist Francesco Mattina was initially released as a 1 in 50 variant. It depicts a close-up of Thrawn's face.
Star Wars: Thrawn #1d - Marvel Comics, U.S. (February 2018)
This is definitely not one of Francesco Mattina's better pieces, or even a compelling Star Wars cover, but that doesn't stop this issue from realizing a high price. In the past few months, copies of this comic have sold for $300 or more on eBay.
The Star Wars newspaper strip would not begin until 1979, so in those nascent years of the late 1970s, Marvel was the only publisher who had material for comic fans eager for more Star Wars stories. In addition to the single Star Wars title which began publishing new content after the movie adaptation ended in issue #6, Marvel also published an original 3 page Star Wars strip in Pizzazz magazine. Pizzazz was Marvel's version of Scholastic's Dynamite magazine, so it made sense that they included this strip in a periodical devoted to pop culture that was relevant to kids at the time.
Pizzazz only ran for 16 issues from October 1977 to January 1979, but each issue contained the 3 page Star Wars strip. The Keeper's World story was told in Pizzazz #1 - 9 and The Kingdom of Ice in Pizzazz #10 - 16. Unfortunately, The Kingdom of Ice story was not completed in Pizzazz #16. The end of that story was published for British readers a few months later in Star Wars Weekly #60. American readers had to wait until 1981 for the end of the story when it appeared in the paperback Marvel Illustrated Books Star Wars.
Pizzazz #1a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (October 1977) The Keeper's World (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #2a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 1977) The Keeper's World (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #3a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (December 1977) The Keeper's World (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #4a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (January 1978) The Keeper's World (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #5a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (February 1978) The Keeper's World (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #6a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (March 1978) The Keeper's World (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #7a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (April 1978) The Keeper's World (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #8a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (May 1978) The Keeper's World (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #9a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (June 1978) The Keeper's World (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #10a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (July 1978) The Kingdom of Ice (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #11a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (August 1978) The Kingdom of Ice (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #12a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (September 1978) The Kingdom of Ice (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #13a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (October 1978) The Kingdom of Ice (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #14a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 1978) The Kingdom of Ice (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #15a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (December 1978) The Kingdom of Ice (3 pgs.)Pizzazz #16a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (January 1979) The Kingdom of Ice (3 pgs.)
Star Wars is mentioned on eight covers and images appear on three covers of this title. Pizzazz #1 shows a photo of C-3PO and R2-D2 on the Tantive IV, C-3PO is the drummer for Linda Ronstadt on the cover of Pizzazz #5, and Darth Vader is joined by Spock and the alien from Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind for Pizzazz #7.
Star Jaws is a fan-made title published in the U.K. by Robin Barnard's Barnstormer Comics. Most issues are 20 pages with black and white interiors and color covers. Star Jaws is a Star Wars parody comic designed to appeal to fans of the British Star Wars Weekly title. Each issue starts with a Who's Who in Star Jaws page like the weekly publication it is model after. The main stories are taken directly from Marvel comics. The first 3 issues are the Star Jaws story from Spidey Super Stories #31 which is a Star Wars parody featuring Spider-Man, Moondragon, Marvel Boy, and Doctor Doom. These first 3 issues use the same pages, including word balloons, from the Marvel comic. Also included in the third issue is the backup story Melinda Gebbie creates a Universe ... which uses the same pages as Alan Moore's Tilotny Throws a Shape story from The Empire Strikes Back Monthly #154 except the dialogue is changed.
Star Jaws #1a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (January 2016) Spidey Super Stories #31Star Jaws #2a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (February 2016) Spidey Super Stories #31Star Jaws #3a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (March 2016) Spidey Super Stories #31
Issue #4 continues to use pages from the Marvel comics, starting with Star Wars #7, also with altered dialogue. Each Marvel story is split across 3 issues just like the Star Wars Weekly title. The Who's Who page introduces the characters that will be the focus of the remaining issues:
Han Solo is Robert Grayson
Chewbacca is Paul "The Other One" (Paul the Gorilla is featured in several Spidey Super Stories issues, including the story in issue #31)
Princess Leia is Princess Heather
Luke Skywalker is Wendell Vaughn
C-3PO is Cray-Z
R2-D2 is RURUDE2
A backup story called OIK's begins in issue #4. This backup, like the main story, are pages from Marvel comics with modified dialogue, this time from the 1986 Droids title. This issue also begins an editorial page View From the Tower by Andy Smith.
Most of the covers are by Martin Hand, who also contributes a page or two of interior artwork every issue which feature mostly Marvel's space-faring heroes. The covers, like the interior pages by Martin Hand, will look familiar because they are redrawn artwork from Marvel.
Star Jaws #4a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (April 2016) spoof; Star Wars #7Star Jaws #5a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (May 2016) spoof; Star Wars #7Star Jaws #6a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (June 2016) spoof; Star Wars #7
Star Jaws #1 - 6 are saddle stitched, but with issue #7 it is just single pages with two staples on the left-hand side.
Star Jaws #7a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (July 2016) spoof; Star Wars #8Star Jaws #8a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (August 2016) spoof; Star Wars #8Star Jaws #9a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (September 2016) spoof; Star Wars #8Star Jaws #10a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (October 2016) spoof; Star Wars #9Star Jaws #11a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (November 2016) spoof; Star Wars #9Star Jaws #12a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (December 2016) spoof; Star Wars #9Star Jaws #13a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (January 2017) spoof; Star Wars #10Star Jaws #14a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (February 2017) spoof; Star Wars #10Star Jaws #15a - Barnstormer Comics, U.K. (March 2017) spoof; Star Wars #10
The A in Jaws from the title on the cover is taken from the shark on the cover of Spidey Super Stories #16 which itself is a parody of the shark from the movie Jaws.
Starting with Star Jaws #16 the comic was only available digitally. It ran until issue #23 in November 2017. The title began publication again in April 2019. Every issues, including those that were physically printed, are available digitally on Robin Barnard's blog Images Degraded Forever.
Cuentos Extraordinarios Album Especial or Extraordinary Tales Special Album is an interesting title. Each issue is a collection published by Acme Agency in Argentina of comics originally published by Editorial Novaro in Mexico. The content inside each copy of this title is not consistent. This particular copy of Cuentos Extraordinarios Album Especial #1 has the pages from Clásicos del Cine #301 (Star Wars #4 and the first half of Star Wars #5) and another copy of this book I own contains Clásicos del Cine #299 (Star Wars #1 and the first half of Star Wars #2.) I have also seen a copy of this comic (not in my collection) that has Domingos Alegres #1443a bundled inside, which is part of the Empire Strikes Back adaptation.
Cuentos Extraordinarios Album Especial #1a - Acme Agency/Editorial Novaro, Argentina (November 1984) contains Clásicos del Cine #301
Based on the page count, it looks like each of these albums collects 3 aguila or eagle sized comics originally published by Novaro.
It was a common practice in many countries to bundle unsold comics into collections for resale. Based on the wildly different content of different copies of this album, I wonder if this book is a new printing by Acme Agency of the pages or if it is actually a bundling of unsold comics. Both prospects are fascinating. If the content is a new printing, why did Acme Agency publish different content using the same cover? And if it is a bundle of unsold comics, the Star Wars issue found inside some of these copies were published 6 years prior to the pages being bundled inside the collection, which is a long time for those unsold comics to have been around. I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who knows if these albums are new printing of the pages or a bundling of unsold issues.
Update
I reached out to Fer Franco Quiroz, a well known Editorial Novaro collector, who confirmed that these albums contain three random Novaro remainders!
Marvel only published the 6-issue movie adaptation and a one-shot for the first Star Wars anthology movie, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. For the second anthology movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story, they expanded the tie-in material with a longer 7-issue movie adaptation, a one-shot, and two 5-issue mini-series. The offerings for the second anthology have proven to be more substantial not only in the number of titles and issues, but because the character Valance was re-introduced into modern continuity in the Han Solo - Imperial Cadet mini-series, and that character is currently featured in an ongoing Bounty Hunters title that started earlier this year.
Unfortunately, Marvel seems intent on having their ongoing Star Wars titles be contemporaries of each other. This allows the characters to appear in each others books which has produced events like the Vader Down and Screaming Citadel crossovers. These types of events have long become staples of the superhero universes, so Marvel applying that formula to their Star Wars line is expected. But this has prevented Marvel from pursuing ongoing stories about interesting characters introduced in these anthology movies. This is a shame, because the Beckett #1 one-shot shows a lot of potential and I would love to read more about Tobias Beckett and his crew prior to the events of the Solo movie, more-so than the resurrected bounty hunter Valance.
Han Solo's mentor in the movie, Tobias, is a scoundrel who leads a motley cast of characters who are in debt to the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate. The Beckett #1 one-shot features Tobias and his crew, the human female Val and the Ardennian male Rio Durant. The gang is on the planet Hovun IV to steal a cache of blank I.D. chips from Dvorad for their boss Dryden Vos. The banter between the characters is fun and is reminiscent of their personalities established in the movie. The heist does not go exactly as planned, but in the end, they are able to depart Hovun IV with the goods. They travel aboard a stolen ship, the Rampart piloted by the stolen droid D-1G, to the space station Munt Ontdal to deliver the bounty to Dryden. On the space station, Enfys Nest is their with her gang to take the chips from Beckett. It turns out that Enfys tricked Tobias into believing the job was for Dryden, but it was for her. Tobias is forced to destroy the Rampart and the chips to escape Enfys.
Star Wars: Beckett #1a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (August 2018)Star Wars: Beckett #1b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (August 2018)Star Wars: Beckett #1c - Marvel Comics, U.S. (August 2018)
The tapestry of underworld characters introduced in Solo is rich and worth exploring. A title centered on Tobias Beckett and his crew as they carry out jobs for Dryden Vos is fertile ground. We know there is more worth mining here from nuggets dropped in the movie like how did the members of his crew end up in debt to Crimson Dawn? or what led to Tobias killing Aurra Sing? Clearly Tobias has had other interactions with Enfys Nest and knows enough about Qi'ra to warn Han about her. Additionally, there is another crew member, Korso, who was cut from the finished film. There is so much story potential here that I wish Marvel publish an ongoing title and explored these characters more.
While the Micromachine and AMT/ERTL Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire mini-comic inserts include a new story, Kenner's two Shadow of the Empire 2-pack toy comic inserts contain reprint pages from the first two issues of the Shadow of the Empire mini-series from Dark Horse. Both comics are 16-pages long and have the dimensions of standard sized comics. The paper is low quality newsprint and it is not uncommon for them to be miscut.
The comic from the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-pack has a cover featuring the Slave I and IG-2000. The pages show Boba Fett onboard Slave I with Han Solo in carbonite being attacked by IG-88 flying IG-2000. IG-88 damages Slave I but Fett destroys IG-88's ship. Fett is forced to land on Gall where he runs into Bossk and Zuckuss who want Fett to give them Solo.
Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996) included in the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-Pack (U.S. market)
The comic that came with the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-pack has a cover featuring both characters with a story that also includes the Emperor.
Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996) included in the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-Pack (U.S. market)
The toys also came in packaging for the French, Italian, and Spanish markets as well as multi-market packaging which contains English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and German. (Tri-logo is a term coined by toy collectors to indicate the packaging differences for the original Power of the Force line sold in Europe incorporating the Star Wars logos in English, French, and Spanish. These 2-packs are not tri-logo, but I have seen that term used for them by toy collectors. I'll use the term multi-market instead.) The language specific packaging contains comics that are also language specific, while the multi-market packaging contains comics that are in English. The multi-market version of the comics have the Shadow of the Empire portion of the title much smaller than the U.S. market version.
Here are the French market covers.
Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996) included in the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-Pack (French market)Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996) included in the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-Pack (French market)
Here are the Italian market covers.
Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996) included in the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-Pack (Italian market)Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996) included in the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-Pack (Italian market)
Here are the Spanish market covers.
Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996) included in the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-Pack (Spanish market)Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996) included in the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-Pack (Spanish market)
Here are the multi-market covers.
Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996) included in the Boba Fett versus IG-88 2-Pack (U.K./French/Spanish/Dutch/German markets)Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (May 1996) included in the Prince Xizor versus Darth Vader 2-Pack (U.K./French/Spanish/Dutch/German markets)
This was a surprisingly difficult set to put together. The U.S. and multi-market covers were easy (and cheap) to acquire. The 2-packs in the U.S. sell for $10 - 20 on eBay and the multi-market 2-packs sells for slightly more at $15 - 25. Occasionally, the U.S. market versions of the comics are found without the action figures and sell for $5 - 10. The non-English language specific 2-packs came from France, Italy, and Spain however and took me a few years to acquire. The prices were generally more than the multi-market 2-packs.
