Argentinian Fantasia Anuario #18

Founded in 1928 by brothers Ramón and Claudio Columba, Editorial Columba would become one of the largest comic book publishers in Argentina and South America.  Argentina's economy began shrinking in 1998 starting the 1998-2002 Argentine great depression.  This led to the Crisis of 2001 which was the height of political, social, and economic upheaval in the country during the depression.  Unfortunately, Editorial Columba was unable to navigate the troubled time and they went out of business in 2001 ending the longest running comic publisher in the country.

Editorial Columba brought the popular Marvel superheroes to Argentinian readers in the 1960s, so it should be no surprise that they released adaptations of the original Star Wars trilogy movies as well.  What is interesting however, is rather than publishing the official adaptations for Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back they printed unofficial adapations for these two movies.  For Return of the Jedi they published the Marvel adaptation.

Fantasia Anuario #18 contains the unofficial Empire Strikes Back adaptation.  Just 20 pages long, the comic was drawn by Uruguayan Eduardo Barreto under a pseudo-name.  The art is nice, at times rivaling Al Williamson's adaptation, which is not surprising since Barreto's artistic influences include notable greats like Hal Foster and Russ Manning.

Fantasia Anuario #18a - Editorial Columba, Argentina (January 1981)

The cover artwork for the magazine is taken from an Empire Strikes Back poster from 1980.

1980 Empire Strikes Back Poster

The characters on the cover are redrawn using the art from the poster.  Luke Skywalker is at the center of both the poster and cover and where his lightsaber disappears behind the AT-AT on the poster, it is completely shown on the cover.  Chewbacca is repositioned lower and over Luke's right shoulder.  C-3PO has the most changes with a skinnier head and motion lines (why?) and is positioned further to Luke's left.  R2-D2 has also been moved to the left.  The Millennium Falcon is mirrored from how it is presented on the poster.  Notably missing are Han Solo, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian, and Darth Vader's visage.  Also missing are other minor characters and vehicles found on the movie poster.  Random laser effects are instead added to the background for the cover.