Star Wars: Union is a 4-issue mini-series tells the story of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade's marriage. The first and fourth issues have Dynamic Forces exclusive covers.
Star Wars: Union #1c - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (1999) Dynamic Forces gold foil exclusive
The Dynamic Forces cover to issue #1 is the same as the standard cover, except the Star Wars title is in gold foil. This exclusive came out in 1999 and is limited to 5,000 copies. In comparison, most of the Star Wars exclusives published last year had print runs of 3,000 copies. Despite the print run, this is a moderately expensive comic and comes up for sale infrequently.
Gabriele Dell'Otto is an Italian painter and illustrator best known for providing painted covers for Marvel Comics. While he is mostly known as a cover artist, he did provide the interior art for the Secret Wars (2004) 5-issue mini-series and the X-Force: Sex and Violence 3-issue mini-series. Dell'Otto began producing material including covers for Marvel Comics in Europe before his art was discovered and he received work in the U.S.
Dell'Otto has contributed painted art for several Marvel's Star Wars covers including the Star Wars #1 Loot Crate exclusive that had the largest print run of all the exclusives for that issue.
Star Wars #1ai - Marvel Comics, U.S. (January 2015) Loot Crate exclusive
The cover to the Star Wars #1 Loot Crate exclusive is a nice play on the Loot Crate brand. It shows Han Solo and Chewbacca protecting crates of loot they are bringing aboard the Millennium Falcon. I love how Dell'Otto captures Chewbacca's signature growl in this piece.
Dell'Otto provided the artwork for all five issues of the Star Wars: Princess Leia Mile High Comics exclusives.
Star Wars: Princess Leia #1w - Marvel Comics, U.S. (March 2015) Mile High Comics exclusiveStar Wars: Princess Leia #2c - Marvel Comics, U.S. (March 2015) Mile High Comics exclusiveStar Wars: Princess Leia #3d - Marvel Comics, U.S. (April 2015) Mile High Comics exclusiveStar Wars: Princess Leia #4b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (June 2015) Mile High Comics exclusiveStar Wars: Princess Leia #5b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (July 2015) Mile High Comics exclusive
The covers for the Star Wars: Princess Leia Mile High Comics exclusives are my favorite Gabriele Dell'Otto Star Wars covers. They tell an unlikely scenario with Princess Leia adorned in her white gown trying to hide from Imperial Stormtroopers in Mos Eisley's Cantina. She is forced to take down the Imperials which attracts the attention of IG-88. Leia retreats into the streets of Mos Eisley where she dispatches the bounty hunter. Dell'Otto does a fantastic job of capturing the atmosphere of Mos Eisley and his use of shadow and light in these pieces are breathtaking. He populates the background with denizens which are easily recognizable from their screen appearances and the overall consequence is detailed art that is both interesting and beautiful to behold. You can see Leia's sleeve is torn on the cover to the second issue, a detail Dell'Otto uses on the cover to issue #4!
Star Wars: Chewbacca #1 has a 1:25 incentive cover with artwork by Dell'Otto.
Star Wars: Chewbacca #1e - Marvel Comics, U.S. (October 2015)
The cover to the Star Wars: Chewbacca #1 variant shows Chewbacca flanking the teenager Zarro. While the rendering of Chewbacca and Zarro is nice, the yellow background blends too much with the earth colors used on the characters. I think a background that contrasts with the colors used on the characters would make this cover pop more. While nice, this is my least favorite of the Dell'Otto covers, but my opinion may be influenced by this being my least favorite Star Wars title Marvel produced in 2015.
The last Dell'Otto cover is for the Star Wars: Vader Down #1 Yesteryear Comics exclusive.
Star Wars: Vader Down #1aa - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 2015) Yesteryear Comics exclusive
The cover to the Star Wars: Vader Down #1 Yesteryear Comics exclusive show Darth Vader preparing to battle as a squadron of X-Wing Fighters approaches his location. It is a nice enough cover that is unfortunately lost in the myriad of Darth Vader covers that were released in 2015. Marvel has produced so many variant covers for the Star Wars titles, that many of them look the same. At least this cover is not a generic cover and does relate to the story told inside the comic unlike many of the variant covers we received in 2015. Darth Vader's Lightsaber provides enough contrast with the blues and blacks to make the cover more interesting than the Chewbacca #1 cover above.
If you have been following my blog, you know I love painted Star Wars covers like those found on the French Titans anthology title. Gabriele Dell'Otto has attracted attention from comics fans because of his exquisitely painted covers and has a growing base of followers. There is no doubt he will be asked to provide covers for future Star Wars comics and I look forward to seeing what he contributes next.
Star Wars has been able to attract some of the best talent in the comic industry including: Howard Chaykin, Carmine Infantino, Al Williamson, Walt Simonson, Russ Manning, Cam Kennedy, Kilian Plunkett, Dave Dorman, and Jan Duursema. These are just some of the many artists to have contributed to Star Wars comics. But there are many more artist who are not recognizable as Star Wars artists who have produced art for Star Wars comic covers. One of these artists is Mike Allred.
Mike Allred is best known for the creation of Madman and a retro-style artwork that would fit right in with the likes of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko at Marvel in the 1960s. His art is usually adorned with bright, primary colors, which further emphasizes the retro-style. Allred has dabbled in mainstream comics throughout his career, but his most prominent mainstream work has been on X-Force which spawned the X-Statix title. He and writer Chris Roberson created iZombie for DC Comics's Vertigo line which is now a television series.
His choice as the cover artist for Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures #1 is apropos. Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures reprints the earliest Star Wars newspaper comic strips done by Russ Manning who is a classic artist from the Silver Age of comics from which Allred draws inspiration for his art. Mike Allred moved the Madman comics from Tundra to Dark Horse earlier in 1994, making him available for the cover of this first issue This is Mike Allred's only published Star Wars cover art.
Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures #1a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (August 1994)
The cover shows Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, R2-D2, and C-3PO on Vorzyd 5, also known as Gambler's World. Luke has his lightsaber drawn and takes a swing at the shadowy Blackhole flanked by Imperial Stormtroopers. The group is in some retro-style futuristic tunnel and in the background there are some space aliens overlooking the confrontation. While to some, the cover might look amateurish, Allred does a good job of capturing the look of the interior art without aping it. Luke's face is distinctively Allred, a look that would be right at home on Madman himself. The cover looks like it was done in grey-tone, also a throwback to the Silver Age of comics. The most curious part of the art is the choice of Luke's pants and boots. Both look more like pants worn by Han Solo than Luke.
Mike Richardson quit his commercial artist job in Portland and moved his young family to Bend, Oregon to opened the retail store Pegasus Fantasy Books in 1980. The retail store sold new and back issue comic books as well as new and classic science fiction paperbacks and was an early seller of Dungeons & Dragons. The store soon expanded into a chain of stores where comic creators were invited to do signings. Richardson empathized with the creators over not having intellectual propery rights to their work.
Dark Horse Presents #1 - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (July 1986) 1st Dark Horse comic
Richardson used money he raised from his retail stores to start Dark Horse Comics. The first title from this fledgling publisher came out in July 1986 and is aptly named Dark Horse Presents which introduced several notable creations over its 162 issue run. Creator owned properties like Paul Chadwick's Concrete and John Byrne's Next Men, Dark Horse's first character to be turned into a movie The Mask, and a teaming of the licensed movie properties Aliens and Predator were all introduced in the pages of this anthology title. It is Dark Horse's success with licensed movie properties that led them to securing the license for Star Wars.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters Special - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (August 1987) 1st Dark Horse Godzilla comic
Dark Horse's first foray into licensed movie properties began in August 1987 when they published an original black and white one-shot titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters Special. This comic proved successful and Dark Horse followed up with a 6-issue mini-series simply titled Godzilla that began in May 1988 and concluded in January 1989. This mini-series is a translation of a Japanese manga by Kazuhisa Iwata and is Dark Horse's first manga series. Dark Horse would hold the license and publish comics for Godzilla for 12 years. In 1998, the final year they held the Godzilla license, Dark Horse only published reprints of their previous Godzilla comics.
Aliens #1a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (July 1988) 1st Dark Horse Aliens comic
The next license Dark Horse obtained was for the franchise Aliens. They published a 6-issue black and white mini-series starting in July 1988. This original story was another success for Dark Horse and Aliens would prove to be the longest-lived movie license at Dark Horse, a license that they still hold and exercise. Dark Horse would acquire another license from 20th Century Fox which they also still hold, Predator. They published a 4-issue Predator mini-series beginning in June 1989, one month before the conclusion of their first Aliens mini-series. In February 1990, one month before the conclusion of the first Predator mini-series, Dark Horse would pair the Aliens and Predator franchise for the first time in the 3rd part of a story concluding in Dark Horse Presents #36. (Dark Horse celebrated this pairing by publishing two covers for Dark Horse Presents #36.) The first part of the story in Dark Horse Presents #34 only contains Aliens and the second part in Dark Horse Presents #35 only contains Predator. This 3-part short story titled Aliens vs. Predator was so successful, 20th Century Fox would take the concept and title when they release their first Alien vs. Predator movie in 2004. Dark Horse quickly turned this pairing into a 4-part mini-series with a continuation of the short story Aliens vs. Predator in a title of the same name in June 1990. Aliens vs Predator is arguably Dark Horse's greatest original contribution to pop culture. Over the years since this comic was released, there have been many similar pairings between otherwise separate properties.
Dark Horse Presents #36a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (February 1990) 1st Aliens vs. Predator comicDark Horse Presents #36b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (February 1990) 1st Aliens vs. Predator comicAliens vs. Predator #1a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (June 1990)
Another major movie franchise, Terminator, was brought to Dark Horse in 1990. The license was briefly held by Now comics prior to Dark Horse acquiring it. In August 1990, Dark Horse published a 4-issue mini-series titled The Terminator. Dark Horse would publish Terminator titles on and off over the next 24 years. During this time, Marvel, Malibu Comics, Beckett Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, and IDW would also publish Terminator comics.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis #1a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (March 1991)
As hard as it is to believe, Dark Horse began publishing comics based on one more movie license before Star Wars. Also from Lucasfilm, Dark Horse published the 4-issue mini-series Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis starting in March 1991. Like Star Wars, Dark Horse would secure this license original held by Marvel Comics. Marvel published a 3-issue adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. They also published a 34 issue ongoing series title The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones from January 1983 through March 1986. In 1989, they published a 4-issue adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, their final Indiana Jones title. Dark Horse would actively publish Indiana Jones mini-series until 1996. In 2008 when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released, Dark Horse released an adaptation. Dark Horse published their last Indiana Jones mini-series with the 4-issue Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods which concluded in March 2009. This license, like Star Wars, reverted to Marvel in 2015.
Star Wars: Dark Empire #1a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (December 1991) 1st Dark Horse Star Wars comic
It was the success of these other movie licenses and the languishing of the Star Wars property at Marvel that led to Dark Horse acquiring the license along with the Indiana Jones license in 1991. Droids had ended with the eighth issue in June 1987 and the following month, Ewoks #14 was the last Star Wars comic Marvel published until they reacquired the license in 2015. There were 3 Star Wars 3-D comics published in 1987 and 1988 by Blackthorne Publishing, but no more Star Wars comics were released in the U.S. until December 1991 when Dark Horse published Star Wars: Dark Empire #1. The Dark Empire story actually originated at Marvel and appeared in an ad in Marvel Age Preview #1 in June 1990. But Dark Horse had convinced Lucasfilm the property would be better off with them instead of Marvel.
Dark Horse saw success with movie licensed comics by making them an integral part of their publishing plans. Because Dark Horse did not have any major properties of their own, they devoted a large amount of their resources to making the licensed comics the best they could be. It is this care and respect for the properties that garnered them success and allowed them to acquire the Star Wars license. For Marvel, Star Wars was just another low-selling licensed comic, not one of their core superhero titles. In fact, it was the introduction of the New Universe imprint in 1986 that prompted Marvel to cease their main Star Wars title that same year. For Dark Horse, Star Wars would prove to be their most successful property. Dark Horse was able to become the third largest comic publisher in the U.S., in no small part to Star Wars, and during the 24 years that they released Star Wars comics, many comic collectors undoubtedly saw Dark Horse as the Star Wars comic publisher, ignorant of the other titles they published.
The second of the two traditionally hard to find Dynamic Forces exclusives is Star Wars: Darth Maul #1. In the past year, as the prices for the Dynamic Forces exclusives have risen, more and more copies of this once elusive issue have been showing up on eBay.
Star Wars: Darth Maul #1d - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (2000) Dynamic Forces crimson red exclusive
The Dynamic Forces cover has a photo of Darth Maul with a light blue background and the Darth Maul title in crimson red. It should not be confused with the standard cover which has a different photo, dark blue and black background, and the title in yellow bordered by red. This exclusive came out in 2000 and was limited to 2,000 copies. It has traditionally been one of the more expensive Dynamic Forces exclusives when it shows up for sale on eBay.
For many years, most of the Dynamic Forces exclusive comics published by Dark Horse have been relatively easy and inexpensive to find on eBay with a few exceptions. In the past year however, many of these exclusives have been rising in value. As a consequence, two of the hardest to find exclusives have been showing up more and more on eBay, no doubt due to this rise in prices. Those two comics are the Star Wars: Infinities - A New Hope #1 and Star Wars: Darth Maul #1 Dynamic Forces exclusives.
Star Wars: Infinities - A New Hope #1c - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (2001) Dynamic Forces gold foil exclusive
The Dynamic Forces cover has a photo of Darth Vader and the Star Wars title in gold foil. This exclusive came out in 2001 and was limited to 2,500 copies. Even though it is not the most limited Dynamic Forces exclusive, it has traditionally been one of the more expensive variants when it shows up for sale on eBay.
Star Wars #16, titled Rebel Jail, shows the Rebel penitentiary called Sunspot Prison. Princess Leia takes Doctor Aphra, a cohort of Darth Vader, to the prison. To keep the prison a secret from the Empire, it is hidden in the corona of a sun. This is not the first time the Rebellion has hidden assets from the Empire in the corona of a sun.
In the original Marvel series, Princess Leia oversees the plan to hide the Rebel Fleet inside the corona of Arbra's sun. In a story titled Sundown! in Star Wars #58, a pyramid shaped force field encapsulates the fleet and is piloted into the sun's chromosphere layer, just below the outer corona layer. The pyramid is made up of a Kerts-Bhrg control generator and four slave generators. Once in place, Princess Leia and other Alliance personnel debark the control generator, leaving behind a maintenance crew. Also left behind, unbeknownst to anyone else, are C-3PO and R2-D2. R2-D2 had discovered an issue with the control generator which causes the force field to be under-powered and renders the maintenance crew unconscious. C-3PO contacts Princess Leia to report the issue. As the Rebellion is paralyzed to help, R2-D2 and C-3PO execute on an idea R2-D2 has which involves them performing a space walk to connect a power cable from the control generator to one of the Rebel cruisers. They succeed in boosting the force field's power thus saving the fleet.
Star Wars #58a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (April 1982)Star Wars #58b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (April 1982)
The cover, by Walt Simonson, shows C-3PO and R2-D2 making the space walk. Inside the comic, R2-D2 is covered in reflective foil while C-3PO is not. Presumably C-3PO's gold plating provides enough insulation from the radiation so he does not require the reflective foil. It is possible the scene on this cover takes place after the pair succeed in providing more power to the force field, making it unnecessary for R2-D2 to need the reflective foil.
While the concept is interesting and the story is mediocre, we do get to see Princess Leia in a leadership role. In the story, Leia is giving commands and directing the personnel during the operation. This is a side of Leia that is not shown often in the original title, but we see in The Force Awakens.
