Star Wars Special: The Constancia Affair and Big Bang #3

Dark Horse in conjunction with Kenner published Star Wars Special: The Constancia Affair for KB Toys in 1998.  The comic collects a 1979 Star Wars Sunday comic strip written and drawn by Russ Manning.  The cover artwork is by Igor Kordey and shows R2-D2 and C-3PO floating in space after the spacecraft they were on was destroyed by an Imperial Star Destroyer.  Cables from a distress beacon tether the two droids together.

Star Wars Special: The Constancia Affair a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (August 1998)
KB Toys exclusive

Big Bang #3 published by Fabbri Editori in 1979 collects several American newspaper strips including DC Superheroes, Buck Rogers, and Star Wars.  The cover depicts the same situation that the cover for the Star Wars Special: The Constancia Affair shows.  This cover however is taken from a panel from the comic strip inside the issue with the Saturn-like planet also lifted from another panel.

Big Bang #3a - Fabbri Editori, Italy (April 1979)

One piece was designed to be a cover and the other is an amalgamation of panels from a newspaper comic strip, so initial reactions would be this is not a very fair comparison.  The techniques and details on the Star Wars Special: The Constancia Affair cover are expectantly superior with the depiction of C-3PO and the explosion in the background standing out.  Where this cover fails however is with R2-D2.  R2-D2 does not look like he is floating in space, but appears to be rolling along a solid surface that isn't there.  There is no reason for his third leg to be extended and drawing him upright in this pose just amplifies the problem.  The R2-D2 on the Russ Manning artwork looks like it is floating in space.

The Igor Kordey cover only slightly beats out the Russ Manning cover.  If a different choice on R2-D2's pose was taken, this would have been the clear runaway favorite instead of just mildly edging out the other cover.