In 1996, Dark Horse celebrated it's 10th anniversary by publishing a 4-issue mini-series anthology titled A Decade of Dark Horse. Each issue of the series features three or four short stories for properties that Dark Horse had published over it's first decade including: Sin City, Concrete, The Mask, Nexus, Grendel,Godzilla, Predator, Aliens, and Star Wars. The original 10-page Star Wars story, named This Crumb For Hire, tells the tale of how Salacious Crumb came into the service of Jabba The Hutt. Han Solo and Chewbacca deliver spice to Jabba the Hutt and his two henchmen, Bib Fortuna and Bidlo Kwerve, on Kwenn Station, and after a botched double-crossing by Jabba, the smugglers receive their pay and depart for the Corporate Sector. While Bib and Bidlo are loading the cargo onto Jabba's transport ship, Salacious Crumb, a Kowakian Monkey-Lizard, is chased off the station into the transport and wanders into Jabba's chambers. After scolding Bib and Bidlo for their part in the failed double-cross of Han, Jabba retires to his chambers to eat and is startled by Crumb who is in his bowl of gruel. Jabba summons Bib and Bidlo who are humorously covered in Jabba's food by Crumb and Jabba decides to hire Salacious Crumb as long as he continues to amuse Jabba.
A Decade of Dark Horse #2a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (August 1996)
Han Solo and Chewbacca only appear for three pages in the story but are featured prominently on the front of the wrap around cover. On the cover and in the pages, Han Solo is drawn to appear younger than he is in Star Wars and the Corporate Sector where they depart to is where the Han Solo books by Brian Daley take place.
Another interesting note is Jabba's majordomo at the time of the story is Naroon Cuthus and Bib is portrayed as just a hired thug.
An image of a Stormtrooper riding a Dewback is one of the earliest publicity photos used to promote Star Wars. A single Dewback prop was built for the film which is seen briefly in the background when the Imperials are searching for the droids in the Tatooine desert and when Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi enter the Mos Eisley Cantina. A toy Dewback was produced for the Kenner action figure line in 1979 with slightly more mobility than the movie prop. For many years, it was left to the imagine of Star Wars fans the particulars of this lizard-like mount. It would not be until the 1997 Special Edition release of Star Wars that fans got to see the Dewback in action when digital versions are inserted into the two mentioned scenes.
This, at the time, mysterious creature makes an appearance on the cover and interior of Star Wars #31.
Star Wars #31a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (January 1980)
Spanish publisher Ediciones Surco's cover for Star Wars: la Guerra de las Galaxias #7 depicts the same scene.
Star Wars: la Guerra de las Galaxias #7a - Ediciones Surco, Spain (November 1983) Star Wars #31 and 32
The first thing that is noticed when comparing the two covers is the Spanish version is flipped. Most of the characters are in identical poses, including Luke, C-3PO, R2-D2, and the two Imperial Stormtroopers. In the Spanish version, C-3PO is pointing at the Dewback. Outside of the flipped image, the biggest difference between these covers is how menacing the Dewback is depicted on the Spanish cover. On both covers, the Dewback is leering at our hiding heroes, but on the Spanish cover the Dewback has some impressive teeth and claws to go with the stare.
The Spanish cover is the better cover with a more detailed desert, reddish sky, and large sun that frames the menace our heroes face. Inside the comic, our heroes are never close to the Imperials however; instead the patrol spots the landspeeder they are in with scanning equipment and dismisses it as a local farmer out hunting.
When The Force Awakens was released to theaters in December 2015, it changed several traditions that Star Wars fans had come to expect. One tradition broken is the movie's release date. The first 6 Star Wars movies had all been released during the summer in May, so releasing The Force Awakens in December was slightly controversial. Star Wars has always been a juggernaut when it comes to merchandising and timing the movie's release to coincide with the gift giving holiday of Christmas had to figure into Disney's decision. Another changed tradition was less controversial and has to do with the title of the movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. For the prequel trilogy, to emphasize these stories happened before the original trilogy, it became common to use roman numerals when identifying the movies. Over the years, Star Wars became known as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, followed by Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, and finally Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. Interestingly, if you look at posters and merchandise for the original trilogy, they simply use the main title without the roman numerals. While The Force Awakens is sometimes referred to as Episode VII, most notably during the opening crawl, it makes sense that Disney has de-emphasized the numeric order of the movies. After all, there are going to be anthology films like Rogue One, which tell stories between trilogies, which makes the numeric ordering confusing. Another tradition that was missed by Star Wars comic fans was the publication of a comic book adaptation to coincide with the release of the movie.
In many ways, it makes sense a comic book for The Force Awakens was not available when the movie came out. Since it is likely changes to the movie were being made up to the very end, a comic would undoubtedly have slight differences from the film. The original Star Wars comic has several famous differences like appearances from Biggs Darklighter and Jabba the Hutt that were cut from the final film. Since Lucasfilm has put together a story group in 2013 to create a cohesive continuity across all media, it would make no sense to have publications that differ from what appears on the screen. Another reason to not release the comic when the movie came out is to avoid spoilers. In 1977, Star Wars #1 was released two months prior to the movie to help advertise the movie to likely audience goers, the comic book reader. For The Force Awakens, no such advertising was needed as Star Wars is a well known brand. Another reason that probably made the decision easier is movie adaptation do not sell well in comics. The last Star Wars movie, Star Wars: Episode VI - Revenge of the Sith, had a 4-issue mini-series adaptation in 2005 which only had original orders per issue of between 26,000 and 29,000 copies to comic specialty shops. It also had initial orders of another 8,700+ trade paperbacks to specialty shops and you have to figure the movie adaptation sold more than a few copies through bookstores. But when you consider the original Star Wars adaptation sold north of 1 million copies in the form of comics, paperbacks, and treasuries, these numbers for the Revenge of the Sith comic pale in comparison. Marvel is publishing a 5-issue mini-series adaptation of The Force Awakens with the first issue already available in June 2016. That first issue did sell much better than Dark Horse's Revenge of the Sith, but Marvel did entice shops into ordering more copies by offering variant cover incentives and it had no way of knowing it would sell as well as it did. This makes the Revenge of the Sith title the lowest selling Star Wars movie comic book adaptation.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith #1a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (March 2005)Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith #2a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (March 2005)Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith #3a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (April 2005)Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith #4a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (April 2005)
One possible reason for the low number of sales for the Revenge of the Sith issues has to do with the fact no variant covers were available for this title. When Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace was published, the number of initial orders per issue was between 81,000 and 89,000 copies, but there was both an art and a photo cover for each issue. The same was true for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones with initial orders per issue between 35,000 and 41,000 copies. There are probably less copies of the different Attack of the Clones covers when you consider the split in sales between the variants, but overall, there are less copies of the Revenge of the Sith comics available. An estimated 79,626 copies of The Force Awakens #1 were ordered in June 2016.
In February 1994 Image Comics imprint Wildstorm published Gen 13 #1 with 13 variant covers which was a large number of variants for a comic book at the time. One of the variant cover gimmicks used for Gen 13 #1 would go on to become a staple of modern comics, and that was the blank cover. The Gen 13 #1 blank cover was dubbed the "do it yourself cover" and was meant for the comic reader to draw their own picture. Today's blank covers are aimed at readers wishing to get a unique, one of a kind drawing by their favorite artists.
Blank covers are an inexpensive way for a comic publisher to sell more comics. Most are just the standard issue, including the standard cover, wrapped by a blank cover with the publisher brand and title of the comic. In the case of the Marvel Star Wars titles, the thicker paper stock used is suitable for an artist to sketch on. To date, every non-reprint Marvel title has a first issue variant that is a blank cover.
Star Wars #1d - Marvel Comics, U.S. (January 2015) blank variantStar Wars: Darth Vader #1d - Marvel Comics, U.S. (February 2015) blank variantStar Wars: Princess Leia #1d - Marvel Comics, U.S. (March 2015) blank variantStar Wars: Kanan - The Last Padawan #1b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (April 2015) blank variantStar Wars: Lando #1d - Marvel Comics, U.S. (July 2015) blank variantStar Wars: Shattered Empire #1b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (September 2015) blank variantStar Wars: Chewbacca #1c - Marvel Comics, U.S. (October 2015) blank variantStar Wars: Vader Down #1b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 2015) blank variantStar Wars Annual #1b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (December 2015) blank variantStar Wars: Darth Vader Annual #1b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (December 2015) blank variantStar Wars: Obi-Wan & Anakin #1c - Marvel Comics, U.S. (January 2016) blank variantStar Wars Special: C-3PO #1c - Marvel Comics, U.S. (April 2016) blank variantStar Wars: Poe Dameron #1c - Marvel Comics, U.S. (April 2016) blank variantStar Wars: The Force Awakens #1b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (June 2016) blank variantStar Wars: Han Solo #1c - Marvel Comics, U.S. (June 2016) blank variant
A complete list of all 15 blank cover variants to date includes:
It is hard to believe today, but for a fan in March 1978, there was not a lot of Star Wars merchandise available to purchase. Much of the original items were paper-based because they were quicker to get to production. Ephemeral products include the original Star Wars novel published in late 1976 and a few series of Star Wars trading cards from Topps in 1977. Kenner also produced some puzzles and a board game, and a lucky fan would have received a Star Wars Early Bird Certificate Package for Christmas 1977 which was redeemable for four Star Wars action figures which were not available yet. The penultimate chapter in Marvel's first post-movie story starring Han Solo and Chewbacca, Star Wars #9, was on the newsstand as well as Pizzazz #6 with another chapter in The Keeper's World comic strip starring Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. It is in this environment of scant products that the first original Star Wars novel was released, Splinter of the Mind's Eye.
For a fan in early 1978 eager for more Star Wars ... well anything, it is hard to imagine that Splinter of the Mind's Eye was not a welcome treat. The novel, written by Alan Dean Foster, contains a story where Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 crash on the planet Mimban, an inhospitable swamp world. There, they run afoul of the Imperial presence, befriend two alien Yuzzem and the Force sensitive female Halla, and encounter the mysterious Coway in the caverns beneath the surface. In the end, they confront Darth Vader at the Temple of Pomojema in search of the Kaiburr crystal which strengthens a Force user's abilities.
Dark Horse, eager for more content for their burgeoning Star Wars comic line, published a 4-issue adaptation of Splinter of the Mind's Eye in 1995/1996.
Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye #1a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (December 1995)Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye #2a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (February 1996)Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye #3a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (April 1996)Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye #4a - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (June 1996)
One of the benefits of running this blog is from time to time, I will get messages from other Star Wars comic fans. I have to apologize to one person, Carsten Olsen, who sent me a link to his blog site back in February. Being the Facebook illiterate that I am, I just noticed his Facebook request today, five months later. I have had a chance to read the link he sent De danske Star Wars tegneserier which translates to The Danish Star Wars comics and it has a lot of information as well as pictures. But don't stop at just that one posting, as his entire blog site is dedicated to Star Wars comics. Visit his site at Star Wars tegneserier. I want to thank Carsten for sending the link.
Semic Press began publishing Star Wars for Swedish readers with translations of the Marvel Star Wars series in six Stjärnornas Krig albums or trade paperbacks from 1977 to 1983 followed by ten issues of a comic also titled Stjärnornas Krig from 1983 to 1985. Starting in 1985 Star Wars was combined with another Lucasfilm property, Indiana Jones, in a comic titled Månadens äventyr or This Month's Adventure. For the seven issues published in 1985, Star Wars would alternate with Indiana Jones every other issue. Each issue contains the equivalent of two U.S. comics. 1986 was more of the same with Star Wars and Indiana Jones alternating issues, but by year's end, Star Wars had taken over the title and throughout 1987 Star Wars was in every issue. The title continued past the last issue, #12 1986, but it took a different direction and published DC heroes stories for Swedish readers. It is interesting to point out that in Sweden series restart numbering from one every year, so issues are identified by combination of the number and year.
The final issue of Stjärnornas Krig #3 1985 contains Star Wars #73 and 74. The first Star Wars issue of Månadens äventyr, #2 from 1985, continues where Stjärnornas Krig left off and contains Star Wars #75 and 76.
Månadens äventyr #2a - Semic Press, Sweden (July 1985) contains Star Wars #75 and 76
The art used on the Månadens äventyr covers is the same art used on the U.S. series with the exception of one issue. The cover art for Swedish Månadens äventyr #2 is from Star Wars #75. The cover also has a blurb that reads Poster medföljer detta nummer! or Poster included with this issue! The poster is attached to the centerfold.
