Star Wars #1
Cover dated: July 1977 (actually issued in March 1977)
Issue title: Star Wars
Script: Roy Thomas
Artwork: Howard Chaykin
Colours: Marie Severin
Letters: Jim Novak
Cover art: Howard Chaykin (pencils)/Tom Palmer (inks)
Overall rating: 5½ out of 10




Plot summary: The premier issue of Marvel's Star Wars comic contains part 1 of the comic adaptation of the first Star Wars movie by Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin. The issue introduces Darth Vader and the Imperial Forces, who capture the starship of Princess Leia Organa, a leader of the Rebel Alliance. Before she is seized by Vader, Leia manages to hide the technical plans for the Empire's new battle station, the Death Star, in the memory banks of a droid named R2-D2. The droid manages to escape from the Rebel ship with his robot companion C-3PO and the pair land on the nearby desert planet of Tatooine. Soon after, they are acquired by a young moisture farmer named Luke Skywalker, to be put to work on Luke's uncle's farm.

While cleaning R2, Luke discovers a holographic message from Princess Leia to someone called Obi-Wan Kenobi in the droid's memory banks. Later that evening, R2 escapes from the moisture farm to find Kenobi himself. When Luke pursues the little droid into the Jundland Wastes (fearing punishment from his uncle over losing the robot) he is attacked by Tusken Raiders (or Sand People). Whether or not Luke will survive the encounter with the Sand People serves as the cliffhanger at the end of the issue.


Comments: All in all, this issue is a pretty solid re-telling of the opening 30 minutes or so of the first Star Wars movie. Thomas's script does a good job of introducing the characters of Luke, Leia and Darth Vader, along with the humorous, bickering droid duo of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Inevitably, some of the movie's intensity, grandeur and breathtaking pace is lost in the process of adapting it to the comic page, but ultimately I think Thomas does a bang up job of adapting this first instalment of the film.

It's worth noting that Thomas worked largely from an early shooting script when writing this adaptation, rather than from the movie itself. As a result, one of the things that immediately strikes the modern reader about this issue is the significantly different dialogue, compared to the movie. There's also the appearance of a few scenes that were ultimately left on the cutting room floor, like Luke spotting the Imperial Star Destroyer and Leia's Rebel blockade runner battling it out in Tatooine's upper atmosphere or later hanging out with his friends in Anchorhead. There's also a now-famous "lost" scene featuring Luke and his childhood friend Biggs Darklighter. This scene sees Biggs announcing that he intends to join the Rebel Alliance, something and will connect directly to events seen in issue #5 of the series.

Another very noticeable difference between the comic and the movie is the alternate version of the iconic opening crawl, which appears on page 1 of this issue...



Unfortunately, I have to say that I've always thought that Howard Chaykin's artwork in this issue is scratchy, messy and, in places, downright ugly. The sequential storytelling and overall staging is as good as you'd expect from someone of Chaykin's abilities, with the sequence where Luke is attacked by a Tusken Raider being especially good. But overall the art looks rushed. In addition, Chaykin squanders key scenes like Darth Vader's first appearance and therefore the comic reader misses out on the ominous introduction of the Dark Lord that moviegoers experienced in the film itself.

The fact that Chaykin didn't do much more than rough layouts for the subsequent 9 issues of the series (apparently because of deadline pressures on other titles), makes me suspect that he wasn't quite as committed to or as enthusiastic about Star Wars as Roy Thomas was. Maybe that opinion is unfair, and it certainly goes against everything that I've read on the subject. But personally, I think Chaykin's art in this issue looks for all the world like he's just dialling it in.

The front cover is also pencilled by Chaykin (with Tom Palmer on inks) and is based on a promotional poster that he drew in 1976, to help advertise the film at U.S. comic conventions like San Diego Comic Con and the World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City. In stark contrast to his interior artwork, Chaykin's art on the cover is dynamic, eye-catching and exciting. It must've really jumped out at kids browsing the spinner racks back in early 1977. The exciting cover blurb exclaims, "Enter Luke Skywalker! Will he save the galaxy -- or destroy it?", which is a touch melodramatic, but it sure sounds intriguing (which is precisely the point, of course).

With this being the first issue of the series, there's no letters page in the comic. Instead, we get a "six-issue prospectus on a startling piece of cinema" titled "Star Wars: The Ultimate Space Fantasy", which aims to inform readers about the film's central characters, production and groundbreaking special effects. There's also a one page article written by Roy Thomas called "Star Warriors: The Story Behind Star Wars", which attempts to outline how the Star Wars comic came to be.

Something else in this issue worth mentioning is the lettering of Jim Novak; his "bleep! bleep!", "puh-wheet!" noises for Artoo, his unintelligible Arabic style squiggles for the Jawa's alien dialogue and his use of a yellow rectangular speech bubble for C-3PO give a nice, other-worldly flavour to the exotic characters and locales we encounter. I'm not sure how much colourist Marie Severin may've been involved with the decision to give 3PO a yellow rectangular speech bubble, but regardless, it set a standard that has been copied by pretty much every Star Wars comic since.

Ultimately, this issue is somewhat marred by the scrappy nature of Chaykin's art, despite the fact that his pacing and the majority of his staging is strong. Thomas does a good job of introducing us to the Star Wars Universe and capturing some of the excitement of the film, but the scripting alone can't save this issue from being a somewhat mediocre start to the series.

Continuity issues:

• On the front cover, Darth Vader's armour is coloured green, instead of black.
• On the front cover, Han Solo is wearing a brown top, instead of his familiar white shirt and black waistcoat.
• On the front cover, Princess Leia is wearing a violet coloured outfit, instead of a white dress.
• On the front cover, Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi both have red lightsabers.

Favourite panel:




Favourite quote: "This is all your fault! I should have known better than to trust the logic of a half-sized thermocapsulary dehousing assister...!" – C-3PO speaking to R2-D2.

Didn't issue #1 come out before the movie?

I didn't get it until the Special Edition that reprinted #1-3 in treasury format size a few months later. It was probably only days after I saw the movie.

It is entirely possible that I saw the first three issues on the newsstand, but didn't know what they were. By the time I was looking for Star Wars comics, they were always sold out. I got the two treasury editions that reprinted issues #1-6, but that was it until Star Wars Annual #1 came out.

I'm pumped for this! I'm going to have to break out my issues.

This thread prompted me to create a profile so I can hopefully follow your posts more closely. Looking forward to your insights and reviews.

No, I decided against reviewing them or the Russ Manning newspaper strips (much as I love them both) because they weren't published by Marvel. I wanted to focus entirely on Marvel's take on the franchise.

I might do the newspaper strips at a later date, although thinking about it, it might make more sense to review them as they appeared in Dark Horse's Classic Star Wars and Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures series, rather than doing them as daily newspaper strips. I mean, doing a separate review for each four panel newspaper strip seems like an overly bitty way to do a review thread to me.

If you wanted to start reviewing the Goodwin and Williamson strips yourself, thwhtguardian, please feel free. I'd definitely be a vocal contributor to a thread like that.

As an aside, Al Williamson has said in interviews that George Lucas approached him as early as 1975 to see if he would be interested in drawing a Star Wars comic. Unfortunately, Williamson's schedule wouldn't allow him to take on the assignment, but I can't help feeling that it's a shame that Williamson didn't draw these early issues of Marvel's Star Wars comic.

Actually, Williamson and Goodwin did attempt to adapt the first Star Wars film for their newspaper strip, but it was ultimately shelved and the strips weren't published until a few years later in The Art of Al Williamson book. Here's a sample of that "lost" newspaper adaptation...



I don't mean to be overly unkind to Chaykin, but looking at Williamson's art in his attempt at adapting the first movie, and comparing it to Chaykin's work in Star Wars #1, really throws into sharp relief just how below par the latter's work is in this first issue.




That's excellent news, bthecollector1973. I look forward to reading your thoughts and comments. Welcome to the forum!

I have only read one DH Star Wars title, the Crimson Empire series, as I think we've talked about before Confessor. I may not have much to add or comment on, but I'll be reading the thread for sure. Maybe my opinions on the movie won't reflect on the comics. They were great movies as a youngin but I found them to be less than entertaining as an adult. I've played a few Star Wars games like the Force Unleashed series with Starkiller, that I liked, so there is potential in the characters. These comics may be a good look at the Star Wars universe that I would find entertaining.

And that B&W bit above ... that's some nice looking panels. Glad to know they have been collected together for an easy access reading.

I'm disappointed that they are recoloring them too. The original coloring is part of the experience!