Although it made its start in the world of movies, Star Wars has become a cultural phenomenon that transcended being “just” a movie and has become an epic story told in virtually every format from movies to television to comic books, prose novels, toys and even bedsheets. And although comic book adaptations of movies have generally not been the greatest, Star Wars has managed to buck that trend and created the largest collection of comic book stories outside of superheroes.
The Star Wars comics have hosted many greats over the years from Howard Chaykin to Chris Claremont, Whilce Portacio, Joe Casey and even legends like Russ Manning and Archie Goodwin, so it’s easy to get lost with everything in the back issue bins and the new material Dark Horse publishes each month. And with Brian Wood and Carlos D’Anda’s new Star Wars series earning Pick of the Week recently, we thought for this week’s Where Do I Start? that we’d look over the various comic books and graphic novels that Marvel and Dark Horse have published over the years.
Star Wars: A Long Time Ago…, Vol. 3: Resurrection of Evil: George Lucas is an ardent fan. He may not talk about it much these days, but he co-owned a comic shop in the 70s and actively appealed to Stan Lee to do Star Wars comics in the late 70s. What came out of that agreement between Lucas and Marvel is admittedly uneven, but amongst the gems to be found is a story by David Michelinie and Walt Simonson called “To Take The Tarkin,” collected in this volume. In this story, Luke, Leia, Chewbacca and the droids infiltrate a new top-secret imperial weapon called the Tarkin. Darth Vader sets out to intervene while a cabal of Imperial officers are planning to assassinate the Sith Lord. Thanks to a last minute save by Lando Calrissian, the rebels take out the Tarkin and even Darth Vader manages to avoid the attempts on his life by his own people. Sound like Return of the Jedi? Actually this was published years before that movie came out, making it at least a coincidence that comics inspired that future movie. One thing: no Ewoks.
Classic Star Wars: In Deadly Pursuit: You might think of newspaper comics as home to comedy strips like Charlie Brown and Dilbert, but from 1979 to 1984 Russ Manning, Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson created a Star Wars newspaper strip that harkened back to the franchise’s pulp comics roots. These three legends turned in some excellent, albeit dense material, crafting original stories as well as adaptation some of the franchise’s prose novels. Dark Horse has collected all of these, but the best place to start is Classic Star Wars: In Deadly Pursuit.
Star Wars: Tag & Bink Were Here: Did you ever see the Star Wars fan film Troops where some Imperial Stormtroopers arrest people, Cops style? That kind of humor is woefully absent from a majority of the official Star Wars films, but they made up for that with the excellent Tag and Bink 
comics from Dark Horse. It’s a story of two Jedi trainees who eek out a life while narrowly avoiding death amidst some of the biggest events in Star Wars history. Described as the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the Star Wars universe, all their stories are collected in this excellently hilarious tome released a few years back by Dark Horse.
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Dark Times, needs to be noted.
As far as modern Star Wars it and Legacy really do set the bar.
Both of these series are essential and greatly entertaining series
Dark Times is the real omission. It’s a great follow up to the prequels but much more in the style of the original trilogy.
I can’t speak highly enough about Legacy. My favourite thing Ostrander has ever written.
Dark Horse just solicited a deluxe HC of Legacy for April, for those who are interested.
Thanx, I did not know that & love Dark Horse’s quality on the Library Editions….I’ve never read Star Wars Legacy either and am a huge Star Wars fan, I’ve only read Star Wars comics in mini series like Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire & When the Fat Lady Swings (yrs ago), more recently Boba Fett Blood Ties: Boba Fett is Dead, Crimson Empire lll, Darth Vader: Ghost Prison and Dawn of the Jedi: Force Storm, all of which I liked but never an ongoing like Legacy until the recent Star Wars by Brian Wood which seemed like the perfect ongoing jumping on point.
There is an article on Wookipedia about the “Take the Tarkin’ issues where Simonson and his co-horts wrote that the Empire built a second Death Star. When the submitted the script for those issues to Lucasfilm for approval, they would not approve them. Marvel surmised that a 2nd Death Star must feature in what would become ROTJ. They resubmitted as it as a giant laser gun called the Tarking. Lucasfilm approved. This implies that Marvel comics inadvertently stumbled on a plot line from ROTJ.
The old Marvel comics are thrilling. Equal parts great and terrible, with a majority of the stories being so-so, this series is still riveting. I think it’s because it’s so rickety. The creators of the comics didn’t know how the story might wrap up, so they just wrote big space-fantasy stories, hoping they might align, at least a little, with what Mr Lucas was going to do in his next movie. And the excitement comes from that – not knowing what’s next. This whole story might just fall apart at any moment.
Nowadays, the conclusion to the Star Wars saga has been wrapped up for 30 years. There aren’t many surprises left. There are stories left to tell, I’m sure. But no surprises. And that suspension between chapters is something Star Wars fans have not felt for a long time. The only place I’ve found that still generates that kind of thrill of not knowing what’s next (in Star Wars) is in the old comics that Marvel put out.
Is that guy wearing Darth Vader pants on the cover of Legacy?
I just preordered the new Legacy series that’s coming out in a few months. I assume it will just be in the “Legacy” world and not too tied together with the previous series….
I also agree that Dark Times needs a mention.
Legacy is one of my favorite comic series. Star Wars or not. It’s just good comics, plain and simple. Totally recommended for SW fans, and casual fans of the movies alike.