A primer on Star Wars comics from 1977 forward, covering everything in general from early movie adaptations to the lengthy Dark Horse work in the Expanded Universe to the "New Marvel Era" and speculation on what is (and we hope) to come.
Show Notes
- Jek Porkins
- Snap Wexley
- Jaxxon
- Bucky O’Hare did, in fact, appear all of a sudden in the wake of Jaxxon in the Star Wars comics
- Luuke Skywalker happened in the first installment of Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy books
- …and so did Luuuke Skywalker
- Mara Jade first appeared in Heir to the Empire, and was such a good and enduring character that people often forget about Luuke and Luuuke.
- Trioculus made his first appearance in The Glove of Darth Vader
- The Wookiee Storybook by Eleanor Ehrhardt is the “Chewbacca family” book John mentioned
- Star Wars: 1313 was in development at LucasArts just before they were acquired by Disney and it was cancelled. Watch the limited in-game footage released and weep if you like good things.
Reading List: The “Legends” Era
All of these are available on Marvel Unlimited, along with all the rest of the nearly 40 years of pre-Disney Star Wars comics.
- Dark Empire I (1991) written by Tim Veitch, drawn by Cam Kennedy
- Dark Empire II (1994) also Veitch & Kennedy
- Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (1995) written by Terry Austin and drawn by Chris Sprouse, adaptation of the first “EU” book ever, written by Alan Dean Foster
- Rogue Squadron (1995) arc “The Phantom Affair” (issues #5-8) written by Michael A. Stackpole & Darko Macan, drawn by Edvin Biukovic
- the Shadows of the Empire (1996)) comic leaves out chunks of story covered in the novel, but is some of the most attentively produced EU projects, much like all other parts of the incredibly well-coordinated Shadows of the Empire multimedia campaign
- The Star Wars (2013), written by JW Rinzler and drawn by Mike Mayhew, with covers by Nick Runge, and based on George Lucas’ original treatment
- Star Wars Infinities, alternate histories of the Original Trilogy
- various Boba Fett miniseries), many drawn by Cam Kennedy
- Star Wars: Legacy (2013) written by Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman, (get hooked on their Invisible Republic from Image, it's great), drawn by Hardman, color by Rachelle Rosenberg
- Believe it or not, Dark Horse reprinted Star Wars 3-D (1987) written by Len Wein, penciled by Glen Johnson, and inked by Jim Nelson as part of 2013’s Omnibus: Wild Space, Volume 1, which included other obscure and off-the-beaten-path Star Wars comics. Many of the comics in it and Volume 2 are on Unlimited, but as far as we know, 3-D is not.
Reading List: The “New Marvel” Era
All of the following comics (and those to come) are considered fully in-canon content. Everything before them “doesn’t count” (and according to LucasFilm never did or would) as relates to the new movies and media.
- Star Wars (2015) written by Jason Aaron, drawn by John Cassaday and Stuart Immonen and others (so far), is the “core” book
- Star Wars: Darth Vader (2015) written by Kieron Gillen, drawn by Slavador Larocca and Leinil Yu (so far)
- Star Wars: Princess Leia (2015) written by Mark Waid, pencils by Terry Dodson, inks by Rachel Dodson
- Star Wars: Lando (2015), aka (to Moisés) Lando ’n’ Lobot’s Bogus Journey, written by Charles Soule and drawn by Alex Maleev
- Star Wars: Chewbacca (2015) written by Gerry Duggan, drawn by Phil Noto
- Star Wars: Shattered Empire (2015) written by Greg Rucka, drawn by Marco Checchetto and Angel Unzueta and Emilio Laiso
- Star Wars: Kanan (2015) written by Greg Weisman, drawn by Jacopo Camagni and Pepe Larraz
- Vader Down (2015) crossover between the “core” book and Darth Vader that totals seven issues of story
ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF GIANT SIZE
The State of Our Union (with Comics): what have mutually massive, continuity-restarting/recharging events at the Big Two, what do we still read there, and how does that affect our mutual reading piles? The answer(s) may change the fabric of our fandom…FOREVER.
