Ask “Star Wars” fans to list notoriously bad “Star Wars” yarns through the years, and No. 1 will of course be the 1978 “Star Wars Holiday Special.” Some will add the two “Ewoks” movies and some will throw in the “Ewoks” and “Droids” cartoons (assessments that I disagree with). Some will mention the giant green rabbit from the early Marvel comics (I can see their point) and some will point to the very end of the Marvel comics run (with good reason).
Rarely mentioned are the “Ewoks” (1985-87) and “Droids” (1986-87) comics published by Star Comics, an imprint of Marvel. The 14 issues of “Ewoks” and eight issues of “Droids,” spun off from the respective Saturday morning cartoons on ABC, are awful. But they are also rather rare; until the recent announcement that Dark Horse will be collecting them in a $24.99 omnibus volume on June 20, they were on the short list of vintage “Star Wars” comics that had never been reprinted.
Thinking they’d never be reissued, I used some savvy eBay bidding to gradually complete my collection over the past year. As an amateur “Star Wars” historian, I wanted to finally read them all. After slogging through all 22 issues, well, let’s just say I’m happy to have them in my collection as collector’s items — “items” being the key word, not “literature.” The artwork on “Ewoks” is colorful, dense and mostly on par with the cartoon; the “Droids” art is sparser and it gets downright bad toward the end. The covers — especially those on “Ewoks” — are generally vibrant and fun.
But then there’s the writing. All 22 issues are penned by Dave Manak, who perhaps got the job because he could crank out passable juvenile yarns at lightning speed (he was also churning out additional Star titles during this time). Star Comics’ “Ewoks” and “Droids” seem to be aimed at a much younger audience than the cartoons, which I enjoyed thoroughly at around age 7 and still appreciate today (except for some of the cheaply produced Season 2 of “Ewoks”).
Whereas the cartoons have a good sense of character for several Ewoks (and, in an unfair advantage, talented voice actors), the comics are decidedly sketchy. Manak is only interested in five Ewoks: Logray uses magic, Chief Chirpa is the leader, and Wicket, Teebo (no relation to Tim) and Kneessa are the kids. That’s as deep as the characters get, which I think is weak even in a kids’ comic. (Oddly, the comics do have a deeper roster of villains, where the cartoon was mainly concerned with the Duloks and Morag.)
Manak regularly puts plot ahead of character; in Issue 1, Kneessa is poisoned and her dad, Chirpa, knows where the cure is located. But because he failed on a dangerous mission to find that cure in the past, he declines to make the trip — even though his daughter’s life is at stake. Instead, Wicket and Teebo sneak out and complete the mission. I wasn’t even mad at Chirpa; I immediately recognized this as a case of poor writing.
I was excited to read Issues 6 through 8 of “Droids,” because they purport to tell the story of “A New Hope” from C-3PO’s and R2-D2’s perspectives. But it didn’t take me long to realize this yarn would rank as the worst “Infinities” or “Tales” ever if placed with those latter Dark Horse titles. Clearly written in haste — unlike Brian Daley’s meticulous filling-in-the-gaps storytelling in the 13-hour “Star Wars” radio drama — these three issues often break from the premise and we see events that the droids are not a privy to, such as a displeased Darth Vader killing a stormtrooper (by turning him into a smoking pile of dust!?!?!). And the additional material often contradicts the film, but not in a fun or funny way. For example, the droids dodge right through the middle of Obi-Wan and Vader’s lightsaber battle to get to the Falcon, with Vader taking earnest swipes at them as they pass.
The cartoon villains Tig Fromm and Vlix briefly appear in one issue, but none of the droids’ three sets of masters from the animated series appear in the comics.
Another historical curiosity is that “Droids” No. 4 and “Ewoks” No. 10 comprise a two-part, time-travel crossover yarn. I think this is the earliest example of time travel in “Star Wars,” which generally stayed away from that brain-bending sci-fi trope until it caved in with “Vector” in 2008 (a story that crossed over between the four Dark Horse titles) and Paul Kemp’s novel “Crosscurrent” in 2010.
From 1994-97, Dark Horse would realize the potential of pre-“A New Hope” R2-D2 and C-3PO for exploring various corners of the “Star Wars” universe in a more grown-up, albeit still breezy, “Droids.” I can’t say I remember much about that series, but the Star Comics “Ewoks” and “Droids” are both forgettable in terms of stories and memorable in terms of how bad they are. (For the sake of being fair and balanced, the letters columns in the “Ewoks” issues are packed with praise from the kiddies.)
In a future installment of “‘Star Wars’ Flashback,” I’ll dust off my VHS tapes and rewatch the cartoons that inspired these comics. I know they are much better than the comics (I’ve watched them a few times since their original airings), but how do they hold up today, especially since “The Clone Wars” has raised the bar for “Star Wars” on TV? Stay tuned.