Dark Horse’s new series simply titled “Star Wars” got a lot of hype earlier this year, but it’s just the latest in a long line of stories to capture (or attempt to capture) the feel of that classic time period between “A New Hope” and “The Empire Strikes Back.”
The early Marvel comics (Issues 7-38, primarily by Archie Goodwin), Russ Manning’s newspaper comic strips and Alan Dean Foster’s “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” were the first shots at this time period, but those writers were at a disadvantage because they didn’t know what was going to happen in “Empire.” Perhaps Goodwin felt a little hamstrung working on the Marvel run during that time, because soon after “Empire’s” release, he switched from the comic book to the comic strip, and from the post-“Empire” period back to the post-“A New Hope” period. He was the first writer to tackle this time period while drawing upon both “ANH” and “Empire.”
The 16 stories he wrote from 1981-84, accompanied by Al Williamson’s art — commonly known as the Goodwin/Williamson strips — are not a do-over of his Marvel work. True, the serial adventure flows almost seamlessly from one yarn to the next, just as his Marvel stories did, but I’d argue that there’s room for other stories in there. And in fact, Goodwin is cognizant of what he did with these characters in the Marvel books, including Vader and Luke sensing each other in the Wheel arc. As Darth Vader says in “Darth Vader Strikes” when he senses Luke’s presence in the Fondor steam tunnels:
“There have been incidents to make me suspect (another Force user) since the destruction of the Death Star, but never so clearly as now!”
(For the record, according to this timeline, the Goodwin/Williamson strips start after Issue 34 of Marvel.)
Like a fair number of fans, I was ignorant of the strips when they ran in newspapers in the early 1980s, and first heard about them — and first read them — in Dark Horse’s 20-issue “Classic Star Wars” (1992-94). While some late adapters wished to see the strips unedited and in black-and-white, I appreciate the relatively smooth flow that editor Anina Bennett gives to the first four arcs (as far as I know, comic strips had never been converted into comic books before this), and the color added by Steve Buccellato. No, they weren’t intended to be colored, but they look great nonetheless, without hindering Williamson’s art. He captures likenesses beautifully (a very minor quibble: sometimes he seems to work from movie frames) while vibrantly populating the background. His work — and some aliens, such as the reptile-looking one — is instantly recognizable, and he’s certainly on my short list of favorite “Star Wars” comic artists.
The highest compliment I can give to these first four stories is that they FEEL like post-“ANH” “Star Wars” in every way: the Han-Leia banter, the Threepio-Artoo banter, the “Flash Gordon”-esque adventures, the sense of place with all the new locales (plus the familiar home base on Yavin IV), and the movie tie-ins. I love the Marvel comics for what they are, but somehow Goodwin really finds his groove here in stories that are often simpler, but also more free-wheeling thanks to the confidence that came from knowing the larger story’s end point this time around.
The first of the movie tie-ins comes in “The Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell,” based on Han’s comment to Leia in the ice caverns of Hoth. That bounty hunter is named Skorr. Interestingly, another “bounty hunter of Ord Mantell” appears in Brian Daley’s 33 rpm record, “Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell.” That one is named Cypher. And later in the Goodwin/Williamson run, Han will run into more bounty hunters on this planet. Whew!
“Darth Vader Strikes” is my favorite of this batch because the steam tunnels of Fondor are so evocative. This planet’s shipyards are where Darth Vader’s Super Star Destroyer, the Executor, is being built. With Vader coming in one direction and Luke the other, there’s a palpable sense of suspense.
Although it doesn’t bother me all that much, I should note that Leia, Luke and Han are very one-dimensional in these stories: Leia’s all about the Rebellion; Luke shifts between duty and his awkward crush on Leia; and Han is a smooth player, always calling Leia “your worship” and trying to impress her with his daring rescues and escapes. Chewie is Han’s sounding board, and the droids continue their Laurel and Hardy shtick.
This is part of why I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Tanith Shire, Luke’s earliest love interest in “Star Wars” lore that he’s not related to. Her flirtyness is an entertaining contrast to Leia. Tanith’s first words when seeing Luke: “Hey, you’re cute!”
“The Serpent Masters” briefly touches on the issue of slavery as Luke and Tanith are in the clutches of a man who looks like Ming the Merciless and who controls flying beasts with an electronic transmitter. Lacking the knowledge that Luke’s dad began his life as a slave, Goodwin doesn’t delve deeply into this theme.
“Deadly Reunion” is also shallower than it could’ve been. We meet an Imperial weapons designer, Dr. Arakkus, who is dying as an aftereffect of a Rebel attack. So he haunts the area around a dwarf star, tricking Rebels into flying toward it so they can die with him. This arc does have a great Han Solo line, at least: “Kid, you gonna trust the Empire’s greatest scientific genius … or me?”
The letter columns in “Classic Star Wars” 1-7, where these stories are found, are filled with remembrances of the summer of 1977 and enthusiasm about the new “Star Wars” products that were rolling out in 1992. The Goodwin/Williamson strips are all about the childhood wonder brought out by the original trilogy and fans’ memories of seeing the films for the first time. You won’t always be in a mood for these stories — I certainly can’t blame a fan for preferring Dark Horse’s new ongoing “Star Wars,” or “Empire”/“Rebellion” — but if you want nostalgia and a dose of “Star Wars” history, these stories should be your first stop.
Comments
I think that with these strips Goodwin got the Star Wars spirit much more than in his Marvel run. My problem with this entire series is the mount of fillers that we got along the main storyline, it doesn’t bother in this first issues, but gets worse as the series progresses! Also, as you said, Arakkus story coud be longer, it was interesting.# Posted By Eric | 9/24/13 7:37 PM
The SW “spirit” is especially on display when there’s a tie-in such as Ord Mantell or the Executor or further adventures on Yavin. But I wonder how much Williamson’s art adds to getting that movie feel spot-on? His art is more movie-real than Infantino’s. I wonder if we view CSW as being more in tune with the movies than Marvel only because of the artwork, and Goodwin was actually not approaching things all that differently (except that the comic-strip medium requires a “mini-story” every three panels). It’s an interesting phenomenon, at any rate.# Posted By John Hansen | 9/24/13 8:33 PM