Before I begin my review, let's get one thing straight: Classic Star Wars is by far the most confusing Dark Horse title EVER! Classic Star Wars is a 3-volume collection of newspaper strips by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson that ran in papers nationwide from 1980 until 1984 when the title was cancelled. I've always thought that this series should have been titled Star Wars Daily and that the original Marvel Comics run should have been designated CLASSIC! Instead the Marvel reprints were packaged as CLASSIC STAR WARS: A LONG TIME AGO... Added to the confusion is yet another series of trade paperbacks that reprint the 1979-1980 non-Goodwin penned strips called Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures!
Having read the introductions, a little bit of this confusion is finally cleared up to me. Dark Horse in the early 90s had just received the rights to publish Star Wars comics and they were desperate to start raking in the sales. They didn't have the original Marvel books in their possession yet, so they went on to print the newspaper strips.
For some reason, the first 18-months of the strips was MIA. Desperate to present rabid Star Wars fans with anything original, Dark Horse found its answer in rival publisher Russ Cochran and series artist Williamson. Russ Cochran had a few years earlier put out these giant sized hardback editions of the strip. But they were in black and white and they were reprints from a collection of clippings a fan made during the strip's original run. The images weren't all that great. Plus, since some strips didn't carry the weekly strip while others didn't carry the Sunday edition, to keep the reader from getting lost there were redundancies galore. Enter: Al Williamson!
Strip artist Al Williamson apparently was ultra-meticulous. Not only did he have all of the original artwork but they were catalogued to such a degree that his files actually found flaws in the Russ Cochran archives! Working with Dark Horse, Williamson and company produced what I am just about to review, a beautiful collection of the strips, edited to look more like a classic format comic book, repetitive panels deleted; now colored, re-inked, and featuring original covers and filler art by Al!
While I hated the title, I loved the content. The great introduction by writer Archie Goodwin helped me to better understand the way the strips were organized. There's lots of drama and action but it's framed in such a way that every other panel had to be a cliffhanger in order to entice the reader back the next day.
In this volume, we learn of what really happened with Han and that bounty hunter on Ord Mandell. Then Luke accepts a deadly mission to the Imperial shipyards before he's a captive of the Serpent Masters. Lastly, before Han sniffs out a rebel traitor on an ocean planet, the crew of the Millenium Falcon are trapped in the wake of a collapsing star.
The stories were exciting and I was riveted. There was one thing that really bugged me storywise and that was the love triangle between Princess Leia, Han Solo, and a certain farmboy from Tatooine. True, all of this happened before the big reveal in Return of the Jedi that Luke and Leia were brother and sister. But you'd think Lucas would've put the kibosh on this plotline. Plus, looking back at the massive hots Luke has for his (at the time unknown) sister, it's kinda creepy.
But the thing I loved the most about this book was the art. Now when these strips were first published I was of the ages of 3-7. Yet, looking at Williamson's deft artwork and dramatic shading, I was taken instantly back to the days of having my uncles or parents read to me the daily adventures of my favorite Star Wars characters. Williamson's art is so identifiable. Though Luke may not look like Luke on every panel, the artist's renderings of spaceships, droids, and Darth Vader are so perfect.
George Lucas was clearly influenced by the Flash Gordon serials of the 40s and 50s in making Star Wars. Here, Al Williamson's work is inspired by the classic strips that starred Flash and the Merciless Ming. Plus, I think the artist loves to draw lizards because he hides them in his artwork a lot. It's like a cool signature Easter Egg.
With Marvel owning the rights to these properties again, you might see this series get a new reissue one day soon. But, the original Classic Star Wars volumes are not hard to find. Amazon has a ton for sale and I often find the books in this series at LCS and used books stores nationwide. And for a decent price too.
A forgotten treasure in the Star Wars comic universe.
Worth Consuming
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.
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