RIP Princess Leia

by Alex Ross 

Mary Jane Watson as Princess Leia by John Romita

1981 - Anatomy of a Cover - Star Wars #53 by Walt Simonson

Bob McLeod's recreation of Star Wars #86's cover

1980 - Star Wars #38

Star Wars #38 – “Riders in the Void!”

Marvel Comics, 1980

Writers – Archie Goodwin/Michael Golden

Artists – Michael Golden/Terry Austin

A few months ago, Disney announced that Marvel Comics would take over the Star Wars licensing rights in 2015. I thought I’d look back at Marvel Comics’ first go at the series in the late 1970s. Star Wars #38 is seen by fans as one of the best stand-alone comic stories of that series. This fill-in issue was published just before Star Wars #39-44 adapted Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Editor Archie Goodwin does double-duty as writer in this issue with a plot assist from artist Michael Golden. In an interview withTheForce.Net, Golden recalled:

“I told Archie this story that I wanted to do and he loved it, so I sat down and drew it and Terry Austin inked it. After I had sat down to the drawing it, Archie actually called me and said they were actually going to use the story right away, so I finished up the pencils and it went off to Terry Austin to ink. I was originally supposed to write it as well, but because they needed it right away, Archie sat down and wrote it based on my notes.”

“Riders in the Void” kicks off with one hell of a splash page:

A desperate hyperspace jump strands Luke and Leia somewhere far beyond their galaxy. In the darkness of the void, they encounter a strange organic ship that rescues them, but then suddenly attacks them, trying to assess who and what they are. While they prove up to the challenges, the consciousness within the ship seems mad, and as they make their way deeper into the ship, they find the pilot. He turns out to be the last survivor of two long dead races that mutually destroyed themselves and has merged his consciousness with the ship’s controls.

It returns them to their galaxy where it engages an Imperial Star Destroyer, believing it to be part of a constructed reality the computer is creating for its amusement. When the Star Destroyer fights back and hurts it, the organic ship makes quick work of it and realizes that it isn’t much fun anymore. Dropping off Luke and Leia, the mad ship retreats into the void where it belongs and resumes playing its computer-generated games.

As a stand alone issue, it does what it’s meant to do. For a comic book series that’s constantly struggling with making any kind of changes to their cast, this issue turns the point of view around and giving this living ship some character moments. Unfortunately, it doesn’t change despite the climax of the story, the ship realizes it wants nothing to do with this reality and fades back into the void and the comfort of its artificial reality.

However, Michael Golden’s art is simply lovely and stands out as a high watermark in the world of licensed comic books. The detailed inks by Terry Austin add another layer of beauty, providing very clean, very crisp lines. Golden’s art never looked so good.

1982 - Amazing Heroes #13 Star Wars cover by Kevin Nowlan

Arthur Adams' Star Wars commission

Posted up on the Fans of Arthur Adams Facebook page:

Love those Jawas on the bottom right...

1983 - Star Wars preliminary art by Ron Frenz

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=787297&GSub=6176

Corner box art for Marvel Comics' Star Wars.

1981 - Anatomy of a cover - Star Wars #48

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=363769&GSub=56803

Fan Expo 2012 post-mortem

I attended this year's Fan Expo on Thursday and Friday, choosing to avoid the madness of the Saturday mob, which turned out to be a good idea based on the many reports of lengthy lines, overcrowding, and over selling tickets.

We lucked out on Thursday getting "Golden Tickets" at the Marvel Booth, which got us autographs from Stan "The Man" Lee at the 50th anniversary celebrations for Spider-Man.

The Lego booth was impressive with a lot of great Lego sculptures, but I do have to give a tip of the hat to the Mega Blocks booth. As my kids were building their creations, the attendant told them that they could keep whatever they built!

Another tip of the hat goes to all the wonderful costume players that were generous with their time and always happy to have a picture taken with you.

Neal Adams was a bit of a let down as he was charging $5 an autograph. If it was to raise money for a charity, I could understand, but felt a bit cheated, especially when I wanted to get a $60 Marvel Masterworks signed. 

Getting behind the wheel of Back To The Future's Delorian, for a $20 donation to charity, was a lot of fun!

And DC Comics did a great job with this comic book immersive photo-shopping.

1984 - Star Wars #86

Star Wars #86
“The Alderaan Factor”
August 1984
Writer: Randy Stradley
Penciler: Bob McLeod
Inker: Tom Palmer

A long, long time ago in a decade known as the 1980s, fans didn’t easily have the option to rewatch their beloved Star Wars trilogy over and over again. It was a big deal to watch a bootleg copy of Empire Strikes Back on Beta (if you don’t know what Beta is, don’t ask). The action figures were the primary means to re-enact your favourite movie scenes and there was the Marvel Comics’ Star Wars series.

I can’t exactly recall why I never picked up the Star Wars comic book, but it might have had something to do with so many other great comics on the shelf in 1984. Reading through some of these issues, the first thing that struck me was how many great creators worked on this book. The creative teams on licensed books tend to be weak because of the expensive licensing fees, but this book enjoyed work by Walt Simonson, Al Williamson, Howard Chaykin, Tom Palmer, and Ron Frenz.

The name Randy Stradley might seem familiar to some of you. While Star Wars #86 was his first and last issue on a Marvel Comics’ Star Wars comic, he eventually moved over to Dark Horse Comics and became their Star Wars brand editor when they won the comic book rights in the early 1990s.

From his introduction to Star Wars Trade Paperback Volume #6:

“The characters in the Star Wars films are well-defined, but fairly one-dimensional. They perfectly fulfill the dramatic tasks required of them by the story in the films, but they don’t exactly exhibit subtleties of character that cry out for further exploration. I knew that if I wanted my story to pack any emotional punch whatsoever, I’d have to play off of something that was already established as mattering to the characters.”

And that’s exactly what he did with “The Alderaan Factor”. Star Wars #86 was a stand-alone issue that focused on Princess Leia. She found herself stranded on a hostile planet and her only ally was a Stormtrooper who was tasked with taking her prisoner. However, Stradley took the helmet off this particular Stormtrooper and gave him a human face. Not only was he person, but he was actually from Leia’s homeworld, Alderaan, which was destroyed in Star Wars: A New Hope. Both characters symbolically represented the factions that were battling for control of their galaxy. They each argued for their own side and the Stormtrooper, who actually never got named, presented a convincing argument in the favour of the Empire.

Tom Palmer’s inking style can only be described as embellishment. His finished art and lavish inks completed the overall artistic effort. His inks created the mood and added to the overall panel flow.

On Bob McLeod’s Facebook page, you’ll find several examples of this issue’s art, highlighting the “before” pencils and the “after” inks. To be fair to Bob McLeod, the inker, Tom Palmer actually requested that Bob only provide the breakdowns rather than the full pencils. Here's a fine example: