EXPANDED UNIVERSE! FORTY YEARS OF THE RUSS MANNING 'STAR WARS' NEWSPAPER STRIPS

Russ Manning's lovely Mediascene magazine cover promoting the debut of the 1979 Star Wars newspaper strip.

Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi may not be allowed to crave these things, but Star Wars fans couldn't get enough of those elements in the galaxy-spanning adventures of our bold rebels led by Luke Skywalker and company. And in 1979, the storytelling realms of the saga got a lot bigger thanks to the debut today, forty years ago, of the superb Star Wars newspaper strips from the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, brought to life in its first sumptuous and innovative year by the specially selected Russ Manning, no stranger to iconic heroes having been the long-time master of the visually impressive Tarzan newspaper strip, and having enjoyed the realms of science fiction action with his own creation in Magnus Robot Hunter, 4000 A.D.. Manning really was the perfect choice to helm the strip, his enthusiasm for the George Lucas saga and the characters prevalent on every panel of work he did before illness sadly saw him retire from strip creating duties.

Manning with his first gorgeous colour strip page. Image: John May.

In his memorable near two-year run, Manning (and assisting writing colleagues/artists) took us back in greater exploratory detail to the Wookiee planet of The Star Wars Holiday Special, helped cement Boba Fett's popularity further before the bounty hunter's debut proper in The Empire Strikes Back, brought in dark clad Deathtrooper-types long before the cinematic arrival of Rogue One, introduced the 'sinister agents' of Darth Vader (including the elusive Blackhole), and even showcased the equally vindictive wife of the late Grand Moff Tarkin!

The very first art panel for the series.

Four decades on, the visually captivating work, and Manning's overall legacy, lives on to inspire all-new generations of fans, whilst further inspiring the creative talents now shepherding the saga into all-new storytelling avenues.

Advertising preview showcasing saga icons.

CLASSIC ART: DEEP SPACE DROIDS!

Our lovable heroes Artoo and Threepio find themselves spacebound on the cover of the 1996, one-off KENNER TOYS/DARK HORSE US comic adventure The Constancia Affair, a reprint of a classic Russ Manning STAR WARS comic strip from 1978, for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

Synopsis: The Constancia Affair - Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki

A similar type of visual image of the droids could later be seen in THE CLONE WARS animated series episode Nomad Droids.

CLASSIC BLOG: AL WILLIAMSON - A COMIC LEGEND JOINS THE FORCE...

Classic Al Williamson art for the LOS ANGELES TIMES SYNDICATE STAR WARS strip from 1980.

A remembrance from June 12th 2010...

Sad news indeed this week-a legendary comic artist has gone. A superb visualist who was both an icon and friend to many of the artists that followed in his wake, Williamson will be a much missed figure in the ever expanding comic illustration universe.

I loved, and still love, his superb art for the 1980 comic book adaptation of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK-one of the greatest adaptations ever realized in a comic book world and genre now choc a block with pretty average film conversion art work- and which, thirty years on, still shines greatly (I’ll never forget seeing the original US MARVEL comics and salivating over his work in full colour, and being thoroughly blown away by it, after originally seeing it reproduced in black and white only in the UK’s THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK WEEKLY comic), as does his 1983 work, despite many pressures and a script that was still top-secret, for the MARVEL RETURN OF THE JEDI mini-series. And let’s not forget his lovely inking of THE PHANTOM MENACE adaptation in 1999, either. With his drawing experiences of all kinds of heroes-from FLASH GORDON to SECRET AGENT X-1-both Williamson and regular MARVEL/LOS ANGELES TIMES NEWSPAPER STAR WARS writer Archie Goodwin were a superb combination- and great selectees made by LUCASFILM- to bring STAR WARS into the 1980’s comic universe. (Oh, and don’t forget the Goodwin/Williamson MARVEL version of Harrison Ford’s BLADE RUNNER, too!)

Wherever there are people who enjoy reading comic books and loving comic book art-of seeing and thrilling to tales of heroes, villains, beautiful princesses and worlds beyond imagination, their work, including STAR WARS, will live forever...

CLASSIC CHEWBACCA: THE RUSS MANNING ADVENTURES

In the UK, STAR WARS fans get to see the new two-part Chewbacca/Ahsoka CLONE WARS episodes on SKY MOVIES HD a few weeks prior to their US cousins, so, in celebration, this week I'll be putting up a few more blogs linked to our favourite Wookiee species, and their number one son.

First up, here's a few scans of a classic 1979 Russ Manning Los Angeles Times Syndicate Wookiee related strip: THE DEPTHS OF KAZHYYK. I loved Manning's colourful tales set just after the first STAR WARS (I wish LUCAS BOOKS could have collected all of them in their original state and put them up as a glossy set of hardcover books rather than the DARK HORSE comic compilations of the nineties)- look out for the use of Ralph McQuarrie's Wookiee tree dwellings from THE HOLIDAY SPECIAL, and, long before the CLONE WARS, and like early MARVEL SW comics, see the Stormtroopers without helmets: as individual soldiers rather than Clones. Let's hope that some of the Kashyyyk environments and creatures seen here make it into the animated series...

Check out our archive on another classic 1979/80 STAR WARS Russ Manning adventure, THE FROZEN WORLD OF OTA, guest starring Boba Fett, here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B80ITjM31EVRamJsWW1rb3dIb3M/view