'STAR WARS' AT 40: 'ANGRY MOSQUITOS'!

The small but determined force of Rebel X-wings close-in on the goliath that is the Death Star space station in this superb art by Howard Chaykin for the original STAR WARS Marvel comic series adaptation (issue 6). The X-wings are still referred to as Blue Squadron, with the change to Red happening whilst the comic adaptation was presumably already too far gone into production to make corrections.

Unlike the film version's fifteen minutes, the Death Star firing range point in the comics was thirty.

CLASSIC IMAGE: BEYOND THE MOVIE! BEYOND THE GALAXY!

Trapped on a world that law forgot, our intrepid smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca, having been robbed of their Rebel loot by the galactic pirate Crimson Jack, are now caught up in a strange new conflict on Aduba-3.

With the continuing plethora of new books, games, animation and graphic novels, no one born in the noughties has ever had a drought of STAR WARS adventures. But back when I was growing up in the UK in early 1978, before the eventual arrival of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in 1980, STAR WARS fans didn't have much to savour past our imaginations, action figures, one novel, and seeing the original movie another enjoyable time at our local cinemas. The incoming MARVEL comics (both the UK STAR WARS WEEKLY and, when you could get them, the full-colour US monthlies), going beyond the original six-issue movie adaptation to provide all-new adventures, soon proved a joy- treading a satisfying line between George Lucas created characters and realms fused with the kind of energy, colour and excitement provided by Stan Lee's MARVEL empire. This first adventure from writer/editor Roy Thomas was particularly quirky and a fitting tribute to Akira Kurosawa's THE SEVEN SAMURAI, in much the same way that Lucas's STAR WARS had been to that Japanese film-maker's other influential classic, THE HIDDEN FORTRESS.

Next year, as MARVEL take back the STAR WARS comics publishing mantle from DARK HORSE (who did such a great job creatively and successfully with the franchise since the early 90's), it's going to be interesting to see which directions and writers/artists they select to continue our beloved Star Warriors epic journeys. Will they be bringing us the kind of lead-in adventures to EPISODE VII that IDW did with J.J. Abrams TREK films? Will they be focused on timeframes in and out of the Classic Trilogy history? Or set before and after the new films arrival?

Whatever happens, lets hope that the new series goes beyond issue 107 this time out!

Star Wars (Marvel) - You Think You Know Comics? - YouTube

STAR WARS AT 35: A CHAT WITH HOWARD CHAYKIN!

The first commercial poster art for the original STAR WARS from 1976. Image and art: Howard Chaykin (via the SPACE: 1970 website).

Today I attended London's first Super Comic Convention event at the EXCEL CENTRE in the heart of Docklands, where, amongst the masses of comic book aficionados and costumed characters waiting for the chance to witness Stan Lee for the first time, I got to meet and talk with the legendary artist Howard Chaykin, a true icon of the American comic book industry whose early work would include the sci-fi epic CODY STARBUCK (which was an early inspiration for George Lucas when devising STAR WARS in the early seventies), AMERICAN FLAGG! and lots of work for the MARVEL and DC comics universe. Of course, to STAR WARS fans he is remembered for his brilliant work in adapting the original first film as part of a six-issue comic series for MARVEL in late 1976 and 1977, and his legendary advance art poster for the film that was sold at the San Diego Comic Con in 1976 that promoted the film to an audience then not yet used to Darth Vader, Chewbacca or Princess Leia.

Artist Howard Chaykin.

STAR WARS comic writer/adaptor Roy Thomas and Chaykin at the San Diego COMIC CON promoting the then upcoming STAR WARS comic series.

Funny, frank, opinionated and self-deprecating- a kind of love-him or hate-him personality akin to Harlan Ellison of the SF book world, with a love of Ravioli (since his days as a starving artist), but not of the kind served in Italian restaurants!- Chaykin was great to meet, and the other fans clearly enjoyed his talking about his work and career, and doing art for them, as much as I did. Of STAR WARS, he recalled he never saw any footage from the film when doing the 1976 adaptation, though he had 400 stills from the film as reference but he didn't like the images, which he felt were too inert, nor the sets, which he felt looked like something from an IKEA Catalogue. He visited the ILM model shop and saw a huge room full of model kits and rows of tank models kits in particular, in an area with a constant smell of glue in the air. Amongst the film models built or being built, he saw work being done to the underside of Darth Vader's Star Destroyer from the beginning of the movie (which he said was the length of a canoe), saw the surface of the Death Star and four varying sized Millennium Falcon models. He was impressed with the model work and the detail involved but didn't think the original film was going to be a success. "If I had known, I'd have worked harder," he told me, humorously.

A fun interpretation of our characters by Chaykin for MARVEL from the late seventies.

It was great to meet Mister Chaykin and STAR WARS AFICIONADO continues to wish him the very best of success with all his future illustrative endeavours.

Howard Chaykin profile/interview: Graphic Novel and Comic Book Creators in New York City - Graphic NYC and How Star Wars Saved the Comic Book Industry

CLASSIC IMAGE: DEATH STAR BATTLE STATIONS!

As alarm lights blaze and sirens fill the air within the corridors of the Death Star, elite TIE fighter pilots rush to their ships, ready to engage the attacking Rebel X and Y-wing ships, in this deleted scene from STAR WARS, filmed by Gary Kurtz's second unit at some point in July 1976 at ELSTREE. A partial clip from the deleted footage would later be used in RETURN OF THE JEDI.

I'd have love to have seen a sequence where we see the pilots actually get into their TIE ships and take off. In the film we see Vader and his wing men depart the docking bay, but there's a great moment in the MARVEL comic strip adaptation of the time (above image) where we see Vader actually getting into his ship.

I wonder if that was just writer Roy Thomas/artist Howard Chaykin's visual idea, or whether there was a scripted scene that was possibly filmed? Or perhaps the scene was planned for but unfilmed due to time and money pressures- Script Continuity Supervisor Ann Skinner has the scene in her shooting script (currently held in the British Film Institute), so it looks likely. Perhaps the Blu-ray will solve the many mysteries once and for all...