“The Star Wars” J.W. Rinzler, based on the original rough-cut screenplay by George Lucas; art by Mike Mayhew. (6 out of 10 stars) Trade paperback, Dark Horse Comics, 2014. $19.99

This is a project I had heard about in 2013, but didn’t have the time to keep up with. An eight-issue comic book miniseries that takes George Lucas’ original rough-draft screenplay for “Star Wars,” and adapts them, using Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art as the starting point for the visuals. The “secret origins” of Star Wars have always intrigued me; the what-ifs, the larger role that Biggs had on Tatooine, the pieces that made it into the movie versus those that didn’t. I’ve read “Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays,” and figured I knew what to expect here. I was wrong. Instead of a slightly different version of my favorite universe, we got something a lot messier.

This draft version of Lucas’ screenplay is from 1974 (the first movie was released in 1977), and it’s clear that he did a lot of cutting to fit this sprawling jumble into a series of movies instead of one big one. Elements from the original trilogy show up in this story, as well as a few places and names that we didn’t end up seeing until the prequel trilogy. I’ll try to sum up the plot here:

Annikin Starkiller is the son of a former Jedi. They leave their homeworld of Utapau and head for Aquilae, one of the few star systems free of a Galactic Empire. Luke Skywalker is an older man who becomes the teacher of Annikin. Princess Leia is one of the leaders of Aquliae, and her world is targeted by the Empire so they can get their cloning technology. Aquilae launches an attack on the Empire’s space fortress, and C-3PO and R2-D2 land an escape pod on Leia’s planet. . Annikin and Luke rescue Leia from an attack on her capital, and meet up with Han Solo, a tall reptilian dude who hunts Wookiees in his spare time. Uhhh they steal starships, there’s an asteroid field, there’s a Sith Lord who’s not Darth Vader, but another one who is Darth Vader, but you almost never see him, and they go undercover as stormtroopers, and Luke leads a fleet of Wookiees to attack the and destroy the space fortress, because oh yeah, they were on the wookiee homeworld for a while…it’s all just too much.

Han Solo, a tall reptilian dude who hunts Wookiees in his spare time

I love Star Wars. I always have. It’s the first movie I saw in the theaters. I know the names and characters better than I know my own family members (and like many of them more). But this is a mess.  

At the very least, it’s a beautiful mess, thanks to Mike Mayhew’s art. He takes Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art (which I love with a love I normally reserve for LEGO) and combines it with the aesthetic of the first Star Wars movie and turns it into a familiar universe with a few twists. Stormtroopers and other non-Jedi, non-Sith have lightsabers, for example. C-3PO has a distinctly female look based on Maria from Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis.” The Imperial spaceships and space fortress are even shinier and smoother than the version we recognize, Utapau is dirtier and more rundown than Tatooine. Aquilae is more art deco, more Naboo-like than anything we see in the original trilogy; I’m not sure if that’s Mayhew’s own interpretation or something that McQuarrie and Lucas had originally intended. 

It’s a beautiful mess

J.W. Rinzler, a Jedi of the Lucasfilm archives himself, did a masterful job of adapting that rough screenplay into a comic book. The awkward truth is that the screenplay was too big, too messy to begin with. There’s a reason half of the characters and subplots and planets and action sequences fell out of “A New Hope,” and were folded back into the two trilogies later. Imagine a draft of “Lord of the Rings” where J.R.R. Tolkien puts everything that happens in the three books into a single screenplay; it’s about like that. You’re introduced to characters at a confusing rate, and knowing the existing characters is actually a hindrance, because the name you know is no longer the person you know.

This is a fascinating project. If you’re a die-hard Star Wars fan, it’s something to look at someday. But it’s more a curiosity–an interesting experiment–than something that you need to track down. If nothing else, it will make you appreciate the final product that was released in 1977, and thank the Maker that George Lucas figured out how to edit this mess into something filmable. I’m giving this a rating of 6 out of 10 as a big ol’ Star Wars nerd…probably less if you’re a more casual fan. 

The collected versions of The Star Wars have scored big for Dark Horse. The trade paperback version has topped the charts of the New York Times Bestseller lists for paperback graphic books, while the hardcover edition has landed in third place in the hardcover graphic books category on the New York Times Bestseller lists. 

The trade paperback collection of The Star Wars collects issues #1–#8 for $20. The hardcover edition collects issues #1–#8 and issue #0 of The Star Wars for $40. A deluxe, oversized boxed-set edition containing the entire saga—plus extras—in three foil-stamped, hardcover volumes will be released on August 13!

The Star Wars is the adaptation of the rough-draft screenplay by George Lucas for what would become Star Wars. While containing many similar elements as the final version of the film,  there’s a vastly different story and some characters are quite different from their movie forms. For more info, check out our review of the first issue here!

The beautiful series telling the story of a very different Star Wars wraps up in The Star Wars #8. Based on the draft screenplay by George Lucas and adapted by J. W. Rinzler, the battle for the fate of our heroes against the armored space station plays out in Mike Mayhew’s hands with great style. Minor spoilers ahead!

Summary: The battle to destroy the Space Fortress takes on a different feel than what we know as the Battle of Yavin from the movie – and is somewhat reminiscent of the destruction of the Death Star II, with our hero Starkiller on board, while the battle rages on the surface. Annikin Starkiller, in search of Princess Leia, gets captured by the cunning of Darth Vader, who turns him over to the Sith Prince Valorum. But when the station comes under attack by General Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and the Wookiees, the prince realizes that there’s no room in the Emperor’s galaxy for the Sith once the Jedi are eliminated, and helps Annikin escape and find Leia and slip out through the garbage chute. A Wookiee strike on the power station stops the garbage smashers, and eventually the heroes reach the escape pod, just as the Y-wings above the station hit the weak spot and destroy it, killing Vader and Governor Hoedaack . Then medals for everyone!

Review: If you recall my reviews of the first few issues, I wasn’t sure of the need for this series, but was won over by the spectacular visuals of Mike Mayhew in The Star Wars. With such smooth artwork by Mayhew and the rest of the team (beautiful colors by Rain Beredo, letters by Mike Heisler), this epic finale is a visual treat as the story reaches its climax. There’s a great page of Annikin focusing on the Force and then striking down stormtroopers on his tail. Another great shot is of Valorum arming his captive and turning the tables on the Empire’s men. And Vader’s demise. and Wookiee paint jobs on the Y-Wings. While some of the detail work is sometimes not full complete, it also fits the McQuarrie vibe. 

Overall, fun story, great artwork. Go get it!

Aquilae is under attack, and it’s up to General Luke Skywalker to keep the Space Fortress* from destroying them all in The Star Wars #2. Meanwhile Annikin Starkiller macks on a female officer and punches royalty. This is Star Wars as envisioned in George Lucas’ 1974 draft screenplay — and as you’ve never seen it.  *Death Star

The second issue of The Star Wars (DarkHorse.com profile) is out this week and the Empire strikes. Aquilae manages to scramble together six fighters to take on the massive spherical Space Fortress, and you thought that sending two fighters against a star destroyer in The Empire Strikes Back was some poor odds.

Summary: Kane Starkiller heads off, leaving his son Annikin apprenticed with General Luke Skywalker. Skywalker petitions the king over dinner for a declaration of war as he believes the Empire is preparing for an assault on Aquilae with a large asteroid-sized object on the scopes — that suddenly disappears. Back in the command center, Skywalker draws his lightsaber on Starkiller for trying to put the moves on a female officer, then learns that his agent from Alderaan, Captain Whitsun has arrived in the medical station. Learning that the Imperial star force plans to attack before sunrise, Skywalker sends Starkiller to drive out and pick Princess Leia from school. At Chathos, Leia resists leaving without her luggage and handmaiden, and Annikin punches her out and carts her off back to the the palace.

As sunrise approaches, King Kayos, en route back to the palace after meeting with the Senate, calls General Skywalker with the war code, but is destroyed in a mushroom cloud. With the attack order given, only a single squadron of six starfighters is able to be launched as bases are being hit by the weapons from the large armored space fortress. Devil Squadron attacks the surface of the Space Fortress, causing damage inside, which causes two droids to question their own survivability, and the bickering pair escape in a life pod. Deep inside the Space Fortress, General Vader assuages Governor Hoedaack of their attack’s success, and the governor reminds Vader to capture one of Aquilae’s ruling heirs alive to maintain control. With the king confirmed dead, Skywalker confronts his rival, Senator Sandage, who has already gotten the queen to surrender to the Empire, and orders Skywalker to cease fire. With his final pilots ordered to return home, and then blown out of the sky by the Empire, Skywalker vows to fight on, even if it is treason to do so.

Review: Artoo and Threepio are droids working on the Death Star, err.. Space Fortress??? I was slightly skeptical of this series from the first issue, mostly because of the general premise – it’s an adaptation of an early draft of the Star Wars screenplay, and I wasn’t sure why we needed this. After all, we *know* the story of Star Wars, more or less. Well, this issue shows us that we might know Star Wars, but this isn’t that Star Wars — this is really, really, different. Not just cosmetically with some name changes and role substitutions. This is a different story. And that has gotten me on board and excited. Sure, there’s a starfighter battle on the surface of the proto-Death Star – but this is still the opening act of the story, and it ends with zero planets blown up, (though large parts of the surface get zapped), and the battle ends with the final survivors of the squadron getting called off for a ceasefire, then getting shot down.

And we finally see the droids – who go unnamed, and R2-D2 talks in long sentences. But they bicker and yet stay together. But they’re working aboard the Death Star. Annikin tries his best to be respectful while in the state dinner, though shows off his humble origins while trying to enter the conversation with his mouth full. And then trying to have his way with a pretty face in the halls on the way back to the war room? and punching out the princess rather than argue with her? Definitely a keeper. Some elements that are better in their final state in Star Wars. But it all highlights how different and unfamiliar this story is, even with familiar names. As with the first issue, J. W. Rinzler drops a lot of names on us – we hear about the Ureallian Han Solo (though we haven’t really seen a non-human yet), and we get a Chewie and a Mace among the pilots. 

There’s a lot of fighter pilot action in this issue, with lots of pilot chatter going on within Devil Squadron, and with the main base. You can definitely see the genesis of elements of how the Battle of Yavin is portrayed here, though with perhaps a bit more combat chatter with these sleek two-person fighters. 

Once again, the artwork by Mike Mayhew, with colors by Rain Beredo and lettering by Michael Heisler, really makes the story shine. Mayhew and Beredo bring a great quality to the faces of the characters, capturing some great expressions in the close-ups. I really enjoyed the shot of Annkin with his mouth full of food, trying to talk, and Luke Skywalker and Governor Hoedaack have some excellent character looks. The battle over the Space Fortress is like the classic McQuarrie artwork (or Chantrell’s poster based on that artwork) come to life. — part rough sketch of the surface, part painting. The interiors are more refined, like actual sets, with a real contrast between the Aquilae war room and the Space Fortress war room.

I’m in. I’m hooked. Bring it on. Who knows where it will go?

Cover Variant: Dark Horse has two cover variants for wide release. The Nick Runge cover (seen in the right column) is the regular cover, while a Ralph McQuarrie piece (left) is the rarer retailer incentive.

Bonus Comic: If you were curious about Brian Wood’s ongoing Star Wars series that started earlier this year, Dark Horse released this week a reprint of Star Wars #1 for only a buck as part of their #1 for $1 series. Get it for a single dollar and if you like it, there’s the first trade paperback out there to catch up on issues 1-6.

Dark Horse Comics starts their new eight-issue series, The Star Wars, based on the 1974 draft screenplay by George Lucas. It’s familiar and yet very, very different. Swank-mo-tron and GONK both review Issue #1, out today.

The Star Wars, written by J. W. Rinzler and art by Mike Mayhew, kicks off this week with the first issue (DarkHorse.com profile), giving us a first look at how Star Wars looked in its first rough draft form in 1974. J. W. Rinzler is better known as the author of several Making Of… books and editor for several other behind-the-scenes and other non-fiction books on Star Wars and Lucasfilm. To learn more about how The Star Wars came to be, check out my interview with Rinzler at Comic-Con earlier this summer. Spoilers ahead! (or go ahead and see a seven-page preview on StarWars.com)

Quick Summary: This first issue gives us an opening crawl that sets the stage for The Star Wars, letting us know that the Jedi-Bendu, once defenders and expanders of the Empire, are now nearly extinct, hunted by the New Empire and their Knights of the Sith. And then we see a Jedi, Kane Starkiller, and his two sons, Annkin and Deak, hunted by a gruesomely-masked Knight of the Sith. On Alderaan, capital of the New Empire, the Emperor makes the public case for a final push against the last hold-out world of the Jedi rebellion, Aquilae. And Aquilae’s new Imperial governor, Hoedaack, lets Darth Vader know that Aquilae may yet still be defended by a Jedi General Skywalker. King Kayos of Aquilae has Skywalker prepare for war, while sending a delegation to respond to the Empire’s final treaty demands, and sees Leia off to college. Kane Starkiller arrives on Aquilae with Annikin and begs that Skywalker train his son, because Kane is dying.

Review by Swank-mo-tron:

The Star Wars is a fascinating concept. J.W. Rinzler has taken George Lucas’s original draft of the Star Wars screenplay before it was shaped into what we know and love now, and has adapted it into a comic book.

I’ve read that original draft of the screenplay a couple of times over the years and was always amazed by how different the world was, but how familiar.

Rinzler’s adaptation truly is faithful to that draft and it highlights what George Lucas’s strengths as a screenwriter are. The opening of this book (and of that original screenplay) starts with a bang and heads right into a story of intrigue, raising more questions than it answers and it has a breathless Flash Gordon quality.

In fact, this story has a much more classic Flash Gordon feeling than the Star Wars films ended up with.

The character archetypes are all there, many of the names are there, even much of the vocabulary that we know and love in Star Wars is there. And it’s amazing to realize the restraint Lucas has had with using the vocabulary. The word “padawan” appeared in that first draft of the screenplay (and appears here in the comic), but it never once appeared in the classic trilogy because there wasn’t any call for the language. It wasn’t until The Phantom Menace came out that Lucas busted out all of these original ideas.

This comic is beautifully rendered and I felt completely breathless reading it. It feels like Star Wars, but different… I suppose the way to look at it is this: Imagine if Star Wars had been made in the 30s or the 50s instead of the 70s and that’s what this comic looks and feels like.

And I can stand more of it. I’m invested in the story and want more. The art is beautifully rendered, the coloring vivid and the inking is bold and clean. This is an incredibly worthy entry into the Expanded Universe.

I’ll admit, I was wary of it, though. It seemed to be a gimmick. And the screenplay this is based off of is weird. But why not have this story out there for us to consume. It’s more than a curiosity or a gimmick: there’s some genuinely great storytelling here.

And I think it’ll help fans wrap their heads around the possibility, no matter how certain or remote, that we might be getting an “Alternate” timeline for everything in the Post-Return of the Jedi world. Maybe it won’t, but it won’t hurt to try.

Overall, I’m on board for this book. I can’t wait to see more of it.

Review by GONK:

While having many basic similarities to Star Wars, The Star Wars has a very different feel to it – While A New Hope brings in some everyman-type characters in farmboy Luke Skywalker, and scoundrel Han Solo, we haven’t seen any common folk yet here in major roles. It’s all Jedi and nobility on both sides of the conflict (much like the prequels). We might yet see what type of character Whitesun is. With all the gleaming palaces, the series reminds me much more of the Flash Gordon type serials that inspired George Lucas, without some of the other elements that also got blended the final product haven’t been in the mix yet – Westerns, Kurosawa, WWII films, etc.

And knowing Star Wars works a little against you here – while we know that eventually in the story development, Starkiller became Skywalker, and the old general eventually became Luke Skywalker, with the Jedi-in-exile motif becomes the mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, I found that I got a bit confused when Starkiller and Skywalker meet – maybe they just seemed alike, I just didn’t connect that they were separate characters here – it’s the beards, I guess. Also, Tarkin works for King Kayos, while Bail Organa is on Alderaan, though is a Trade Frigate captain, grounded on the capital of the New Empire. The Emperor definitely gives off a Flash Gordon villain vibe – a kindlier, less racially-intoned Ming the Merciless, as he talks into a gigantic hanging radio microphone. 

The art here by Mike Mayhew (colors by Rain Beredo, letters by Michael Heisler) is great – really capturing a classic feel, and putting new twists on what we ‘know’ – Star Destroyers are smaller, speedier ships, now flying in fighter-style formations over the capital. And in a nod to the Tusken ambush in ANH, we get a pop-up by the Knight of the Sith against Annikin and Deak through the electrobinoculars. We also get some great action between Kane and the killer, which makes Kane’s angry revelation at the end even more a surprise – he’s dying, and is more machine now than man. The ships looks great, and the scenery gleams to establish these luxurious settings, yet we also get into some moods – when tragedy strikes on Utupau, Kane and Annkin’s emotional responses are definitely different.

Overall, this story was interesting and a good introduction to this world. There’s a lot of characters being introduced in this issue, with an appropriate amount of dialogue. Perhaps too many so that we really don’t have a sense of any of them except perhaps Kane, Annikin, and General Skywalker. No real sense of who Darth Vader or Whitesun or Leia are – or how important they might be in the overall storyline. And interestingly enough, no droids and only one non-human really seen or introduced. We do start off with a little action to get us excited, then we slow down a bit as the shift goes to Alderaan, and various people talk. Then on Aquilae, people talk – in a scene fairly reminiscient of the Death Star conference room scene: nobles and ministers bickering in front of their ruler. Then a little action as the Starkillers show up in the war rooms under the Palace of Lite.

Unlike Bryan, I’m not as familiar with the details of early draft screenplays, so this story is very new to me. Turning the draft screenplays into a comic series wasn’t really something I would have seen as worthwhile, but my curiosity has been piqued. I am a fan of the Ralph McQuarrie concept art, and seeing that incorporated into a full story is pretty neat. But is this Star Wars? We shall see.

Variant and Exclusive Covers: To kick off the series, Dark Horse has made 3 different cover variants for the first issue – the regular cover with the Nick Runge artwork giving the characters of this comic a treatment akin to the classic Star Wars style C poster by Tom Chantrell. The harder to find variant covers are also inspired by the Chantrell poster: the variant by Jan Duursema (DarkHorse.com profile) and the ultravariant by Douglas Wheatley (DarkHorse.com profile). There may also be a black & white version of Duursema cover (spotted by Jedi News). There’s also some retailer exclusive covers: Midtown Comics has John Cassaday’s re-interpretation of the Hildebrandt poster, while TFAW has a cover with artwork by Jenny Frison.