If you’re heading to your local comic book store today, you’ll see a unique addition to the Star Wars comic book canon - Dark Horse Comics’ The Star Wars, an adaptation of George Lucas’ early screenplay for the iconic 1977 film.
The 32-page comic features characters with familiar names, but different spellings and very different roles. Annikin Starkiller is the hero of the story while Luke Skywalker is the old, experienced Jedi. Han Solo is actually a large green alien in this version, not the smuggler we know today.
J.W. Rinzler, who has written books on the making of the Star Wars films, wrote the comic, with Mike Mayhew as the artist. Dark Horse is releasing three different cover variants.
“This is not something you could film,” Rinzler told The Associated Press about the original screenplay. “Here's a giant city and then here's a giant vista filled with huge spacecraft. (Lucas) was doing his blue sky version of what he wanted to do. He knew this was not going to be filmable”
The Star Wars is a “once in a lifetime” project for Rinzler, who noted that fans will be interested in the differences between the characters we know and Lucas’ original ideas.
Mayhew said that the story is similar to The Magnificent Seven, with “each character having a big stake and they're all connected.”
Mayhew’s art also pays tribute to the late Ralph McQuarrie, the concept artist who helped Lucas visualize his ideas.
When Dark Horse first announced the project last month, the company released a teaser, which you can check out below. To check out what other comics are coming out today, check out our New In Comics column.
image: Dark Horse.com