Halfway Through The Star Wars

[krpalmer]

To get things started this time around, I decided to pick up at a midpoint. It did tickle my fancy to hear Dark Horse was going to make a comics adaptation of the "rough draft" of Star Wars, having been aware for quite a while of the development of that movie. My usual detachment from "Star Wars comics" as connected to "Star Wars novels" crumbled (even if I can suppose a distinct part of that had to do with the project being its own unique continuity), and I decided to take the comic in the old-fashioned way by checking out the local comics shop. There seemed some difficulties in getting myself on the list of people who'd have a copy of the first issue put aside for themselves, though, and I showed up the evening of day it was supposed to be released only to be told it had already sold out. Even if this proved the comic was popular, it was a bit of a blow; I supposed I'd have to wait for however long it took for the "graphic novel" collection to come out.

Then, though, I saw a last copy of the first issue on the spinner rack in the big area bookstore. As much as I could imagine it amounting to a mere "preview," I bought the issue anyway, and then I was lucky again and found the second issue there as well, in time to arrange at last with the comics shop to have the third and then the fourth issue held for me.

Now at the halfway point of what I understand is an eight-issue series, I have a few impressions already. Knowing how this story plays out, I've been focusing more on the art. I know the earliest works of original art attached to Star Wars were created for the "second draft," which did somehow make their first invocation in this comic seem to me as much a slight cheat as any invocation of later ideas. As the issues proceeded, though, I might have become a bit more used to them. In the first preview pages I saw, I recognised the "pirate starship" that was turned into a complete model before it began to seem a bit too much like the Eagles from Space: 1999 and the model was converted into the blockade runner as Han Solo's ship became more hamburger-like; however, as it turned out I'd forgotten the ship it was playing the role of didn't have a large role in the script. It had amused me a bit more in the preview to see the youngest Starkiller Deak look exactly like young Anakin, but when dialogue got added he seemed a little too much like him and I started worrying certain people weren't just getting a kick out of his fate, but were somehow intended to do that; then, though, I managed to get the "conspiracy narrative" out of my mind by thinking that some other people just might have had their sense of shock amplified at the resemblance.

In any case, the Luke Skywalker of this comic seems to dominate the proceedings; his appearance being that of an idealized sixty-something George Lucas could have a great deal to do with that. How things will work out in the second half the comic is a question, but at least I'm still hugging to myself the personal satisfaction that I'm enjoying this much more than the rather mean-spirited MSTing of the draft I once happened on.

Comments

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

It's an interesting comic, especially seeing what got used in the films and what didn't, but it also shows why you never go with your first draft.

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

The story itself might be such a "known quantity" to me by now that I've focused more on the artwork; the thought did drift into my mind of saying things seemed a bit less focused than in Star Wars itself, but I never quite got around to setting it down in words. Doing that now, though, also makes me think of how I was interested to see a letters page appear with the second issue (I suppose you can put them together quickly these days with email and computerized publishing), but got worried some of the letters might have hints of that viewpoint in which any alternative is held superior to George Lucas's recent final drafts and haven't read any of them. Trying to turn back to something more positive, I also remember now thoughts the "asymmetrical" Aquilae starfighters used in the unfortunate attack on the Imperial space fortress were an interesting, fairly original design, and being somehow convinced and concerned Threepio's design would be the one Alex Tavoularis drew for the second and third drafts, where he had expressive, human eyes but a somehow disturbing mouth grille; instead, he also seemed more original.