Doomworld: A Long Time Ago: 1 (Star Wars: A Long Time Ago (Dark Horse Comics)) [Englisch] [Comic]

I was 6 when Star Wars was first unleashed on the public, and I was lucky enough to have a Mom that supported her young son's comic-book reading habit; The biggest problem of any comic reader in those long-forgotten days was spotty newsstand distribution- It was almost impossible to collect EVERY issue of your favorite comic.....for almost 25 years I've been wondering how Luke and company managed to get off of that Water Planet in Star Wars #14....

THANK GOD FOR DARK HORSE! My wondering days are over! Doomworld collects issues 1-20 of Marvel's original Star Wars series in glorious full-color, on beautiful paper with great production values. The book opens with an incredibly faithful adaptation of the movie, then goes off into some surprising territory: Han and Chewie star in an outer-space "Magnificent Seven", where they team with a giant green Rabbit and an old man named "Don-Wan Kihotay" to face off against "Serji-X Arrogantus", a thinly disguised version of Mad Magazine cartoonist Sergio Aragones; Luke and the Droids crash on a Waterworld years before Kevin Costner made that awful movie; Han squares off against a "Gaily" attired pirate and his man-hating female crony; and everyone ends up in the deep-space Las Vegas for the big cliffhanger. The stories are a bit removed from what the films delivered, but I took a bit of umbrage at the back-cover copy which calls the Marvel stories "Kitschy"; Dark Horse has published a few duds themselves ("Union", anyone...?); At least these stories are entertaining!

As a kid, I hated the artists that worked on these stories. As an adult, I can appreciate the draftsmanship and storytelling ability that they brought to the series. Howard Chaykin, Carmine Infantino, Tom Palmer, Terry Austin, Herb Trimpe, Al Milgrom...They're all legends, and with good reason. (The only gaffe, artwise, is the pairing of Chaykin and Frank Springer in chapter seven. Springer's inks are atrocious!) The art looks better than ever, thanks to the vibrant colors and slick paper. And aside from Roy Thomas' propensity for making Han say (OVER and OVER again!) "WELL then there now!", the characters STAY in character. Lucasfilm may have decided that the stories are no longer canonical, but that doesn't mean they're not fun! And the price just can't be beat! Give Doomworld a try if you're looking for something a little bit different. WELL then there now!

In 1977 Star Wars arrived in theaters and quickly fired the imaginations of millions of young people. In a world without cable TV, DVD's, and home computers, Star Wars fans looking to satisfy their hunger, turned to the Marvel Comics adaption. The Star Wars comics of the late 70's and early 80's were much more than "just" comics to my generation.

In the 1970's Marvel put in a great effort to bring many popular science ficton films to the comic book format. Examples include; Planet of the apes, 2001: a space odyssey, and an incredible adaption of Logan's Run (which was abruptly cancelled after Star Wars arrived). All excellent Sci-Fi films to be sure, however, there had not been a film in over a decade that was better suited to become a COMIC BOOK than Star Wars.

Marvels' adaption was destined to become a classic, but issue number one was something of a false start. The first issue featured a somewhat rough or "experimental" style of artwork. They quickly changed direction with issue number two and it was MUCH smoother sailing from that point forward. When it came time to go BEYOND the movie adapton, it was a big step for Marvel, who were not known for quality "non-superhero" content.

Some younger Star Wars fans may judge these stories to be corny, bizarre, poorly written and even poorly illustrated. But, I can tell you that these comics contain the true spirit of the TIME and of what Star Wars meant to my generation. There is a certain magic within the pages of these comics that can never be fully appreciated by anyone who has come to know Star Wars via Six films and nearly 30 years worth of other media and literature. I'm not claiming that younger Star Wars fans will not enjoy this collection, only that it might take an extra effort to understand where this stuff came from.

The comic books represented in this compilation were created during a time of great imagination and wonder, a time filled with "a new hope". This series is a great way for current fans to take a journey back in time, to a Star Wars universe that was still fresh and unexplored. If you're an original fan, you may feel (as I do) that George Lucas has since destroyed much of his own wonderful creation. Perhaps these stories will stand as a reminder of a much more innocent Star Wars universe, that once existed, "a long time ago...".

Product review:

This is a great effort by Dark Horse to pay tribute to the original marvel comic books. The coloring has been revamped and looks bright and quite amazing. It's certainly nice to have all of the original issues contained within seven "easy access" volumes. Well worth the price!

The only cool feature missing from these volumes (that can be found in the original issues), is the "Star Words" page. A page that featured "letters" sent in from fans and readers. Today, it's certainly a real treat to read some of those letters which help to demonstrate what fans were thinking about Star Wars and this adaption... all those years ago. The missing "Star Words" pages certainly do not detract from the enjoyment of the comic book, but would have been a nice addition!

Also, while Dark Horse claims that all of the coloring is 100% faithful to the original artwork, this isn't entirely true. Cover art from each issue is reproduced within each volume. The cover of Issue #14 has been drastically altered. It originally had an AMAZING colored background behind the drawn warriors and was one of the best covers of the Marvel comics run. I'm only guessing that Dark Horse was not able to faithfully reproduce the incredible effect from the original cover and instead simply made it a "white" background. It's still worth tracking down the original comic just for the great cover design for that issue!

JM

This is Star Wars when Star Wars was fun. I was 9 years old when Star Wars came out and, in my lowly opinion, the stories in this anthology still capture the "WOW!", "No way!", and "What the-?" I remember as a kid sitting in the movie theater. If you like your comics in the "darker, edgier" vein, this book may not be for you. But if you can chuck disbelief out the window and hang on for a thrilling ride, give this book a shot. You get the original Star Wars comic adaptation plus some pretty wild departures (made even wilder by today's concern for "canon" - which IS spelled with one "n", by the way). There's an innocence, and a sense of real fun, to this collection that has been absent from the franchise in recent years. I'll take these stories (and the Williamson/Goodwin comic strips) over the entire "Expanded Universe" as it exists today. But I guess I'm weird that way. Hats off to Dark Horse for making these stories widely available again.