The art varies throughout, best over the second and third chapters when Steve Leialoha becomes inker, occasional background artist and colourist. Chaykin didn’t have shooting stills, so his interpretation of key scenes differs from the viewpoints of the film, and that’s also interesting. The panels are crowded, and Chaykin’s colouring over the first chapter is hardly polished, but the cast likenesses are first rate, and there’s a lot of detail to the robots, spacecraft and costumes. Comparisons with other work produced in the mid to late 1970s reveal this isn’t prime Chaykin art, but it’s possibly his most iconic due to what Star Wars became. Thomas was adapting a classic space-opera adventure, knew what to highlight, and in Howard Chaykin was paired with an artist who also made all the right moments shine. The salient point, though, is none of that matters. Just as with the films, it was long after the original release that the subtitle A New Hope began appearing on the comic versions. The most glaring is the appearance of a bipedal “Jabba the Hut” as seen on the sample art, but fans can enjoy picking out others. In order for the comics to be on sale when the film was released, Thomas never saw it beforehand, instead working from a shooting script, which is why this version has several departure points from the film. In short, a phenomenal success by any standards, and possibly Marvel’s greatest-ever short-term moneyspinner. In the graphic novel era there have been several collections from both Dark Horse and Marvel. The business end eventually agreed, Star Wars became a blockbuster film, the initial comics went through several printings in the days before graphic novels, and they launched a series that ran for almost ten years.

In 1976 Marvel’s editor in chief Roy Thomas really had to fight his corner in persuading Marvel to produce a six issue adaptation of an SF film then in production, starring a largely new and unknown cast.

Classic Star Wars by Roy Thomas