At StarWars.com, Pablo Hidalgo compares the 1977-1983 Marvel Comics adaptations of the first three Star Wars movies with the manga versions later published by Media Works.
I appreciate that Marvel was hobbled by space limitations, and the creators only had access to the films’ scripts, photo stills and production art. But, woof, I’d forgotten how lifeless those adaptations were.
(Via Dirk Deppey, I think)
February 29th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Al Williamson might not have had the zing of the page above, but he drew some nice stuff for the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK adaptation. But overall, the manga pages leap to life. Much like the Japanese posters/trailers for STAR WARS did back in the day (as I saw on a public access Japanese-language channel whilst a kid.)
February 29th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Blasphemy. The Chaykin comics are fantastic. Who cares if they are off model. The manga just looks like any other manga with lightsabres.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
The problem with the Manga Star Wars is that throughout them Luke and Leia appear to be 16 years old, even in the Jedi adaptation. Ben Kenobi looks fine but not Luke and Leia. I know that all Manga doesn’t look like this as one of the things I liked about the long AKIRA series was that the people looked like human beings instead of exaggerated Manga cartoon people.
March 1st, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Roy Thomas may be one of the few writers cornier than George Lucas. “LO, THE MOONS OF YAVIN!”
Still, these days I’d rather read a Star Wars story by Rascally Roy than Lucas.