Our coverage begins of the Marvel Star Wars comics published between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi! In this extra-length episode, Andrew Leyland joins The Irredeemable Shag to discuss the comic adaptation of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, featured in STAR WARS #39 thru #44 (1980), by Archie Goodwin, Al Williamson, Carlos Garzon, and Rick Veitch! We discuss all six issues, explore the differences between the movie and the comic, how it was presented in the UK, pin-ups and more! Finally, we wrap up with YOUR listener feedback from the previous episode!
- 00:00:50 – Introductions
- 00:12:20 – Guest’s origin with the Star Wars comics
- 00:15:05 – Guest’s favorite Star Wars expanded universe character
- 00:18:45 – Empire different comic versions – Treasury, Magazine, Novel, UK Weekly
- 00:27:10 – Star Wars #39 thru #44 covers
- 00:33:15 – Discussion of the comics, plus movie/comic differences
- 01:40:30 – Pin-ups & Star Wars Weekly covers
- 01:54:30 – The Golden Plif Award
- 01:59:20 – Your listener feedback from the last episode
- 02:26:00 – Sign off
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For answers to who takes care of all the paperwork in the Empire, Google “Dolores imperial hr”. She is a cosplayer who goes to conventions to “write up” HR violations. She posts a lot of them to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram … and a lot of the other cosplayers are really into it too
Fun discussion, fellas! I always enjoy listening to Andy talk about Star Wars, so he was a great choice for first guest on this podcast. Truthfully, I can think of only one person who would’ve been a better choice, but oh well.
I never read the comic adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back until I started dating Angela. She has the collected edition you talked about, the one that looks like a standard paperback novel you’d pick up in the store. I was fascinated to see how Marvel sliced up the comic pages and reassembled the panels into the smaller scale format. Ang inherited her copy from her late uncle, and it’s a prized sentimental possession, so it’s currently on display in a place of prominence on the shelf.
One of the first records I got when I turned hipster and started collecting vinyl a couple years ago was the Newbury Comics exclusive edition of the John Williams score to The Empire Strikes Back. “The Imperial March” has transcended Star Wars so much that it’s become one of the most frequently played pieces of music by marching bands at football games and other sporting events (and how weird is that!), but for me “Yoda’s Theme” (sometimes referred to as “The Force Theme” and the familiar refrains used in every subsequent Star Wars movie) is the most emotionally powerful piece.
Really enjoyed the conversation, Shag & Andrew; although I wouldn’t be for much longer, I was still buying Marvel’s Star Wars comics (occasionally – more on that in a bit) at this point, and I snapped up the Empire adaptation as fast as I could – the one I ended up buying was the magazine edition you mentioned (I did buy SW #39, but then didn’t get the rest, because I realized it would be kind of silly to get something I already had).
Anyway, I loved the adaptation, because damn, you can’t beat that great art by Williamson and Garzon. Like Shag, I really did not like Infantino’s art on Star Wars; I thought he was a poor fit for the series, and this is why – even though I was at the time a huge SW fan – I only sporadically picked up issues, usually when some story seemed really interesting (like the Jabba the Hutt issue, #28, that you guys mentioned). It’s also why the Valance story in #16 made me pine for Walt Simonson to become the regular penciler (he did a bang-up job on Marvel’s Battlestar Galactica) and why that beautifully drawn filler, #38, is probably my single favorite issue of the entire series.
And yes, the Empire adaptation also looks a lot better than the adaptation of the first movie in the first six issues. However, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it the best comics adaptation ever; personally, I’m think that title goes to either Logan’s Run (which, if I’m being honest, is better than the movie, much as I unironically love it) or Alien: The Illustrated Story (also by Goodwin and, yes, the incomparable Simonson).
By the way, when you guys were talking about the whole Dagobah part of the story, it reminded me of something that happened when I saw Empire for the first time back in 1981: during that scene when R2D2 falls off the X-wing into that foggy swamp muck and Luke shouts, “R2, where are you?!” some little 7 or 8 year-old kid somewhere in the theater shouted “he’s in the water, stupid!” Of course, everyone lost it…
Great first full episode. Can’t go wrong with Andy.
Great episode gentlemen. I would have commented earlier, but I ran into a bounty hunter on Ord Mantel.
Regarding the passage of time for Luke training with Yoda and Han and Leia’s journey to Bespin. It’s important to remember that the Millennium Falcon couldn’t make the jump to lightspeed. Therefore it probably took weeks to make the trip. That would allow for Luke to have a couple of weeks of training.
Boba Fett’s armor looks off because that’s not Boba Fett. Fett was busy doing appearances at mall openings and didn’t have time to pose for Al Williamson, so they sent Fenn Shysa in his place. That’s right comic collectors! Pick up these issues because they’re the first appearance of Fenn.*
I agree with Shagg that the Solo movie is unfairly maligned.bits a very fun movie. My only issue is the did too much. They make it seem like everything of significance innHan’s life happened within a month. They should have either held back on showing some of his adventures, or had the movie take place over a longer period of time.
This was a great breakdown on the Empire adaptation. While I don’t feel the Empire is the best movie of the original trilogy, I do feel it got the best adaptation.
Can’t wait for the next episode.
*All statements about Fenn being Fett are completely delusional and should not be taken seriously.
Oh, yeah, you reminded me about Solo: I second, or third the opinion that it’s a fun, and very solid, SF action movie. Among my problems with it are: a) the one you mentioned, about everything about Han’s backstory being explained; and b) the fact that it’s hard to square the Han Solo we see in the cantina in Star Wars with the diamond-in-the-rough idealist we see at the end of Solo – it’s like you need yet another movie to explain why he became such an unromantic, cynical jerk in need of a redemption arc; I have more thoughts on that movie, but I think I’ve already strayed way off topic here.
Enjoyed this, uh, generously lengthed episode!
I bought STAR WARS from issue 1–it was my favorite Marvel series, I never missed an issue–and I remember how jarring it was to have EMPIRE suddenly dropped into the ongoing run of the book. I was so immersed in the Marvel continuity that the movie felt like the aberration!
Knowing as we do that George Lucas is such a Flash Gordon fan, I wonder if he got involved with who drew the ESB comics. I could imagine him thinking a lot of the regular Marvel artists who too off model for his tastes, but Williamson was just right. His stuff always looked classy.
As a first-time reader of the adaptation, you and Andrew did an excellent review and analysis. Well done, no notes.
I only had to read around 10 issues to fill in the gap when I last was reading the comics on Marvel Unlimited to reach the Empire issues. Andy is a machine!
A funny thing, I was experiencing some deja vu while reading these issues that took a few minutes to understand. I had read the prose novelization of Empire back in 1980! The best I can recall is borrowing it from a friend or the library for a long bus ride, for a junior high school field trip or maybe the band was heading to an out of state competition. Lots of time for me to read, and I know I still notice the differences between the film and that book to this day. But it’s amazing how similar the comic is to the novel. Of course, they had to have started from the same source material before the movie was finished. But could the comics have worked off of the novel as well, or vice versa, and not developed entirely independently? So many beats feel the same. Maybe someone who can check the novel or remembers it better has some insight. As for me, I don’t feel like I finished reading the novel, but I have clear mental pictures of Luke hanging from that antenna like in the comic, and I definitely never read it before.
This is going to be fun. Thanks for starting up this show, Shagg. And showing the only thing more powerful than The Force is podcasting.
I can see what you guys mean as far as Al Williamson’s art makes this more appealing to a wider audience. Having re-read the treasury version over the past week, it certainly works really well as a stand alone product.
In general, this is the kind of adaption that I really like. It’s NOT exactly like the movie, but gives the reader, as you said, deleted/alternate scenes. Luke having a “bacta mask”? That’s something worth driving your Corvette Winter over to see. 😀
And now that the preliminary round is out of the way, on to the main event of the all original Star Wars comics!
Had to check I think the Star Wars comic omnibus I have starts at issue 74 in the regular series and and 88 I think and annual 3 and return of Jedi one – four . So I will definitely chime in on those stories.
I know that two hours + isn’t going to be the usual length for the episodes of this series, but I really did enjoy listening to this episode twice for that length of time. I may have to give this episode a third listen since I pulled out my copy of the ESB Marvel Super Special and put it on the ever-expanding “Immediate To-Read” pile.
For the longest time, I only had the first issue (no. 39) of the Marvel adaptation until two decades ago. I was able to find all six issues of the adaptation fairly affordable and well before the speculator market decided that issue no. 42 (the first Boba Fett) needed to be raised in value. I really fell in love with the Al Williamson/Carlos Garzon artwork. With the Glynis Wein colors, the art, as a whole, added to the mystique that I still have for the movie I’ve had since I saw the movie and the many pieces of merchandise I saw and/or owned supporting the film. Because of this adaptation and the merchandise like the Topps cards, the action figures, the book and record set from Buena Vista Records, and the Thermos Lunch Box, Empire became my favorite film of the Star Wars franchise and is one of my all-time favorite films.
I look forward to the next episodes of this series and will now have to dig out the Dark Horse Omnibuses so I can follow along with the discussion on upcoming issues. Thank goodness we’re past the Carmine Infantino stories since his artwork just seemed to be an odd fit for Star Wars. Great for the Flash and other super heroes, but not Luke Skywalker and DEFINITELY NOT Chewbacca.
Great episode, fellas. I had the individual issues of the Empire adaptation and sold the first appearance of Boba Fett (#42) for $100 years ago. Man, I wish I had that back now. Selling it that low is almost as bad as losing a bag of Star Wars figures. The Williamson art is terrific. I love the way he depicts Chewie. His fur looks so soft and flowing, like he conditions it a lot. I was a little let down by his depiction of the Luke/Vader fight. It was missing the intensity of the duel. But he more than makes up for it everywhere else on the book. After you and Andy mentioned it, I went back and looked at the fill-in issue prior to the Empire adaptation by Michael Golden and Terry Austin. Oh man, that was awesome! Amazing, lively, fun art by them. Would’ve been nice to see those two get a long run on the series.
I had a blast listening to this podcast, guys, well done! Loved the analysis of this comic adaptation vs the movie. I think an interesting exercise would be comparing comic adaptations of the SW movies to the novels…both sets of creators worked off of earlier versions of the scripts and had to adapt it to play to the strengths of their respective mediums.
A strength of the comic adaptation vs the movie is that the comic actually showed Luke getting lightsaber training on Dagobah! If you’re going off just the movie, you can be perplexed how Luke can possibly last in a duel with Vader as long as he does…the lightsaber training is completely implied.
You guys talked about miscolored Boba Fett, what about miscolored 4-LOM? He’s purple in the comic! And poor Zuckuss is only barely seen on the splash page of issue 42. Boy, Kenner mixes their names up, and this also happened? Those 2 guys get no respect.
Interestingly, issue 42 depicts the hologram of the emperor as a shadowy wraith and no more…obviously the comics folks were not privy to what the emperor was gonna look like and left it vague.
Not showing the space slug is pretty similar to how the later ROTJ adaptation doesn’t show Vader’s unmasked face.
Also, take a look at how Williamson draws Slave 1 in flight…it’s apparent no one at Lucasfilm explained to Marvel how that ship is oriented in flight. In all fairness, we take it for granted but it’s pretty weird how it flies and lands!
I second the notion this movie got tinkered with the least in the Special Edition bc it was already so good…needed very little tweaking. The enhancements to Cloud City were a,omg the most effective of the tweaks bc they enhanced the awesomeness that was already there.
Being more of a lore kind of person, I always find people who really know their stuff to be fascinating, and Andy is always an excellent choice as a guest every time!
I’m one of those who think I might have seen Empire in the cinema, though it might be older me’s as memories of seven-year-old me are a bit thin on the ground. Talking of memories, I look through Infinite and the issue I was thinking of is issue #77 of the US edition, which is really late in the comics, between issue one and two of the Return of the Jedi kinda late!
I didn’t get into Star Wars comics until the Dark Horse era, so I’m really enjoying this look at the earlier Marvel comics.
When it comes to expanded universe characters, my favorite is probably Kyle Katarn from the Dark Forces video game series. As much as I enjoyed those games, I was thrilled when Kyle popped up in The New Jedi Order novels, because that truly made him a part of the expanded universe, in my mind at least.
Thanks for another remarkable episode. I look forward to the next one.