Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Newspaper Strips, Vol. 1

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection #27

by Russ Manning, Russ Helm, Don R. Christensen

Classic tales of Star Wars, from the funny pages to your bookshelves! Beginning in 1979, fans got a daily dose of a galaxy far, far away in their newspapers - now, with this volume, you can savor those stories without the 24-hour wait! C-3PO chronicles the adventures of the Rebel heroes! Luke takes his chances on a gambler's world! A sojourn on Tatooine is anything but peaceful! Princess Leia is put to work as an Imperial servant! Han Solo makes another Kessel Run! Han and Chewie get more than they bargained for on a job! And Boba Fett makes his print debut

COLLECTING: CLASSIC STAR WARS: THE EARLY ADVENTURES 1-9, CLASSIC STAR WARS: HAN SOLO AT STARS' END 1-3, CLASSIC STAR WARS 1-3, MATERIAL FROM CLASSIC STAR WARS 4

Genres: Star Wars, Comics, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy, Marvel

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 24, 2017

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I knew much of anything about Star Wars, I was all about comic strips. While my favorites were Garfield and Peanuts, I found pretty much all of the ones in my local paper--or the ones collected in books--amusing. I read my Fat Cat Three Packs so many times, I practically had many of the strips memorized.

Even to this day, I still enjoy a good comic strip. We don't get the paper anymore, but, I've read some compilations in recent years that made me laugh and smile, especially FoxTrot ones.

Still, Star Wars and comic strips seem like an odd mix; the daily funnies are just that--humorous--and Lucas' space opera isn't exactly known for its humorousness.

While these strips aren't intended to be comical, the artwork is of very high quality, and it showcases new adventures featuring Luke, Han, Leia, C3P0, and even Darth Vader. It's fun for any Star Wars fan.

If there's one problem I had, it's with the formatting. The shape of the book led to wasted space on some pages, and having to rotate the book like an iPad for the Sunday strips. (Then again, the latter does allow you to appreciate the detailed artwork better.) It was also disappointing that one set of comics was mostly in black and white when all the rest of them were either in color to begin with or colorized. (Would it have killed Disney/Marvel to add some colorization in themselves?) Still, that's a forgivable issue.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

You can tell that these were a product of the late 70s and early 80s. I lost count of how many times Leia needed to be rescued. True, she was more active than your average damsel in distress, but still got really annoying, especially when she did things that were out of character. The later stories are better. But the women are largely interchangeable and it is mostly Luke and Han centric.

BTW, Luke, before you found out that Leia was your sister and you still liked her, you might have had better luck if you weren't as patronizing as f**k. Just saying.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

These comics are fairly typical of the 1970s and 1980s, though I've definitely encountered worse from that time period. None of this stuff is going to wow anyone. But it's a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of Star Wars media and there are some interesting articles at the back, including one that explains the process behind converting the newspapers strips into comic book form. I will add that I found the adaptation of Han Solo at Stars' End to be a tad underwhelming but it was serviceable, given the era.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collecting the Star Wars daily and weekly newspaper strips which began publication in 1979, this book includes several stories that have never previously been collected, including the comics adaptation of Brian Daley's 'Han Solo at Star's End'.

First off, you need to know that the stories collected here are not only heavily affected by how they were published (in short sections) but also when they were published (back before comic book storytelling was particularly complex but also before the Star Wars mythos had properly bedded-in).
This means that the stories here don't have a smoothly-flowing narrative, feature very clunky dialogue and include elements which feel a little out of place in Star Wars. Some of the previous uncollected stories also retain their original formatting, so be prepared to flip the page 90 degrees pretty regularly. All this adds together to mean that these stories are really aimed at Star Wars completists (like me!), rather than casual fans.

However, there is plenty here to keep fans like me happy. Be it the introduction of the character of Blackhole or the first comic book appearance of Boba Fett, there's some impressive stuff that really went on to be an important part of the mythos.
Also, it has to be said, that whilst the visuals of the 'Han Solo at Star's End' adaptation don't gel well with other sources, the story itself is a very good adaptation of Brian Daley's iconic (and early) Star Wars prequel novel.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The interesting thing about this collection is that it's a little misleading in its presentation. I expected this to be a warts-and-all sort of collection, reproducing the newspaper strips exactly as they'd been printed, but this is actually a collection of those strips, reworked and reformatted to fit into a comic-book-sized format. In a way, it's a good thing (the book starts off doing just that, and it's easy to get sidetracked by the summation of events that starts each strip), but in another way, I kinda wanted to get the original experience. I remember cutting out the Spider-Man strips from the paper when I was a kid and pasting them into a comic-book-sized scrapbook; THAT'S what I wanted to experience again.

I've been reading as much as I can find in the Legends era to get caught up on the lore more than anything else, but with the newspaper strips, there's really no lore to speak of. It contradicts the existing canon (and even the old canon) in different ways, but that's to be expected since a lot of this was written before the EU even became a thing. It was just different writers riffing on a shared theme.

Still, this was a fun diversion, and a curiosity satisfied. I still have volume two to finish, so we'll see if I feel any differently when I finish it.

[Alain del Risco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything I expected. I will treasure these stories forever. Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson are my comic artist and writer heroes!!!! Favorite cover of all time is Classic Adventure #1.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really glad this collection exists, as it is nice to have one book that contains all of these classic comics. That being said, reading these with the lens of the last 30 years of expanded universe content makes them a bit silly. Most of the comics in this collection were written before the Empire Strikes Back, so there are some interesting things in them. For example, Luke pines after Leia in most of the issues. The force is only really shown to make Luke "lucky." A lot of the alien/creature/spaceship designs feel more at home in pulp sci-fi than in Star Wars. I would only recommend this to someone who is interested in seeing what Star Wars looked like before the world was really fleshed out. The highlight story was the adaptation of Han Solo at Stars End, in my opinion.

[Anna Catherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is Star Wars at its quirkiest: fun new places to explore, strange new aliens, and rebellion era hi jinx galore. Seriously, these comics have it all:

*Crazy new aliens, ranging from cat-people to lizard-people to frog-people to a horse with a dinosaur tail
*Dated art with Leia's hair a shaded black (read: blue) color
*Luke hitting on his sister
*R2-D2 and C-3PO acquiring weapons systems
*Pink space dinosaurs on Yavin IV
*Boba Fett teaching Luke Skywalker to snowboard?!

In summary, this is a weird comic. It's pretty enjoyable, and definitely has some fun nerdy nuggets for the die-hard fan.

[S.J. Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

I understand why some purists despise the condensed, changed format from the original comic strips, but I personally like a story to be presented as concisely and cleanly as possible, hence why I tend to watch Classic Doctor Who as fan edits. Anyway, the stories are mostly strong, with some shocking and appreciated additions to the more, even so many years later.

The Fondor/Executor arc is just great Star Wars!

[David Cattarin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the early comic strips, aren’t very good when compared to more contemporary styles of comics. They are definitely a product of their time. The better parts are later in the collection. Still, this is worth a read, at least for nostalgia sake.

[Kat]

Comic Strip Collection

[Rick Zinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The classic newspaper comic strip from the last 70s, early 80s. It’s a really fun read. Any Star Wars fan who hasn’t read this should seek it out.

[Joshua Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Russ Manning stories rule