Goodwin was the first writer with the opportunity to take this approach, since both the Marvel comic series and the Russ Manning era of the newspaper strip started publishing soon after the release of the original film, and therefore only had that movie to look at for inspiration. Given that Empire had released, Goodwin could tell stories set after A New Hope while purposefully setting up the events to come in the next film. Naturally, fans around the world still wanted more adventures while they waited for the inevitable follow-up. In 1981, The Empire Strikes Back was a year old, and it had left audiences with a masterful cliffhanger ending for all of its characters. To Goodwin, the choice was simple: bridge the two existing movies. Additionally, he had a specific vision in mind for what story he wanted to tell. When he was hired for the newspaper strip, Goodwin had already written dozens of issues of Marvel’s Star Wars comic series, making him the perfect choice to take over for Russ Manning. As any comic book fan can tell you, those are the circumstances under which some of the best stories in the medium come into being.įirst, let’s talk about Goodwin’s spot-on writing. By the time Goodwin and Williamson teamed up to tell stories in that beloved galaxy far, far away, their artistic visions aligned in seamless harmony. The two men had previously worked together for 13 years on the Secret Agent Corrigan comic strip, and it shows. While the comic strip started in 1979 under writer/artist Russ Manning, it entered its golden age once Goodwin took over and was reunited with Williamson, who was a long-time collaborator of his. Specifically, the era presided over by writer Archie Goodwin and artist Al Williamson from 1981 to 1984. However, there is one chapter of Star Wars comic history that too often goes overlooked: the classic newspaper comics.

Since then, we’ve had plenty of fantastic stories from Marvel as well as Dark Horse Comics during the latter’s 25-year stint with the license. Its seventh issue, the first to continue after the ending of A New Hope, is among the earliest stories in the (now-discontinued) Expanded Universe. Marvel was quick to capitalize on the success of the original film in 1977 with the release of the very first ongoing Star Wars comic series. Plus, more recently we’ve started to get live-action TV series like The Mandalorian and the upcoming Book of Boba Fett.Ĭomics in particular have a long, proud history with the franchise. For decades, we’ve enjoyed live-action films, animated shows, video games, novels, and comics. One of the best perks of being Star Wars fans is that we get to enjoy so many great stories set in the saga’s universe across several different forms of media.

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