Monday, November 19, 2007

Star Wars -Guns with roofs

I've been reading back through the reprints of the old Marvel Star Wars comics in recent weeks. For me a lot of these stories really captured the spirit of Star Wars, far more than the new comics do. I loved the story which took place straight after Star Wars drawn by Howard Chaykin in which we journey with Han and Chewie to Aduba 3, and they battle Serji- X Arrogantus with the help from a band of hired guns. A green rabbit named Jaxxon with a ship called the Rabbit's Foot was one of the more bizarre characters but somehow he worked. The first 3 or 4 volumes are the really classic stuff. Cool stories like Waterworld, To take the Tarkin, The Hunter etc...

One thing I've discussed before with my mates Kinnon and Paul is the fact that Carmine Infantino often drew his guns in the comics with what appeared to be little roofs on the top of them.

I suppose this was to keep your gun dry in case of a downpour :)

16 comments:

Rol said...

I loved these when I was a kid - including the post-ROTJ Marvels when they continued the adventures beyond the final film (as every true SW fan wanted). It was a shame when that book folded... none of the later post-Jedi comics seemed as real to me.

allen etter said...

Loved the big green rabbit. Odd how that worked and JAr Jar was a complete failure.

I also really dug the water world series with the gigantic ships.

And now, dear children, a tale of sadness. I had collected the Star Wars comics that Marvel produced. Then, as fate would have it, my mother placed them (quite innocently) in a garage sale and the entire batch sold for $5.00.

Steve said...

I recall getting the Star Wars comics when they first appeared and building a cardboard Tie-fighter than came free with one of them... they ended up gathering dust under the bed before being thrown out in my teens by parents on a spring-cleaning drive. I'm still not happy about it.

Michael Grant Clark said...

I've still got some of those. The guns always made me laf.

Another thing was Infantino's depictions of R2 and Threepip with bulging muscles, R2 running in one frame should of been used in the later films, it made me pee.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Carmine Infantino also drew Darth Vader with a very wide but slim mouth. He also had this habit of not being able to draw the same thing twice, you'd get the Millenium Falcom 3 times on one page and all 3 versions looked like they had different details etc...

Niel Bushnell said...

Happy times indeed! The UK Star Wars Weekly was great - you also got Micronauts, Rom, Warlock and loads of other great stuff. All the reprints were in black & white so you could really study the artwork without distractions.

allen etter said...

Micronauts ROCKED. I had some of the toys and all of the comics. BUG was my fave.

The star wars series also had Luke's hair growing all the way down his back and he soon was completely unrecognizable after obviously abusing steroids. Princess Leah also went through changes. Lots of lipo and breast augmentation. I was a teenager at the time so it was all perfectly normal.

Moonwatcher said...

I've picked up a few of these reprints but not got the full set yet. I liked the stories with the Bounty Hunter dude,Valance. I also loved the Jabba the Hutt they had, that ended up looking nothing at all like Jabba in Return of the Jedi.

Feroze said...

...plus the man-Al Williamson!

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Terry Austin and Walt Simonson also drew for the comics.

Niel Bushnell said...

And a classic two-part Michael Golden strip.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Yeah Niel, that strip was inked by Terry Austin, boy could Golden draw a sexy Leia !!!

allen etter said...

Here is an update on the green rabbit and some other character...

http://www.markzug.com/YellowBrickVoid.htm

moif said...

I never liked that guys line. Turned me right off all the star wars merchandising. I was given the one with the water world and I just hated it.

Probably saved me a lot of money in the long run given how much Star wars rubbish there is

Mark Kardwell said...

Yeah, I hated Infantino's work on STAR WARS, and it came as a surprise to me much later in life that the guy was actually once proper brilliant. Since then, I've softened somewhat in my dislike for this stuff. If I came across these now I'd probably summon up a nostalgic rosy glow.

Andrew Glazebrook said...

I really wish I had all the originals of these comics, like Niel mentions there were other cool stories in there too !!