Lucasfilm and Dark Horse Offer Up a ‘Star Wars’ Comic Series

The original draft screenplay to The Star Wars by George Lucas is going to serve as the source material for an eight issue comic series from Dark Horse. The new comic will be released in September, with J.W. Rinzler and Mike Mayhew adapting Lucas’ The Star Wars screenplay.

The rough-draft original screenplay was created by Lucas three years before the first Star Wars movie was launched in theaters. The screenplay – titled The Star Wars – was set in a galaxy far, far away and featured “lazer swords” and monsters. It told the story of Jedi Annikin Starkiller, General Luke Skywalker, an alien named Han Solo, and evil Sith Knights.

“I’m not sure where I first read about The Star Wars—it was years and years ago—but the idea of Luke Skywalker being an older Jedi General, and Han Solo being a six-foot-tall lizard, turned my Star Wars fan brain on its side,” stated longtime Star Wars editor Randy Stradley. “I always assumed this would be one of those stories that would be ‘lost to history,’ so getting to work on bringing it to life is kinda like a dream come true.”

Writer J.W. Rinzler added, “While researching in the Lucasfilm Archives I’ve found many treasures—but one which truly astounded me was George’s rough draft for The Star Wars. His first complete imaginings were hallucinating to read—mind blowing. While working with George on another book project, I once asked if we could adapt his rough draft. He was hesitant. Years later, with Dark Horse’s invaluable help, we showed him a few drawn and colored pages of what it might look like. He gave us the okay.”