Giant Size 41: Definitely Wedge

A primer on Star Wars comics from 1977 forward, covering everything in
general from early movie adaptations to the lengthy Dark Horse work in the
Expanded Universe to the "New Marvel Era" and speculation on what is (and
we hope) to come.

A primer on Star Wars comics from 1977 forward, covering everything in general from early movie adaptations to the lengthy Dark Horse work in the Expanded Universe to the "New Marvel Era" and speculation on what is (and we hope) to come.

Show Notes
Jek Porkins
Snap Wexley
Jaxxon
Bucky O’Hare did, in fact, appear all of a sudden in the wake of Jaxxon in the Star Wars comics
Luuke Skywalker happened in the first installment of Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy books
…and so did Luuuke Skywalker
Mara Jade first appeared in Heir to the Empire, and was such a good and enduring character that people often forget about Luuke and Luuuke.
Trioculus made his first appearance in The Glove of Darth Vader
The Wookiee Storybook by Eleanor Ehrhardt is the “Chewbacca family” book John mentioned
Star Wars: 1313 was in development at LucasArts just before they were acquired by Disney and it was cancelled. Watch the limited in-game footage released and weep if you like good things.

Reading List: The “Legends” Era

All of these are available on Marvel Unlimited, along with all the rest of the nearly 40 years of pre-Disney Star Wars comics.

Dark Empire I (1991) written by Tim Veitch, drawn by Cam Kennedy
Dark Empire II (1994) also Veitch & Kennedy
Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (1995) written by Terry Austin and drawn by Chris Sprouse, adaptation of the first “EU” book ever, written by Alan Dean Foster
Rogue Squadron (1995) arc “The Phantom Affair” (issues #5-8) written by Michael A. Stackpole & Darko Macan, drawn by Edvin Biukovic
the Shadows of the Empire (1996)) comic leaves out chunks of story covered in the novel, but is some of the most attentively produced EU projects, much like all other parts of the incredibly well-coordinated Shadows of the Empire multimedia campaign
The Star Wars (2013), written by JW Rinzler and drawn by Mike Mayhew, with covers by Nick Runge, and based on George Lucas’ original treatment
Star Wars Infinities, alternate histories of the Original Trilogy
various Boba Fett miniseries), many drawn by Cam Kennedy
Star Wars: Legacy (2013) written by Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman, (get hooked on their Invisible Republic from Image, it's great), drawn by Hardman, color by Rachelle Rosenberg
Believe it or not, Dark Horse reprinted Star Wars 3-D (1987) written by Len Wein, penciled by Glen Johnson, and inked by Jim Nelson as part of 2013’s Omnibus: Wild Space, Volume 1, which included other obscure and off-the-beaten-path Star Wars comics. Many of the comics in it and Volume 2 are on Unlimited, but as far as we know, 3-D is not.

Reading List: The “New Marvel” Era

All of the following comics (and those to come) are considered fully in-canon content. Everything before them “doesn’t count” (and according to LucasFilm never did or would) as relates to the new movies and media.

Star Wars (2015) written by Jason Aaron, drawn by John Cassaday and Stuart Immonen and others (so far), is the “core” book
Star Wars: Darth Vader (2015) written by Kieron Gillen, drawn by Slavador Larocca and Leinil Yu (so far)
Star Wars: Princess Leia (2015) written by Mark Waid, pencils by Terry Dodson, inks by Rachel Dodson
Star Wars: Lando (2015), aka (to Moisés) Lando ’n’ Lobot’s Bogus Journey, written by Charles Soule and drawn by Alex Maleev
Star Wars: Chewbacca (2015) written by Gerry Duggan, drawn by Phil Noto
Star Wars: Shattered Empire (2015) written by Greg Rucka, drawn by Marco Checchetto and Angel Unzueta and Emilio Laiso
Star Wars: Kanan (2015) written by Greg Weisman, drawn by Jacopo Camagni and Pepe Larraz
Vader Down (2015) crossover between the “core” book and Darth Vader that totals seven issues of story

ON THE NEXT EPISODE OF GIANT SIZE

The State of Our Union (with Comics): what have mutually massive, continuity-restarting/recharging events at the Big Two, what do we still read there, and how does that affect our mutual reading piles? The answer(s) may change the fabric of our fandom…FOREVER.