Star Wars age 9 Comic Book

c.1978/79? | age 10/11? Look. There is Luke. See Luke. Luke is being sad.

Oh, Boo-hoo!

Luke—now played by Anthony Perkins—is grief-stricken at Ben’s death. But—but—but… what about Leia, and her entire planet and family being destroyed? Well, more on that further down this article.

“Hold on tight kiddies! Co’s here (we) go!”
Sigh… finely written litritchure. The true mark of any civilised society.
—Star Wars age 9

The unmistakable silhouette of the Millennium Falcon—expertly drawn by 10 or 11 year old me

Art Notes

The stars are streaking a bit around the Falcon. Is it jumping into Hyperspace already? Apparently so. But what about the T.I.E. Fighter attack, won’t we get to see that? Will they just fly straight to Yavin 4 without a hitch? Ho ho! You’ll have to wait and see, readers.

I seem to have gone to great care replicating my favourite Luke hairstyle in this one. The one I wanted most as a kid was in one poster in particular, of the many posters which hung on my bedroom walls. It was pulled out of Star Wars Weekly comic, and here it is:

I’d sometimes borrow my sister’s hairdryer—a risky endeavour—and try to style my hair like Luke’s in this poster. It was the bits at the back, that curled up, which I most wanted to have! I’d have to lock my door until I’d finished the job. If you’re interested, I actually did a couple of grown-up pages on my semi-autobiographical 1970s period webcomic called Between * Wars—which you can find here and here! That’s right, I can actually draw new stuff!

But back to this webcomic: The corners of Luke’s mouth are drawn in the turned down position—Perkins-like—so that means he’s very very sad. Or plotting to torture more Womprats. Like a psycho. Like Norman Bates. And we seem to be looking over Chewie’s shoulder. The great thing about being a kid, is that when you draw anything, you can ignore logic and just stick things wherever you like. Yay! Luke’s at the < Dejarik space-chess table, but he’s still somehow directly behind the pilots’ seats. Also, I just put windows wherever took my fancy. If Star Wars age 9 happens to end up being the only version left of ‘Star Wars’ after the nuclear holocaust, then good luck to the alien visitors when they use it as a reference to try to remake the movie and rebuild the sets! “I tell you Zargon—these drawings make no sense!”

It’s nice to have a few windows around the place. ‘Makes it all nice and bright and airy. Leia’s had the builders in already.

“I—I—I can’t believe he’s gone.”
“There was nothing you could have done Luke.”
“I know, it’s just *sniff* just that it seemed like only a few hours ago that we met.”
“Uh, yeah, and it was only a few hours ago that my whole family, all my people and my entire planet was blown up and—”
“I can’t believe Ben’s gone. I remember the things he used to do. (Luke forces a wistful smile) Like the way he folded his arms when we were on that cliff and how he said ‘excuse me, I must briefly away to the gentlemen’s convenience’ when he went to the bathroom in the Cantina…”
“My whole planet. Do you see me whinging about—?”
“…and how he’d put one foot forward and then the other and then the other, when he walked. Oh, memories.”
“Yep, at least you have those Luke. AGH!”

Another of those bits of screen writing you just watch unquestioningly when you’re a kid. How will Luke ever shake off his grief? What coping mechanism will he employ— « again?

Maybe he’ll shoot some helpless animals like a psycho? Or… something else?