18: Dengar—and Slave 1!
1981/1982? | age 12—14? Well look who’s shown up? Dengar! This is clearly a post-Empire movie page. And Leia is still being a persistent nag!
The more I look at this story, the less sense it makes! Han basically says to Chewie on the previous page, “We’ve seen enough.” In other words: we’re leaving. On this page Leia asks, “Why aren’t we leaving?” And Han says how should he know? So, I’m confused. Are they caught in a tractor beam? Or did Chewie not do as he was told? No, wait… apparently, they have left. They’re in space again.
(Forehead slap, and eye-roll…)
Art Notes
Above: Chewie—definitely copied from Al Williamson’s Marvel artwork
I’m supposing that all of this was drawn after Empire Strikes Back came out. Now, Dengar could be mentioned here because I sent off my proofs of purchase of Star Wars action figures to Palitoy in the UK, before the movie came out, and got my free Dengar figure. (Wasn’t he called Dengar Gett in that special offer?) I was so excited to get that new toy from the forthcoming film, despite the fact that he arrived in a little cheap box with no proper packaging or backing card. The offer was most likely advertised in Star Wars Weekly comic. Hey! Where they trying to sell off action figures from the previous film but incentivising the kids with this proof of purchase stipulation? And hey! Is that wht the names are cut out of some of my backing cards? Maybe we had to send 2 or 3 of those too.
Above: Threepio—definitely copied from Al Williamson’s Marvel artwork
Slave 1 could only have been known to me from seeing the film and other stuff like comics and the novelisation. I doubt that I remembered it form the awful Holiday Special animated segment. So why did I decide to have it owned by Dengar and not Boba Fett? Was I just being a bit creative and subversive?
The artwork is also done at different times here. Chewie and Threepio are clearly copied from the 1980 Marvel Empire Strikes Back comic adaptation artwork by Al Williamson—which I loved. I can’t stress enough just how blown away and excited I was by what he did on the comic. The fact that he clearly used lots of photo references was only a good thing to me at the time. It looked like the film—important in the days before easy access to the the film—and Al’s style was gorgeous, especially in black and white as it was (cheaply) presented in the UK comics. His drawings seemed to drip with light. I have to say that the colour version as presented in the UK annual is pretty weird and ruins much of the inking.
Script Notes
Above: Chewbacca has a pain in his head listening to Leia’s constant nagging
When I came back to this comic, after seeing the actual film and the Marvel comic, I was obviously having fun making Leia even more of an annoying witch than she ever was in the films. I wonder if my relationship with my big sister had anything to do with it? As teenagers the sparks were really flying at home. But… Leia seemed so sweet at the end of the previous film. Was blowing up a space station full of thousands of people just the thing to get on her good side? In her defense, it was understandable given the Rebels’ predicament! It’s them or us.
Above: A monster faced Leia persistently nags a stressed, haggard looking Han Solo.
These quickly dashed images look really funny when you zoom in on them. Leia almost seems to have fangs above, and Han has weary looking bags under his eyes. “Sigh… (eyeroll) no reward is worth this!” In the panel below, Han’s taken on a sort Roy Scheider look. You rarely have the original actors playing the characters in Star Wars age 9 comics. It’s a cast of thousands!
You never know, I might have unconsciously channeled Roy into that drawing. When I finally saw JAWS, it was on Irish TV in maybe 1980 or ’81. I loved it, and I really liked Scheider too. I also had pics of him from Jaws 2 in my scrap book, and I enjoyed drawing him.
Above: A quite Roy Scheider-ish Han. I really liked Roy Scheider when I finally saw him in Jaws
So, now that the young me has introduced Dengar, and the awesome Slave 1, what could happen next in this weird make-it-up-as-I-go-along story?
Tune in this Wednesday, to find out!
We would be honored if you would join us… and leave a comment below. I love to read them.
Perhaps you were like me, a bit resentful of Leia for picking Han over Luke. Ah, those innocent days when Leia and Luke could kiss free of incest!
Indeed!
And if anyone ever tries to tell me that George had intended aaaaaaaall along to have Luke and Leia turn out to be siblings, I will snort with derisive laughter. Yeah, and I bet Vader was their dad too.
But God forbid that they ever PROVE to me that he intended it. I’ll probably go white with shock.
Brilliant and really funny. It’s interesting how important the comics were for children who couldn’t watch films whenever they wanted, unlike today.
Thanks Candace.
Yeas, I wonder why anyone would even buy a comic adaptation of a film these days, unless it added greatly to it, or it was very silly (like mine).
In the case of ALIEN, having the comic adaptation was even more alluring because it wasn’t possible to see the film ever, if you were too young.