Star Wars age 9 Comic Book

Age 10/11  1979/1980? It’s the front cover of the ‘Disco Force’ Star Wars comic, with Luke and Leia disco boogieing-down on a Saturday Night Fever style dance floor!

Yes, here is the worst Star Wars comic ever made!—by me, when I was 10 or 11 years old in 1978 or 1979. Star wars meets Disco and ABBA!

Based on an all too brief dream I had, this is the not brief-enough comic version of it.

As I < said previously, I was ‘inspired’ to publish this sooner than I intended, due to the sudden surprise return to the studio of ABBA—that most 1970s of musical phenomena. But I hadn’t been sure up to then if I ever would publish it, because I recalled it being so cringe-makingly awful. Alas, this was confirmed yesterday when I re-read it, in-between frequent winces. I’ll say this though, it is very 1970s. You’ve got pre-sequels Star Wars, ABBA, mention of Punk, and a Saturday Night Fever style Discoteque!

Raison d’etre: An Immersive Quasi-VR Experience

So, I had a vivid dream one morning when I was 10 or 11 years old. It was incredibly exciting, because it was about Star Wars! And strangely enough, I don’t think I often dreamt about Star Wars. This, despite the fact that I thought about and talked about almost nothing else all day long, in and out of school. And you know the way dreams can seem to mind-blowing—when they’re your own? I awoke from this one, with my young mind blown to pieces. And I desperately wanted to go back!

It seems that an ABBA song, or maybe 2, had been playing on the kitchen radio as I slept in my bedroom just down the hall, and it somehow got mixed in with Star Wars and became a dream. Disco was still all the rage—I think—at this time, and naturally that dictated some of the dream’s imagery. Like I said,  dreams can seem to be very interesting and exciting—when they’re your own, but they can be very boring when you relate them to others. So look out: that’s what I’m about to do.

As I’ve said many times here at Star Wars age 9, back then, we could access Star Wars whenever we liked, on home video or online, and the closest we could get to being in that world again was through comics, toys and books. But in this dream, which sadly finished to soon, I had a totally ‘immersive’ Star Wars experience. I was there. With Star Wars and its characters all around me. It was better than VR.

But as with the best dreams, it didn’t last long enough. Yes, I tried to get back to sleep to pick up where I left off, to no avail. That never works, does it?

So What the hell is happening on this page?

We’ve arrived at a 1970s Star Wars disco and as this is the cover, there’s the obligatory huge disembodied, phantom Darth Vader head floating behind everything. There just has to be. It’s a given.

(In retrospect, a Vader mirror ball would have been great! Oh, look, as usual, someone has made a Star Wars mirror ball! You can basically get a Star Wars anything these days.)

Luke Skywalker is singing, “Gimmee, gimmee, gimmee, a gun after midnight—” and Leia responds with, “So I can mow the Imperials down.” Aww… isn’t that sweet? What’s amazing about this is that that version of ABBA’s lyrics were actually in the dream! Wow, that’s a great example of sub(un?)conscious creativity! Luke exclaims, “Yeah—cool!” Which is funny, because outside of Boney M’s hit song ‘Daddy Cool’ , I seem to recall the word ‘cool’ not really being that cool at that time. Unless that was in the early 80s? Nowadays, everyone says ‘cool’. Even people who aren’t.

My Little Co-artist

My little sister Candace—who would have been about 2 at the time—has added a few deft finishing touches to my artwork, on Luke’s face and Leia’s hood and bum. It wouldn’t be the last time she’d do that. It’s lovely and cute to see now, but I bet I was annoyed at the time! What with this being the greatest comic artwork of all time, an’ all.

For added comic effect, and no doubt inspired by my big sister Maria’s record collection, I wrote in Yabba’s Greatest Hits, before realising my error and changing the Y to a J! How did I mis-write Jabba the Hutt’s name? I mean, I was a Star Wars nut at the time!

More of that nuttiness, in the next episode on Wednesday.

Please leave a comment below if you enjoyed this, or if just feel like reminiscing about the 70s, or Star wars dreams