Read the ‘other’ Star Wars Adaptation!
Read them from the very start»
‘Star Wars age 9 comic’ has finished updating—for now. I made and published 4 childhood SW comics:
- 1977’s ‘Star Wars‘ adaptation (this is the most enjoyable one)
- ‘Disco Force‘ a truly terrible short comic based on a dream I had in 1978 or ’79!
- ‘The Empire Strikes‘ (my incomplete and nutty imagining of what the sequel would be)
- ‘The Empire Strikes Back‘ (my incomplete and more grown-up movie adaptation)
So what is the first adaptation?
It’s a nearly 200 page multiple-style, multiple-pass comic adaptation or graphic novel—before that term even existed—of the first Star Wars movie. I started it in early 1978, not long after I’d seen Star Wars in late December 1977, and I worked on it, and revised it on and off into the 80s.
A Star Wars Patchwork
It somewhat organically ended up being a combination of the pages that were made but not discarded as I got better at drawing. So there are very childishly drawn pages from when I was 9, mixed in with more accomplished ones done when I was around 15. Sadly, a huge amount of the earliest ones were lost to the wastepaper basket and replaced with fancy newer ones. I almost weep just thinking about that… But I’m glad that even at the age of 15 I was still happy to keep some of the most wonky, earliest ones in there.
Re-Discovery of the ‘Lost’ Star Wars Adaptation
In July 2009 I found the comic again, in a briefcase, amongst scores of my other home-made comics. I scanned it all for safety’s sake and then wondered where to store the digital files. It then occurred to me that other people might like to see it too, so I started to put it all online–bit by bit, making it a 21st Century Webcomic. Not bad, considering that it’s about 40 years old now. It’s a Digital Resurrection!
Reception
It got some fans and some nice reviews online. It was even given a full page in Spain’s leading cinema magazine! And I’ve even spoken about it in podcasts, on TV and in college lectures to Illustration students.
How did it survive all of these years?
My childhood stuff has always been precious to me, especially my comics and drawings. I was, and still am very proud of them. But I’d put all of my comics into a briefcase, nearly 30 years ago—and then virtually forgot about them. This kept them out of the light, pretty dry and safe.
My parents also seem to have saved some of it enroute to the bin! This was a joyful discovery in mid-2009 when my dad handed me a bag of old drawings that he’d kept up in his wardrobe. Some were from the comic. Since then, their attic revealed more drawings: crumpled, partially eaten by silverfish and worse—covered in bird droppings.
As a side-note, 100s more drawings were unearthed in archaeological digs in mum and dad’s attic. Mostly of Star Wars, including the very first ones that I dashed onto paper, on the sitting room floor, the minute I got home from the cinema having seen it for the first time.
But as for the comic itself: here it is! Grab some pop-corn, a comfy chair and enjoy it’s charming, wobbly weirdness.
And please don’t forget to ‘comment’ under the pages you like, and ‘Share’ too! Social Media Shares are a non-profit webcomic’s life-blood.
Thanks!
—John White, Dublin, Ireland, 2017
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