Choose Version
You can read the Star Wars comic as I already have it sequenced—or you can choose to read it in what I think are the different versions.
I’ve made educated guesses as to the different passes that were made at the adaptation, based on the drawing style/skill-level, paper and mediums.
Each of the following versions will be incomplete, but they each have a very different feel to them! My favourites are the earliest, oldest, most childish ones.
It’s likely that some pages will be switched around into other categories as I get a better picture of how and when the pages were made. Note: some pages are within 1977 & 1978 at the moment, because I haven’t been able to choose an exact year.
Version: 1 — early 1978
Mostly on ‘MSD’ paper: with Tables on the back, Matt. Usually drawn in marker. But, there are pages included among these—for now—in black or blue ballpoint/biro, because the drawing style is very similar and often just as childish. These are actually my favourite ones!
Version: 2 — mid 1978?
Mostly on ‘MSD 2’ paper: slightly gloss stock/sheen. Usually drawn in blue, black or green biro/ballpoint. I think these post-date version: 1 (above). They seem to be better drawn.
They’re also in a completely different medium on different paper.
Version: 3 — later 1978/early 1979?
Mostly on ‘MSD 2’ paper too: slightly gloss stock/sheen, as above. Usually drawn in blue biro/ballpoint. Some are very childish, others not so much. The very childish ones then might fall into the version: 2 category, or are transitional from that, or closely followed it. It’s very difficult to place many of them.
Version: Black Marker Drawn — c.1983?
Done on rough, Serge A. Birn & Co. paper, in black felt-tip pen/marker. Often with more colour added. These are pretty decent and confident pages, but they’re not as accomplished as those in the following Version: last category. Even if I’d drawn these in thinner biro/ballpoint, I think they’d still obviously predate those. An interesting thing about these is the way the marker is used to draw, quite confidently. A very different medium to biro and more like brush. It’s also great that I was embracing colour much more in these. Maybe influenced by my one copy of Marvel’s EPIC Illustrated magazine?
Version: Last — c.1983–1984 (age 15–16?)
Usually in Blue or Black biro/ballpoint, or both in one page. Some are on the backs of photocopy pages of my dad’s work-related textbooks, some are on very thin airmail type paper. I’m guessing that these are the latest and last of the pages that I did, based on the quality of drawing. I might have been as old as 16—in 1984. I was in full-on “I want to be a comic artist when I finish art college” mode. So naíve! Some of the drawing, even if i do say so myself, is very good. There’s a real sense that I was convinced of what I wanted to work at as an adult.
Versions: X — Later pages
Everything else, which I’ve still to find a place for. That’s a lot of pages, so it’ll take a while to do.
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