The Star Wars 1

The Star Wars 1 is the first issue of an eight-issue adaptation of the original 1974 rough draft screenplay for George Lucas's Star Wars franchise, titled The Star Wars. The first issue was released on September 4, 2013.

Publisher's summary
''"Before Star Wars, there was The Star Wars! This is the authorized adaptation of George Lucas’s rough-draft screenplay of what would eventually become a motion picture that would change the world.

''Annikin Starkiller is the hero. . . Luke Skywalker is a wizened Jedi general. . . Han Solo is a big green alien. . . and the Sith. . . Well, the Sith are still the bad guys. High adventure and derring-do from longer ago, in a galaxy even further away!''


 * Official adaptation of George Lucas’s original screenplay for Star Wars!


 * Features regular, variant, and ultravariant covers!"

Second Printing
''Before Star Wars, there was The Star Wars! This is the authorized adaptation of George Lucas’s rough-draft screenplay of what would eventually become a motion picture that would change the world.

''Annikin Starkiller is the hero. . . Luke Skywalker is a wizened Jedi general. . . Han Solo is a big green lizard. . . and the Sith. . . Well, the Sith are still the bad guys. High adventure and derring-do from longer ago, in a galaxy further away!


 * ''After launching to rave reviews The Star Wars #1 sells out!


 * ''Dark Horse goes back to press for a 2nd printing, this time with a completely stripped down Nick Runge cover.

''“A timeless tale and a refreshing addition to the franchise.” —Comics: The Gathering

''“Its good pulpy fun, much like the original Star Wars was.” —cxPulp

''"It all works together to create an interesting looking new universe inspired by the original one we love." —IGN

''"Fans of the real "Star Wars" won't dare miss it, and rightly so; it's also worth checking out for anybody who likes a good space opera."—Comic Book Resources

''"The Star Wars' is a pretty fun sci-fi comic. If I had no prior knowledge about how the story actually turned out, I think I'd just as interested and invested in how this story ends as I am now." —ScienceFiction.com''

Development
Writer J.W. Rinzler, on the blog "The Star Wars, from Movie Script Page to Comic Book Page," reflected that the process of creating The Star Wars 1 had been difficult for himself, editor Randy Stradley, and artist Mike Mayhew, as this had been Rinzler's first time writing a Comic book outside of comics done as a teenager at the latest, Mayhew had to conceptualize various props, ships, characters, locations, and the like to design before he could start on the layouts.

Regarding the first appearance of the comic's version of Luke Skywalker, Rinzler felt it was easier to get to the crux of the matter when doing the scene instead of using the rough draft's zooming from location to location, which also removed the shot of Biggs and Windy Kayos entering the Palace gates. He also had to remove Zavos' second line and edited down Count Sandage's speech for time. Rinzler was also advised to write dialogue in the majority of panels, with some exceptions, in order to allow the readers to look at the dialogue, characters, and panel artwork before moving onwards with the story.

He also added in a line where Skywalker, upon entering, commanded Sandage to sit down in order to fully establish his presence in comic book format, as the original version, although good for a film, would not work well with a comic. Rinzler, in a PDF file containing notes for Pages 14 and 15 of the comic, mentioned that he had considered basing the design of the Palace of Lite on the Sultan's Palace in Agrabah from the Disney film Aladdin, in order to give it a more Arabic look, although he admitted that whether that was to be the case would depend on whether George Lucas agreed with it.