A Star Wars comic strip ran in both daily strips and Sunday strips, originally distributed between 1979 and 1984 by two American newspaper publishers, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and Watertown Daily Times.
The comics are set between the original Star Wars film and The Empire Strikes Back, with the exception of an adaptation of Brian Daley's Han Solo at Stars' End (1979). The first run, by Russ Manning, was primarily created before the release of The Empire Strikes Back, while Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, in their storylines, worked with the benefit of having seen both films, in addition to Return of the Jedi in 1983.
In 1991, Russ Cochran published a 2500-copy limited run of a three-volume hardcover boxset of all of Goodwin and Williamson's Star Wars comic strips from between 1981 and 1984. From 1992 to 1994, Dark Horse Comics collected colorized compilations of the newspaper strip in its Classic Star Wars series. Between 2017 and 2018, The Library of American Comics and IDW Publishing published a three-volume reprint series of the complete comic strip.
Overview
In 1978, writer Archie Goodwin and artist Al Williamson proposed an adaptation of the original Star Wars film as a daily newspaper comic strip, producing 12 black-and-white samples, but the team ended up not being available to produce the full strip. By the next year, writer and artist Russ Manning was hired to produce both a daily and Sunday strip spun off from the film. These originally told separate stories, which according to Manning were largely made up as he went along. After six months, he was replaced as writer, reportedly because newspapers wanted a story that was "more like a comic book". Subsequently, the daily and Sunday strips no longer told separate stories. Manning left the strip in mid-1980 due to his declining health; he died due to cancer the next year. A new artist, Alfredo Alcala, replaced him for a brief run, working with writer Archie Goodwin on an adaptation of Brian Daley's 1979 novel Han Solo at Stars' End. Goodwin would subsequently work on the strip with artist Al Williamson until 1984, when the series ended. According to Goodwin, he and Williamson decided to keep their strip set between the first two Star Wars films "Because of the cliffhanger elements in The Empire Strikes Back." The strip has 27 storylines in total.
The Sunday page also includes topper panels called Star Wars Scrapbook, featuring illustrations of various elements from the franchise; this ran from May 24 to December 27, 1981, and includes early versions of elements which did not make it into the films.
Story arcs
Gambler's World (Daily, March 12 – Sept 8, 1979)
Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 travel to a casino world, where they hope a Rebel Alliance contact will help them cut off the Galactic Empire's funneling of gambling profits. The heroes are stalked by Blackhole, a mysterious ally of Darth Vader. While Luke meets the Rebel contact, the droids run into trouble with local thieves, who eventually kidnap Leia and try to ransom her. Blackhole captures one of the thieves for information on the Rebels. Luke frees him, and becoming more sympathetic, the former gangster helps the Rebels escape as Blackhole attacks the den of thieves.
The Constancia Affair (Sunday, March 11 – July 8, 1979)
C-3PO and R2-D2 are left stranded in space after a Star Destroyer destroys their ship. They are rescued by Han Solo and Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon, while they were taking a girl named Gyla for a pleasure cruise. Avoiding an Imperial entanglement, they enter the ice ring of Constancia, the planet the droids were headed to. Most of the TIE fighters smash into chunks of ice, and the Falcon lands at a secret base, where Luke greets them. He has agreed to help protect the planet's inhabitants, who have been persecuted by the Empire because of their telepathic abilities. Han and another freedom fighter board a lifepod and allow themselves to be captured by a medium-sized Imperial fighter. They overtake its crew and help Luke and Chewie (aboard the Falcon) destroy the other fighters.
The Kashyyyk Depths (Sunday, July 15 – Sept 9, 1979)
In a story set before the events of the previous tale, and R2-D2 accompany Han and Chewie to Kashyyyk, the Wookiee home planet, to help prepare for Life Day. The holiday may be canceled when a Wookiee elder forbids the collecting of a root normally used to guide their spiritual journey to the Life Tree, because of particular dangers. Han breaks up a fight between Chewie and the elder, proposing that he, Chewbacca, and the droids personally go to the planet's lower levels to collect the root. Here, they encounter Imperial troops sawing through the sentient vegetation, accompanied by some scientists. The plants lash out against the humans, killing the Imperials and all but one scientist, Gyla. Chewbacca calms the plants down and collects the roots he needs, and the group returns to the celebratory village.
Tatooine Sojourn (Sept 10 – Nov 5, 1979)
A lifepod containing squills, creatures carrying a deadly bacteria, lands on Tatooine and infects some Jawas. The Rebellion sends Luke to investigate, along with and R2-D2. As he approaches the planet, he receives a transmission instructing him to go to the Mos Eisley cantina. There, a female humanoid named Anduvil saves him from one of Jabba the Hutt's henchmen. Anduvil tells Luke that other planets have been subject to similar biological attacks. Hiding in the former home of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the group is attacked by Tusken Raiders. The Sand People destroy their landspeeder before Luke can defeat them. They take their banthas to a sandcrawler, the occupants of which have been wiped out by the virus. Luke is bitten by a squill, and stormtroopers capture both him and Anduvil. The Imperials take a readout of Luke's eyes, which appear to reveal a star map. Anduvil vaporizes the stormtroopers and forces the scientist to give Luke the viral antidote. Meanwhile, the droids crash the sandcrawler through the gate of the Imperial base. Anduvil sabotages a TIE fighter engine to demolish the entire base as the small band of rebels escapes.
Princess Leia, Imperial Servant (Nov 6 – Dec 31, 1979)
When Princess Leia's ship is about to be captured by Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, she is forced to use a small craft to escape to the planet below. The planet is the site of an Imperial mining colony overseen by Grand Moff Tarkin's widow. The colony slaves must wear special boots to prevent detonating the moss which explodes under pressure or above a certain temperature. Lady Tarkin soon spots Leia and forces her to work as a servant, especially because Imperial dignitaries will soon be visiting the colony for a diplomatic event. Leia overhears some workers discussing their stolen moss and plans to escape. She sends a message to their pilot accomplice using Tarkin's transmitter in exchange for letting her escape with them. The Imperial dignitaries arrive, including Lord Vader, but Leia manages to escape her duties. She and the thieves blow up their moss booty in order to defeat stormtroopers in pursuit. Their timely transport arrives in the form of Han, Chewbacca, and the Falcon.
The Second Kessel Run (Jan 1 – Feb 25, 1980)
A scientist from Kessel has just finished building an ionic-powered ship capable of changing the weather, which he hopes to use to make less hospitable worlds paradises. Imperials soon arrive and capture the scientist and his daughter, Mira. They force the scientist to use his invention as a weapon against Rebel worlds, using his daughter as collateral. However, she escapes at a spaceport and stows away aboard the Millennium Falcon. Han and Chewie, who have some spice to deliver to Kessel for Jabba the Hutt, first stop at a small Rebel base to check in on Luke. The droids go aboard the Falcon and discover Mira, who presents her dilemma. She convinces Luke that if they can let her father know she is safe, he will stop using the device to destroy worlds. The group flies to a planet recently affected by unpredictably bad weather, and learn that Kessel is the Empire's next target. They race there, and Mira uses an untested image-transmitting device to contact her father. Han and Luke take the Falcon to the superweapon above, and are able to overpower stormtroopers to reach Mira's father. The scientist sets the weapon to self-destruct, and they escape in the Falcon.
Bring Me the Children (Feb 26 – April 21, 1980)
While Luke is delivering some pre-Imperial literature to a school, the Empire kidnaps a class of kids, except for the teacher's son, Berd, who manages to escape. In space, Darth Vader instructs his officers to transmit a galaxy-wide message that he intends to kill the teacher—in order to lure Rebels. Luke, Leia, and Berd look for Han, hoping he can help. When they find him, he is in the middle of a bar fight. The participants of the brawl pay attention to Berd's plea and are slowly convinced to help. Berd presents his plan to use drones altered to look like bigger ships, drawing the Empire's forces while Han's cohorts sneak to the surface to liberate the prisoners. Luke, Han and Chewie make a surprise attack on a fleet of grounded TIE fighters. The executioners prepare to kill the hostages, but are stopped by Luke and Han. The two realize they are surrounded by stormtroopers, but the smuggler's buddies show up in time to save them.
As Long As We Live (April 22 – June 16, 1980)
On an industrial world, Luke, and a couple of fighter pilots inform some local engineers that they have compromised the Alliance's weapons systems by letting a targeting component fall into the Empire's hands. Princess Leia is also on the planet to give a speech, hoping to turn up information about the compromised weapons. Hearing of this, the traitorous Mag Doum, who is responsible for selling the parts in question to the Empire, forces two of the engineers (a father and son) to kidnap the princess. Luke pursues, and is led by the father, Kiros, to his son, Zon, and Leia. Zon is attacked by a cave monster, and he leaves behind a fragment of blood-soaked clothing, leading Kiros to think he has perished. Luke, Han, and Chewie reconvene and pick up Leia, who is able to give her speech. She reveals Doum as being responsible for her kidnapping, prompting him to take flight. Doum contacts Vader with the location of the Rebels, and Luke arranges for a device to be used to affect both Rebel and Imperial targeting systems. The Rebels, aware of this, will know to compensate their aim. Luke leads a small group of X-wing pilots, including Zon, to defend themselves. Kiros, who has snuck aboard Doum's ship, takes power of the vessel and takes it for a suicide run against Vader's Star Destroyer. Zon flies alongside him, trying to convince him that the Rebels already have the upper hand, but is shot by a TIE fighter. Both father and son plunge into the Destroyer, forcing the Imperials to retreat.
The Frozen World of Ota (June 17 – Aug 10, 1980)