Dark Horse and LucasFilms To Release The Star Wars Comic Book

Dark Horse and LucasFilm made some news yesterday at Wondercon the 2nd Convention of the season, Seattle's Emerald City Con being the 1st, about a project called The Star Wars.   The Star Wars is the rough original draft of what would eventually become Star Wars.  The project will be written by J. W Rinzler and art duties by Mike Mayhew and will be an eight issue series due out this September.  You can read the official press release below.

LUCASFILM AND DARK HORSE ANNOUNCE

THE BIGGEST EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF

STAR WARS COMICS!

George Lucas’s original-draft screenplay for The Star Wars to be adapted by J. W. Rinzler and Mike Mayhew!

APRIL 1, MILWAUKIE, OR–It’s no April Fools’ prank! Dark Horse is honored to announce a dream project: working with J.W. Rinzler, executive editor at LucasBooks, and artist Mike Mayhew (Avengers) to adapt the rough-draft original screenplay which spawned the biggest franchise in film history!

Three years before his 1977 film, George Lucas put down on paper his first story set in a galaxy far, far away—a tale of fantastic adventures, daring escapes, “lazer swords,” romance, and monsters. A story of Jedi Annikin Starkiller and General Luke Skywalker, an alien named Han Solo, and evil Sith Knights. The screenplay was titled The Star Wars!

“I’m not sure where I first read about The Star Wars—it was years and years ago—but the idea of Luke Skywalker being an older Jedi General, and Han Solo being a six-foot-tall lizard, turned my Star Wars fan brain on its side,” said longtime Star Wars editor Randy Stradley. “I always assumed this would be one of those stories that would be ‘lost to history,’ so getting to work on bringing it to life is kinda like a dream come true.”

“While researching in the Lucasfilm Archives I’ve found many treasures—but one which truly astounded me was George’s rough draft for The Star Wars. His first complete imaginings were hallucinating to read—mind blowing,” said writer J.W. Rinzler. “While working with George on another book project, I once asked if we could adapt his rough draft. He was hesitant. Years later, with Dark Horse’s invaluable help, we showed him a few drawn and colored pages of what it might look like. He gave us the okay.”

Originally conceived in 1974, The Star Wars has been the subject of rumor and legend in the fan community throughout the history of the galaxy far, far away. Now, Lucas has seen fit to grant Dark Horse the right to adapt this fabled story into an eight-issue comic series launching in September!