Comic book series
Classic Star Wars is a series of various classic "Star Wars" comics reprinted by Dark Horse Comics between 1992 and 1996. It notably includes compilations of the weekly newspaper "Star Wars" comic strips written by Archie Goodwin and illustrated by Al Williamson; these were published as 20 single issues between 1992 and 1994 with new cover art by Williamson and others, and collected as three trade paperbacks between 1994 and 1996. While originally achromatic, these comics were colorized for the Dark Horse reprints.
The "Classic Star Wars" banner also includes reprints of Marvel's original adaptations of the original trilogy from the self-titled comic (over two issues each in 1994, with new colorization in the case of "A New Hope"), Russ Manning's comic strip (as "Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures"), a reprint of issue #98 of Marvel's "Star Wars" (as "Classic Star Wars: The Vandelhelm Mission"), and various colorized comics originally printed by Marvel UK's magazine, including many by Alan Moore (as "Classic Star Wars: Devilworlds").
Related publications.
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 1981 to 1984, signed by both creators, and featuring new cover illustrations by the latter.
In 1999, Dark Horse released six issues of black-and-white reprints of Marvel's self-titled comic and related works as "Classic Star Wars: A Long Time Ago..." with covers utilizing conceptual design by Ralph McQuarrie. Recolored versions of Marvel's entire comic series were released across seven trade paperbacks as "Star Wars: A Long Time Ago..." between 2002 and 2003:
Between 2017 and 2018, The Library of American Comics collected the entirety of the "Star Wars" comic strip in its original black-and-white form in three volumes as "Star Wars: The Complete Classic Newspaper Comics".
Reception.
Steve Watson reviewed "Classic Star Wars 3" for "Arcane" magazine, rating it a 3 out of 10 overall. Watson comments that "This is very weak indeed. The "Star Wars" concept deserves much better treatment than this basic pulp and clearly does not work in this format." Conversely, internet reviewer John Hansen says, "The Goodwin/Williamson strips are all about the childhood wonder brought out by the original trilogy and fans' memories of seeing the films for the first time."
References.
Footnotes
Citations
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