Issue #2 (August 1977): Six Against the Galaxy

• Scripter/Editor: Roy Thomas
• Illustrator: Howard Chaykin

Issue 2 picks up right where Issue 1 left off. In other news, the sky is blue and the sun will rise tomorrow.

Alert Star Wars fans–or really, anyone with a pulse–will immediately realize that the cover of this issue is a total bait and switch. “Luke Skywalker Strikes Back!” #1: Nice completely accidental foreshadowing there. #2: Really? Luke strikes back?

Why is Luke leading the charge in a cantina brawl? Why is Ben pulling up the rear? Why is Luke firing a blaster in the cantina? Wait…a cantina brawl? Did I miss something?

Also, they spelled it lightsabre. Huh, maybe Luke is British.

Page 3: We’re treated to Leia’s full holographic message. Look, I get that these comics were made with an incomplete film script, but she says, “Please see this R2 unit safely to Alderaan! You are our last hope.” You are our last hope! One of the seminal lines of Star Wars wasn’t even finalized by the time they wrote this comic!

Zoey’s question at this point: “If Luke and Leia are brother and sister, why don’t they live together?” Fair question. But completely heartbreaking that no kid today is really ever going to go into Star Wars and be surprised by any of the big reveals in Empire or Jedi.

Page 6: “Why does Luke keep interrupting?” Because he’s still just a little shit at this point who wants to go into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters. Kidding. I didn’t say that. Still, though, she’s on to something. Take a look at those panels. Ben’s on a roll talking about the Jedi and the Old Republic, and Luke totally cuts him off to deal with some daddy issues.

“Why doesn’t Obi-Wan know Darth Vader is Luke’s father?” Again, fair point since she’s armed with more knowledge of the story than the readers in ’77 had. Quick explanation of why all these relationships were kept secret.

Just as the artists were basically flying blind with what Vader would really look like on screen, they also had very little idea what some of the of the other characters would look like. Case in point above. That’s the interrogator droid. And here’s Chewie, who is really more Bigfoot than Wookiee.

Still, the gold ribbon goes to Jabba. Everyone knows that Jabba was originally just some dude in the first film and was then cut. But not everyone knows that Marvel decided he should look like this…

Page 23: That’s Jabba on the left. The yellow one. With the weird facial hair.

Per Zoey: “Jabba is huge and slimy and has chains on him. This thing is yellow. I guess the person who drew Jabba doesn’t know anything about anything.” Ouch. Sorry, Howard Chaykin.

Page 31: We’ve come to the end of another issue. The Falcon jumps into warp in a groovy 70s rainbow…

Next Wednesday: Issue 3!