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Disney ruining the classic Marvel Comics Star Wars adaptations


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http://www.liveforfilms.com/2015/04/04/marvel-releases-star-wars-episode-iv-a-new-hope-ogn/

Al Williamson is the greatest artist of all time. I am a nearly lifelong fan of the classic Marvel Comics adaptations of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I've stared at all 6 issues of Empire and the Dark Horse reissues (acquired from comic book stores in the early to mid 90s) more than any other printed material. Marvel is now reissuing them and they have apparently RUINED them! Check this shit out:

star-wars-episode-iv-ogn-hc-coloring-com

http://comicbook.com/2014/12/16/marvel-announces-new-remastered-edition-of-original-star-wars-ad/

The left is obviously the new "remastered" version. What's perhaps most disturbing about this is that they seem to have made it more resemble the Abrams Star Trek movie. Look at the panel with the Star Destroyer and Blockade Runner in orbit of Tatooine. Jesus Christ.

I'm truly concerned for the Al Williamson/Carlos Garzon Empire adaptation. Can we expect to see those classic starfields with like zillions of planets replaced with Abrams lens flares? Will the original Jabba the Hutt be replaced with the SE version? Should we expect SE alterations?

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I see both sides of the argument. I like the slick look of the 'remastered' version, but also the 'classic' look of the original. I used to be a comic buff in my childhood and teenage years (I even did them myself), and although I wasn't that into Marvel or STAR WARS comic book adaptations at the time, a lot of the stylings you see on the right is what I was into - often in b/w. But I guess that ages me compared to most of you guys.

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You, Sir, have excellent taste.

I can't believe that anyone thinks this is a good idea. Where are all the purists who cry foul when Special Editions "update" or change art? This is simply a different medium. It's more revisionist bullshit. The new coloring is why I stopped buying comics. Modern computer coloring is slick, drab, and, well, colorless.

One on the left looks better.

You might also enjoy the new updating of the 1979 Dracula starring Frank Langella. Director John Badham used a similar approach of blanching all the color out of the film until it is nearly black and white.

Look, this is a cheap, pulpy comic released at the height of 1970s Star Wars mania. No one's calling this the Mona Lisa. But where do you draw the line, and why is this okay but the Special Editions of films not?

They should update the scores and re-release them with more power chords, drum loops, and synth strings.

And for the record, this is not the first time these stories were recolored. Dark Horse Comics did the same thing when they got ahold of them in the 1997 Special Edition era. They sucked too.

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Art, it's the drawings, the lines, the dialogues. They should never be changed.

But the colors in comic strips... for a long time, it was just a question of technology and economy...

I think It's correct to adapt it with modern standards.

I prefer the left side, while I remerber that when I was a child I was used to the colors shown on the right.

But that was long time ago... in a...

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Comics are recolored all the time for reprints. That's not an endorsement or an indictment, but it is a fact. These books have been recolored before, BTW. This is a pretty drastic example.

The original versions have been in print/reprinted so many times, and still available digitally, that this doesn't really affect anything. You'll still be able to get the original versions; this is just a way for Marvel to milk a few bucks from people who like it.

I may pick them up if they're ever <$5 per collection, but it's not worth cover price just to have modern recoloring. I have the original Marvel versions in paper TPBs and digitally in the "A Long Time Ago..." omnibuses from Dark Horse that collect all of the old Marvel issues.

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But they aren't. And that's the comic nerds' point. The comic is being altered for its new presentation, but when the movies get updated for their Blu-ray presentation, we complain like it's the worst thing ever.

Likely because all but a few prefer the original cuts of the films and resent the updating, while a much smaller group cares about the comics.

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I just don't like modern comic coloring. Some great Valiant comics from the 90s are ruined in modern reprints too

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They didn't just recolor it. I mean, that space panel is bloody awful. Despite all the liberties taken with these comics and stylized off-model interpretations of things, the original panel with the ships in orbit of Tatooine looks more accurate to the film than the new one, which looks like something out of the Abrams Star Trek movie.

And for the record, this is not the first time these stories were recolored. Dark Horse Comics did the same thing when they got ahold of them in the 1997 Special Edition era. They sucked too.

I didn't mind those as much, but my original Marvel issues were all fading, so they became necessary? I remember that they were first released in two parts, which I got for Christmas around '93/'94?. Then each film was collected into one graphic novel in 1995. Then they came out again in 1997 with beautiful Hildebrandt Brother artwork. However, Star Wars was completely redone for the 1997 edition (which I wasn't a big fan of) so I had to go back and get the 1995 version.

My biggest criticism of the Dark Horse reissue was that they left out the recap/story-so-far pages that introduced each issue of Empire, which I loved. Maybe it was due to all the Marvel credits (which could have been removed) or they just felt they were unncessary since you would be reading the whole thing through. Still, we lost some great artwork. Another oddity I remember was that they screwed up one panel with Luke in the Carbon Freezing Chamber where his lightsaber had what appeared to be a black Sharpie line over it. I actually thought my book was defective and I remember checking the other versions to see if his lightsaber was correct.

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My biggest criticism of the Dark Horse reissue was that they left out the recap/story-so-far pages that introduced each issue of Empire, which I loved. Maybe it was due to all the Marvel credits (which could have been removed) or they just felt they were unncessary since you would be reading the whole thing through. Still, we lost some great artwork. Another oddity I remember was that they screwed up one panel with Luke in the Carbon Freezing Chamber where his lightsaber had what appeared to be a black sharpie line over it. I actually thought my book was defective and I remember checking the other versions to see if his lightsaber was correct.

I'd recommend the A Long Time Ago... omnibus series. It has all of the Marvel issues, including the film adaptations, in full - original colors, all of the story pages, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Omnibus-Long-Time-ebook/dp/B00PJ2CEIK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

Vol 1, has the Star Wars adaptation

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Omnibus-Long-Time-ebook/dp/B00PJ2CEFS/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1HN76YXS917G59Z1JBAQ

Vol 2 has the Empire adaptation

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Omnibus-Long-Time-ebook/dp/B00PJ2CETY/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0CVVJVF5R1GEZ75M5HVA

Vol 4 has the Jedi adaptation

They're available in paper from Dark Horse although likely won't see any more print runs, and Marvel has rebranded the eBook versions, so they're still in print with the same content.

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Ah, yeah, they are maybe an inch smaller on each side than traditional comics - part of the concession of fitting ~500 pages of comics in a book and not breaking the bank. I have moved my reading to entirely electronic (my Kindle Fire, my spouse's iPad), so they're the same size for me as anything else I read.

Since they rebooted in 2015, I've bought all of Marvel's Star Wars issues in paper. They all include free digital copies, so I get to support the local comic shop by buying paper, download the copy to my Kindle, and then resell the otherwise unused paper comics.

The only thing I really miss about reading paper comics, weirdly, is the ads. Comic book ads are always such a great time capsule of the time the books came out. It's a very different experience reading an issue of Alpha Flight from 1985 vs. buying and downloading that same issue.

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Also, these magnificent pinups:

http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2011/12/1981-star-wars-pinups.html

Are these lost to time or did they ever show up in the Omnibuses?

Two of my favorite t-shirts which I'm always getting compliments on and no one seems to recognize as classic Marvel ESB comic art (including the Walt Simonson Boba pinup and a mashup of the first page of the ESB adaptation and (NOW...THE) Bounty Hunters from the cover of issue 44), pictured here in awful quality:

Image563.jpg

I'm constantly explaining this to people at Disneyland where apparently everyone wears Star Wars and Marvel crap because it's trendy, but they don't understand it.

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Also, these magnificent pinups:

http://marvel1980s.blogspot.com/2011/12/1981-star-wars-pinups.html

Are these lost to time or did they ever show up in the Omnibuses?

I want to say that they're in there. They look very familiar. I'd check, but my Kindle is at home, and downloading a comics omnibus from here will definitely run my iPhone data through the roof.

Great shirt logos!

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Marvel do this with a lot of their classic comics. I bought a reprint of Amazing Fantasy a few years back that had been recoloured.

It's not worth getting upset for.

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While I am a big fan of the originals, I personally don't have an issue with the remasters. (And correct me if I'm wrong, but those are not Al Williamson are they? Wasn't Star Wars drawn by Howard Chaykin?)

I kind of like the original wonky colors, but I think the new ones look pretty good for an update. The original line art seems to be well preserved even if not particularly well matched to the updated color style.

I do have a Dark Horse reprinting that is not the stupid Special Edition version, but does have updated colors, though not nearly this drastic.

I honestly think the art of Empire and Jedi will fair even better with the new remastered colors than Star Wars.

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It's not like they just changed the colors, they changed the drawings.

Both look terrible.

They didn't change any drawings. The pencils are still the original pencils.

And yes, they were drawn by Howard Chaykin.

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My biggest criticism of the Dark Horse reissue was that they left out the recap/story-so-far pages that introduced each issue of Empire, which I loved. Maybe it was due to all the Marvel credits (which could have been removed) or they just felt they were unncessary since you would be reading the whole thing through. Still, we lost some great artwork. Another oddity I remember was that they screwed up one panel with Luke in the Carbon Freezing Chamber where his lightsaber had what appeared to be a black sharpie line over it. I actually thought my book was defective and I remember checking the other versions to see if his lightsaber was correct.

I'd recommend the A Long Time Ago... omnibus series. It has all of the Marvel issues, including the film adaptations, in full - original colors, all of the story pages, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Omnibus-Long-Time-ebook/dp/B00PJ2CEIK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

Vol 1, has the Star Wars adaptation

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Omnibus-Long-Time-ebook/dp/B00PJ2CEFS/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1HN76YXS917G59Z1JBAQ

Vol 2 has the Empire adaptation

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Omnibus-Long-Time-ebook/dp/B00PJ2CETY/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0CVVJVF5R1GEZ75M5HVA

Vol 4 has the Jedi adaptation

They're available in paper from Dark Horse although likely won't see any more print runs, and Marvel has rebranded the eBook versions, so they're still in print with the same content.

Luke has two lightsabers..... ;)

515Z-YoRhBL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-stic

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