Yup: New title, same weekly. The US edition also incorporated Marvel's sequel adaptation within the usual run of the monthly but didn't feel the need to change the overall title to accomodate it. The American edition of ROTJ sidestepped it by floating off into a standalone four-part series in 1983. But here in the UK, the British Bullpen did everything they could to cash-in on the hefty anticipation around the return of the Star Warriors and rebooted the weekly to coincide with the beginning of the adaptation. In contrast with today's every-six-month relaunches, they didn't go as far as restarting with a new Issue one (although they did in 1983).
The fantastic cover art is probably one of the most seen pieces of EMPIRE art. Originally created for the US one-shot magazine, it also poped up here on the weekly, on the UK annual (which was shipped back to the States in limited numbers) and on the paperback-sized edition.
' hefty anticipation ' is an understatement.
ReplyDeleteWith all of the current rash of star wars prequels and sequels, its now hard to convey just how exciting it was to see a follow up to the original movie.
from a time when there was only ONE star wars movie. And one star wars comic.
Arguably ,you could say that the british bullpen did a better job at promoting the movie although to be fair, the usa comic did have an inbox on the cover with the movie title.
Marvel certainly got great mileage from that piece of art by Bob Larkin.
I don't seem to recall an orange sky on Hoth.