STARLOGGED - GEEK MEDIA AGAIN: STAR WARS: DROIDS

Showing posts with label STAR WARS: DROIDS. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 May 2016

1994: STAR WARS DROIDS ISSUE 1 (DARK HORSE COMICS)

From April 1994: the first issue of the first DROIDS series from Dark Horse Comics. With the obligatory for the time cover enhancement.

Yesterday was, of course, STAR WARS DAY (4th May blah blah) and Marvel made the most of it coinciding with New Comics Day by shipping ten different SW reprints under their "True Believers" banner of $1/ 75p sampler series.

Seven of the ten were reprints of recent first issues from the second Marvel era and basically designed to make you go out and buy the trade paperback collections.

One was (yet another) reprint of 1977's STAR WARS issue one, albeit now boasting the new colouring created for the recent hardback from Marvel.

Another was a collection of recent Marvel Star Wars cover art. I didn't cross reference with the recent hardback collection of similar art but I have a hunch this may be a different selection.

And the last was the most fun... and the reason (however tenuous) for this post. They reissued the first issue of the old Star Comics DROIDS series, based on the single-season animated show from the mid-eighties. Its essentially a Dollar plug for the upcoming (June) compilation of the full DROIDS and EWOKS (which didn't generate a sampler) runs. Smart Star Warriors will recall that Dark Horse published their own omnibus compilation of the same material a few years ago.

This 1994 series, one of the first wave of Dark Horse titles before it all became too much, followed the same premise as the animated show (the twosome in "solo" adventures) but took things (a little) more seriously. One story, The Kalarba Adventure, spanned the six issue run.

Thursday, 19 February 2015

1989: DROIDS SPRING SPECIAL House Ad (Marvel UK)

From 1989: A House Ad for MARVEL UK's DROIDS SPRING SPECIAL.

The one-shot, which reprinted the third issue of the brief (8 issues) US Star Comics series, was pegged to the BBC screenings of the animated series (which mustered a single season from September 1985).

This marked the last time that the Annex of Ideas would publish a standalone STAR WARS related comic. The long-running title that began as STAR WARS WEEKLY in 1978 shuttered in June 1986 (with a coda in SPIDER-MAN AND ZOIDS post-merger).

The very final STAR WARS-related strip to appear in a M-UK comic was also the DROIDS, serialised in the pages of THE MARVEL BUMPER COMIC. They bowed out in issue 25 (cover-dated 25 June 1989).

The franchise bounced-back with the five issue run of EWOKS starting in November 1987. It was all over by the following March.

Marvel UK had already published one DROIDS SPECIAL the previous year.

Thursday, 26 April 2012

1988-89: THE MARVEL BUMPER COMIC

THE MARVEL BUMPER COMIC was Marvel UK's short-lived eccentric anthology, combining various characters from across the Marvel UK line.

The 1988 special and first issues of the fortnightly functioned very much as a sampler for the rest of the M-UK range, throwing together adventure strips (Thundercats, Doctor Who), comedy-adventure (The Real Ghostbusters, Scooby Doo) and humour (A.L.F, Lew Stringer's Combat Colin) in an unruly mix of reprints.

Over time, the editorial focus shifted with an evolving line-up of (mostly) media-based strips (Defenders of the earth, Star Wars: Droids) which enjoyed a TV presence, and a Marvel special, but were presumably deemed an insufficient draw to support their own on-going title.

William Tell, beginning in issue 21, was Marvel UK's adaptation of the long-forgotten live-action TV show. Marvel management clearly hoped for big things from the license and also published a graphic novel (collecting the material serialised here), a one-shot special (also collected in the graphic novel) and an annual (with strip material not found elsewhere).

Demonstrating quite how far superhero fare had fallen by the end of the eighties, Marvel's key characters were conspicuous by their absence for most of the early issues (remember: Spider-man had lost his own regular title in 1987), only belatedly reappearing from issue 26.

The Real Ghostbusters remained a mainstay throughout making The Bumper Comic one of several (IT'S WICKED!, BLIMEY IT'S SLIMER!, Collected Comics and annuals) outlets for their adventures beyond their own title.

The Transformers (as well as, to a lesser extent, other Hasbro characters), despite having amassed quite a back-catalogue of material since 1984, were conspicuous in their absence suggesting the terms of Marvel's license preventing them moonlighting here.

A.L.F, based on the live-action and animated TV shows, appeared in the early issues before fading away... allowing Marvel to officially merge his own comic into the MBC from issue 28.

M-UK had already reprinted all the available US DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH (4 issues!), based on the Marvel Productions animated series, in two specials and an annual.

The MBC can also be seen as a pilot for (the even more short-lived) THE INCREDIBLE HULK PRESENTS (launched later in 1989 and MBC obvious successor), testing a media-based adventure anthology format and using two strips (Doctor Who and The Incredible Hulk) first used here.

The covers of the last two issues show Marvel were still trying to use kid-friendly celebrities (Kylie, Bros etc...) to hook readers in, a recurrent rouse throughout MBC's run (they also tried it in the dying days of Spider-man's weekly in 1985). The decision to cancel seems to have been a hasty one but the editor was able to sneak in several references.