Original 1974 draft screenplay of Star Wars to be made into comic

At WonderCon, Dark Horse announced that the rough draft screenplay of Star Wars will be adapted into The Star Wars, by J. W. Rinzler (of The Making Of Star Wars books) and Mike Mayhew.

At the Star Wars comics panel at WonderCon on Sunday, Dark Horse Comics announced a new title coming this fall: The Star Wars, based on George Lucas’ original 1974 screenplay and the concept art by Ralph McQuarrie. This eight-issue arc will tell the Star Wars story as it was in the first drafts. Bleeding Cool has some of the concept art shown at WonderCon: Jedi Annikin Starkiller, General Luke Skywalker, and more.

From the official press release:

“I’m not sure where I first read about The Star Wars—it was years and years ago—but the idea of Luke Skywalker being an older Jedi General, and Han Solo being a six-foot-tall lizard, turned my Star Wars fan brain on its side,” said longtime Star Wars editor Randy Stradley. “I always assumed this would be one of those stories that would be ‘lost to history,’ so getting to work on bringing it to life is kinda like a dream come true.”

“While researching in the Lucasfilm Archives I’ve found many treasures—but one which truly astounded me was George’s rough draft for The Star Wars. His first complete imaginings were hallucinating to read—mind blowing,” said writer J.W. Rinzler. “While working with George on another book project, I once asked if we could adapt his rough draft. He was hesitant. Years later, with Dark Horse’s invaluable help, we showed him a few drawn and colored pages of what it might look like. He gave us the okay.”

Rinzler is definitely the right person for the job when handling the adaptation of the rough draft into a full story – as LucasBooks’ executive editor and the author of several Making Of books, he knows the source material (and has access to it), and has written a story or two as well.

Check out this sample page from Matt Mayhew (click to enlarge):

Despite the April 1 date on the press release, this is a real project from Dark Horse, so sound off on whether you like it or not!