Collectible of the Day 277 - Empire Strikes Back UK Comics

[darthskellington]

Star Wars comics were a hit not just in the US, but in the UK as well. Marvel Comics Star Wars stories were printed in black and white, magazine size format in the UK, usually as an anthology. They often featured one or two other Marvel characters as back-up stories, along with short articles. While the interior art was reprinted, they usually had brand new cover art.

In the case of this issue, #141, the back-up tale featured another Marvel sci-fi property, Killraven. There is also a two page photo spread from a 1980 comic convention in the UK, attended my Dave Prowse, Peter Mayhew, and an actual Snowspeeder from the Empire Strikes Back.

Star Wars comics were published either weekly or monthly from 1978-1983 under the following titles with consecutive numbering:

Star Wars Weekly #1-117
Empire Strikes Back Weekly #118-139
Empire Strikes Back Monthly #140-158
Star Wars Monthly #159-171

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Following this run, Return of the Jedi Weekly comics appeared with new numbering and ran for 155 issues. There is also short run of 10 Ewoks comics, and two Star Wars Specials (Summer and Christmas).

 

[Buzz Bumble]

There were also hardback "Annuals". I've got:

• Star Wars Annual No. 1 (1978) which tells the story of the original Star Wars movie (starts in black and white, changes to colour, and then ends in black and white) as well as some background articles and photos.
• The Empire Strikes Back Annual No. 2 (1981) which has the story The Crimson Forever!

Here in New Zealand there was also a series of comic strip pages printed each week in the kids' pages of the New Zealand Woman's Weekly magazine which ran for quite a while.

 

[darthskellington]

Hmm.....Star Wars Wizard of Oz style. I like it.

 

[Buzz Bumble]

The hardback Annuals are from the UK. Such books have been around for years - I've also got old Annuals for The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Lafalympics, Superman, Batman, Knight Rider. Plus I've got two new Annuals for Doctor Who (2001 and 2014) and there's one this year for both Star Wars and Clone Wars the shops, but these days they tend to be all / almost all just puzzles rather than having stories.

 

[darthskellington]

Very nice!