Star Wars manga

[ChrisIII]

Manga is of course the term for Japanese comics. There's many differences of course from the American distribution model-most Manga don't come in 'floppies' but are usually serialized in large, 'phone book' magazines, in black and white (and read in a different direction from Western reading). Also, the writer and the artist are usually the same, although of course this happens in American comics too, just not as often I think.


They also often have the "big eyed" style that is often associated with Japanese animation (Many animes are actually adaptations of manga to boot).


They've been imported a few times too. In the 90s there were three adaptations of the Original trilogy, each with sort of their own style. They took some interesting liberties with the designs-Leia's hairstyle, while still having the buns, is more loose on the side. They also manage to stretch out Alderaan's destruction in an interesting way, including the citizens of the planet wondering what's going on.

The Phantom Menace was also adapted by Kia Asamiya (Whose art generally uses more distinctive noses...and he was also briefly the artist of Uncanny X-men during the controversial Chuck Austen run).


I'm pretty sure there's no manga that exists for the other prequels, Rogue One, Solo or the sequel trilogy.


There were two Tokyopop comics that were mainly a few short original stories, I think.

There's also a Clone Wars manga, but I haven't been able to find much about it, but it appears to be a "Photonovel" adaptation, basically stills from the movie/series with comic balloons attached to them (There were Star Wars ones for the movies a few years ago).


The most unique one I think is the Lost Stars adaptation, which deals with the "Romeo and Juliet"-esque Star Wars YA novel about a couple on opposite sides of the war (including one who becomes the Captain of the Jakku Star Destroyer where we're introduced to Rey)that's suprisingly good and got Claudia Gray some attention as one of the better new EU writers. Although "Rogue One" was released after the novel, the group does have a mini-cameo in the adaptation.

....and just hours ago another Claudia Gray adaptation, Leia, Princess of Alderaan, was announced (The novel fleshes out some of Leia's past and apparentally Holdo's as well) as well as a Rebels one, although it's a bit unclear if it's going to adapt the series or do it's own thing.

https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/...a-adaptations/

[KC]

I have the Lost Stars Manga. The Lost Stars book is one on my favourite pieces of Star Wars EU material. The manga adaptation is interesting. It obviously condenses some parts of the story to adapt it the Manga medium but it still tells the basic story. It does do a couple of things better than the book and it is nice to have another way of enjoying the story but the book is obviously better.