Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Retro Foreign

Indonesian Star Wars: Perang Di Planit Air

This Edisi Spesial or Special Edition is a treasury-sized comic published by Cypress.  It is titled Perang Di Planit Air or The War on the Water Planet.  This issue contains Star Wars #11 - 15, redrawn.

Star Wars: Perang Di Planit Air a - Cypress, Indonesia (1980s)
contains Star Wars #11 - 15 redrawn
The artwork for the cover is taken from Star Wars #13.  It is cropped to fit the treasury format and, by chance, the cropping retains the artists' signatures who worked on the cover, John Byrne and Terry Austin.

Star Wars #13a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (July, 1978)
On the original cover, C-3PO exclaims, "Master Luke, this time we don't dare let the Wookiee win!", a reference to the humorous line he says in the movie, "I suggest a new strategy, R2. Let the Wookiee win."  On the Cypress cover, C-3PO is more optimistic proclaiming, "Master Luke, kita harus bisa menghentikan amukan Wookie ini!" or "Master Luke, we should be able to stop the raging Wookie!"  Wookiee is spelled incorrectly and not for the first time on a Star Wars product.

As you can see on this page, the interior art is redrawn from the original comic.

Star Wars: Perang Di Planit Air a - Cypress, Indonesia (1980s)
interior page
Here is the same page from Star Wars #15.  A lot of the detail of the original Carmine Infantino pages are lost in the new artwork.

Star Wars #15 - Marvel Comics, U.S. (1979)
page 8
I have very fond memories of reading the original movie adaptation in the treasury format.  The larger format just feels appropriate for Star Wars and it is still my preferred format.  I have a copy of Marvel Special Edition Featuring Star Wars #3 that is well worn from countless hours of leafing through the pages and staring at the artwork.  The idea that other issues in the Marvel title were collected in a treasury, even in other countries, is pretty cool.  I cannot even imagine the excitement a kid had sitting down and reading the entire Dragon Lords arc presented in this manner.

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