The official Star Wars blog says the Japanese manga adaptation of the first three Star Wars movies is light years better than Marvel Comics' original adaptation. To hammer home how flawed the American version was, here are some comparisons of how certain scenes appeared in the U.S. and japanese versions.

According to the Star Wars site:

[I]t's truly an unfair comparison to gauge how well Marvel Comics originally adapted the classic trilogy films against how Japanese artists did the same. The deck is definitely stacked in manga's favor. For the Marvel adaptations, produced during each film's post-production period, the artists had not seen the films — they were working merely from the script, with some key photography and maybe some concept art... Japanese manga has a much more flexible format and page count to accommodate a more deliberate and varied pace of storytelling. Since the Japanese manga versions did not come out until 1997, the artists benefited from years of studying the flow and dynamics of the movies.

It's not just the problems of pacing and available space - while Marvel's 22-page limit for each issue reduces the destuction of Alderaan to one panel, the manga spends six pages on the same event - but also of editorial restrictions: Vader cutting off Luke's hand is shown in all its gory detail in Japan, but American audiences find a piece of machinery suspiciously in the way.
But as much as the manga adaptations improve on their American ancestors, they do lack the wonderfully overwritten exposition of the Marvel books. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but when those words say things like "Then, the darkness swallows him. Deep. Vast. Unnatural in its totality. And with the sudden hiss of a lightsaber igniting... Luke finds it conceals far more than he ever dared imagine! wouldn't you rather have the words themselves?

Turning Star Wars Japanese - Manga Scenes Done Better [Star Wars.com]

3:00 PM on Mon Mar 3 2008
By Graeme McMillan
87,465 views
29 comments

Comments

Frozen-Tex at 03:18 PM on 03/03/08
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That manga pic is little bloody... not that I'm squeamish, but the lightsabre is supposed to cauterize the wound, and certainly not trail blood behind it. And without the cauterizing, Luke woulda bled out in a few minutes.
DocGratis at 03:18 PM on 03/03/08
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Fake!
Lightsabers autocauterize.. That Japanese manga is fake...

It really isn't fair to compare anyhting published under the "comics code authority" especially before the last 10 years...
ubik at 03:29 PM on 03/03/08
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Really an unfair comparison.
I'd love to get my hands on this manga!
DCI Gene Hunt at 03:33 PM on 03/03/08
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In 2018, will there be a manga version of I-III that will make the original "digital video" versions not suck?

(And no, I won't call them films, because they shot no film. But that's another thread)
goldfarb at 03:33 PM on 03/03/08
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Lightsabers cauterize...except for EP IV ;)
cde at 03:34 PM on 03/03/08
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Suspiciously? Pfft, that piece of machinery WAS in the movie. It's placement is canon :P
GenXCub at 03:35 PM on 03/03/08
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I dunno, there was blood in the Ep 4 cantina scene. I'm guessing they retconned the auto-cauterize starting in ep 5 just so people wouldn't think they were watching Evil Dead 2.
Garrison Dean, King... at 03:44 PM on 03/03/08
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well, you don't have to worry about "machinery" IF YOU DONT DRAW BACKGROUNDS!!! Still, that is a badass Vader drawing.
Garrison Dean, King... at 03:45 PM on 03/03/08
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Connectedness Index: 140

And I never saw Darth in an "action pose" in the movies. Darth dont run, Darth don't lunge. If needs to reach you.. He brings you to him with a little Force pull, or unfairly chucks cargo at you like he did in that scene.
JoeyTheHobo at 03:49 PM on 03/03/08
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...DO WANT
blurey at 03:55 PM on 03/03/08
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a japanese version of the old saga of good vs. evil. it is always the same story no matter who revises it.-blruey
lightninglouie at 04:09 PM on 03/03/08
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The 1970s and 1980s were sort of the Golden Age of the comic book writer as frustrated novelist; for the likes of Claremont, Englehart, Wolfman, et al., there is no action that cannot be drawn and narrated in equal detail. On the other hand, I can probably attribute my massive vocabulary to all those issues of Uncanny X-Men and Avengers I read back in grade school. So, kudos and excelsior, guys!

Kind of ironic that the writers who came to eschew narration altogether, like Neil Gaiman, have gone on to have the biggest success as prose writers.
Rus at 04:09 PM on 03/03/08
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I've got them. They're pretty interesting... and yes, you do get Obi-Wan in Kurosawa Samurai poses.

My recollection is that they were translated and published in the U.S. by Dark Horse Comics. For those in the "WANT!" category, I'd suggest heading over to their site and seeing if they have any in stock.
Tiwa Face Kontrol at 04:53 PM on 03/03/08
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I'm in continuing fascination with the fact that Japanese comic artists are kickass draughtsmen at pretty much anything, but they can't draw old people for shit (Obi-Wan). They usually looks like a youthful anime person with worry lines all over the place.
njudah at 04:56 PM on 03/03/08
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I remember when the comics came out as a kid and many people being disappointed in them. The covers were nutso, and the art was whatever.

Around that time I remember taking a trip with my dad to Atlantis Fantasy World in Santa Cruz (the old store, same one in Lost Boys) because i'd heard of it on KTVU and somehow ended up with some very well produced 'zine about Star Wars and Comics. They got some folks to redraw the cantina scene properly and it was night and day difference.
Paul at 05:00 PM on 03/03/08
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This blog is what is known in the vernacular as a happiness pill! :O)

It is invigorating to know that there are so many like-minded people out there enjoying, debating, and taking issue with developments in sci-fi, either those of the cutting edge sort or those built-upon-the-old sort.

Every time I feel kind of rudderless, I sojourn here for a little while and depart refreshed after browsing posts such as this one.

I have a nostalgic reverence for the original marvel comics adaptations, which I owned at one point, but I definitely look forward to the manga versions.

Paul
antiaging4geeks.com
tetracycloide at 05:06 PM on 03/03/08
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@Tiwa: maybe it's because that's what old people actually look like in japan.
diverguy at 06:29 PM on 03/03/08
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I wonder if all the characters look like 11 year old girls with big eyeballs...
xeijix at 07:02 PM on 03/03/08
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It did autocauterize, but not before it flash boiled the blood with his flesh forming a frothy overcoat
AmishJohn at 07:13 PM on 03/03/08
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@xeijix: So lightsabers make their own gravy?
Tiwa Face Kontrol at 08:32 PM on 03/03/08
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@tetracycloide: I'll admit that asian people have amazing bone structure, but that does nothing to cover up the fact that things start sagging around age 40.
Inkymonkey at 09:06 PM on 03/03/08
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Japan FTW. That is gorgeous.
Cantonkid at 09:29 PM on 03/03/08
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I remember the Marvel series when it picked up after the first Star Wars movie and going in so many directions that would later be deemed wrong (see any geekspeakpedia for Not Canon).

My favorite character was a cyborg bounty hunter named Valance...who was of course written out of existence when the later film sequels came out....that was when I quit the Star Wars comics.

But I am sure Mr. Lucas was laughing all the way to the bank.
lightninglouie at 10:19 PM on 03/03/08
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@Cantonkid: I think Lucas started pulling the Marvel stuff back into "Expanded Universe" canon once the prequels started coming out. As goofy and contradictory as the comics stuff was, there's nothing in them that's dopier than some of the stuff in the supposedly more "official" EU books or video games.

I have a soft spot for the old Star Wars comics, especially the ones released between Star Wars and Empire. I think part of the reason I'm fond of Phanton Menace is that the whole concept of Naboo, with its Renaissance Festival couture and "oceanic" core is like something out of the Goodwin/Infantino run of the late '70s.
AngryEwok at 05:53 AM on 03/04/08
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There are at least two examples of a wound not being instantly cauterized in Star Wars, and both of those are thanks to the swordsmanship of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

We all know "Old Ben" left Ponda Boba left a bloody mess in the cantina. Some of you may have forgotten about the way a young Obi-Wan halfed Darth Maul. Watch closely, and you will see a mist of blood as Obi-Wan strikes him.

Further evidence that Obi-Wan Kenobi is badass.
superbryant88 at 06:34 AM on 03/04/08
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@Garrison Dean: haha so true!...lol
Benjo at 07:54 AM on 03/04/08
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@Frozen-Tex: I with you on the cauterizing of wounds as part of Star Wars lightsaber cannon. However, you have to wonder if this was instilled to get a PG rating for the movies back in the day.
s0crates82 at 12:52 PM on 03/04/08
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@AngryEwok: not only his swordsmanship, but his lightsabers construction.

Remember, every Jedi is supposed to make his/her own - so depending on how Vaders is tuned and what focusing crystal(s) used, more heat vs. sharper edge may have been an advantage based on his personal style.
flecknoe at 11:26 PM on 03/04/08
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Im in Japan. Im going to try and get some copies. flecknoe@hotmail.com