Today's news of a comic book adaptation from George Lucas' 1974 -Star Wars/ First Draft-, titled "The Star Wars", brought back memories, and thoughts of what-might-'ve-been. Many reports later, it seems that Dark Horse Comics is going back to that relic, adapting it in 8 issues this fall (September 2013). The initial look of SW owes much to Ralph McQuarrie's concept art, which seems to be the direction this adaptation is taking.
My first glimpse of Ralph McQuarrie's work on Star Wars was The Illustrated Star Wars Universe. His visionary work on Threepio (influenced by Lang's Metropolis) and the iconic lightsaber duel between diver-suit-armored Skywalker and undead-android Vader were lost on my 12-year-old brain. More than 15 years later his work seems like a piece of alternate history demanding to happen. Lucas filmed THX 1138 as a nod to dystopic fiction (1984) and Star Wars as an homage(?) to the Flash Gordon serials. If Jaws never happened perhaps Star Wars would have been closer to McQuarries' and Lucas' original vision. Fingers crossed that the DH adaptation will be that good...
Here is a gallery of Ralph McQuarrie's Star Wars:
Druillet's vision of Star Wars:
