Canon Webcomic Follows Luke Through A New Hope & Beyond

An ongoing webcomic from Korea called Star Wars: Story Before The Force Awakens is currently retelling Luke Skywalker’s journey through the events prior to and during A New Hope. Eventually, it will cover all three films in the original trilogy. The comic is written and illustrated by Writer Hong, and Star Wars Books editor Jennifer Heddle is working with Hong to make the comic canon.

The comic begins with Luke at a young age. In the first installment he meets Ben Kenobi, who saves him from what appears to be a Krayt dragon. A few issues later, the story picks up with A New Hope; the latest issue introduced Princess Leia in her cell block on the Death Star right as she’s about to be rescued by Luke and Han Solo.

As you can see, the artwork is gorgeous. The panels for each installment are laid out in an interesting scrolling format rather than the traditional horizontally-oriented panels, seen in comics like Marvel Star Wars. The story is written in Korean, with no English translation as of yet; but the illustrations convey enough that you can sort of follow along.

According to the liveblog of the Star Wars Canon panel at Star Wars Celebration, the goal of this comic is to retell the original trilogy “in an artful new way.” The new content includes scenes from Luke’s childhood, some featuring Luke’s uncle Owen Lars, as well as some deleted scenes. According to Big Shiny Robot, a new installment debuts online every Friday, so it’s a pretty regular thing.

At this point, it doesn’t seem like the comic will go any further in the canon than Return of the Jedi. But even if it only goes that far, I think the new depth being added to the overall story and the quality of the artwork make Story Behind The Force Awakens a fun and worthwhile read.

Thanks to Big Shiny Robot for bringing this to our attention with their article on the webcomic.