The Star Wars Daily Strips - Fan Club Petition

It was sometime around January 1981 when the Los Angeles Times made a decision to discontinue running the strip in their paper, citing lack of interest. To combat this the official Star Wars Fan Club launched a letter-writing campaign and successfully saved the strip. Here is a transcript of the letter that made a million voices suddenly cry out and were not silenced:

January 12, 1981

Dear Fan Club Member:

We want you to be aware that the Los Angeles Times has suspended publication of the STAR WARS comic strip. We believe that there is great interest among many area residents in seeing the strip continue to run in the Times, as it does in hundreds of other papers.

Last month, when the L.A. Times suspended another strip, B.C., readers responded with letters and phone calls of protest and the paper reinstated B.C.

If you are a reader of the Times, and want to continue following STAR WARS, you can write or telephone the newspaper and let them know your wishes. The address is:

Editor
Los Angeles Times
Times Mirror Square
Los Angeles, CA 90053

(213) 972-7000

Sincerely,
Maureen Garrett
Director, STAR WARS Fan Club
Lucasfilm Ltd.

The Star Wars Daily Strips - Unpublished Strips #3

The Star Wars Daily Strips - Unpublished Strips #2

Today I have something extra special for you. Before the Star Wars daily strip was launched by Russ Manning, someone else had tried their hand at starting the strip. This someone was Al Williamson. Known mostly for his Flash Gordon work in the 60's, he was Lucas' first choice to do the strip. And so to test the waters he did two weeks worth of strips and started an adaptation of Star Wars.

Unfortunately for whatever reason he was not able to carry on with the strip and Russ Manning took over. If you really enjoy his work however, don't fret. He later returned to the Star Wars strip following the departure of Russ Manning and did the full Marvel comic adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. So without further ado I present to you what the start of the strip could have been like:

The Star Wars Daily Strips - Unpublished Strips #1

Today we have some deleted scenes that never made it into the strip: