With the massive WonderCon hangover sweeping the internet, Marvel has something a little different to detox from Rebirth — something a bit out of the ordinary. Today’s variants from Marvel include additional costumes first appearing on variants designed by action figure variant cover artist John Tyler Christopher. Newsarama put these pieces together that are interesting because […]
IT HAD TO HAPPEN.
Jaxxon, the giant green rabbit who made an unforgettable impression in the FIRST EVER original Marvel Star Wars story in issue #7 from 1978…is coming back.
But only on the cover of the Star Wars #1 “Party” Variant Cover, as depicted by artist John Tyler Christopher.
So far.
If you were a kid in 1978 who had read the Marvel Comics adaptation of the original film (complete with Biggs Darklighter) you may remember the trembling hands with which you picked up issues #7 at the 7-11—a brand new Star Wars story! In a time before licensing became vast and multi media was everywhere, this was it! A NEW STORY. And then you opened it up and saw that writer Roy Thomas and artist Howard Chaykin had teamed Han Solo and Chewie with a bunch of misfits on a faraway planet in a rewrite of Seven Samurai. And one of the misfits was a seven foot tall green rabbit.
Because in space, there was infinite diversity.
It is said that Star Wars creator George Lucas did not care for Jaxxon, and perhaps it is this incident that sent him spiraling off in his x-wing to become the inscrutable dark lord that he later became. Or maybe the Howard the Duck movie was revenge. Or more likely, Jar Jar Binks was the true revenge. Perhaps we will never know.
Anyway, this fanciful cover has brought Jaxxon back, if only in an imaginary symbolic cover. “‘Star Wars’ has always been an important part of Marvel’s history and we knew we wanted to honor that legacy with a callback to the original Marvel Comics ‘Star Wars’ series,” said David Gabriel, Marvel’s SVP Sales & Marketing in a statement. “We think old and new fans alike will be just as excited as we are to see Jaxxon, even if it’s only for this fun variant cover.”
But is this the last we’ve seen of Jaxxon? The new Star Wars debuts in January with writer Jason Aaron and artist John Cassaday at the helm. Aaron has joked that he’d like to bring Jaxxon back…but it wouldn’t be the first time. In The Clone Wars, the skeleton of Jaxxon was briefly seen…another casualty in the war between silliness and seriousness, no doubt.
Developing.**
Not really, it’s just a joke, but I wanted to say that.
RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN is a very unusual-looking graphic novel by Jim McCann and Janet Lee that comes out later this year — Lee’s wooden board collage art has been quite a conversation topic on the convention circuit this year. Prior to the book’s debut, McCann has released pin-up art; here’s one by illustrator John Tyler Christopher.
With the massive WonderCon hangover sweeping the internet, Marvel has something a little different to detox from Rebirth — something a bit out of the ordinary. Today’s variants from Marvel include additional costumes first appearing on variants designed by action figure variant cover artist John Tyler Christopher. Newsarama put these pieces together that are interesting because […]
The Archie Goodwin written issues were GREAT stuff, The Wheel, Valence the Hunter, The House of Tagge. Loved the Carmine Infantino artwork too. The Roy Thomas stuff was good too and Jaxxon gets a bum rap