Ever wondered where George Lucas got all those zany
ideas from? You know, Darth Vader, the Millennium Falcon, Jabba's depredations,
huge lake monsters on swampy planets…
I always assumed he came up with all that stuff himself, perhaps with some help from, say, Joseph Campbell. But, actually, naaaaah. The solution was right under my nose already as a kid, but I never picked it up to read it.
Herr Lucas plagiarized (or paid tribute to) a French comic, “Valerian and Laureline”. The similarities with “Star Wars” are Über-obvious in this particular adventure, “The Empire of a Thousand Planets”, so obvious in fact that the editors of this English translation have included a whole list of possible Star Wars borrowings (they even missed a few). The original story hit the streets of Galaxity, or rather Paris, already in 1969. But sure, the actual plot of Lucas' epic is very different from the often comic exploits of the French heroes.
Valerian and Laureline are two spatial-temporal agents from Galaxity in the Terran Federation. Valerian is a typical “adult male who refuses to grow up” (more obvious in some other volumes of this comic), while Laureline is an equally typical “bombshell beauty who apparently has brains, too” (she's actually more sympathetic than your average “female super hero”). This somewhat unlikely pair is sent by Earth command on a secret mission to Syrte, the main planet of a dying empire spanning thousands of planets. The society of Syrte turns out to be a bizarre blend of libertarian free trade, decadent imperial opulence, generalized poverty and advanced tech slowly grinding to a halt. At least it looked bizarre back in 1969. Today...well, that's for another time.
A caste of mysterious masked men with paranormal abilities has taken power from the emperor. The “Enlighteneds”, as they are called, are a kind of subtle blend of the Jedi and the Sith. Naturally, Valerian and Laureline discover that these high priests of the Empire are hiding some truly stunning secrets. They also seem surprisingly well informed about Earth and the two agents. The eponymous heroes quickly realize that the only way to get to the bottom of the mystery is to attack the clandestine hide-out of the priestly caste, risking a revolution that may topple the empire once and for all…
And no, you're not supposed to take any of this seriously. As I said, this is supposed to be a comic piece of comics, perhaps even ironic?
For giving me some hearty laughs, I give “The Empire of a Thousand Planets” five stars. This is Star Wars, Episode Zero.
I always assumed he came up with all that stuff himself, perhaps with some help from, say, Joseph Campbell. But, actually, naaaaah. The solution was right under my nose already as a kid, but I never picked it up to read it.
Herr Lucas plagiarized (or paid tribute to) a French comic, “Valerian and Laureline”. The similarities with “Star Wars” are Über-obvious in this particular adventure, “The Empire of a Thousand Planets”, so obvious in fact that the editors of this English translation have included a whole list of possible Star Wars borrowings (they even missed a few). The original story hit the streets of Galaxity, or rather Paris, already in 1969. But sure, the actual plot of Lucas' epic is very different from the often comic exploits of the French heroes.
Valerian and Laureline are two spatial-temporal agents from Galaxity in the Terran Federation. Valerian is a typical “adult male who refuses to grow up” (more obvious in some other volumes of this comic), while Laureline is an equally typical “bombshell beauty who apparently has brains, too” (she's actually more sympathetic than your average “female super hero”). This somewhat unlikely pair is sent by Earth command on a secret mission to Syrte, the main planet of a dying empire spanning thousands of planets. The society of Syrte turns out to be a bizarre blend of libertarian free trade, decadent imperial opulence, generalized poverty and advanced tech slowly grinding to a halt. At least it looked bizarre back in 1969. Today...well, that's for another time.
A caste of mysterious masked men with paranormal abilities has taken power from the emperor. The “Enlighteneds”, as they are called, are a kind of subtle blend of the Jedi and the Sith. Naturally, Valerian and Laureline discover that these high priests of the Empire are hiding some truly stunning secrets. They also seem surprisingly well informed about Earth and the two agents. The eponymous heroes quickly realize that the only way to get to the bottom of the mystery is to attack the clandestine hide-out of the priestly caste, risking a revolution that may topple the empire once and for all…
And no, you're not supposed to take any of this seriously. As I said, this is supposed to be a comic piece of comics, perhaps even ironic?
For giving me some hearty laughs, I give “The Empire of a Thousand Planets” five stars. This is Star Wars, Episode Zero.
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