Posted By Dan Greenfield on Dec 19, 2019 | 3 comments

A long time ago, I really, really, really needed this treasury edition…

My Mom washed my mouth out with soap twice growing up. Couldn’t tell you the first time. I just don’t remember.

But I can definitely tell you the second time.

See, I was a Star Wars freak when the original movie came out in 1977. (Click here for what it was like that magical weekend.) We didn’t have much money but I begged and pleaded for what I could get.

And two of the things I finagled were Marvel’s first two Star Wars treasury editions that reprinted the first six issues of the ongoing series, adapting the movie in four-color glory. I hadn’t even realized that there were individual comics that led up to the treasury but it didn’t matter. The size of the treasuries made Star Wars appropriately cinematic on the page — which was perfect when you consider that there was no home video yet.

I read and re-read those treasuries on top of the five times I saw Star Wars in the theater.

Then one day, I saw a third Star Wars treasury at the local PathMark — and this one had all six chapters under one cover. It didn’t matter that I already had the story. I had to have this magical third edition.

I asked Mom to buy it for me, dumbly thinking she’d understand.

No go. Unh-uh. Hard no. I already had the story, I didn’t need this other one.

Oh, but I did. So, I took my allowance, went down to PathMark and bought it anyway.

I didn’t even bother to hide it. I just lied and said that a friend had given it to me — and isn’t that great, Mom?

She saw right through me. I wilted under the third degree and the next thing I knew, she was washing my mouth out with soap for lying.

I wasn’t allowed to keep that third treasury, either. But at least she didn’t take away the others.

All of which is a long way of telling you why Marvel Special Edition #3 Featuring Star Wars is leading off this 13 COVERS celebration of that galaxy far, far away — on the day The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters.

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Ernie Chan

Rick Hoberg pencils, Dave Cockrum inks (riffing on the Brothers Hildebrandt)

Howard Chaykin pencils, Tony DeZuniga inks

Hoberg pencils, Tom Palmer inks

Gil Kane pencils, DeZuniga inks

Cockrum pencils, Bob McLeod inks

Carmine Infantino pencils, Bob Wiacek inks

Infantino pencils, Terry Austin inks

Infantino and Wiacek

Infantino and Wiacek

Infantino and Wiacek

Infantino and Austin

Chaykin and Palmer

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MORE

— STAR WARS Toys Were Everything — But Hardly the Only Thing. Click here.

— 13 Far Out 1977 STAR WARS Trading Cards. Click here.

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Cover images and credits from the galactic Grand Comics Database.