The Star Wars EU/ Watchmen Connection

British writer Alan Moore is one of the distinct voices credited with transforming the perception of comics from disposable entertainment to works of literary weight. Among his most acclaimed works are Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell. Although many of his most important stories have been adapted into movies, he has disassociated himself from their production. These movies vary widely in terms of their critical reception; fans of Moore emphatically recommend you visit the source material whenever possible rather than solely experiencing an adaptation.

Moore's work began in writing and illustrating underground comics for music magazines in England, before landing more mainstream work for the Marvel UK imprint and magazines such as 2000 AD. It was during this period in the early 1980s that Moore worked on Star Wars. British comics culture favored a weekly, magazine-format publishing cycle, so the monthly US Marvel Star Wars comic was serialized into weekly installments, and padded out with other science fiction fare. Occasionally, the UK issues necessitated the creation of all-new Star Wars material to help fill out the pages. Very little of this work ever saw print in the US -- in fact, Moore's Star Wars contributions would go largely unknown in the States until the mid-1990s, when Dark Horse Comics collected them into a two-issue limited series, Classic Star Wars: Devilworlds.

All of Moore's Star Wars matter is in short form, with the longest story -- the first one published -- running 15 pages.

Credits: Story by Alan Moore; Pencils by Adolfo Buylla; Letters by Jenny O'Connor
First Printed: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back #151 (1981, Marvel UK)
Reprinted: Classic Star Wars: Devilworlds #2 (1996, Dark Horse Comics).

Synopsis: The Millennium Falcon makes a side-trip to Attahox, where Han Solo, Princess Leia and Chewbacca run afoul of the criminal organization known as the Torgaigne. In an attempting to evade pursuit, the Falcon plunges headlong into the strange astrographical phenomena known as the Hellhoop. Within this odd patch of space, a dimensional portal opens and the Falcon and pursuing gangsters are drawn into the domain of the Five, a quintet of evil rulers who toy cruelly with their newfound captives. The Five misjudge Chewbacca, and shackle him in the menagerie, where he is able to free some of the strange creatures imprisoned there, including a vengeful Force entity. Fifteen pages.

Choice Excerpt: "Attahox stank of poverty and disease, of blood and bad wine. It stank of rotten fruit and loveless passion, and this was not the worst of it... For Attahox was a world whose soul had festered in its own futility. And the soul of Attahox stank above all other things."