A fun little surprise for Star Wars fans popped up on the web today. It seems that a new webtoon from Korean artist Hong Jac-Ga and Lucasfilm has been made available in an English translation, and will be entertaining fans for many installments to come. The Korean version of the webtoon premiered in April of this year and is wrapping up its 10-month run in January of 2016, just after the December 18th debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In fact, the English translation of this project is "Star Wars: The Story Before The Force Awakens."
However, on these shores, it's known simply as "Star Wars" and is available at the Live Webtoons website or apps in Apple App Store and Google Play; hat tip to Yahoo! for the heads up. The digital comic takes readers along with 7-year-old Luke Skywalker as he grows up in the care of his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. It doesn't take long for little Luke to start bulls-eying womp rats and running afoul of the krayt dragon in the Tatooine sands. The artwork is breezy and fun, but really captures the spirit of Young Skywalker and his adventurous nature. Fans get to peek at his life, family, and friends, well before those troublesome droids ever show up
Back in June, Coffee with Kenobi was able to talk to a Lucasfilm representative about the Korean webtoon, confirming the studio's collaboration with Hong Jac-Ga and the legitimacy of the new story. They said that "the story being told is part of canon and will explore Episodes IV, V and VI through its 10-month run that concludes January 2016. 'Yes, the Lucasfilm publishing team and Story Group were involved in the development and worked closely with' Hong Jac-ga, Lucasfilm said." At the time there were no plans to bring about an English translation, but as you can plainly see, that has changed.
The first three chapters of the 'Star Wars' webtoon are available now, with new installments being released on Sundays and Thursdays (at least according to Webtoons). Without giving much away, fans who only know about Luke's exploits with his friends on Tatooine from lines of dialogue in Star Wars: A New Hope will now get to see those scenes in action. And if you're like me, you'll get a little smile every time you come across a new one.
