Although Comic-Con is over, the major publishers sure aren’t slowing down when it comes to bringing out some serious comics announcements. First off though, artist Mark Brooks got a very special customer to buy his original Star Wars art the other day. Read on for all the details…

George Lucas Buys Original Han Solo Marvel Art

After George Lucas sold off his company to Disney in 2012, you’d think he’d washed his hands of all things Star Wars and didn’t want to hear words like “Jedi” or “Empire” ever again. However, it seems that Lucas is quite a fan of Marvel’s current crop of Star Wars comics — specifically the new Han Solo series by writer Marjorie Liu and artist Mark Brooks.

Brooks recently wrote in a post to Facebook, “Got an e-mail last night from Lucasfilm saying that George Lucas would like to purchase every original page from Han Solo #1 and #2. Surreal is an understatement.” This has to be the highest compliment to not only Brooks, but everyone at Marvel. [CBR]

J. Michael Stracynski Announces Retirement from Comics

Sad news coming out of SDCC for fans of writer J. Michael Straczynski’s comics works. The acclaimed writer has announced his plans to leave comic book writing behind, for good. He said that his own inner voice whispered in his ear, “You’re done here, move on, do something else.” Actually, the reasons are a lot more complicated than just that, and have to do with medical issues surrounding his eyesight, and his desire to tackle prose novels in a serious manner.

During his career, JMS has written for animation, live-action TV, features, and of course comics, most famously a six year run on Amazing Spider-Man and his own creator owned work like Rising Stars and Midnight Nation. Straczynski wrote an open letter to Newsarama explaining his reasons why he’s leaving comics in detail, and as with most Straczynski writing, it’s long winded, so get a cup of coffee and get comfy before you read it all (just teasing Joe — we love you). You can read the whole letter at the following link: [Newsarama]

Ms. Marvel Wants You to Vote This November

If you were around in the ’90s, then you remember when MTV encouraged the youth of America to go out and “Rock the Vote.” Now Marvel is taking a page from MTV, as they are using one of their characters to encourage readers to vote in the coming election — maybe the most important election of their lives. As part of a live stream event promoting Civil War II and Ms. Marvel, a patriotic variant cover for November’s Ms. Marvel #13 by Joelle Jones was revealed.

Series editor Sana Amanat said that the cover, and the character of Ms. Marvel herself, is intended to champion Americans of all ethnicities, and encourage readers to “go out and vote” in this coming election. Considering that Ms. Marvel is really Kamala Khan, a Muslim-American, well…I think you can guess who she doesn’t want you to vote for. You can see the election season cover above. [CBR]

Comixology Unlimited Expands This Month

ComixOlogy’s Unlimited service was revealed to the public recently, and offers fans a lot of comics reading for a monthly subscription fee. The first month is free, and every month after it’s just $5.99, which is the price of many single issues these days. Among the new books coming to the service in August are Faith by Jody Houser and artists Francis Portela and Marguerite Sauvage, Conan/Red Sonja by Gail Simone, and many more. For the full list, click on the following link: [Comics Beat]

Marvel’s Action Figure Variants Keep On Comin’

One of Marvel’s most popular series of variants have been John Tyler Christopher’s action figure themed covers, which are illustrated to look like action figure packs with the main lead character still in the blister pack and painted in a realistic manner. Now the publisher has let retailers know exactly which character will be appearing on which of the upcoming announced action figure variants, although they can’t show images of most of the covers yet.

Here’s the list so far: Champions #1 will feature Johnny Blaze, Ghost Rider on the classic variant, while the Amadeus Cho version of the Hulk on the Now! variant. Darth Vader #25 will have Doctor Aphra. Infamous Iron Man #1 will have Doctor Doom, while Doctor Strange And The Sorcerors Supreme #1 will have feature Nina. Enchanted Tiki Room #1 will have Tangaroa-Ru and Jose, while Great Lakes Avengers #1 will have Flatman. Naturally, Jessica Jones #1 will have Jessica Jones, Prowler #1 will have Prowler, Mosaic #1 will have Mosaic, and Howard The Duck #11 will have Howard. Star Wars #23 will have a Rebel Soldier, while issue #24 will have Lobot (Lando’s cyborg aide). Finally, Star Wars #22 will have Dengar the bounty hunter, which you can view above. [Bleeding Cool]

Aaron Kuder Signs Exclusive Deal With Marvel

Marvel announced this week that former Action Comics artist Aaron Kuder has signed an exclusive contract with publisher. According to the press release, his first job will be to work with writers Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire on the upcoming Death of X four issue miniseries that debuts this October.

The Death of X event is going to lead into the even bigger Inhumans vs X-Men event Marvel announced at SDCC.According to Kuder, “I’m completely stoked to be working at the House of Ideas again. I grew up as a Marvel kid–no really, my 7th birthday wish: grow up to be Spider-Man. But don’t tell anyone. Otherwise it won’t come true.” [Comics Beat]

Art Adams Creates Amazing Walking Dead Interlocking Covers

Arthur Adams is one of the great underappreciated comic book artists, whose illustrations of the X-Men and New Mutants in the ’80s were on posters on many a fan’s bedroom wall back in the day. Now Adams is lending his talents not to mutants, but to zombies, as he’s revealed his variant cover to The Walking Dead #157, the first part of “The Whisperer War” storyline that has been ramping up in the book for months.

The cover features Michonne, and for every issue of this storyline, The Walking Dead is getting a similar cover from Adams and Nathan Fairbairn, that all join together into one giant image. You can see the rest of the covers up to The Walking Dead #162 in detail in our gallery below, and how they all look together in the image above. [Bleeding Cool]

Images: Marvel Comics / DC Comics / Image Comics