If you’re a Star Wars fan but you’re only watching the movies, then you are missing out on one of the best stories in the current Star Wars canon: Lost Stars, a YA book by author Claudia Gray. It’s an incredible, heart-wrenching story about the horrors of war and star-crossed love. And now, it’s getting made into a manga.
The popular LINE Manga app has announced it will be publishing a free biweekly adaptation of Lost Stars, as drawn by YÅ«saku Komiyama (Avengers: Zombies Assemble). The first issue will drop on May 4, and new chapters will be released every other Thursday… but probably only in Japan, at least for the time being. Sorry, my fellow Americans, but at least we have the book to read while we wait for our own translation, right?
Published as part of the “Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens†initiative in 2015, Lost Stars tells the story of Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell, two childhood friends who dream of joining the Imperial Academy and becoming pilots. Just as they start to rise up the ranks (and fall in love with one another, because of course), they witness firsthand the brutality of the Empire and Thane flees to join the Rebellion, placing them on opposing sides of the coming war.
The Lost Stars manga won’t be the first of its kind produced in Japan, of course; Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, The Return of the Jedi, and The Phantom Menace were all adapted into manga and published in North America by Dark Horse Comics. (Also, one time Black Milk Clothing made it into a dress, which is pretty cool.) Boy howdy, are those books a fun reminder of what manga looked like in the ‘90s. Dig those wispy bangs on Princess Leia!
Since then, however, there haven’t been many canonical adaptations of the hit science fiction franchise. In 2006, Tokyopop also released two stand-alone graphic novels inspired by Star Wars in 2006, and in 2009 Take Shobo published a Japan-only picture book made up of stills from the Clone Wars animated series, but that’s about it. Lost Stars will be the first official Star Wars manga of any kind in years, and is also the first version of Claudia Gray’s story that’s being made available in Japan.
But Lost Stars is not the only Star Wars story getting the manga treatment. So will Kevin Hearne’s Heir to the Jedi and Paul S. Kemp’s Lords of the Sith, as part of a contest where users of the app can submit their own illustrations. According to the Anime News Network, nominees will be selected by committee and voted on by other LINE app users sometime in the fall. The winners will receive a tour of Lucasfilm, a physical book made from their manga, and other awesome prizes.
Hopefully this means that even more books from the expanded universe will get adapted to other mediums, too! Personally, I’d love to see an adaptation of Claudia Gray’s other Star Wars novel, Bloodline, a fast-paced political thriller featuring Leia Organa as a beleaguered New Republic senator. What about you? In the comments, tell us all about your favorite Star Wars tie-in story and what you’d like to see it adapted into next.
Images: LINE, Disney-Lucasfilm Press, Dark Horse Comics
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