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Exclusive: Dark Horse Previews The Art of Star Wars: A New Hope — The Manga
posted on by Anita Tai
Dark Horse Comics exclusively revealed to ANN on Wednesday a five-page preview of The Art of Star Wars: A New Hope – The Manga, its English-language hardcover release of the art boards from Hisao Tamaki's Star Wars: A New Hope — the first Star Wars manga published. The Kickstarter campaign to fund the project launched on Tuesday.
The Kickstarter offers multiple versions of the release including:
- The two-volume hardcover Collector's Edition set with a Kickstarter-exclusive cover and a new English translation
- The Collector's Edition - Tamaki Variant with an art-forward reinterpretation of the Collector's Edition, limited to 260 sets
- The Collector's Edition with a custom black slipcase
- . A limited Deluxe Signed Collector's Edition with only 250 sets produced exclusively for Kickstarter backers
- The Masterpiece Edition: a large-format, premium release with high-resolution reproductions of his unaltered art at its original size—10.85” x 15.05," a faux-leather clamshell case, a separate 104-page companion book with a new translation of the authentic Japanese lettering inspired by the alternate language dub of the film that is only available through the Kickstarter
- The Signed Masterpiece Edition with special enhancements, limited to only 250 sets worldwide.
- The Signed Darth Vader Masterpiece Edition that combines the full Masterpiece Edition with Darth Vader-inspired features, limited to only 25 sets worldwide to backers
The full list of sets is available on the Kickstarter page.
The standard edition of The Art of Star Wars: A New Hope—The Manga will enter retail stores in summer 2026. Kickstarter backers will receive the manga ahead of the retail release.
The new publication will feature Tamaki's original art boards in right-to-left orientation unaltered, including the "blue pencil marks, pasted captions, and editorial notes" normally not intended to appear in print. The release will be available at general retailers, but Dark Horse will offer it first in a Kickstarter campaign in a two-volume Collector's Edition and a three-volume Masterpiece Edition with exclusive covers, variant formats, and signed versions. This will be Dark Horse's first in-house Kickstarter campaign.
MediaWorks and Shufunotomo published this manga adaptation of the 1977 Star Wars (later known as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope) film in Japan in 1997, and then Dark Horse published the manga in English in 1998. The manga won an Eisner Award for the Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material in 1999.
Sources: Email correspondence, press release
