The first run, by Russ Manning, was primarily created before the release of The Empire Strikes Back, while Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, in their storylines, worked with the benefit of having seen both films, in addition to Return of the Jedi in 1983.

In 1991, Russ Cochran published a 2500-copy limited run of a three-volume hardcover boxset of all of Goodwin and Williamson's Star Wars comic strips from between 1981 and 1984.

[10] A new artist, Alfredo Alcala, replaced him for a brief run, working with writer Archie Goodwin on an adaptation of Brian Daley's 1979 novel Han Solo at Stars' End.

[3] According to Goodwin, he and Williamson decided to keep their strip set between the first two Star Wars films "Because of the cliffhanger elements in The Empire Strikes Back.

[14] (Daily, March 12 – Sept 8, 1979)[15] Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 travel to a casino world, where they hope a Rebel Alliance contact will help them cut off the Galactic Empire's funneling of gambling profits.

(Sunday, July 15 – Sept 9, 1979)[15] In a story set before the events of the previous tale, C-3PO and R2-D2 accompany Han and Chewie to Kashyyyk, the Wookiee home planet, to help prepare for Life Day.

Han breaks up a fight between Chewie and the elder, proposing that he, Chewbacca, and the droids personally go to the planet's lower levels to collect the root.

(Nov 6 – Dec 31, 1979)[15] When Princess Leia's ship is about to be captured by Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, she is forced to use a small craft to escape to the planet below.

(Jan 1 – Feb 25, 1980)[15] A scientist from Kessel has just finished building an ionic-powered ship capable of changing the weather, which he hopes to use to make less hospitable worlds paradises.

(Feb 26 – April 21, 1980)[15] While Luke is delivering some pre-Imperial literature to a school, the Empire kidnaps a class of kids, except for the teacher's son, Berd, who manages to escape.

Berd presents his plan to use drones altered to look like bigger ships, drawing the Empire's forces while Han's cohorts sneak to the surface to liberate the prisoners.

(April 22 – June 16, 1980)[15] On an industrial world, Luke, and a couple of fighter pilots inform some local engineers that they have compromised the Alliance's weapons systems by letting a targeting component fall into the Empire's hands.

Hearing of this, the traitorous Mag Doum, who is responsible for selling the parts in question to the Empire, forces two of the engineers (a father and son) to kidnap the princess.

The off-worlders notice a strange glow in part of the city, and Fett reasons that this is the location of his main bounty, a man called Mole that Vader wants captured.

(Oct 6, 1980 – Feb 8, 1981) Some years before the events of the original Star Wars film, Han helps the daughter of the missing Doc, an outlaw technician, in exchange for repairs to the Falcon.

A traitor in the outlaw group causes Chewbacca's capture and kills the only person who Blue Max shared the prison location with before its erasure, but not before he scrawls this information out.

[e] Han arrives in a skyhopper, plausibly to exchange himself for his friends, keeping the Falcon running to make it appear that Chewie will come save him.

The Rebels plant the homing beacon on an escape pod and send it towards the Imperials, leading Skorr to be captured, and the Falcon free to return to Yavin 4.

Acting on a tip from an apparently sympathetic Imperial officer, he goes undercover as a droid mechanic on Darth Vader's new construction project, a Super Star Destroyer.

With help from supply tug operator Tanith Shire, who immediately lusts after Luke, R2-D2 releases steam to cover his master's escape.

(Nov 2, 1981 – Jan 1, 1982) Luke, Tanith, and the droids take a short-range vessel to a nearby planet to rendezvous with Leia, who is due to be picked up in the Falcon.

Luke suspects the creature may be Force-sensitive and eventually succeeds in calming it long enough to lead it onto a transport ship programmed to follow its masters across the stars.

(Oct 4 – Nov 13, 1982) Luke and C-3PO evade a group of TIE fighters by hiding their ship in the slipstream of a comet's tail, but are unable to pull free before crashing into an ice planet.

Han and Luke meet the Imperial search party in battle, and when they return to the others, Ackbar positions the group at a strategic location on the far side of the lake.

Han scouts an alternate path which seems hopeless because it passes through the stellar flares of an unstable star; he rescues Luke and they learn that Leia is leading the fleeting in their direction.

In 1991, Russ Cochran published a 2,500-copy limited run of a three-volume hardcover boxset of all of Goodwin and Williamson's Star Wars comic strips from 1981 to 1984,[22] signed by both creators and featuring new cover illustrations by the latter.

In 1994, Manning's strip was released as Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures,[18] including both daily and Sunday comics, with the exception of two storylines.

[32] Williamson's depiction of an Imperial scout walker in The Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell was based on concept art by Joe Johnston for The Empire Strikes Back.

[25] This design was later reused in issues of Marvel's Star Wars (c. 1982) and the first story arc of Dark Horse's X-wing Rogue Squadron (c. 1995, drawn by Williamson's assistant Allen Nunis).

[50] The canon live-action streaming television series The Mandalorian features a froglike species[51] similar to Chubbits, including aspects of Wheatley's redesign.