Battlestar Galactica (comics)

Battlestar Galactica has been adapted to the comic book format since its inception, with no less than six publishers to date taking on the project of relating the story of the Colonial Fleet and their adversaries, the Cylons, at different points.

The comic book Battlestar Galactica, based on the ABC television series of the same name, was published monthly by Marvel Comics from March 1979 through January 1981, and lasted 23 issues.

Although there were other attempts to adapt Battlestar Galactica into a comic book format, the Marvel series is considered by many to have been the most successful in terms of run, sales, and content.

This was accomplished against some notable odds. Although Roger McKenzie was most often the writer, and Walt Simonson the most regular artist, the book also had a heavy rotation of guest writers and artists.

Marvel Comics’ began its adaptation of Battlestar Galactica with Marvel Super Special #8, a magazine format comic written by Roger McKenzie and drawn by Ernie Colón which was released as a tie-in to the start of the series. Based on an early script of the three hour series premiere "Saga of a Star World", this adaptation, which gave a relatively short treatment to the third hour, was also released in a tabloid format and then later as a paperback as well. The tabloid version was also printed by Whitman Comics. Its success led Marvel to print a regular monthly comic depicting the adventures of the ragtag fleet.

When the regular run of Marvel's Battlestar Galactica comic book began some months later, the Super Special adaptation was expanded by several pages, and provided the material for the first three issues of the comic.

The direct adaptation of the series continued in issues #4 and #5 which chronicled the adventures depicted in the two part television episode "Lost Planet of the Gods". Roger McKenzie continued as scripter, with Walter Simonson now providing the art.

With issue #6, the TV adaptations ceased, and Marvel's team began to create new stories about the characters of the Battlestar Galactica universe, picking up from where issue #5 left off. From this point, both in terms of story content and the narrative arc, Marvel's Battlestar Galactica does deviate somewhat from the televised adventures. Marvel's contract with Universal Studios specifically did not allow them to use anything from the television series that followed "Lost Planet of the Gods". Despite this, Marvel made a conscious decision to continue the story with their own vision of how the series would progress, and so presents an interesting interpretation of Galactica – through a Marvel paradigm. This adaption more closely followed the novelization of the two-hour movie, Saga of a Star World, than what was seen on ABC television. Also, some panels depicted a likeness of Lt. Starbuck for scenes presenting Captain Apollo. These were corrected in the re-print version, seen in the original comic series.

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