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Star Wars Manga Returns With Lost Stars Adaptation

The LINE Manga app revealed on Tuesday that it will release a manga adaptation of Claudia Gray's Lost Stars novel. Yūsaku Komiyama (Avengers: Zombies Assemble, Ixion Saga) is drawing the manga. The series will debut for free in the app on May 4, and a new chapter will debut every other Thursday. This is the time Gray's story will be available in Japanese.

The Star Wars franchise's official website describes the novel's story:

The reign of the Galactic Empire has reached the Outer Rim planet of Jelucan, where aristocratic Thane Kyrell and rural villager Ciena Ree bond over their love of flying. Enrolling at the Imperial Academy together to become fighter pilots for the glorious Empire is nothing less than a dream come true for the both of them. But Thane sours on the dream when he sees firsthand the horrific tactics the Empire uses to maintain its ironclad rule.

Bitter and disillusioned, Thane joins the fledgling Rebellion — putting Ciena in an unbearable position to choose between her loyalty to the Empire and her love for the man she's known since childhood.

Now on opposite sides of the war, will these friends turned foes find a way to be together, or will duty tear them — and the galaxy — apart?

Disney–Lucasfilm Press released the original hardcover edition of Gray's novel as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens book series in September 2015. A paperback edition will ship on August 1.

The app also revealed that it will hold the LINE Manga Star Wars Indies Award 2017 competition to create manga adaptations of the first chapters of Kevin Hearne's Heir to the Jedi and Paul S. Kemp's Lords of the Sith novels.

The campaign is part of the app's LINE Manga Indies program that allows users to submit original manga. The app will accept submissions of at least 12 pages from May 4 to August 31.

Lucasfilm and the competition's selection committee will nominate a list of submitted manga. The app's users will vote for the list of nominees. Lucasfilm and the LINE Manga editorial department will award the Grand Prix award and Lucasfilm Award. The list of nominated works will be announced on October 27, and the voting period will run from October 27 to November 9. The results will be announced on December 1.

The app will release the Grand Prix winner's manga, and the winner will also have their manga published in a physical book. The winner will also get to tour Lucasfilm Studios in San Francisco and receive a 1,000,000-yen (about US$9,000) monetary prize. The Lucasfilm Award winner will receive a custom X-Wing pilot helmet, and the other nominated works will receive a Star Wars Sharbo X pen.

Hearne's novel centers on Luke Skywalker and is set between Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope and Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back. Del Rey released the book in March 2015. Kemp's novel features Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine and is set between the Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith film and James Luceno's Tarkin novel. Del Rey released the book in April 2015.

MediaWorks released manga adaptations of the original Star Wars trilogy in 1997 to coincide with the theatrical release of the Original Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition, and a manga adaptation of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace followed in 1999. Dark Horse Comics and later Marvel published the manga in English.

The LINE Manga app launched in 2013 and has been downloaded more than 16 million times. The app offers free digital manga and novels.

Source: Jiji Press