Star Wars Weekly #41 (November 1978) by Howard Bender - Cover Recreation

Luke Skywalker! Darth Vader! Locked in a duel to the death! TIE Fighters! Typical 70s Star Wars goodness here!

This is a commissioned cover recreation of "Star Wars Weekly #41" from November 1978 by Howard Bender (pencils) and Bob Mcleod (inks). This was done completely by Howard. Size is 11x17.

While I had never seen this specific cover by Howard before, it oozes everything that I love about Star Wars comics. I was fortunate enough to grow up in the early 00's on some flea market found Star Wars translations. Except for the movies and maybe Dark Empire, this is "my" Luke Skywalker. I've read 100s of hours of Luke in this outfit, with this hair, in this "Chaykin" style - always on the run from Vader, when Jedi were still mythical wizards.

This was also Howard's "May the 4th" piece for his social media, which was shared on multiple platforms. He also sent me a nice letter including the very same picture. Again, the packaging and what was inside was top notch. But my other post on Howard is proof of that, as well.

You can spot some subtle differences with the original cover, like Luke's face, an extra TIE Fighter here and there, and some switch-ups in the background.