There was no paper series of Star Wars until George Lucas created the films. The confusion about this stems from the fact that once the subsequent movies have now come out, fans and officials are calling the original movie "Star Wars: New Hope" so you may find sites that claim that is 'the book the series is based on' ... but its not. It simply refers to the original movie. After the success of the series, Lucas gave permissions to Bantam Books to begin producing the novels. There have also been several comics. Some of the books contain characters from the movies, and some introduce completely new characters never seen on screen.

http://www.jitterbug.com/origins The second major direction for Star Wars (used in the 1973 synopsis) was to use the Flash Gordon "vocabulary" to create an outer-space version of the Samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, primarily Kakushi toride no san akunin (aka The Hidden Fortress, 1958), Tsubaki Sanjûrô (aka Sanjuro, 1962) and Yojimbo (1961). Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces eventually gave Lucas a third and final major story direction, but many elements from Kurosawa's work remain, including the two bickering peasants (who evolved into the droids), elements of the Obi-Wan/Luke relationship and the queen who often switches places with her handmaiden. The Darth Vader-like evil general who has a change of heart at the end wears a kamon (commonly called simply a "mon", a Japanese family crest) that looks very similar to the Imperial crest. The red crane on Luke's fighter helmet is also based on a Japanese family kamon. Lucas had already written two drafts of Star Wars when he rediscovered Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces in 1975 (having read it years before in college). This blueprint for "The Hero's Journey" gave Lucas the focus he needed to draw his sprawling imaginary universe into a single story.

Lucas was a pioneer and a visionary in the field of licensing. Inumerable facets of the Star Wars universe were under license by Christmas 1976. I picked Star Wars #1 of the rack in late March,1977. By the time I saw the movie that July (hey, I was seven...) I had most of the dialogue memorized. Most of the stuff in the new release was written by Lucas by that point, and select nuggets about Darth Vader's origin (in great detail, I now realize) were leaked to the folks at Marvel Comics, among others, in the late seventies. I highly recommend the documentary available with the box set.

Since there seems to be some doubt as to the fact that Star Wars was completely born of George Lucas (and not taken from a Star Wars paper series) I have found more links to help this discussion along. This is a quote from a fan mail answer from George Lucas: How did you come up Star Wars especially with the words light saber, Jedi, Wookiee, Yoda, etc. Star Wars ROCKS MY WORLD! THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH FOR MAKING STAR WARS! George Lucas: Star Wars was born out of my love for the adventure serials I use to watch at the theater as a child. These serials included Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. I wanted to give children a new mythology that taught them the difference between right and wrong.I decided to call the laser swords light sabers because of obvious reasons. The swords were sabers that were made of light so the name is really just common sense. The word Jedi originated from a little known religion in Albania. I’ll let you research the rest. It’s quite interesting. One day I was driving in a car with somebody and this person hit a bump in the road. They said I think I just hit a Wookiee. I thought that was a good name so I used it to describe Chewbacca’s species. Yoda is a derivation of Yoga. Simple as that. And also: 1975 -- George Lucas conceives of and writes the basic story of Anakin Skywalker's rise, fall and ultimate redemption. This story becomes too large for one film and Lucas divides the story into two trilogies. The first trilogy focuses on the life of a young Anakin Skywalker while the second trilogy focuses on the life of Anakin's son, Luke Skywalker. Lucas chooses to make the second trilogy first since it appears to be the most exciting one to film at the time. http://www.supershadow.com Merchandise ALWAYS hits the stores before the movie does... has nothing to do with the inspiration for the film itself.

George Lucas was not the creator of the star wars concept. I saw an older space related movie that David Hasselhoff played in where the terms "The Force", "Light Sabre", even "Darth Vader", etc. were used. If my memory serves me correctly, it may have begun with the same slanted receding message as Stars Wars. This video may be found under Science Fiction in some older stores and more likely in flea markets. If I remember the name I will notify you.

YOUR ALL WRONG.George Lucas bought all the rights of a 9 books that wear based around 2 robots and took all the books off the market the day they came out in england.So impressed George Lucas was after reading the first book. My uncle had the set told me Vader was was Lukes dad before the The original movie was out. The original books no longer exist. And George Lucas modified it. In the Original Vader's Alive to the end and is the main bad guy no Emperor.Luke dies. George Lucas bought the wrights and rewrote real world history not just the books! And his own memory! LOL!

I am tearing through my attic looking for this book. In 1976 or early 77, I purchased a paperback novel of the movie. It had a gold border around the cover, and a different author credit, and the tag "soon to be a major motion picture." I remember reading in a fanzine around the time that empire came out that Lucas had bought the rights to the original story and characters. I have seen the book on ebay with George's name at the top, but that is the SECOND printing. The first printing had another authors name on it.

cant remember authors name but the was as stated 9 books the 6 u already know as the 6 films the last 3 books were all about how the rebels kind of government just ends up as coruppted and evil as the empires goerge lucas didnt write the story at all he just bought and adapted it

cant remember authors name but the was as stated 9 books the 6 u already know as the 6 films the last 3 books were all about how the rebels kind of government just ends up as coruppted and evil as the empires goerge lucas didnt write the story at all he just bought and adapted it

The original texts were written by Oliver Simon in 1969 (the same year as the moon landing) Lucas bought the rights to the texts and stripped the publishers of any back copies - Oliver simon is my uncle and I have his original manuscript for 'sky Lords'