Lucas Wars
In a tale befitting the saga he created, Lucas Wars follows George Lucas’s journey from aimless dreamer to filmmaking trailblazer and prodigy of the New Hollywood movement. While his fellow rising stars—directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese—craft The Godfather, Jaws, and Taxi Driver, Lucas follows his childhood dreams and begins work on an epic fantasy . . . which, he soon discovers, is not without its epic challenges.
Writer Laurent Hopman and artist Renaud Roche dive deep into the creative process behind Star Wars: A New Hope, from the hell of casting to the nightmare of filming. Lucas is forced to juggle actor quarrels, a secret love affair, costume and set mishaps, and constant pushback from film execs. But despite it all, a landmark movie emerges—one that changes the medium of film forever.
Lucas Wars is an exhilarating underdog story and a unique glimpse into the world of cinema. But most of all, it’s an ode to the magic of childhood and the value of perseverance.
Author: Laurent Hopman
Artist: Renaud Roche
Release date: September 16, 2025
Page Count: 208 pages
ISBN: 9781250367402
If you’re unfamiliar with the story of George Lucas and how his life led him from Modesto in California to the galaxy far, far away then this release from 23rd Street Books, author Laurent Hopman and artist Renaud Roche could be the best way to get a look at his life, motivations, collaborators and friends. Starting with his infamous suspected heart attack when the monumental pressures of working on Star Wars were building and building, we step back to the car crash that also almost killed him, and is parents trying to mold him into a responsible youth when in truth he had little interest in anything other than music, art and Flash Gordon.
This gorgeous release is so smart, using artwork that evocatively renders people we know recognisable, and layering in reasons for the personality of Lucas building as it did through his childhood years and into his youth. His love of sci-fi and fantasy, his enthusiasm for technology, his stubborn determination, all facets of his psyche that develop as he enters his car racing phase (so much so he longs to be a racing driver, much to the annoyance of his father). And then the crash, a time of recouperation and contemplation as he decides to go to college (to the delight of his parents) to study film (much to their dismay).
However, that would prove to be the making of the man, from classes taught by his future Empire director Irvin Kershner to the success of hs student film THX 1138: Electronic Labyrinth, a film that wowed a young Steven Spielberg and put Lucas on the map. A friendship made, we enter ‘George Lucas in Love’ territory as he meets Marcia Lou Griffin, a skilled editor who teaches george the ropes in editing and love. The feature film version of THX doesn’t hit as hoped, its dystopian coldness a turn off for audiences and the Warners board, but despite the trauma of the experience his next film is one of the biggest hits in history – American Graffitti, a love letter to his Modesto youth.
From there we truly enter the Star Wars phase of the book, with all the familiar elements we’ve come to learn over the years and decades; the championing of Lucas by Alan Ladd Jr, the rejection from every studio other than 20th Century Fox, Lucas’s loyal Malamute sitting beside him as he works on the early drafts of The Star Wars. Every beat you know, and more (too much to spoil here) but most importantly, there’s a charming, wonderfully crafted European comic art style to the entire book that has you rooting for Lucas (even though you know he suceeds). It’s a feast for the eyes, the accuracy and economy of the artwork nailing each character perfectly, while the script doesn’t pull its punches when tackling some of the trickier elements of the story (Harrison Ford and Carrie Fishers relationship for example).
You have to wonder how successful this might have been had it been released as individual issues rather than a Graphic Novel, but in all honesty that’s irrelevant; Hopman and Roche have crafted an gem, a treasure that deserves to be read and seen as widely as possible, and a release that comes highly recommended not only to fans of Star Wars or Lucasfilm, but for lovers of 70’s film and beyond. Star Wars and George Lucas changed the world of cinema, and Lucas Wars does a magnificent job of translating that success story into 208 stunning pages. Bravo.
