Dark Empire: Art & Action Figures

When you mention Dark Empire to a Star Wars fan, you get some comments about the story and art inside, both good and bad. But when you mention it to comic book enthusiasts, they rave over the covers, as do SW fans of course! Dave Dorman was the cover artist and he would do a lot of cover work for Dark Horse Comics over their run over Star Wars comic books. The cover to issue 1 is striking, and the only bad image is Leia, which would be corrected later on to be more accurate to her likeness. Then the cover of issue 2 with Luke in a Vader like outfit is even more breathtaking! He would do the covers for all 14 Dark Empire/Empire's End comics.

Dark Empire 1 Covers: https://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/star-wars-dark-empire

For Dark Empire II, he upped his game. The cover to issue 3 is quite enticing for young teenage boys just discovering girls, and was the best selling issue amongst my age group at the time.

Dark Empire II issue 3 cover: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f3/1e/7a/f31e7ab292ffbcf1757571b15a161b6c.jpg

Since I'm limited on space, here are more images of his work, including covers for Crimson Empire: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Dave+Dorman+Dark+Empire+Covers&t=h_&iax=images&ia=images


Toys, toys, toys!

Dark Empire would also be the 1st Comic Book series to have toys, in the Star Wars franchise (obviously super hero toy lines had bee done before but not with SW). In 1998, the POTF2 line debuted the Expanded Universe line, and offered more Dark Empire characters than Thrawn Trilogy characters. From Dark Empire we got:

Imperial Sentinel, which was originally designed to be Atha Prime, the main villain for Kenner's continuation of Star Wars: https://www.jedibusiness.com/figureDetails.aspx?id=1344

Clone Emperor, the best version of him. Besides he's younger! https://www.jedibusiness.com/figureDetails.aspx?id=1343

Luke Skywalker, sadly not in his Darth Vader like outfit, but close enough: https://www.jedibusiness.com/figureDetails.aspx?id=1120

Leia Organa Solo, unique because this in the first ever action figure to be Leia as a Jedi. Even if her lightsaber blade is red. https://www.jedibusiness.com/figureDetails.aspx?id=1347

Over a decade later, Hasbro went back to the Dark Empire well, this time from the 1st issue of Dark Empire II. Luke is not a bad figure, has the Vader type outfit. Palpy, well, keep the robes on because he looks like he escaped from some sort of bondage situation. Seriously keep it on. You'll be scarred for life if you take it off.

Luke: https://www.jedibusiness.com/figureDetails.aspx?id=96

Palpy (thankfully they don't show him without the robe): https://www.jedibusiness.com/figureDetails.aspx?id=97

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