Dark Horse may not be as big as DC or Marvel, but it made a big splash at Wondercon last weekend.  It announced details about a new Serenity comic book, new issues of Buffy, and Angel and Faith, and  a very different Star Wars comic series. After the jump, more about The Star Wars that could have been…

Jedi Annikin Starkiller? Han Solo…lizard? Sith Knights?

This is what George Lucas had in mind when he first starting building the classic sci-fi saga that would become Star Wars. In 1974, though, his rough draft was quite a different universe. Now, J. W. Rinzler of LucasBooks and artist Mike Mahew (Avengers) will collaborate to bring the “rough draft” of the original screenplay to life.

“While researching in the Lucasfilm Archives I’ve found many treasures—but one which truly astounded me was George’s rough draft for The Star Wars. His first complete imaginings were hallucinating to read—mind blowing,” Rinzler said. “While working with George on another book project, I once asked if we could adapt his rough draft. He was hesitant. Years later, with Dark Horse’s invaluable help, we showed him a few drawn and colored pages of what it might look like. He gave us the okay.”

In this version, Luke Skywalker is not a young man with a destiny but an older general, while Han Solo is a six foot lizard. The story itself is described as series of adventures with escapes, lasers and romance. It sounds almost like an intergalactic version of Indiana  Jones.

Dark Horse has done this before: back in 1999, it had a three-part Buffy the Vampire Slayer series that explained how she became the Slayer, and it was based on Joss Whedon’s original screenplay (rather than the movie).

The Star Wars will be an eight-issue series and will start in September.