THE EMPIRE STRIKES OUT

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)
dir: Irvin Kershner

MAD #220, January 1981
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker

Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) is now leading the Rebel Alliance after they've destroyed the Death Star. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is being hunted and is about to leave to find Luke Skywalker.

Han leaves on a tauntaun, a camel-like beast. Meanwhile, Luke (Mark Hamill) is has been captured on the planet Hoth. In his delirium, he sees the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guiness) who tells him to go to the planet Dagobah to look for Yoda who will train him to be a Jedi knight. Han Solo finds Luke and cuts open his tauntaun to keep Luke warm.

Luke and Han are found and Han and Leia's love/hate relationship continues.

Darth Vader finds the Rebels which he goes after with Imperial AT-AT Walkers. The Rebels cannot outrun or shoot the Walkers, but they defeat one by tripping it.

Han Solo flees with Leia, Chewbacca, and C3P0 into the Millenium Falcon and loses most of the Imperial fighters who are chasing them in an asteroid belt. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker has landed on Dagobah with R2D2 in search of Yoda (Frank Oz). Finds Yoda he does and the first lesson he learns is patience.

The Millenium Falcon has been hiding in a cave and it turns out all along the cave was a creature, which they narrowly escape. Vader demands the Falcon be found. Luke continues his training, but has to leave when he has a vision of his friends in peril.

Han and company hide out in Cloud City on the planet Bespin, welcomed by Han's old friend Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams). Natives of Bespin have taken C3P0 apart when nobody was looking and Chewbacca is trying to put him back together. Lando was forced to sell out Han and his crew to Darth Vader and now they have captured Han until they can get Luke.

Luke has come to rescue Han and friends, leading to a big light-sabre fight between him and Darth Vader. Vader give Luke a chance to give up and join forces. Then Darth gives the iconic "I am your father" line, and rather than join, Luke jumps out into space, but is rescued by his friends. The hand he lost in battle is re-attached (That's Ben Casey and Dr. Zorba in the middle panel) leading to the cliffhanger ending for the next installment.

The Germans saw it like this. They used the original Jack Rickard painting and put more around it.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES OUT
Cracked #173, November 1980
a: John Severin

What's not revealed in the MAD version is that Yoda strings Luke along before revealing himself, and decides Luke is not patient enough to be a Jedi, until Obi-Wan's apparition intervenes.

Of all the parodies of the movie there were, this was the only one to feature Boba Fett.

This was the issue after that.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES OUT
Crazy #66, September 1980
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: Bob McLeod

It makes sense Crazy would have their Empire Strikes Back parody before the others since they were published by Marvel, which had the license to Star Wars.

The same gag as MAD of using the force to imagine Hoth is a beach.

You can tell this was done before the movie was released by their drawing of Yoda.

Darth Vader reveals himself to be Mork, who I would not have known was Mork without the 'Nanoo Nanoo' added.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES OIL
Sick Special #2, 1980
a: Jack Sparling

UPDATE:

THE EMPIRE STRIKES OUT AGAIN
Biggest Greatest Cracked #15, Fall 1980
a: Samuel B. Whitehead

Cracked usually didn't have original articles in annuals, but they did here.

I didn't note before that Mark Hamill got into a car accident between Star Wars movies. That's the 'new nose' joke.

UPDATE 2:

cover for Kaputt, German version of Cracked