200 Daily Star Wars Comic Panels: Important Facts and Figures
DSWCP has reached 200 posts! That’s one panel a day since May (just before Star Wars Day), with some additions for birthdays, indexes, and icons. I was curious about the most common topics, so I looked up the tag numbers in the archive.
The frequency of any topic depends on three factors: my interest in it (e.g.: Anakin is my favorite character), my best guess at general interest in it (e.g.: Gurihiru’s artwork always seems to be a big hit), and how much actually exists (e.g.: Luke has 43 years of material; Rey has 5).
According to the tags, there have been 88 posts set during the original trilogy, 67 set during the prequel trilogy, 44 set during the Clone Wars specifically, 19 set during the sequel trilogy, and 12 set during what I’ve collectively called “#sw ancient history” (i.e.: the Old Republic of 4000 years ago, Knight Errant of 1000 years ago, and Jeffrey Brown’s Jedi Academy of 200 years ago). There has also been one post tagged “#sw distant future” (the Legacy comic line).
There have been 66 posts about Jedi (“#pure jedi content”), 63 posts about non-Force users, and 36 posts about Sith (“#hot sith content”). 31 posts have been tagged “#master and padawan,” which is my favorite dynamic in Star Wars.
50 panels have come from the current Marvel run, 46 from the previous Dark Horse run, and 13 from the original Marvel run that preceded Dark Horse. 29 have come from the newspaper comics (concurrent with the original Marvel run). 26 have been illustrations from non-comic books; 14 have been storyboards; 11 have been manga; and 9 have been production design/concept art.
Anakin has been in 37 posts (29 as Darth Vader); Luke in 34; Leia in 22; Han in 21; R2 in 20; Obi-Wan in 17; Chewie in 15; 3PO in 14; and Padme in 11.
The most common year DSWCP materials were published is 2019 (28 panels); next, 2018 (21 panels); and the third most common is, funnily enough, 1979 (14 panels).
The bias toward 1979 is entirely due to my love for newspaper comics artist and writer Russ Manning, as he is the most frequently tagged creator name (17 panels). The other main newspaper creators also have high numbers -- writer Archie Goodwin at 13, and illustrator Al Williamson at 10. Star Wars Adventures’ Cavan Scott wrote for 11 of my featured panels; Gurihiru illustrated 10; and I have shared 10 panels from the “Lost Stars” manga written and illustrated by Yusaka Komiyama from the novel by Claudia Grey.
The most commonly tagged settings have been Tatooine at 23 and outer space at 22.
I have tagged (with some inconsistency, I suspect) 22 posts about droids, 19 about aliens, 13 about rebels, 11 about Separatists, and 8 about Imperial officers.
My most-used arbitrary tag is “#star wars family” (68 posts), which I apply liberally to nearly every set of characters who spend half a conversation together. If I catch a single feel, they’re a family.
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Illustrative panel from: “Jedi Academy: Return of the Padawan.” July 29. 2014. Writer and illustrator: Jeffrey Brown.
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