Dark Horse are Headed to Kickstarter for a New Star Wars Manga Artbook
- The Artbook Collector
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
April 18th 2025
The crowdfunding website Kickstarter has been used to get many artbooks published from independent artists and smaller publishers. Now though, one of the largest publishers of artbooks, Dark Horse, is using it for the first time.
The Kickstarter project will be for a new Star Wars manga artbook, The Art of Star Wars: A New Hope – The Manga from Hisao Tamaki. The campaign is set to launch soon and will come with exclusive editions of the book that won't go on general sale.
The book will be filled with the art behind the 1997 manga that is an adaptation of the first Star Wars film. A standard version of the book will be released next year, but this campaign will focus on bringing two exclusive versions to fans, a Collector's Edition and a Masterpiece Edition. The former will come in a two-volume set, with the Masterpiece Edition being released in a larger format and with an extra volume. All versions of the book will include original sketches and scans of the storyboards from Hisao Tamaki.
I don't cover manga on this website, it's outside of my knowledge and including its vast history and releases of artbooks would be difficult to do as it is solo run project. However, it's worth writing about as if this proves to be successful, it may have Dark Horse using Kickstarter more often in the future.
Kickstarter is great for artists and for unique one-off artbooks, but I am typically less enthusiastic when larger entities use it as they should fund books themselves. If this project for the book was for all versions, I would be scratching my head and asking why Lucasfilm and Dark Horse need crowdfunding, but this approach to have it for only the premium versions is an interesting idea.
People wanting the book can still do so when it releases as a standard retail edition next year, with Kickstarter being an option for the dedicated fans with money spare to invest into something extra. On paper, it reads like a good idea as a typical Collector's Edition comes with just a slipcase and maybe a print or two, but don't always out. This may be a waste of an investment from the view of a publisher, so a new plan like this one will gauge interest and reduce the amount of money spent on copies not sold. Giving people the ability to vote with their wallet is never a bad thing, whether it proves useful or not remains to be seen.
No details are yet available on pricing, tiers or if there will be stretch goals, but I am eager to see how it works out and if this will be used again in the future for other artbooks, including releases based on games and animation that are covered here.
Until then, I will keep an eye on the Kickstarter campaign and those interested should visit to register for a notification when it does go live here - The Art of Star Wars: A New Hope – The Manga by Hisao Tamaki
