The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones
With Harrison Ford hanging up his fedora and whip this week in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, we can be a bit bereft without our favorite tomb raider’s films to look forward to. Luckily for us Indy fans though, his adventures have long continued in novels, comics, as well as a short lived tv series. With the ever changing rights-holders of Lucasfilm properties from the 80’s to the 2010s, the big question is where to start?
In the early to mid 1980's Marvel started with faithful adaptations of the three blockbuster films.
Walt Simonson and John Buscema on Raiders of the Lost Ark, David Michelinie and Bret
Blevins on The Last Crusade and David Michelinie and Butch Guice Temple of Doom. Marvel would continue the adventures with the Further Adventures of Indiana Jones after the success of the films.
Further Adventures ran for 34 issues and expanded the mythos and character backgrounds. The series took Indy and friends on more adventures for lost civilizations and treasures and face off against new adversaries. Stories would later be used in TSR’s Indiana Jones Role Playing Game.
When Dark Horse Comics took over the reigns for the Lucasfilm properties, they would continue the adaptations and even an unexpected crossover. Dark Horse would start with the adaptation of the video game Fate of Atlantis, then continue with an adaptation of the Young Indiana Jones Adventures that ran for 12 issues, then ending their tenure with Indy with the adaptation of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
However, the best contribution comes in the form of a non canonical story. In Star Wars Tales #19, Han and Chewie are being chased by remnants of the Empire, forcing them to jump blind into hyperspace. They crash land on an unknown planet in an unknown system. Exiting the Falcon Han makes mention of the planet being like Endor, soon after he gets attacked and killed by the natives. Mourning the loss of Han, Chewie is stranded on the planet, the locals beings calling him Sasquatch. 120 years later, Indy and Short Round, while exploring the Pacific Northwest, find the crashed Falcon with a human-like skeleton next to it. With the Falcon completely unknown to any civilization to Indy, they decide to leave it rest. All while Chewie watches them from the trees. It’s a short story but it has long been a fan favorite and one of my personal favorites as well, if you ever get the chance this snippet is highly recommended!
While the big screen adventures are ending with the Dial of Destiny this month, hopefully we will seeIndy’s adventures continue on in print, for fortune and glory!
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