Empire

Thousands of years in the future, a powerful device has been hidden in separate pieces. Qrelon, whose planet was destroyed by the empire, leads a small group of rebels that risks everything to collect the pieces of the device that, once complete, will be the weapon powerful enough to destroy the planet-sized computer that runs the empire. Wryn, an archaeology student, is chosen by the empire to assassinate the rebel leader.

Published in 1978, Empire is regarded as one of the first graphic novels in the United States. The first edition of Empire was published as a hardcover by Berkley Windhover with Byron Preiss.

Delany and Chaykin, illustrator of Star Wars comics, had been looking to collaborate since the late 1960s. In 1976, Delany, Chaykin and Preiss, who knew Chaykin from school, finally began to discuss and devise a visual novel which would become Empire.