Marvel Comics
Established in 1939 by Martin Goodman as a subsidiary for Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Comics, over time, grew into one of the largest and most successful comic book companies on the planet. Even though they are well known for their role in the superhero industry, they were also the first company to release comic books for the Star Wars saga, with their first crack at the franchise being their Star Wars run, which ran from 1977 all the way until 1986. After reacquiring the license in 2015, Marvel once again became the primary publisher of Star Wars comics, with their latest series being the Star Wars 2020 run, which is currently ongoing.
History

Marvel began in 1939 as Timely Comics, publishing popular superhero titles. In the 1950s, as Atlas Comics they published mainly other genres such as romance, crime, western, and war stories. By the 1960s, the superhero genre was becoming popular again, and the newly named Marvel Comics started creating a number of new superhero titles written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby. During the 1970s Marvel's sales were declining and the company was in trouble caused, in part, by poor distribution.
In the late 1970s, Marvel Comics President, Stan Lee, was approached by Charles Lippincott to produce a Star Wars comic as a promotion. Lee was highly reticent with the proposal for the project considering the film was still in production, until his protege, Roy Thomas, persuaded him otherwise. Even then Lee, citing the poor sales history of comic book adaptations, negotiated a quota of 100,000 copies to be sold before any royalties to Lucasfilm could be discussed.[1]
The resulting series turned out to be smash success, in 1977 after prodding by Roy Thomas, as well as burgeoning successes like The Uncanny X-Men and Daredevil. Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief of Marvel from 1978 to 1987, would later say in an interview regarding the importance of Star Wars to the plight of the company, "Star Wars single-handedly saved Marvel... And that kept us alive."[2] The only downside was that that 100,000 quota was surpassed quickly, allowing Lippincott to renegotiate royalty arrangments from a position of strength.[1]
Marvel also published stories in Britain under the imprint Marvel UK. In addition to reprinting the American Star Wars comics, the UK series produced a number of original stories.
Marvel continued to publish Star Wars comics until 1986, and the Droids and Ewoks series until 1987. The comic-book license for Star Wars was later picked up by Dark Horse Comics, which began producing Star Wars comics in 1991 with the publication of Star Wars: Dark Empire. Dark Horse would later reprint much of the Marvel-produced Star Wars material under the title Classic Star Wars.
In 2009, Marvel was bought by The Walt Disney Company. Their former collaborator, Lucasfilm Ltd., followed suit three years later, when George Lucas sold the rights to his company to Disney.
On January 3, 2014, an announcement was made that the Star Wars comics license was moving from Dark Horse back to Marvel in 2015.[3]
Published series
Legends
Series
- Star Wars (April 1977 – June 1986; May 29, 2019[4])
- Ewoks (May 1985 – July 1987)
- Star Wars: Droids (April 1986 – June 1987)
Miniseries
- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (October 1983 – January 1984)
One-shots
- Star Wars Annual (1977) 1 (November 1978)
- Star Wars Annual (1977) 2 (August 1982)
- Star Wars Annual (1977) 3 (August 1983)
Published Marvel collections
- Marvel Special Edition Featuring Star Wars (1977–1978)
- Marvel Special Edition 2: The Empire Strikes Back (Spring 1980)
- Marvel Super Special 16: The Empire Strikes Back (Spring 1980)
- The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (May 1980)
- Marvel Super Special 27: Return of the Jedi (1983)
- Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)
- Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 1 (January 2015)
- Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (May 2015)
- Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 2 (June 2015)
- Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (August 2015)
- Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 3 (October 2015)
- Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi (November 2015)
- Star Wars: Droids & Ewoks Omnibus (June 2016)
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years Vol. 1 (September 2016)
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years Vol. 2 (July 2017)
- Star Wars: The Marvel UK Collection Omnibus (September 2017)
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years Vol. 3 (July 2018)
- Star Wars: Ewoks — Flight to Danger (March 2019)
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years Vol. 4 (August 2019)
- Star Wars Legends: Forever Crimson (January 2020)
- Star Wars: The Original Trilogy — The Movie Adaptations (January 2020)
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years Vol. 5 (August 2021)
Republished Dark Horse collections
Canon
Series
- Star Wars (2015) (January 2015 – November 2019)
- Star Wars: Darth Vader (2015) (February 2015 – October 2016)
- Star Wars: Kanan (April 2015 – March 2016)
- Star Wars: Poe Dameron (April 2016 – September 2018)
- Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (2016) (December 2016 – December 2019)
- Star Wars: Darth Vader (2017) (June 2017 – December 2018)
- Star Wars: The High Republic (2021) (January 2021 – March 2022)
Miniseries
One-shots
Published collections
Published Omnibus collections
- Star Wars: Kanan Omnibus (December 2016)
- Star Wars: Darth Vader by Kieron Gillen & Salvador Larroca Omnibus (September 2017)
- Star Wars by Jason Aaron Omnibus (March 2019)
- Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Omnibus Vol. 1 (March 2021)
- Star Wars: Darth Vader by Charles Soule Omnibus (December 2021)
Current series
Series
- Star Wars (2020) (January 2020 – present)
- Star Wars: Darth Vader (2020) (February 2020 – present)
- Star Wars: Bounty Hunters (March 2020 – present)
- Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (2020) (May 2020 – present)
- Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca (March 2022 – present)
Miniseries
- Star Wars: Halcyon Legacy (February 2022 – August 2022)
- Star Wars: Obi-Wan (May 2022 – September 2022)
- Star Wars: The Mandalorian (July 2022 – present)
Forthcoming series
Series
- Star Wars: The High Republic (2022) (October 2022)
- Star Wars: Visions (October 2022)
Miniseries
- Star Wars: The High Republic — The Blade (November 2022)
- Star Wars: Yoda (TBA)
- Star Wars: The Hidden Empire (TBA)
Forthcoming collections
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Clone Wars Vol. 4 (August 2022)
- Star Wars: Crimson Reign (August 2022)
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Empire Vol. 7 (September 2022)
- Star Wars Vol. 4: Crimson Reign (September 2022)
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The New Republic Vol. 6 (September 2022)
- Star Wars: Darth Vader Vol. 4 — Crimson Reign (October 2022)
- Star Wars: Bounty Hunters Vol. 4 — Crimson Reign (October 2022)
- Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Vol. 4 — Crimson Reign (October 2022)
- Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters Omnibus (November 2022)
- Star Wars: Halcyon Legacy (November 2022)
- Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca Vol. 1 — The Crystal Run (November 2022)
- Star Wars: The Mandalorian Vol. 1 — Season One Part One (November 2022)
- Star Wars Legends: The New Republic Omnibus Vol. 1 (November 2022)
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Rebellion Vol. 5 (November 2022)
- Star Wars: Obi-Wan — A Jedi's Purpose (December 2022)
- Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Vol. 5 — The Spark Eternal (December 2022)
- Star Wars: Darth Vader Vol. 5 — The Shadow's Shadow (January 2023)
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Menace Revealed Vol. 3 (January 2023)
- Star Wars: Bounty Hunters Vol. 5 — The Raid on the Vermillion (January 2022)
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Old Republic Vol. 5 (March 2023)
- Star Wars Legends: The Rebellion Omnibus Vol. 1 (March 2023)
- Star Wars Vol. 5 (May 2023)
Canceled series
Sources
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jenkins, Garry. Empire Building: The Remarkable Real-Life Story of Star Wars. Simon & Schuster, New York City (1997).
- ↑ Thomas, Michael: Jim Shooter Interview: Part 1 (2000-10-06) on comicbookresources.com published by CBR (archived from the original on January 11, 2002)
- ↑
Disney's Lucasfilm and Marvel Entertainment Join Forces to Publish Star Wars Comics and Graphic Novels on StarWars.com (backup link not verified!)
- ↑ Star Wars (1977) 108
External links
- Marvel's website
Marvel Comics on Wikipedia
Marvel Entertainment (@marvel) on Instagram
Marvel Entertainment (@marvel) on Twitter
Marvel (@marvel) on Facebook
- Marvel Comics on Disney Wiki
- Marvel Database on Fandom