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Disney Moves 'Star Wars' Comics License to Marvel

Started by TupennyConan,

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TupennyConan

TupennyConan

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Surprising few, Lucasfilm announced today that, beginning in 2015, Marvel Entertainment will be granted exclusive rights to Star Wars comics and graphic novels, the first time in more than 20 years that the license has moved away from Dark Horse Comics.

 

Marvel published the first Star Wars comic in March 1977 -- months ahead of the original movie's opening in movie theaters -- before going on to publish a monthly comic based on the franchise for nine years, in addition to spinoffs for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi sequels, as well as Ewoks and Droids cartoon shows.

 

STORY: Power Lawyers: How 'Star Wars' Nerds Sold Lucasfilm to Disney [5]

 

"We here at Marvel could not be more excited to continue the publication of Star Wars comic books and graphic novels," Marvel publisher and president Dan Buckley said in a statement accompanying the announcement. "The perennial brand of Star Wars is one of the most iconic in entertainment history, and we are honored to have the opportunity to bring our creative talent pool to continue and expand Star Wars into galaxies far, far away."

 

Many fans have been expecting such an announcement following Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm in late 2012 [6]. Marvel, which has been owned by Disney since 2009, has been publishing comics based on other Disney-owned material for some time, including graphic novels based on ABC shows Castle and Once Upon a Time and an upcoming series using a never-opened Disney theme park as its starting point.

 

"Bringing together the iconic Lucasfilm and Marvel brands to tell new stories will allow us to continue to thrill lovers of the original Star Wars comic books and entertain generations to come," said executive vp of Disney Publishing Worldwide Andrew B. Sugerman.

 

In a statement following the announcement, Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson wrote that he was [7] "sad to report that Disney, the new owner of Lucasfilm, has notified us here at Dark Horse of their intention to move the Star Wars publishing license to another of their recent acquisitions, Marvel Comics, beginning in 2015," adding that the news "will end a partnership that has lasted more than two decades."

 

He continued, "For those who are new to the industry, Dark Horse revolutionized the treatment of comics based on films. After a history of movie properties being poorly handled with little regard for execution and continuity, Dark Horse took a new approach, carefully choosing licenses and approaching them with excitement and creative energy. Our goal was to create sequels and prequels to the films we loved, paying careful attention to quality and detail, essentially treating those films as though they were our own. Star Wars has been the crown jewel of this approach."

 

Noting that Dark Horse has prepared for the news with "new and exciting projects" scheduled for 2015 and later, Richardson wrote "2014 may be our last year at the helm of the Star Wars comics franchise, but we plan to make it a memorable one. We know that fans of the franchise will expect no less. The Force is with us still."

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This seemed inevitable. Dark Horse established and nurtured a first-rate SW universe. Kudos to them! I sure hope Marvel does well too. I also look forward to a Star Wars blank....

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ComicConnoisseur

ComicConnoisseur

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In other words, Dark Horse Comics is going out of business...??? It seems like the majority of their books are Star Wars related.

Dark Horse Comics published Star Wars comics for 20 years, but I can`t think of one key issue that stands out. Not one.

That is odd.

Did Dark Horse Comics ever create any new important characters for the Star Wars mythos?

20 years is a long time to publish something, and not have one Star Wars comic book that stands out for collectors. You think there be at least one holy grail Dark Horse Star Wars comic book that Star Wars fans or comic book collectors would seek out during these last 20 years. hm

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The Kaptain

The Kaptain

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In other words, Dark Horse Comics is going out of business...??? It seems like the majority of their books are Star Wars related.

Dark Horse Comics published Star Wars comics for 20 years, but I can`t think of one key issue that stands out. Not one.

That is odd.

Did Dark Horse Comics ever create any new important characters for the Star Wars mythos?

20 years is a long time to publish something, and not have one Star Wars comic book that stands out for collectors. You think there be at least one holy grail Dark Horse Star Wars comic book that Star Wars fans or comic book collectors would seek out during these last 20 years. hm

 

I agree. The closest to a "key issue" would probably be Dark Empire 1 (if it is CGC 9.8, or it is the gold or platinum cover). There are a few other issues that are somewhat popular, but they are few and far between. 99.9% of them go for cover price or less.

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ComicConnoisseur

ComicConnoisseur

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In other words, Dark Horse Comics is going out of business...??? It seems like the majority of their books are Star Wars related.

Dark Horse Comics published Star Wars comics for 20 years, but I can`t think of one key issue that stands out. Not one.

That is odd.

Did Dark Horse Comics ever create any new important characters for the Star Wars mythos?

20 years is a long time to publish something, and not have one Star Wars comic book that stands out for collectors. You think there be at least one holy grail Dark Horse Star Wars comic book that Star Wars fans or comic book collectors would seek out during these last 20 years. hm

 

I agree. The closest to a "key issue" would probably be Dark Empire 1 (if it is CGC 9.8, or it is the gold or platinum cover). There are a few other issues that are somewhat popular, but they are few and far between. 99.9% of them go for cover price or less.

Yes and Dark Empire was the first Dark Horse Star Wars comic book, so really in twenty years it look like Dark Horse Star Wars comics didn`t have one key issue that Star Wars fans would seek out.

I would have expected about 10 keys in a twenty year period. In that fact that there basically are no Dark Horse Star Wars keys, then I am glad it`s going back to Marvel. :)

 

 

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dupont2005

dupont2005

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In other words, Dark Horse Comics is going out of business...??? It seems like the majority of their books are Star Wars related.
Have you even looked at their solicits? They actually have a TON of licenses, and some pretty popular creator owned stuff, like Hellboy, which they must be milking for five or six titles now. And they bring in a bunch of manga, that stuff may be alien to us, but I'm sure it outsold the Star Wars comics. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure Star Wars was even close to their best seller. I think Elfquest outsold Star Wars.

 

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=48573

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rjrjr

rjrjr

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In other words, Dark Horse Comics is going out of business...??? It seems like the majority of their books are Star Wars related.

Dark Horse Comics published Star Wars comics for 20 years, but I can`t think of one key issue that stands out. Not one.

That is odd.

Did Dark Horse Comics ever create any new important characters for the Star Wars mythos?

20 years is a long time to publish something, and not have one Star Wars comic book that stands out for collectors. You think there be at least one holy grail Dark Horse Star Wars comic book that Star Wars fans or comic book collectors would seek out during these last 20 years. hm

 

 

This is the nature of license material however, correct? Marvel doesn't have any key issues either if you discount the movie adaptations. Marvel introduced Shira Brie/Lumiya to the EU, but the issue that introduced that character isn't worth any more than the other issues. Marvel's Star Wars 68 had been erroneously called the first appearance of Boba Fett for a while, but once people learned that wasn't true (and Boba Fett only appears in a panel or two in flashback), that issue does not stand out from surrounding issues like it use to. The final issues of the Marvel Star Wars comic are not keys, but fetch more money because they are perceived as harder to find.

 

There are several Dark Horse Star Wars comics that fetch more money than other issues. The 1st Star Wars Purge one-shot is a $5 - $10 book. Star Wars Tales 9 with Darth Vader versus Darth Maul is usually a $10 - $15 book. The 1st Asaj Ventress in Star Wars: Mace Windu is a $5 - $10 book. Star Wars Republic 52 (1st Durge) and 53 always fetch more than the surrounding issues at $5 each. The Star Wars Obsession mini-series is more valued than the other mini-series usually $5 an issue. One character did get created by Dark Horse that made it to the movies, Aayla Secura from Star Wars 19. But, that character was just a background character in Episode II, so that issue doesn't get any attention.

 

Look at all the Star Trek comics produced over the years from 5 publishers. No keys. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, no keys. Transformers, no keys.

 

Maybe with the synergy between the studio and the publisher when this license moves to Marvel we'll see a key or two. I think for that to happen, the studio will need to delegate the introduction of an important character or origin to Marvel. Without that, I don't see how we *can* get any keys.

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rjrjr

rjrjr

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In other words, Dark Horse Comics is going out of business...??? It seems like the majority of their books are Star Wars related.
Have you even looked at their solicits? They actually have a TON of licenses, and some pretty popular creator owned stuff, like Hellboy, which they must be milking for five or six titles now. And they bring in a bunch of manga, that stuff may be alien to us, but I'm sure it outsold the Star Wars comics. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure Star Wars was even close to their best seller. I think Elfquest outsold Star Wars.

 

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=48573

 

 

Have you looked at how those other titles sell though? When people say Dark Horse is going to struggle it is because Star Wars has been one of their top sellers for some time. The Manga titles or the Hellboy titles don't even come close. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the only other title that Dark Horse has that consistently sells in the top 100 titles.

 

If you look at all the titles Dark Horse has in the top 300 for November 2013 for Dark Horse:

 

28 The Star Wars (Lucas Draft) 3 50,346

58 Star Wars 11 34,227

137 Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi - Force War 1 15,515

152 Star Wars: Legacy II 9 13,999

165 Shaolin Cowboy 2 12,641

180 Conan the Barbarian 22 11,384

201 Sledgehammer 44 Lightning War 1 9,448

205 Itty Bitty Hellboy 4 9,237

208 Conan: People of the Black Circle 2 9,033

212 BPRD: Hell On Earth 113 8,904

216 Abe Sapien 7 8,709

228 Massive 17 7,957

231 Goon 44 7,894

243 Baltimore: Infernal Train 3 7,228

256 1 for $1 Star Wars Legacy 1 6,624

259 Clown Fatale 1 6,488

281 Mass Effect Foundation 5 5,820

283 Grindhouse Doors Open At Midnight 2 5,812

300 X 7 5,015

 

That's it. The top 4 for the month were Star Wars titles. Nothing else Dark Horse put out that month, including the myriad of Hellboy titles, even come close to the 2 best selling Star Wars titles. And the Star Wars TPBs are usually Dark Horse's best selling trades too.

 

Clearly, Dark Horse is going to struggle without the Star Wars license. Hopefully they'll do a better job with the other licenses now (look at how they squandered the opportunity they had with the Gold Key titles) and can come up with a game plan to replace the lost revenue they are going to have when the Star Wars titles are gone. It looks like they are going to be pushing Project Black Sky heavily this year. Unless they are able to generate some interest in their other titles, I won't be surprised to hear about lay-offs at the end of the year.

 

In the past few years, we've seen Dark Horse fall from the number 3 publisher (a position they held for many years) to the number 5 or 6 publisher. Their other titles just are not selling. They don't have the strongest creator owned properties. They have squandered opportunities with the Gold Key titles. They are consistently late on shipping books. Their output looks disjointed and the marketing has been ineffective. When you add the loss of Star Wars on top of the struggles they've already been going through, you can see this is going to be a tough year for them.

 

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rjrjr

rjrjr

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I knew i should have finished my Marvel run sooner ... just a few more issues :facepalm:

 

I don't think this announcement is going to change much with regards to Marvel Star Wars back issues. The Marvel Star Wars comics are still readily available. There has been no shortage of Marvel Star Wars comics and I don't foresee any shortage in the near future. There might be a slight bump in price, but I'm not sure it will be anything close to the bump we've seen since the Disney movie announcement.

 

I could see a price jump for Dark Horse TPBs/Omnibuses in 2015 though. It's doubtful Marvel will choose to publish the Dark Horse material and there could be demand for the Dark Horse material in the future. If the EU gets rebooted, the material will be interesting to future Star Wars fans like Splinter of the Mind's Eye. If the EU does not get rebooted, this material will still be relevant to the fans. I'm not sure if any of this will translate into a huge demand for the floppies, but it's possible. When you have as many comics as Star Wars has, the demand seems to go to the TPBs and not the floppies.

 

We are going to see roughly 50 more Star Wars comics from Dark Horse this year. In the 8 years Marvel had the Star Wars license the first time, there were 136 non-reprint comics (107 regular, 3 annuals, 4 ROTJ, 14 Ewoks, and 8 Droids.) Dark Horse's output eclipse anything Marvel had done with the license.

 

It's hard to imagine, but I wonder if Marvel will have more than one or two Star Wars ongoing titles a year (a movie related title following the main characters between movies and a Rebels tie in seem like safe bets) and a handful of mini-series? I'm excited and apprehensive about the future of the license.

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rjrjr

rjrjr

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Good Marvel is getting them back I was not too happy when I saw a Star Wars 1 reprint with figures and the dark horse logo was in place of the marvel logo :mad:

 

Why did that upset you? I thought it was cool of Hasbro and Dark Horse to make those issues (1-4 were reprinted with figures) available. Especially since Dark Horse had "redone" the Star Wars adaptation when the Star Wars Special Editions came out.

 

I didn't think it was any different than when Marvel reprinted the Xenozoic Tales under the title Cadillacs and Dinosaurs.

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Interesting points on the lack (or perceived lack of) keys in the Dark Horse stable of Star Wars books. To me, what Dark Horse did was create a number of fantastic storylines and characters that appealed to long-time SW fans. They had some misses too, but overall they treated the SW universe really well, and they did a great job of creating comics based on several SW books. Once the new movies come out you'll have many new fans (hopefully) that will maybe take a look at the comic books.

 

I think that Crimson Empire 1, Shadows of the Empire, and Legacy are good examples of where certain books may receive attention. Each series contains some first appearances of really cool characters that may be perceived as "keys" if Disney were to use them in any upcoming films or TV series. Dark Empire 1 also has the return of Boba Fett in issue #4, and if Disney uses the reborn Emperor (don't laugh, they might!) then issue #5 becomes very wanted. There are a number of Boba Fett books that fans will probably jump on once his film comes out.

 

I just hope Marvel makes some good SW comics! :wishluck:

 

 

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