Star Wars, but the House of Ideas may have gone under if not for George Lucas’ immortal space saga. Now both brands are owned by Disney, but the truth is that Star Wars saved Marvel at a time when the publisher was struggling, much like the Millennium Falcon swooping in at the last minute to help Luke Skywalker blow up the Death Star.

Writing in a post on his own website, Jimshooter.com, former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter details how Marvel Comics acquired the license to Star Wars ahead of the 1977 film’s release and how securing those rights kept the publisher afloat during some lean years in a post titled "Roy Thomas Saved Marvel."

“Sales were bad and falling,” Shooter writes of Marvel Comics in the late seventies, painting a dire portrait of the company before they got the license to make Star Wars comics: "The comics overall were breakeven at best…It seemed like the company as a whole was in a death spiral."

Marvel Comics Acquired the Rights to Star Wars Just as Trouble Loomed, Potentially Saving the Entire Company

Comic Sales Were Slipping in the 1970s

It wasn’t just Marvel. The comics industry as a whole was struggling in the late seventies. This was before there was a widespread direct market of specialty comic book stores, when most comics were still sold via the classic newsstand distribution system (grocery stores, gas stations, drug stores, etc.). The newsstand market was becoming untenable for many publishers in the 1970s, as sales began to slump and interest in comics waned. Perhaps the greatest evidence of this was the “DC Explosion,” an initiative from DC Comics that was supposed to launch several new titles, only for all of them to be quickly canceled.

At the time, Shooter was an associate editor working at Marvel, and he minces no words about the general state of the publisher during this period: "Marvel was a mess throughout the mid-1970s and during my two years as 'associate editor,' from the beginning of 1976 through the end of 1977." According to Shooter, it was fellow Marvel editor Roy Thomas who brought Lucas’ new movie to the publisher’s attention. "Roy proposed that we license some science fiction movie called Star Wars," Shooter writes, only for Thomas to be met with resistance.

Shooter further describes Marvel’s reluctance to take on the adaptation: "The Prevailing Wisdom at the time said 'science fiction doesn’t sell.' Adapting a movie with the hokey title 'Star Wars' seemed like folly to most." With sales flagging, it’s understandable that Marvel would be hesitant to take a risk on an untested movie. Much like how nearly every studio in Hollywood ed on Lucas’ weird space movie, Marvel almost ed on the chance to make Star Wars comics as well.

The Popularity of the Star Wars Comics at Marvel Completely Changed the Company's Outlook

Marvel Sees Hope in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

"There was a lot of opposition to Star Wars," Shooter explains, before going on to state that the animosity went pretty high up in the company: “Even Stan [Lee] wasn’t keen on the idea.” Shooter goes on to tell an anecdote involving Lucas himself, about the time the filmmaker supposedly came to the Marvel offices to discuss Star Wars comics:

“I was told—don’t know for sure—that George Lucas himself came to Marvel’s offices to meet with Stan and help convince him that we should license Star Wars. I was told that Stan kept him waiting for 45 minutes in the reception room. Apocryphal? Maybe. Roy would know. But if so, it still reflects the mood at the time.”

Even though there was a lot of resistance to the idea, Thomas was able to secure the rights to Star Wars for Marvel before the release of the film in 1977. “I don’t know how Roy got it done,” Shooter writes, “But, Roy got the deal done and we published Star Wars.” Star Wars #1 hit the comic book racks on April 12th, 1977, a full month and half ahead of the film’s May 25th release. Coming from the creative team of Thomas and Howard Chaykin, the first six issues adapted the film before continuing with all-new adventures.

The Force Was Strong with Marvel Comics Thanks to Its Star Wars Adaptation

The Now-Classic Series Kickstarted Sales

Fortunately for Marvel, Star Wars was not just a hit, but a once-in-a-generation success story that would change cinema and shape popular culture for decades to come. Shooter describes how the comics sold in the wake of the movie, and it’s hard not to feel the palpable excitement of the time:

“The first two issues of our six (?) issue adaptation came out in advance of the movie. Driven by the advance marketing for the movie, sales were very good. Then about the time the third issue shipped, the movie was released. Sales made the jump to hyperspace. Star Wars the movie stayed in theaters forever, it seemed. Not since the Beatles had I seen a cultural phenomenon of such power. The comics sold and sold and sold. We reprinted the adaptation in every possible format. They all sold and sold and sold.”

Star Wars was able to harness the power of licensed media in a way that few other movies had before, and Marvel benefited in a big way. At the time of the original film’s release, having the name Star Wars on a product was essentially a license to print money. For Shooter, this success was crucial to Marvel’s survival as a publisher at the time: “In the most conservative , it is inarguable that the success of the Star Wars comics was a significant factor in Marvel’s survival through a couple of very difficult years, 1977 and 1978.”

Marvel is still publishing Star Wars comics to this day. Don't forget to check out its latest main Star Wars title by Alex Segura and Phil Noto, launching May 7th, 2025.

It’s easy to see why Star Wars did so well at Marvel. At the time of the original film’s release, the concept of “film franchises” was still in its infancy. There weren’t video games or many other forms of tie-in media, so the only place for audiences who were thrilled at the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia on-screen to read new adventures starring those characters was the ongoing Marvel series. Marvel benefited greatly from this, with many reports of sales figures at the time suggesting that Star Wars #1 had sold a million copies over the course of 1977.

Would Marvel Comics Exist Today If Not for Star Wars?

The Answer Is Pretty Clear

It may sound overly dramatic, but Shooter’s assertion that Star Wars saved Marvel in the late seventies paints a picture of how important Lucas’ film was not only to the publisher, but to the entire comics industry. While the series remained a strong seller throughout the release of the entire original trilogy, interest eventually started to wane with no new films on the horizon. Marvel canceled the book in 1986, and the license was later acquired by the small indie publisher Dark Horse Comics.

It’s wild to think about, but Marvel Comics might not exist today if not for Star Wars.

Marvel got the license once again in 2015, bringing the Galaxy Far, Far Away home once more to the publisher that took a chance on it all those years ago. No matter who is publishing its comics, Star Wars has been a fixture of the comic book industry for several decades now, with no shortage of Star Wars comics readily available for fans eager to explore Lucas’ world on the printed page. It’s wild to think about, but Marvel Comics might not exist today if not for Star Wars.

The original Star Wars comic book series is available now from Marvel Comics.

Source: Jim Shooter