Comics

An End of an Era: Star Wars Comics Moves to Marvel In 2015

We don’t cover a lot of comics news here on the Non-Sport Update blog but we thought our readers might be interested in the news coming out of Dark Horse comics today. Dark Horse will publish its last Star Wars comics in 2014 and starting.

By Jan 3,2014  1

Dark Horse Star Wars comics cover

We don’t cover a lot of comics news here on the Non-Sport Update blog but we thought our readers might be interested in the news coming out of Dark Horse comics today. Dark Horse will publish its last Star Wars comics in 2014 and starting in 2015, Marvel Comics will take over the line.

Dark Horse has published Star Wars comics for well over 20 years now and really added a lot to the franchise, so this is a real shame but change is a constant and as the note from Dark Horse Founder Mike Richardson explains (reprinted in it’s entirety below), Disney wanted the Star Wars line under its own umbrella. As most comic collectors will know, Marvel was the original publisher of Star Wars comics so the line has now come full circle.

The End of an Era

All things come to pass. So too, do all licensed deals. I am 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. This will end a partnership that has lasted more than two decades.

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. We began chasing the title as far back as 1989, and with the launch of Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy’s Dark Empire, a new era in comics was born. I’m not ashamed to admit that we were Star Wars geeks, and we have been determined to spare neither effort nor expense in the pursuit of excellence.

It is ironic that this announcement comes at a time when Dark Horse is experiencing its most successful year ever. For obvious reasons, we have prepared for this eventuality by finding new and exciting projects to place on our schedule for 2015 and beyond. Will they take the place of Star Wars? That’s a tall order, but we will do our best to make that happen. In the meantime, 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.

Mike Richardson

 

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1 Comment

  • Rudy January 3, 2014 Reply

    Dark Horse has always been a high quality operation, and they’ll make it through this. Even so, it is a blow to lose such an important license. They’ve done right by Star Wars for a long time and they can be proud of the comics they produced in that universe. The respect they’ve shown fans and creators alike for well over 20 years will help to keep them relevant as they pour the energy they consistently gave their Star Wars titles into their other projects.

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