A long time ago, Star Wars saved Marvel comics.

After the novelization was published, selling out its first print run, Marvel comics stepped up to the plate. Issue #1 of Marvel’s six-issue adaptation of the movie hit magazine and comic racks in April, 1977, and managed to get two issues out before the movie premiered.

Like the movie, it was a risk. The conventional wisdom said that comic adaptations of movies didn’t sell well. That science fiction comics didn’t sell well. And lets be honest, the movie probably wouldn’t sell that well either.

Not to mention, Marvel Comics was failing.

According to former (1980s) Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, “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. Almost every book was late … sales were bad … It seemed like the company as a whole was in a death spiral.”

As with all things Star Wars, it apparently began with George Lucas. Or at
least with Lucasfilm. There is a story that George Lucas himself went to Marvel’s offices to meet with Stan Lee, only to be kept waiting for 45 minutes. A more verifiable story is that Charles Lippincott, marketing director for Star Wars, pursued Marvel for a Star Wars comics deal. But they weren’t interested.

At least, not at first. If Stan Lee wasn’t initially interested in the unproven movie, Marvel’s then Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas wanted the project and
got Marvel to take the risk. By the time the comics were released, the novel
was out, the movie was being marketed and the buzz had begun.

The science-fiction movie adaptation comic sold. Then, according to Jim
Shooter, “the movie was released. Sales made the jump to hyperspace … The comics sold and sold and sold … In the most conservative terms, 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.”

The success of Star Wars in a visual medium is no surprise. But that
original comic can be a surprise to modern audiences. This was a Star Wars that fit right in with not only with seventies pop-culture, but with those seventies comics versions of classic pulp sci-fi and fantasy including Conan, Tarzan, John Carter and originals like Kamandi. This was a Star Wars that had water worlds with sea monsters, a space pirate named Crimson Jack and, yes, a giant green rabbit named Jaxxon.

It was strange, but it worked for what it was in simpler days when the word “canon” wasn’t in common usage. Nobody worried about books and comics and movies having an aligned continuity. It wasn’t the movies and it didn’t have to be.

These were the comic book adventures of Star Wars. But it was still Star
Wars, new and ongoing Star Wars, and that’s all fans needed. As with the
novelization, the original Marvel Star Wars comics would be a fundamental part of many childhood Star Wars experiences, and part of many libraries for adults and children alike. My Dad and I read those early issues together many times.

Eventually, in 1986, one hundred and seven issues into the six-issue run, Marvel’s Star Wars printed its final issue. Marvel’s imprint, Star Comics, would print children’s comics based on Droids and Ewoks until 1987, and Blackthorne Comics printed a three-issue 3-D experiment in 1987 and 1988. With no new movies or novels since 1983, the end of the first era of Star Wars comics was effectively the end of new Star Wars content until the EU was reborn in 1991.

Today, even with the Marvel Cinematic Universe dominating the box office,
Marvel Comics is again in trouble, along with comic shops and the entire comic book industry. And Star Wars can’t save it this time.

The second coming of Marvel Star Wars comics in 2015 certainly made a splash, with Star Wars #1 still the highest selling comic book issue of the 21^st century. But that early Disney-era Star Wars excitement and the sales that came with it have long since peaked as many fans have grown disillusioned with modern Star Wars content in theaters and print alike.

But those troubles are part of the State of the Star Wars (and comics) today.

The State of the Star Wars in April, 1977? Star Wars was about to save Marvel Comics.