A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… that galaxy needed to be expanded. Before the prequels, sequels, or streaming shows, the Star Wars universe was kept alive and growing almost exclusively through novels and, most importantly, comic books. The history of StarW comic books is a fascinating, decades-long epic, mirroring the franchise’s own journey of cinematic triumphs, quiet “dark ages,” and explosive rebirths.

From a desperate gamble that saved a publisher to a creative renaissance that defined a generation, and finally to a controversial reboot that forged a new canon, the comics have always been an essential part of the Star Wars story. They are not just adaptations; they are a vital wellspring of lore, introducing countless beloved characters, ships, and concepts.

We’re diving into the hyperdrive to explore 10 essential facts about the long and storied history of Star Wars comics.

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1. The 1977 Marvel Comic Literally Saved the Company

In 1977, Marvel Comics was in a dire financial state. They were looking for a lifeline, any lifeline, and took a massive gamble on a weird, unproven sci-fi movie that wasn’t even in wide release yet. Marvel editor Roy Thomas, impressed by an early screening, convinced a skeptical Stan Lee to acquire the license. They rushed a six-issue adaptation of A New Hope into production, with the first issue, written by Thomas and drawn by Howard Chaykin, hitting stands in April 1977, a month before the film’s premiere.

This was a publishing Hail Mary. Licensed comics were notorious for poor sales. But when the movie became a global phenomenon, Star Wars #1 was a runaway hit. The demand was so overwhelming that the comic, along with its follow-up issues, sold in unprecedented numbers. According to former Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, the Star Wars comic was the single most profitable title for the company in 1977 and 1978, single-handedly pulling Marvel back from the brink of financial collapse. It wasn’t just a hit; it was a corporate savior.

2. The Original Expanded Universe Began in Star Wars #7

Marvel’s initial deal was only for a six-issue adaptation of the first film. When those issues were a massive success, Lucasfilm and Marvel quickly realized they had a problem: what next? The Empire Strikes Back was three years away, and they had a rabid fanbase that wanted more stories now. The solution: make things up.

Beginning with Star Wars #7 (January 1978), Marvel began publishing the first-ever original, non-movie-related Star Wars stories. This was the birth of the “Expanded Universe.” It was a wild, untamed, and wonderfully weird creative sandbox. With no official lore to contradict, the writers, like Archie Goodwin and Carmine Infantino, were free to invent. This era gave us Han Solo’s old pirate partners, bizarre new aliens, and, most infamously, Jaxxon, a 6-foot-tall, green, humanoid rabbit mercenary. While sometimes silly, these issues were a crucial first step, proving the galaxy was big enough for thousands of new stories beyond the Skywalkers.

3. A Parallel, Often-Forgotten Universe Ran in Newspapers

While the Marvel comic was booming, another Star Wars continuity was running in parallel, reaching millions of homes every day: the newspaper comic strip. Beginning in 1979, this strip (also produced by Marvel’s talent, including the legendary Archie Goodwin and Russ Manning) told its own epic stories set between the films. For many fans, this was their primary source of new Star Wars adventures.

What makes the newspaper strip’s history so fascinating is that it often diverged from the main comic book continuity, creating its own parallel “Expanded Universe.” It introduced new characters, like Imperial Commander Blackhole, and featured storylines that were more mature and deliberately paced than the colorful monthly comic. This separate, beloved, and often-overlooked history was a major part of the Star Wars experience for years, and its influence can be seen in later “Legends” material.

4. The Original Marvel Run Lasted 10 Years (And Ended Bizarrely)

The first Marvel Star Wars era was a marathon. The series ran for an impressive 107 issues and three annuals, from 1977 all the way to 1986. It chronicled the adventures of the Rebel heroes during and after the original trilogy. However, after Return of the Jedi hit theaters in 1983, the “Great Star Wars Boom” began to quiet down. The franchise entered a period often called the “dark times,” where no new films were on the horizon, and public interest was waning.

The comic, however, kept going, but it grew increasingly strange. Without the anchor of the movies, the plots became more fantastical. The final issue, Star Wars #107, is a prime example. It features Han Solo and Chewbacca helping a race of sentient, wombat-like creatures fight off a new alien threat. It was a quiet, unceremonious, and very strange end to what had once been the most popular comic on Earth. In 1986, the license lapsed, and Star Wars comics vanished from shelves for five years.

5. Dark Horse Comics Re-Ignited the Franchise with “Dark Empire”

After the Marvel run ended, Star Wars was dormant. Then, in 1991, two things happened that caused a massive franchise renaissance. First, Timothy Zahn’s novel Heir to the Empire was released. Second, a new publisher, Dark Horse Comics, secured the license. Dark Horse’s first major release was Dark Empire, a visually stunning, mature, and shockingly dark six-issue series.

Written by Tom Veitch and painted in a gorgeous, moody style by Cam Kennedy, Dark Empire was Star Wars like no one had ever seen it. It was set six years after Return of the Jedi and featured the return of a cloned Emperor Palpatine, a war-torn galaxy, and, most controversially, Luke Skywalker temporarily falling to the dark side. It was a massive critical and commercial success. This series, along with Zahn’s novels, effectively was the “sequel trilogy” for an entire generation and proved that audiences were starving for new, high-stakes adventures in this universe.

6. The “Dark Horse Era” Built the “Legends” Universe

If Dark Empire re-ignited the flame, the rest of the Dark Horse era (1991-2014) built a new galaxy from its sparks. This 23-year period is what most fans today refer to as the “Expanded Universe” or “Legends.” Dark Horse didn’t just tell stories about the movie characters; they built entire eras of history, meticulously crafting a massive, interconnected continuity.

• Tales of the Jedi (1993) explored the ancient history of the Jedi and the Sith, set 4,000 years before the movies, introducing characters like Ulic Qel-Droma and Exar Kun.
• Star Wars: Republic (1998) bridged the gap between the prequel films, introducing beloved Jedi like Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura (who was then added to Attack of the Clones).
• Crimson Empire (1997) told the story of Kir Kanos, the last of the Emperor’s Royal Guards, on a quest for vengeance.
• Knights of the Old Republic (2006) served as a companion to the hit video game, creating a rich, detailed history of the galaxy.

This was an era of unprecedented creative freedom and world-building that defined Star Wars for millions of fans.

7. Comics Became “Homework” for the Prequel Films

When The Phantom Menace was announced, Dark Horse’s role in the Star Wars ecosystem shifted. They were no longer just building their own continuity; they were now tasked with the crucial job of filling the narrative gaps between George Lucas’s new films. The comics became essential reading for fans who wanted the full story of the prequel era.

The most famous example is the Star Wars: Republic series and its various spin-offs, which chronicled the Clone Wars. For years, this was the only detailed depiction of the war. These comics introduced key concepts and characters, like Jedi Master Quinlan Vos, who became a fan favorite. In a case of the comics influencing the films, Jedi Aayla Secura, who was co-created by writer John Ostrander and artist Jan Duursema for the comics, became so popular that George Lucas added her as a background character in Attack of the Clones and gave her a speaking role (and death scene) in Revenge of the Sith.

8. The Disney Purchase Led to the Great “Legends” Schism

In 2012, Disney purchased Lucasfilm for over $4 billion. This set a tectonic shift in motion for the entire franchise. In April 2014, Lucasfilm made a momentous and highly controversial announcement: to make way for the new sequel trilogy, they were “rebooting” the continuity. The entire 23-year history of Dark Horse comics (and the preceding Marvel run, and all the novels) was to be officially declared “non-canon.”

This massive, beloved body of work was rebranded as “Star Wars Legends.” It was now an “alternate timeline.” A new, streamlined, official canon would be established, with the six films and The Clone Wars animated series as its foundation. As part of this change, the comic book license was taken from Dark Horse and, in a symbolic “homecoming,” given back to the company it had saved in 1977: Marvel Comics, which Disney had also purchased in 2009.

9. The New Marvel Canon Launched With Over 1 Million Sales

In January 2015, the new era of Star Wars comics began. Marvel launched its new flagship title, simply titled Star Wars #1, written by Jason Aaron and drawn by John Cassaday. Set in the immediate aftermath of A New Hope, it was designed to be the definitive, canonical story of what happened between the first two films.

Capitalizing on the hype for the upcoming The Force Awakens and a massive, multi-faceted marketing campaign (including over 100 variant covers), Star Wars #1 (2015) sold over one million copies—the first single issue to do so in over two decades. This relaunch, along with the simultaneous launch of the critically acclaimed Darth Vader series by Kieron Gillen, established a new, high-quality standard. This “new canon” was more tightly controlled by the Lucasfilm Story Group, ensuring that, for the first time, the comics, novels, and films all existed in a single, unified timeline.

10. “The High Republic” Marked a New Era of Comic-Led World-Building

For the first several years of the new canon, Marvel’s stories stuck very closely to the Skywalker Saga, primarily filling the gaps between the original trilogy and sequel films. But in 2021, Lucasfilm launched its most ambitious publishing initiative in the Disney era: “The High Republic.”

This was a massive, multi-platform story set 200 years before The Phantom Menace, during the golden age of the Jedi. What made this initiative so historic for the comics is that, unlike in the past, the comics were not just supplemental. The Marvel and IDW comic series (like Star Wars: The High Republic by Cavan Scott) were treated as foundational pillars of the era, just as important as the adult novels. They introduced core characters, major villains (like the plant-like Drengir), and galaxy-changing events. It was the first time in the new canon that the comics were given the keys to the car, building a brand new, vastly different era of the Star Wars galaxy from the ground up.

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Further Reading

The history of Star Wars comics is a massive, sprawling saga. For those looking to dive deeper into the history and the art that defined it, these books are an excellent place to start.

• How Star Wars Conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor (This book provides excellent context and a detailed history of the original 1977 Marvel deal and its impact.)
• Star Wars Art: Comics by Dennis O’Neil & Virginia Mecklenburg (A beautiful, oversized art book that visually chronicles the history of Star Wars comics from Marvel to Dark Horse.)
• The Star Wars Expanded Universe: A Beginner’s Guide (While many digital guides exist, physical encyclopedias from the “Legends” era, like The New Essential Chronology, are fantastic windows into the world the Dark Horse comics built.)
• Star Wars: The Marvel Years (Omnibus) (The best way to understand the original era is to read it. The essays and historical introductions in these collections provide invaluable context.)

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