Lucasfilm license at Marvel comics 2015

Le Saboteur

Active member
Skywalker82 said:
I mean to Lucasfilm properties like Indy and SW.

Mods: You can certainly find a more appropriate thread to fold this into.

That said, why do you, Skywalker, care who has the rights to the comic versions of Star Wars and Indiana Jones? By all accounts Darkhorse has been an exemplary steward of both series since... 1990(?).

Per Scott Allie, Darkhorse's Editor-in-Chief, Disney hasn't expressed any interest in acquiring the rights to either property. So, as of May of this year, the rights are staying put.

Comic Book Resources said:
Someone asked about the future of "Star Wars" at Dark Horse, to which Allie responded, "There's no plans to move anything. We talk to Lucasfilm all the time about it, and nothing has come down from Disney to make any changes."

Asked if there are any characters in "Star Wars" that Wood hasn't written yet but wants to, the writer responded that he's already writing around 12 characters and has to focus on them for the time being.

Full article here.

An updated article from Bleeding Cool in mid-July indicates that Darkhorse will retain the rights through at least 2014.

But, again, from a creative standpoint why would you personally care which publishing house held the rights? It's not like Marvel has access to better creative staff. Virtually all comic creators are a work-for-hire group.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
I never did find a single thread I was happy to fold this into.Maybe that was fortuitous. (Why I never moved it to Indy Literature until now, I'll never know.)

Marvel will take over the publishing of new Star Wars comic books, with Dark Horse Comics losing the licensing deal its had for over 20 years.

The rights to the sci-fi franchise will be handled by Marvel starting in 2015, giving Dark Horse the time to wrap up storylines in current series. Its first was Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy's Dark Empire, in 1989.

Disney releases J.J. Abrams Star Wars: Episode VII on Dec. 18, 2015.

The move to Marvel makes sense considering Disney owns the company. And Marvel is no stranger to the series, having published the first comic books based on the original Star Wars trilogy for nine years, starting in 1977. Star Wars #1 sold more than 1 million copies.

Dark Horse is naturally disappointed.

"All things come to pass. So too, do all licensed deals," said Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson in a statement on Friday. "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.?

In August, Dark Horse announced The Star Wars, a new book series based on the first draft of George Lucas screenplay for Star Wars.

"Dark Horse Comics published exceptional Star Wars comics for over 20 years, and we will always be grateful for their enormous contributions to the mythos, and the terrific partnership that we had," said Carol Roeder, director of Lucasfilm franchise publishing, Disney Publishing Worldwide. "In 2015, the cosmic adventures of Luke, Han, Leia and Chewbacca will make the lightspeed jump back to Marvel, to begin a new age of adventures within the Star Wars universe."

No mention, unsurprisingly, of Star Wars's brown-hatted stepchild.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Star Wars comics license

Here's the full Dark Horse announcement, and a few more details:
When asked whether it would retain its publishing rights to its backlist and keep re-issuing previous material or if Marvel would be absorbing its backlist, Dark Horse stated ?All rights go to Marvel.? Dark Horse has said that Star Wars Comics purchased before 2015 on Dark Horse Digital will remain on its cloud afterward, but print copies of existing material will not continue.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Attila the Professor said:
I never did find a single thread I was happy to fold this into.

I had one in mind at the time, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.

Skywalker82 said:
Looks like both SW and Indy are going back to Marvel afterall

D'uh. It was bound to happen, but you still haven't answered the question of why you cared so damn much to create a thread about it.


Moedred said:
Here's the full Dark Horse announcement, and a few more details:

Let the purging commence!
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
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Poor Stan Lee.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
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I haven't had a comic shop pull list in ages, but I made the unusual request for Marvel Previews. At $1.25 for 100 color pages, I wonder why more don't ask for it. Overall there seems to be less fan service (boobs) on the shelves than last decade. I don't know if DC has toned things down also. Few comic titles are numbered in the hundreds, instead story arcs seem to wrap up under 20 issues and may even go on hiatus.

Launching today, the 3 Star Wars titles start at year zero "ABY" after Episode 4. Star Wars and Darth Vader tell opposing sides of the war, and there's a 5-issue Princess Leia title. Preview pages show familiar scenes like Vader stomping into Jabba's palace. Will he visit his mother's grave and wonder what's keeping that blond kid with his blue milk and a straw? Find out next month!
 

Duaner

New member
Moedred said:
Coming in September, finally a glimpse at what happened between VI and VII.

400px-Shattered_Empire_1_Cover.jpg

Judging by the cover, it looks like it likely starts directly after Return of the Jedi. The novel "Aftermath" also comes out in September which will help to bridge the gap between VI and VII. It should prove interesting to see how "Shattered Empire" and "Aftermath" work together.
 

JasonMa

Active member
I just finished reading the first Vader TPB, compiling the first 6 issues of the Vader comic. There's a bit of a hat-tip to our favorite hero in it as one of the supporting characters is a archaeologist specializing in lost weapons. Her intro scene is very Indy-like with her even uttering "It BELONGS in an ARMORY!".

The cover of the second TPB apparently will feature her so she's going to be along for the ride a while. :whip:
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
I read Marvel Previews ($1.25 a month!) always hoping to catch a flicker of Indy comic news, and to see everything they're throwing at the wall these days. I often wonder who reads this stuff and how many. Here's a site with some answers, and terminology (I guess I'm a "trade-waiter" if anything.) Meet Marvel Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing David Gabriel.

https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/37154/marvel-retailer-summit-day-1
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/37153/marvel-retailer-summit-day-1
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/37152/marvels-david-gabriel-2016-market-shift
"I'm going to tell you, the limited series is the death knell,” Gabriel said of the current market environment. "The only place that it hasn't been a death knell, which is amazing, is on the Star Wars stuff. Anytime we've called something a limited series, it did not hurt the sales at all. You call anything else in the Marvel Universe a limited series, it's dead on arrival."
Hopefully this applies to Indy if they do 4 parters. On reboots and restarts:
"Over the past three years while we've been doing this, we've been seeing, time and time again, phenomenal, phenomenal numbers going from 100,000 to 300,000 when we've done some of these launches. Once you get to issues 15, and 16, and 17 what in the world do you do to get those numbers from a 40,000, 60,000 unit book to 150,000 unit book even for one month?"
This is the pattern I've seen, few titles getting past 15 or 20, just starting over. But the October "Marvel Now 2.0" relaunch apparently fell flat and tons of comics were returned to Diamond. And here's how David Gabriel made headlines:
What we heard was that people didn't want any more diversity. They didn't want female characters out there. That's what we heard, whether we believe that or not. I don't know that that's really true, but that's what we saw in sales. We saw the sales of any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up against. That was difficult for us because we had a lot of fresh, new, exciting ideas that we were trying to get out and nothing new really worked.
It's amended by some PR spin that claims the opposite. Nearly every Marvel character has experienced race and gender bending at some point (though they never get short or fat). Hopefully they re-find their groove in this digital world.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
The reset button was pushed. Marvel Now 2.0 is dead, now it's Marvel Legacy, with retroactive(?) reinstated numbering like "Amazing Spider-Man #789." Meanwhile Star Wars comics keep humming along and not flooding the market.

And here's a plea for Indy comics.
 

TheFedora

Active member
Moedred said:
The reset button was pushed. Marvel Now 2.0 is dead, now it's Marvel Legacy, with retroactive(?) reinstated numbering like "Amazing Spider-Man #789." Meanwhile Star Wars comics keep humming along and not flooding the market.

And here's a plea for Indy comics.

Agreed, I keep hoping they will do something more of a push for the brand, but so far it doesnt appear that they will do anything until the movie comes out I dont think.
 

JasonMa

Active member
If you look at those dates they (other than the comic released for the opening of Galaxy's Edge) were all from 5-6 years ago. Disney was doing a series of stories based around attractions. We've got the trades of all of them for my wife's Disney collection, plus individual issues of the Enchanted Tiki Room one, including every variant cover. Those were fun to track down.
 
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