How Marvel Lost The Star Wars Rights to Dark Horse In The Firtst Place?

[Minerboh]

I was always curious to know what happened and Marvel lost the rights of the comics to Dark Horse and how many comics ate now considered to be canon?
For instance is the Dark Empire Trilogy the official sequel of the Return Of The Jedi as it was branded years ago?

[Michael P]

Marvel lost the license because they stopped publishing the comic. That or they just let it lapse. After Jedi came out, interest waned and sales slowly dropped to the point where the book wasn't profitable.

As for the Dark Horse comics (or the old Marvel comics, for that matter), they were only ever quasi-canon at best, and now they're not even that. The official sequel to Return of the Jedi is Episode 7.

[hawkeyefan]

I was always curious to know what happened and Marvel lost the rights of the comics to Dark Horse and how many comics ate now considered to be canon?
For instance is the Dark Empire Trilogy the official sequel of the Return Of The Jedi as it was branded years ago?

The license expired and Marvel either wasn't interested in keeping it at that point...it was probably the low point for interest in Star Wars...or if they were interested, Dark Horse outbid them. I'm not sure which is the case.

My understanding of what is canon is that all the Dark Horse stuff and all the novels that have been published up to now are effectively non-canon now.

[ifleninwasawizard]

I never realized Dark Horse started publishing Star Wars as early as 1991. That's the same year Heir to the Empire was published. That novel tends to get all the credit for "creating" the EU and revitalizing Star Wars in general.

Marvel dropping Star Wars probably made a lot of sense at the time. I'm sure the growth on the EU in the early to mid 90's took a lot of people by surprise.

[TresDias]

I just look at Episode 7 and the Dark Horse publications as alternate universes from one another. As a comic fan, you get used to thinking this way when you're five years old.

[MajorHoy]

Don't forget, Marvel's run on the Star Wars comic book ran from 1977 until 1986, so that's a decent amount of time to tell stories.

1986 is also when the ownership of Marvel Entertainment Group changed hands with New World Pictures buying it. Three years later, it was sold again to a company owned by Ron Perelman. So who knows how much that may have effected any possibility of renewing the license.

[resipsaloquitur]

One correction: Dark Horse published one last comic called Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir which IS canon because it adapted some unused Clone Wars plots.

Don't poop on Dark Horse too much: they published some fantastic stuff that Marvel is seeing fit to reprint.

[Lady Warp Spasm]

One correction: Dark Horse published one last comic called Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir which IS canon because it adapted some unused Clone Wars plots.

Don't poop on Dark Horse too much: they published some fantastic stuff that Marvel is seeing fit to reprint.

^ This. Dark Horse kept my Star Wars love alive in before during and after the prequels. That said, I've decided to give Aaron and Cassadays Star Wars a trial run.