One of the questions that was raised by Walt Disney’s purchase of LucasFilm last October was would the license to produce comic books based on the Star Wars films be pulled from publisher Dark Horse Comics who have held it since 1991 and pass it over to corporate sibling Marvel Comics.
Speaking at a panel at San Diego Comic Con this weekend, Dark Horse editor Randy Stradley responded to a fan inquiry addressing that point by saying –
So far we have not experienced any changes. We are on pins and needles waiting to find out what the future holds for us, and the license. About as near as we can get is we’ll find out sometime this year.
Bleeding Cool, who reported on the panel, goes on to note that “[t]he moderator then stated that DH knows that it will be publishing Star Wars comics through 2014.”
Perhaps even more so than the myriad number of Star Wars novels that have been published, Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics have been instrumental in fleshing out the Star Wars Expanded Universe, sketching in its history from thousands of years before the films take place to the events of a century after Return Of The Jedi through a string of ongoing series and mini-series.
It would be a shame if Dark Horse were to loose the Star Wars license anytime soon. Their recently launched series by writer Brian Woods set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back has been winning much praise of critics and fans alike, as has their new Star Wars: Legacy series featuring the grand-daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia. Their upcoming mini-series adapting Star Wars creator George Lucas’s early draft for the original film, The Star Wars, is also generating excitement among readers.
