Raiders of the Lost Ark #1

History

The creative roots of this issue trace back to Marvel Super Special #18, a magazine-format one-shot released on June 9, 1981 — three days before the film opened in theaters — which contained the complete adaptation written by Walt Simonson with pencils by John Buscema and inks by Klaus Janson. That oversized package was then split into three standard-sized monthly issues, with Raiders of the Lost Ark #1 hitting newsstands on June 16, 1981, just four days after the film's general release. The production team assembled for the adaptation was notably strong: Archie Goodwin edited the project under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, and to ensure accurate character likenesses throughout, Marvel was supplied with a portfolio of stills and photographs from Lucasfilm — reference materials the company would reuse for The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones series that followed.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Indiana Jones's first appearance in a standard-sized, newsstand comic book format — his first comic appearance overall was in the magazine-format Marvel Super Special #18, released one week prior.
• Written by Walt Simonson; penciled by John Buscema; inked by Klaus Janson; colored by Michele Wolfman; lettered by Rick Parker; edited by Archie Goodwin under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.
• Cover of issue #1 by Gene Day (later confirmed by Simonson, who clarified earlier attributions listing James Sherman).
• The story content is a reprint of the Raiders of the Lost Ark material first published in Marvel Super Special #18 (on sale June 9, 1981), split across three standard comic issues released September–November 1981.
• Issue #1 covers the opening act of the film: Indy's failed retrieval of the Chachapoyan idol in Peru, his confrontation with Belloq, and his briefing by Army Intelligence to locate the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis.
• Characters appearing in this issue include Indiana Jones, Marion Ravenwood, Sallah, Marcus Brody, Belloq, Toht, and Colonel Dietrich, among others; the final page lists the film's cast and their corresponding roles.
• The complete adaptation was subsequently reprinted in a single collected edition, Marvel Movie Spotlight Featuring Raiders of the Lost Ark #1 (1982), which gathered all three issues into one volume.
• Marvel held the Indiana Jones comic book license from 1981 until 1990, when it passed to Dark Horse Comics; Dark Horse later reprinted this adaptation in omnibus form in 2009, and Marvel has announced new deluxe hardcover reprints collecting the full Marvel Indiana Jones run.

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