Star Wars #1

History

Lucasfilm's publicity supervisor Charles Lippincott first approached Marvel about a Star Wars comic in 1975, but publisher Stan Lee declined until the film was closer to completion. Writer Roy Thomas, whose *Conan the Barbarian* work had caught George Lucas's attention, was brought on board by Lippincott and ultimately brokered a second meeting that persuaded Lee to greenlight the project in 1976 — reportedly after hearing that Alec Guinness was involved. Lucas personally requested artist Howard Chaykin, who was permitted to visit Lucasfilm's offices on the Universal Studios lot to gather reference art; Chaykin's existing convention poster for the film became the direct basis for the issue's cover, which was inked by Tom Palmer and colored by Marie Severin. Because tie-in comics were viewed as poor sellers, Lee negotiated a publishing deal that owed Lucasfilm no royalties until sales surpassed 100,000 copies — a threshold the series cleared quickly, forcing a renegotiation of terms.

Trivia · 10 facts

• On-sale date: April 12, 1977 — more than six weeks before Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope opened in theaters on May 25, 1977.
• First comic-medium appearances of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, Darth Vader (identified as Anakin Skywalker), C-3PO, R2-D2, Owen Lars, Beru Whitesun Lars, Biggs Darklighter, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, and Chewbacca.
• Creative team: writer Roy Thomas (also editor), penciller/inker Howard Chaykin, colorist Marie Severin, letterer Jim Novak; cover inked by Tom Palmer.
• The cover art was adapted from Howard Chaykin's original Star Wars convention poster. Despite depicting Han Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi prominently, neither character appears inside the issue — their first interior appearances come in issue #2.
• The issue preserves several Tatooine scenes cut from the finished film, including Luke witnessing the opening space battle and Biggs Darklighter telling Luke of his plans to join the Rebel Alliance — scenes that give the Luke–Biggs friendship context absent from the theatrical release.
• A production coloring error left Darth Vader rendered in green rather than black on the cover — an artifact faithfully reproduced in the 2019 and 2025 Facsimile Editions.
• A rare 35-cent newsstand price variant exists alongside the standard 30-cent edition; Marvel distributed the higher-priced copies to only a handful of test-market cities as part of a planned price-increase experiment, making first-print 35-cent copies significantly scarcer than the standard edition.
• Spider-Man appears in the issue as part of a one-page Hostess snack-cake advertisement ('Madam Web!') — accounting for his index entry. The issue also contains a Marvel house ad announcing the series, whose on-sale date was confirmed in a separate house ad printed in Ms. Marvel #7.
• The story is part one of a six-issue adaptation of A New Hope (issues #1–6); the series subsequently ran for 107 issues and three annuals through May 1986, with the content of issues #1–6 reprinted internationally in Star Wars Weekly (Marvel UK, from February 1978), stretched across 12 installments rather than six.
• Multiple reprint editions exist: the oversized Marvel Special Edition (1977), The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of Star Wars paperback (Random House, November 1977), Classic Star Wars: A New Hope #1 (Dark Horse, June 1994, recolored by Pamela Rambo), a True Believers budget reprint (Marvel, May 4, 2016), and Facsimile Editions (Marvel, December 2019 and April 2025). Alex Ross created a painted reimagining of the cover as a variant for Marvel's 2015 Star Wars #1 relaunch.

Cast · 13 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Star Wars

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#16 1st appearance — Beilert Valance

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#24 1st appearance — Senator Bail Organa

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#5 1st appearance — Mon Mothma

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#8 1st appearance — Jaxxon

Variants (5)