Forum:SH:Marvel Star Wars publication dates

I have a question about the "publication date" in comic book infoboxes. I've noticed that while most of the Dark Horse comics have the exact date the comic came out, the Marvel series uses the cover date. I'm guessing this is because the exact release date information is unavailable to most editors. However, I have a crazy large collection of comic book trade magazines from the 70s and 80s, and I can put together a near-complete list of the actual release dates for the Marvel series.

Here's an example: The first solicitation for a Star Wars comic, from "The Comic Reader" (and it's awesome).

It identifies the release date of Star Wars 1 as April 12, which is a lot different than the "July" cover date. In fact, the comic predates the film's release (as is confirmed in the original issue's letter page), and I think that would be important to note in the article. As you may know, most comics and magazines put on a later cover date than when the book is actually released.

I bring this up here because I would like to go through the original Marvel series and replace the cover dates with the actual publication dates, both to be more accurate, and secondly to bring it in line with the Dark Horse comics (example) and just about every other Star Wars publication. However, I don't want to see these changes reverted by people who simply see the date on the cover and assume I'm wrong.

I could consider adding two dates, with one being the release date and the other being the cover date. There is precedence for two dates for reprints, but most articles for the Dark Horse books ignore the cover dates, probably because they're only found in the indicia, not on the actual cover. So I welcome any thoughts on how to format this. I will source the release date to the "The Comic Reader" or whatever other trade publication I use, and I hope that wards off those who would revert the changes. Thanks.