Republishing issues of the Marvel Comics Star Wars series, along with Marvel Comics's Pizzazz Magazine comic strips in the United Kingdom, Star Wars Weekly began on February 8, 1978 and went through several name changes throughout the years before its end in 1986. All titles continued a single numbering system until Return of the Jedi Weekly, which reset the numbering to #1. The series was published by Marvel UK, a division of Marvel Comics that reprinted American stories for the British market.
The main difference between the British series and its American counterpart was that the former took anywhere from two to three issues to publish all the content printed in only one issue of the latter. More than one story would often run concurrently.[1]
Many issues also included articles and interviews, as well as additional stories from other Marvel Comics series.
This series did contain some original stories that did not appear in either the Marvel Star Wars series or the Pizzazz Magazines. To this day, a number of them have not been reprinted in either Marvel-published graphic novels or Classic Star Wars comic books from Dark Horse Comics such as Devilworlds (which reprinted seven of the eight post–Empire Strikes Back stories).[2][3] Leland Chee noted in Star Wars: Luke Skywalker, Last Hope for the Galaxy that Dark Horse will at some point publish a volume of "lost" material, which should collect all the Marvel UK stories;[4] however, there has been no further information on such a volume since that book's 2008 publication. In 2013, Dark Horse released Star Wars Omnibus: Wild Space Volume 1, which collected several Marvel UK comics.
Series[]
- Star Wars Weekly - #1–117
- The Empire Strikes Back Weekly - #118–139
- The Empire Strikes Back Monthly - #140–158
- Star Wars Monthly - #159–171
- Return of the Jedi Weekly - #1–155
- Ewoks Monthly - #1–10
Annuals[]
- Star Wars Annual No. 1
- Star Wars Annual 1979
- The Empire Strikes Back Annual
- The Empire Strikes Back Annual No. 2
- Star Wars Annual 1981
- Return of the Jedi Annual 1983
- Return of the Jedi Annual 1984
- Star Wars Annual Featuring Ewoks
- Ewoks Annual
Specials[]
- Star Wars Summer Special 1983
- Return of the Jedi Winter Special
- Star Wars Special Edition 1984
- Return of the Jedi Summer Special
- Return of the Jedi Christmas Special
- Star Wars Summer Special 1985
- Droids TV Special
- Droids Spring Special
Anthology series[]
These series included comic stories from various licensed comics, including reprints from US Star Wars comics:
- Spidey Comic 661–666: Ewoks 2 and 3 (November 9-December 14, 1985)
- Spider-Man and Zoids 15–22: Star Wars Annual 3 (June 14-August 12, 1986)
- The Marvel Bumper Comic 14–25: Stories from the Star Wars: Droids comic book
Reprint history[]
Marvel Illustrated Books[]
Classic Star Wars: Devilworlds[]
Omnibus collections[]
- Star Wars Omnibus: Wild Space Volume 1
- Star Wars: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus Vol. 3
- Star Wars: The Marvel UK Collection Omnibus
Sources[]
- "Collections: Foreign Star Wars Collectibles" — The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine 5
- "ComicScan: Paint Him Black" — Star Wars Galaxy Magazine 11
- Star Wars In the UK: Star Wars Comic Book Annuals on StarWars.com (backup link)