- [Voiceover] This video
is sponsored by Loot Crate,
the monthly subscription service
for epic geek and gamer items,
and pop culture gear.
So you may have heard that
Disney bought Star Wars
a few years back.
And you may have noticed that Marvel
has recently started a brand new line
of Star Wars comics.
But, did you know that Marvel
likely wouldn't be around today
if it weren't for Star Wars?
(upbeat music)
Welcome to a Tie-In video
where I wear a tie in videos.
I'm Scott, and basically 100% of you guys
have been asking me to
make a Star Wars video so,
here I am.
One of the things I've wanted
to talk about for a while now
is the history behind Star Wars comics,
and why they ended up being printed
by Dark Horse for a few decades.
And we'll get to that, trust me,
but while I was researching this,
I found an interesting story about
how Star Wars honestly
saved Marvel Comics.
Let's dive in.
Our story takes place a long time ago
in a galaxy far, far away,
called the 1970s.
This was a pretty terrible time
for the comic book industry.
This was a time when direct
market sales like comic shops
were technically a thing,
but newsstands were still by far
the dominant distributor of comics.
And there was a pretty
unfortunate system in place
where newsstands were allowed to send back
any comics they didn't sell
to get their money back,
leaving the publishers
with hundreds of thousands
of unsold comics.
The comic book industry
was failing so hard
that there was talk of shutting
Marvel down completely.
Their books were so
frequently late and lackluster
that Jim Shooter who worked as
an Associate Editor at the time said,
"Marvel's comics weren't just bad,
"they were quote 'unreadable'."
It looks like not much has changed.
Burn on Marvel!
But not really, they're fine.
Around this time Stan Lee was approached
to make a comic book adaptation
of a little sci-fi film
that was coming out
called Star Wars,
but he turned it down.
And you might be thinking
what a dumb-dumb,
turning down a deal with
the most-influential
science fiction property of all time?
Is Star Wars science fiction?
It feels kind of like fantasy to me.
Let's call it space fantasy.
Anyway, the thing is that not many thought
Stan Lee was making the
wrong decision here.
Plenty of people working at Marvel
were skeptical about the
idea of taking a chance
on a space fantasy property featuring
relatively unknown actors.
Plus, the deal would call
for a few issues of the comic
to be printed before
the movie ever came out.
It seemed like an unnecessary
risk for Marvel to take
when they were already not doing so hot.
But there was one man who
fought for the Star Wars comic,
Marvel writer and former
editor-in-chief Roy Thomas.
Thomas was approached separately,
shown production sketches of the film,
and was pitched the idea of
the Star Wars comic adaptation.
He urged Marvel to take the deal
and it was his push that
moved the plans forward.
After all, Thomas has previously
brought a licensed property
to Marvel that proved to do quite well.
Conan the Barbarian.
What if Thomas is right about
this Star Wars thing too?
Plus, a huge benefit of the deal is that
it would cost Marvel absolutely
nothing in licensing fees.
It was effectively free for them to use
the characters from Star Wars,
so why not try it out?
Marvel eventually decided
to take a chance on it
with the first issue of
their Star Wars comic
hitting shelves in 1977,
selling 100,000 copies initially
with subsequent issues
selling millions of issues
once the movie actually came out
and became the phenomenon that it is.
Needless to say, it not only put Marvel
back on track financially,
Star Wars completely saved the company
from suffering a fate similar to Alderaan.
The Star Wars comic was
initially supposed to be
just a six-issue run that
ended up lasting 107 issues.
Plus other spin-off comics which basically
jump-started the Star
Wars Expanded Universe.
But after Return of the Jedi
the Star Wars franchise
started to wind down,
and Marvel subsequently
cancelled their Star Wars books.
Enter Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy,
the creators of a fantasy series called
The Light and Darkness War.
They saw Star Wars still
had incredible potential
as a comic book series
so they contacted Lucas
Film to get the rights,
and they got it.
And by "it" I don't mean
they just got the license
to use the characters
and names and all that,
but I mean they literally got
the entire Star Wars comics franchise.
Meaning they controlled who
published their stories.
So while their comic,
Star Wars Dark Empire,
a sequel comic to Return of the Jedi,
was originally supposed
to be published by Marvel,
Veitch and Kennedy took it
elsewhere after claiming that
the editor-in-chief at Marvel at the time
believed Star Wars to be quote, "passe."
So in 1991 they picked another publisher
to start printing their Star Wars comics.
They chose the Dark Side.
Dark Horse, sorry.
Dark Horse went on to publish
loads of Star Wars comics
like Star Wars Legacy,
Knights of the Old Republic,
Tales of the Jedi, and one
of my personal favorites,
The Star Wars, based off of George Lucas'
original draft of the film
that's like 100% different
from what we actually got.
But we all know the story.
In 2009, Disney bought
Marvel for $4 billion,
and in 2012 they did the
same thing for Star Wars.
So all the Star Wars stories
that Dark Horse presented in their comics,
along with the Expanded Universe Star Wars
novels, games, and more,
were all officially out
of the Star Wars canon.
What remains canon are the movies,
the shows like Clone Wars and Rebels,
and basically anything
with Star Wars on it
that's been published every since
the deal with Disney took hold.
Including the return of Star Wars comics
back at Marvel for the first time,
in a long time.
But I'm interested in your opinions.
Have you ever read them (mumbles).
(beeps)
But I'm interested in your opinions.
Did you ever read the old
Marvel Star Wars comics,
and what do you think of the new stuff?
Or are you a die-hard Dark Horse fan?
Let's talk about it all
in the comments below.
And if you're looking for some
more epic Star Wars videos,
one of my favorite people on
the internet, Mr Sunday Movies,
made a video all about
the Star Wars characters
who might secretly be Jedi.
I believe we have a clip from him, right?
Roll the clip.
- [Voiceover] Hello, come watch my video.
I'm a goat.
It was really difficult to make.
I don't have any hands.
- Pretty straight forward.
I genuinely cannot recommend
his channel enough,
so go click on the card right up there
to go check it all out.
And you know what guys?
I've been told that
December's Loot Crate is
out of this world, literally.
The theme this month is
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you guessed it, Star Wars
Episode VII: The Force Awakens.
As well as other great properties
like Halo 5: Guardians,
and Galaxy Quest which is actually
one of my favorite movies.
December's crate will also
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including a t-shirt and a Funko POP!
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And FYI, starting in December,
Loot Crate will have a
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You only have until December 19th
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so head on over to lootcrate.com/nerdsync
and sign up today using the code nerdsync.
Save 10% on your entire subscription.
And if you're a sci-fi
nerd who wants to have
a longer discussion about
what exactly is canon?
Click right here to
watch this video we made
about Doctor Who and the concept of canon
in works of fiction.
A lot of NerdSync viewers claim it to be
their favorite video we've ever made.
Or click over here to watch the video
by Mr Sunday Movies that
I mentioned earlier.
And if this is your first time
hanging out with us here at NerdSync,
hit that big, sexy Subscribe
button so you don't miss out on
all the new videos we make
for you guys each week
that ask questions and make learning
a little bit more fun for
the amazing world of comics.
Once again I'm Scott,
and I will see you guys on
Monday for another video.
See ya.
