Dark Horse losing Star Wars comics to Marvel

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Natrix

Natrix

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Not too surprising but here it is.

https://kotaku.com/dark-horse-comics-is-losing-the-star-wars-license-shou-1493997099

Should have seen this coming. Ending a relationship more than two decades old, Disney has informed Dark Horse the Star Wars license will go to Disney-owned Marvel Comics in 2015.

Or should I say "return to Disney-owned Marvel Comics", the original publisher Dark Horse took over the license from in 1991. Disney purchased Marvel Comics in 2009, and then purchased LucasFilm in 2012. Comic book fans have been waiting for this particular announcement since then.

Dark Horse founder announced the loss of the license in a heartfelt "End of an Era" message, promising a memorable final run with the franchise.

It is ironic that this announcement comes at a time when Dark Horse is experiencing its most successful year ever. For obvious reasons, we have prepared for this eventuality by finding new and exciting projects to place on our schedule for 2015 and beyond. Will they take the place of Star Wars? That's a tall order, but we will do our best to make that happen. In the meantime, 2014 may be our last year at the helm of the Star Wars comics franchise, but we plan to make it a memorable one. We know that fans of the franchise will expect no less. The Force is with us still.

At the same time, Marvel announced plans to publish Star Wars comics in 2015.

"Dark Horse Comics published exceptional Star Wars comics for over 20 years, and we will always be grateful for their enormous contributions to the mythos, and the terrific partnership that we had," said Carol Roeder, director of Lucasfilm franchise publishing, Disney Publishing Worldwide. "In 2015, the cosmic adventures of Luke, Han, Leia and Chewbacca will make the lightspeed jump back to Marvel, to begin a new age of adventures within the Star Wars universe."

See? Carol said "lightspeed jump." Obviously Marvel has its finger on the pulse of Star Wars fandom. Everything is going to be fine
Click to expand...
 
It is sad. I wonder if Dark Horse will be able to continue to sell their SW catalog as Trade Paperbacks and collections, both paper and electronic or if when the clock strikes to 2015, that's it...Marvel goes all "Order 66" on all DH stuff.

I hope not. Weather or not folks appreciate the so-called EU presented in the comics and graphic novels DH has put out over the years...there is no denying that they've done more than their fair share of keeping interest in SW alive. And as far as this fan is concerned, some of that content stands right along side the films as being great storytelling in the SW galaxy...
I also wonder if they are being allowed the chance to wrap up all of their ongoing series before the end? I can't imagine Marvel being interested in carrying any of that forward...they'll want to put their own stamp on SW and distance themselves from the DH content...and one thing that makes me shudder is the possibility seems more real that they'll want to do some whack cross-over with their other stuff...Iron Man in a galaxy far, far away? Don't laugh...if they think it'll turn a buck, they'll probably do it. Now THAT's what's sad here.

Honestly, I didn't think it would take the Diz Empire this long to start pulling all of the assets under their complete control. After all...it didn't take them long to kill CW and have animation pulled into their "house" so to speak.

Now, the only thing left is....collectables, both toy and high-end. We still have to see who Disney is going to allow to produce for them and at what cost (high of course).

Could Hasbro and Sideshow be next in the purge?
 
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I don't know about that. Disney owns Marvel, but doesn't totally dictate how Marvel operates from what I've seen--the latter is fairly independent, being left to do what it does well (or as well as can be expected under the control of Quesada et al.). So, they simply moved a comic franchise from one reasonably competent comic publisher to another where they could reap more of the financial benefits.

With stuff like Hasbro and Sideshow, Disney don't have that same capacity in-house or with any of their subsidiaries. Nothing Disney does on its own can really stand up with the stuff those other companies are doing. And there has been no movement on that front with Marvel toys yet.

Disney may allow them to do TPBs just to get their royalties. Unless it was seen as directly competing with their more current comics, it would seem the logical thing to do.
 
karamazov80 said:
I don't know about that. Disney owns Marvel, but doesn't totally dictate how Marvel operates from what I've seen--the latter is fairly independent, being left to do what it does well (or as well as can be expected under the control of Quesada et al.). So, they simply moved a comic franchise from one reasonably competent comic publisher to another where they could reap more of the financial benefits.

With stuff like Hasbro and Sideshow, Disney don't have that same capacity in-house or with any of their subsidiaries. Nothing Disney does on its own can really stand up with the stuff those other companies are doing. And there has been no movement on that front with Marvel toys yet.

Disney may allow them to do TPBs just to get their royalties. Unless it was seen as directly competing with their more current comics, it would seem the logical thing to do.
Click to expand...

Agreed. That's why I said when not if.

It's sad to see an era come to an end... Star Wars and Dark Horse Comics have been synonymous since 1991.
 
Ah yes... maybe now I can find out who would win between Luke Skywalker and Wolverine. Do those lightsabers cut through adamantium?

I am being facetious.
 
karamazov80 said:
I don't know about that. Disney owns Marvel, but doesn't totally dictate how Marvel operates from what I've seen--the latter is fairly independent, being left to do what it does well (or as well as can be expected under the control of Quesada et al.). So, they simply moved a comic franchise from one reasonably competent comic publisher to another where they could reap more of the financial benefits.

With stuff like Hasbro and Sideshow, Disney don't have that same capacity in-house or with any of their subsidiaries. Nothing Disney does on its own can really stand up with the stuff those other companies are doing. And there has been no movement on that front with Marvel toys yet.

Disney may allow them to do TPBs just to get their royalties. Unless it was seen as directly competing with their more current comics, it would seem the logical thing to do.
Click to expand...

Not true. Last July, hasbro renegotiated the Sw and marvel contracts with Disney, Merging them into a single contract ( Or a collection of contracts under the same liscensor deal) and extended them out an aditional few years to 2020.

https://investor.hasbro.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=779213
Disney is fine leaving hasbro where it is.
 
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Well...there is news floating around that Dark Horse is doing a four-issue wrap-up of the "Darth Maul" arc from the Clone Wars series towards the end of the year.

Rather fitting, considering that we'd never know what ended up happening otherwise and....Dark Horse has done a decent job with the Sith Lord over the years....one of the best series was the "Darth Maul" one by Ron Marz, Jan Duursema & Rick Magyar with cover art by Drew Struzan. Would LOVE it if it were this team doing the honors for this series...or at least the CW writers responsible for the arc on the show had a hand in it.

At least two entities that contributed some good "Star Wars" are working together one last time before the Disney/Marvel "reset" button is pushed...
 

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