Star Wars Weekly

Star Wars Weekly, a comic book publication from Marvel UK, served as the initial form of their Star Wars comic series. It debuted on January 8, 1978, shortly following the film's release in the United Kingdom.

Reflecting the established British tradition of weekly anthology publications, Star Wars Weekly featured reprinted stories originating from the American Star Wars comic by Marvel Comics. Each episode was divided and spread across multiple issues. The remaining pages were filled with other space-themed or adventure-themed comics previously published by Marvel Comics in the United States, which were likely unfamiliar to younger British readers.

These included titles such as Warlock, Star-Lord, Micronauts, Killraven, Sword in the Star (taken from Marvel Preview), and collections of science fiction one-shots presented under the banner of "Tales of the Watcher." However, Battlestar Galactica was notably absent from Star Wars Weekly due to Lucasfilms' apparent belief that it was too similar to Star Wars.

According to Dez Skinn, who took on the role of Marvel UK’s Editorial Director in the latter part of 1978, Star Wars Weekly proved to be the British company’s most lucrative title by a significant margin, playing a crucial role in sustaining the entire operation. (A similar statement could be made about the Star Wars comic book in the United States.) In fact, at one juncture, the American parent company considered selling off their British subsidiary, but only IPC Magazines, a British company, showed any interest—specifically in acquiring Star Wars Weekly, which was achieving higher sales figures than their own original (and considerably more expensive to produce) science fiction weekly comic, 2000AD.

As part of Skinn’s “Marvel Revolution,” an initiative aimed at revitalizing the company’s publishing lineup, he sought to increase the prevalence of photographs on the front cover and within interior features related to the film. However, by the end of 1979, the company’s limited resources for creating new content had been redirected to support new titles, specifically Hulk Comic and, subsequently, Doctor Who Weekly.

Following the publication of issue #117 (dated May 21, 1980), Star Wars Weekly commenced reprinting Marvel Comics' adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back. It was then relaunched under the title Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Weekly, although the numbering system remained consistent.