Creation Story
Darth Vader is George Lucas’s original Star Wars film creation, with the comics first appearance arriving approximately six weeks before the film’s theatrical release. Star Wars #1 (April 1977, cover-dated July) is Marvel Comics’s adaptation of the upcoming film. Roy Thomas writes; Howard Chaykin pencils.
The pre-release timing was a deliberate marketing decision by Marvel and Lucasfilm. Many early Star Wars fans first encountered Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo through the Marvel comic adaptation before seeing the film on May 25, 1977. The Marvel Star Wars #1 was cover-dated July 1977 but shipped to retailers in April; the comic-first audience exposure was unprecedented for a major film tie-in.
The print run was the highest in Marvel history at over 1 million copies, driven by the unprecedented Star Wars cultural moment. High-grade survival is abundant; CGC 9.8 copies have crossed $5,000 at auction. The 35-cent variant (a small subset of copies cover-priced 35 cents instead of the standard 30 cents, distributed during a Marvel pricing-test period) is substantially scarcer and trades at multiples of the standard cover. CGC 9.8 35-cent variants have crossed $30,000.
The publishing history
The Star Wars comics license has moved through three major publishers across forty-eight years:
- Marvel Comics (1977 to 1986, 107 issues plus annuals and one-shots). The original license. Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, David Michelinie, and other writers handled the run; the early issues adapted the films directly while subsequent issues developed original expanded-universe stories.
- Dark Horse (1991 to 2014, 23 years of multiple ongoing titles). Dark Horse produced enormous quantities of expanded-universe material across the run. Tom Veitch, John Ostrander, John Jackson Miller, and others handled various titles.
- Marvel Comics (2015 onward). Disney’s 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm and Marvel’s parent-company relationship with Disney prompted the license to return to Marvel. The current Marvel Star Wars era began with Star Wars #1 (Vol. 2) in January 2015.
The Gillen-Larroca run
Darth Vader #1 (April 2015) by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca launched the first Darth Vader self-titled ongoing. The 25-issue run is widely regarded as the strongest extended Vader-focused comics work ever published. Gillen’s framework develops Vader’s psychology in detail across the post-Episode IV gap before The Empire Strikes Back, including the introduction of original characters (notably Doctor Aphra) who have entered the broader Star Wars canon.
Subsequent Darth Vader ongoings by Charles Soule (2017 to 2018) and Greg Pak (2020 onwards) have continued the Vader solo-comics framework.
The film and television tradition
David Prowse provided the body performance; James Earl Jones provided the iconic voice across the original trilogy and subsequent appearances. Vader has appeared across virtually every major Star Wars screen project, from the original 1977 film through Rogue One (2016, with Vader’s celebrated hallway-corridor sequence), Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022, Disney+ series), and various animated projects.
Collector context
Star Wars #1 (Marvel, 1977) is the Darth Vader comics first-appearance key. The book had the highest print run in Marvel history; high-grade survival is abundant.
- Standard cover, CGC 9.8: crossed $5,000 at auction
- Standard cover, CGC 9.6: closer to $1,500
- 35-cent variant, CGC 9.8: crossed $30,000
The 35-cent variant is the high-tier collector target. Verify the cover price before paying first-print premiums.
Secondary keys: Star Wars #6 (October 1977, original film adaptation concludes). Darth Vader #1 (2015) (Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca’s modern solo launch).
