Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Comics'' in 19 ...
that began in 1984 and featured titles that were aimed at child readers and were often adaptations of
children's television series
Children's television series (or children's television shows) are television programs designed for children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run during the early eveni ...
,
animated series
An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...
or toys. The last comic published under the imprint featured a May 1988 cover date, although the Star Comics Magazine continued through December 1988. Some of the titles continued after that, being published directly by Marvel. Several of the original titles consciously emulated the house writing and visual style of then-recently defunct
Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics (also known as Harvey World Famous Comics, Harvey Publications, Harvey Comics Entertainment, Harvey Hits, Harvey Illustrated Humor, and Harvey Picture Magazines) was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alf ...
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...
'' titles, '' Droids'' and '' Ewoks'' (based on the animated television series). Artists working on the line include Warren Kremer and Howard Post.
Background
For a number of years the industry had benefited from an "age stepladder" whereby comics readers could ascend naturally from children's titles by Gold Key Comics (Disney and Looney Tunes licensee) and Harvey, upward to the
Archie Comics
Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is an American comic book publisher headquartered in Pelham, New York. In 1983, Gold Key ended its licensed kids' lines.
Marvel had never published a successful children's line, although prior to the existence of the Star imprint, they had released a few miniseries based on licensed toy and cartoon properties, such as '' Rom The Spaceknight'', '' The Smurfs'', and ''
Starriors
Zoids: Starriors was a robot toyline created by Tomy in association with Marvel Comics in 1984. It was a sub-line from Zoids, but it had a new storyline that was different to Zoids. Six Marvel mini-comics were distributed with the toys. Marvel al ...
''. In 1977 Marvel also published several licensed
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer t ...
The Flintstones
''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their nex ...
'', '' Scooby-Doo'', '' Yogi Bear'', and '' Laff-a-Lympics''. In a one shot, ''Marvel Tails'' No. 1, published in 1983 under the Marvel imprint, Spider-Ham debuted.
By the early 1980s, Marvel Comics was in negotiations with
Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics (also known as Harvey World Famous Comics, Harvey Publications, Harvey Comics Entertainment, Harvey Hits, Harvey Illustrated Humor, and Harvey Picture Magazines) was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alf ...
to assume publication of some of their characters. Harvey editor
Sid Jacobson
Sidney Jacobson (October 20, 1929 – July 23, 2022) was an American writer who worked in the fields of children's comic books, popular music, fiction, biography, and non-fiction comics. He was managing editor and editor in chief for Harvey ...
, along with the other Harvey staff, were interviewed by Mike Hobson, Marvel's group vice-president of publishing (''de facto'' publisher). As part of the process, Jacobson created several new characters which were well received by Hobson and effectively sealed the deal. Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter appointed editor Tom DeFalco as Executive Editor to coordinate with the Harvey staff, who were hired by Marvel. On the day Marvel was set to take over the Harvey publications, Harvey Comics pulled out of the deal due to an internal disagreement among the Harvey brothers. Harvey would cease publishing their comics in 1982. With the loss of the Harvey characters, the Marvel staff reevaluated their publishing plan and decided that their new line of all-age comics would be published under a different imprint name.
History
Star Comics was the name selected early on in the revamp of the publishing plan. The first comic published was the first issue of a three issue movie adaptation, '' The Muppets Take Manhattan'', in July 1984 with a stand date of November 1984. After the Star line was launched, several of their existing, ongoing titles which were based on licensed toylines, such as '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' and ''
Transformers
''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...
'', remained under the Marvel banner.
The regular line did not appear on the stands until five months later and were launched over a two-month period with three original and six licensed titles. ''Fraggle Rock'', ''Heathcliff'', ''Planet Terry'' and ''Strawberry Shortcake'' were released in the first month while ''The Ewoks'', ''Get Along Gang'', ''Muppet Babies'', ''Royal Roy'' and ''Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham'' followed in the second month. ''Top Dog'' and ''Wally the Wizard'' were also early Star original comic titles.
In late 1985 Harvey Comics sued Star Comics for copyright infringement, claiming that ''Royal Roy'' was a blatant copy of '' Richie Rich''. Thus the title was canceled after six issues due to this similarity.
Millie the Model that was started in her own title in 1945, during Marvel's
Timely Comics
Timely Comics is the common name for the group of corporations that was the earliest comic book arm of American publisher Martin Goodman, and the entity that would evolve by the 1960s to become Marvel Comics. "Timely Publications became the name ...
era, and ran until 1973, had a Star Comics spin-off (to add to its earlier spin-offs) in ''Misty (the Model)'' mini-series. In Misty, Millie heads her own modeling agency.Marvel Productions' animated series were sourced for Star Comics titles including '' Defenders of the Earth'' and " Inhumanoids".
The lines' two Star Wars titles crossed over in ''Droids'' #4 and Ewoks #10.
Marvel eventually dissolved the Star imprint, but absorbed several Star titles under the main Marvel banner such as '' Silverhawks'' and continued to license new properties, such as '' Captain Planet'' and ''
Police Academy
A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or ot ...
''. The Star original characters (Top Dog, Planet Terry, Royal Roy and Wally Wizard) later were used in a Marvel Comics series, such as ''X-Babies'' limited series as antagonists in 2009, then Planet Terry was in ''Drax'' starting in issue #6 in 2016.
limited series Limited series may refer to:
*Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series
*Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered
* Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number ...
Royal Roy
''Royal Roy: A Prince of a Boy'' was a 1985-1986 bimonthly comic book from Marvel Comics' younger-readers' imprint Star Comics. It was created by Lennie Herman and Warren Kremer.
Publication history
''Royal Roy'' began in April 1985 as an answer t ...
'' 1–6 (1985–1985)
* '' Top Dog'' (1985–1987)
*''Wally the Wizard'' (1985–1986)
Licensed titles
* ''Air Raiders'' (1987–1988; #1–2 under Star imprint, continued under Marvel imprint)
* ''Animax'' (1986–1987)
* '' ALF''
* ''
Bullwinkle and Rocky
''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the American Broadca ...
The Get-Along Gang ''The Get Along Gang'' is a group of characters created in 1983 by Tony Byrd, Tom Jacobs, Ralph Shaffer, Linda Edwards, Muriel Fahrion, and Mark Spangler for American Greetings' toy design and licensing division, "Those Characters from Cleveland" ( ...
'' (1985–1986)
* '' Heathcliff'' (1984–1991; #1–22 under Star imprint)
* ''Heathcliff's Funhouse'' (1987–1988; #1–5 under Star imprint)
* '' Hugga Bunch'' (1986–1987)
* '' Inhumanoids'' (1987)
* '' Madballs'' (1986–1988; #1–8 under Star imprint)
* '' Masters of the Universe'' (1986–1988)
* '' Masters of the Universe: The Motion Picture'' (1987)
* '' Muppet Babies'' (1985–1989; #1–17 under Star imprint)
* '' The Muppets Take Manhattan'' 1–3 limited series (1984)
* '' Popples'' (1986–1987)
* '' Silverhawks'' (1987–1988; #1–5 under Star imprint, 6 & 7 under Marvel)
* ''Star Comics Digest'' a.k.a. ''Star Comics Magazine'' (1986–1988)
* '' Star Wars: Droids'' #1–8 (1986–1987) bi-monthly with four issues and issue 5's cover of the series were drawn by John Romita, Sr.
* '' Strawberry Shortcake'' (1985–1986)
* '' ThunderCats'' (1985–1988; #1–24 under Star imprint)
* '' Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light'' (1987; #1–6)
Additionally, three Star Comics series were planned yet never published:
* ''Commander USA''
* ''Christy''
* ''Little Wizards''
* ''Young Astronauts''