Via Starwars.com:
With the arrival of Star Wars into UK cinemas on December 27, 1977, the Star Wars galaxy expanded beyond the borders of the United States and the other countries fortunate enough to have received it and across the pond to the country it was largely shot, the UK. And with a voracious public keen for any snippets of information on the film, a comic seemed an I inevitability. Luckily for us kids of the day, Marvel UK and Stan Lee were about to provide it.

Cover dated February 8, 1977, and costing 10 pence (back in the days when a ten penny mix could buy you 20 sweets) Star Wars Weekly hit newsagents shelves with a bang, wrapped in the same cover art as the US Marvel issue 1 (and leaving Luke with a red blade, Han in a blue blazer, and Leia in green) but emblazoned with very different words. “Enter: Luke Skywalker! Will he save the galaxy or destroy it?” Typical Marvel bombast in the age of the Merry Marvel Marching Society, Make Mine Marvel, and Excelsior! It promised us “A Valuable First Issue,” but perhaps even Marvel didn’t realize quite how valuable it would prove to be.

Speaking with Marvel UK editor and British comics legend Dez Skinn last year, I broached the subject of just how perilous the situation was for Marvel back in the late ’70s, with a shrinking comics market, outlets closing, and the landscape changing on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Marvel UK was hemorrhaging money. The only thing that was making any money was Star Wars Weekly. It was doing so badly they tried to sell the company off. Nobody wanted it, nobody found it viable. The only interest they got was from IPC because Star Wars Weekly was outselling 2000AD and they only wanted Star Wars Weekly. They didn’t want Spider-Man and the Hulk and The Avengers, they didn’t want any of that. So that didn’t work for Marvel because they were already licensing Star Wars from Lucasfilm, so they wouldn’t get much out of a shared sub-license.”

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