In the second incident of licencing changes involving Disney owned properties in recent days; it has been revealed that Dark Horse will no longer be the publishers of Star Wars comics. After over twenty years of creating multiple series from the Clone Wars comics, to major EU events such as Legacy and Tales Of The Empire, their era has come to a close. Instead from 2015 onwards, Marvel Comics will instead be owners of the license and responsible for producing any comics set in the galaxy far, far away.

While a move which makes sense given Disney’s ownership of Marvel, the Star Wars license and the upcoming new trilogy starting next year,  it is still a remarkable shift. Unlike many losses, Dark Horse itself was hardly suffering or failing to make use of the licence and, as publisher Mike Richardson stated “Dark Horse is experiencing its most successful year ever.” This was soon followed with statements by Richardson that they “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.”

As a result of this shift it seems that, as with our last story, you will be unable to buy Dark Horse comics on their online store after 2014 but any purchases will remain a part of a buyer’s library. Those who are after any specific titles produced over past decades will have one year to complete their collections.

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