Indiana Jones also explored in comic books
Word Balloons #1170: Marvel, Dark Horse both licensed archaeological adventurer
One adventure movie starring Harrison Ford led to a comic-book series that may have saved the comic-book industry.
Another has led to nearly 100 comic books but has had less of an apparent sales impact.
“Star Wars” was a massive sales success for Marvel Comics in 1977.
Gizmodo writes that 1977’s “Star Wars” #1, after an initial print run, went on to sell over a million copies through reprints.
Given that success, it makes sense that when George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford teamed up on “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” that Marvel Comics would be involved. An adaptation of the film was readied for “Marvel Super Special” #18, in 1981. It introduced Indiana Jones to the comic-book world for the first time. This item, originally retailing for $2.50, has sold in higher grade from CGC for over $300.
Howard Chaykin, who had kicked off Marvel’s “Star Wars” series as the artist, is the cover painter here. The one-shot is written by Walt Simonson, with art by John Buscema (pencils) and Klaus Janson (inks).
This story was reprinted later in 1981 in the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” #1-3 miniseries and in 1982’s “Marvel Movie Spotlight #1”
Prior to the second film in 1984, Marvel began an ongoing series starring the archaeologist. The first issue was written and drawn by one of comics’ biggest stars of the time, John Byrne. However, due to conflicts with the licensors, Byrne left after just two issues. The series went through several writers and artists, including writer David Michelinie and artists David Mazzucchelli (“Batman: Year One”) and Steve Ditko (“Amazing Spider-Man”) over the next few years. Marvel published “The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones” from 1983 to 1986.
Marvel’s “Further Adventures of Indiana Jones” ran for 34 issues before being canceled. Marvel also provided adaptations of the “Temple of Doom” and “Last Crusade” films. Looking at the “Last Crusade” sales numbers from Capital Distribution at comichron.com, “Last Crusade” #1 sold only 10,000 copies. While that’s only one distributor and wouldn’t include possibly higher newsstand sales, it gives an indication that perhaps by this point Indiana Jones was connecting with movie fans more than those who wanted to follow him in comics.
Probably the best Indiana Jones comics came after the initial trilogy of films when Dark Horse Comics picked up the license. During the 1990s, Dark Horse put Indiana Jones through his paces in the comics.
“Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis” kicked things off in 1991, adapting an Indiana Jones game into comics.
From 1992 to 1996, following the Fate of Atlantis adaptation, Dark Horse published several Indiana Jones miniseries, one of which was based on the TV show “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.” The TV series featured Indy in childhood (played by Corey Carrier) and adolescence (played by Sean Patrick Flannery) and often featured young Indy interacting with historical events.
Starting in 1992, Indiana Jones appeared in the “Dark Horse Comics” anthology comic book; these tales, written and drawn by Gary Gianni, were collected in the 1994 one-shot “Indiana Jones and the Shrine of the Sea Devil.”
From 1994-1995, Indiana Jones was active almost monthly in comic shops in miniseries from Dark Horse. One story to note is in the 1995 comic miniseries “Spear of Destiny,” Indiana Jones is again teamed up with his father searching for the spear thought to have pierced the side of Christ. (Those who have seen the new film may be interested to follow up on this particular comic-book tale.)
The 1995-1996 release of “Indiana Jones and the Sargasso Pirates,” a four-issue miniseries, marked the end of regular Indiana Jones comic-book releases for more than a decade.
In 2008, around the release of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” Indiana Jones returned to comics again from Dark Horse, with an adaptation of the film and two miniseries, one aimed at younger readers.
From 2009-2010, Dark Horse reprinted the “Further Adventures” series from Marvel and the first three movie adaptations in a series of omnibus volumes. These are all now out-of-print and fetch relatively high prices in the collector market.
Two additional omnibus volumes reprinted Dark Horse Indiana Jones stories.
While many might have expected new reprints or even new comic-book stories featuring Indiana Jones to tie into the new film, “Dial of Destiny,” nothing appears to be on the horizon at the time of this writing. So those seeking out Indiana’s comic-book adventures will have to look through older material, like an archaeologist, to find the treasures within. Perhaps if you find a really great story, you’ll exclaim:
“This belongs in a museum!”
Matthew Price, matthew@matthewLprice.com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman.