Star Wars #1 is CGC's Featured Comic of the Month for December

Marvel's Star Wars #1 and the 35-cent variant, right. Click images to enlarge.

Name of comic: Star Wars #1

Comic publisher: Marvel

Date: July 1977 (went on sale in April 1977)

Variants: "35 Cent Price" "REPRINT" "Philippines"

What makes it special? The first issue of the comic book was sold just over a month before "A New Hope" premiered in theaters. The first six issues adapted the movie, before the comics explored an "expanded universe," a fresh concept at the time.

Why is it interesting now? Star Wars is one of the top-grossing movie franchises of all-time, and "Star Wars Episode 8: The Last Jedi" will be in theaters in mid-December, followed by "Han Solo: A Star Wars Story" in May 2018.

Did you know? Lucasfilm approached Stan Lee and Marvel about doing the comic books before the release of the movie, but Lee was initially resistant. Both Lucasfilm and Marvel have been acquired by Disney in the past decade.

Total graded by CGC: CGC has graded 7,266 copies of this book (including 503 of its variants), as of Nov. 28, 2017. Ten percent of them are in Signature Series labels

CGC median grade: The median grade for these books is Near Mint- 9.2

CGC highest graded: CGC hasn't graded any copies of this book or its variants in Mint condition (10.0 or 9.9). CGC has graded several hundred at the 9.8 level.

Sales highlights: A 35-cent variant graded 9.4 by CGC was sold by Heritage Auctions in May 2016 for $26,290. More recently, Heritage sold a standard CGC-graded 9.6 for $478 in July 2017. A 9.8 signed by six key actors, including Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, sold for $15,000 in 2017.

CGC Comics Registry Champion: The force is strong with this one — "Darth Pete" has collected everything associated with Star Wars' initial 107-book run for a score of 28419, earning Best in Set Type for the past four years. See this and other collections in the CGC Comics Registry.