Raiders of the Lost Ark by Walter Simonson

Shooter was hesitant at first, but ultimately agreed, especially when it was clear that John Byrne was willing to work on the series, as he was a fan of the movie. This only became an issue when Jim Salicrup convinced Shooter that Marvel should try to do an Indiana Jones ongoing series like their Star Wars series. I think John Byrne once noted that Shooter told him that he, Byrne, was getting Marvel's highest page rate at the time.next to Buscema), Lucasfilm was not a fan. Despite Buscema still being one of Marvel's top artists at the time (I believe he was actually their highest paid artist. They did not like the adaptation for whatever reason. However, in a strange twist of fate, this time it was LUCASFILM who was irked. So he approved the adaptation, which appeared in Marvel Super Special #18, with a painted cover by Howard Chaykin. He realized that the script didn't do the film justice. As I noted i n a recent Comic Book Legends Revealed, though, Lucasfilm was so intent on the movie getting a comic book adaptation that they showed Shooter 25 minutes of the movie and he changed his mind. He thought Marvel was doing TOO many movie adaptations at the time, as many of them did not sell at all. He didn't think the film would be a hit and thought it would be a waste to do an adaptation. Marvel Editor-in-Chief, Jim Shooter, though, was not interested in doing an adaptation of the film.

Lucasfilm, of course, was working closely and successfully with Marvel on the hit Star Wars comic book series by the time Raiders of the Lost Ark was ready to be adapted into a comic book. The pathway to Marvel doing an ongoing series based on Indiana Jones was one of the stranger ones of the early 1980s. Lucasfilm was so disappointed in Marvel's adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark that they initially turned them down for an Indiana Jones ongoing series. SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT COMIC LEGEND:

Raiders of the Lost Ark by Walter Simonson