10 Most Notorious Battlestar Galactica Urban Legends
5. Did Marvel Publish A BSG Comic Without Permission?
Marvel Super Special #8, created by Roger McKenzie and artist Ernie Colon, is a comic tie-in of the original Battlestar Galactica later adapted into a three-part special adapting the TV show in its entirety. Officially this is the first of Marvel's adaptations of BSG... emphasis on 'officially'.
The same comic was originally published with artwork by Marvel's Bob Larkin, except Marvel had not acquired the rights for the likeness and script from Universal. When they found out, Universal were on the phone to Marvel ordering them to pull the comic until they had given their approval. The studio subsequently gave the thumbs up, but not until after hundreds of thousands of copies of the original had been pulped. So far from being the first comic tie-in with BSG, Marvel Super Special #8 is instead the fist comic tie-in that Marvel actually had permission to publish. The editor responsible, Richard Marshall, later left Marvel.
As an aside, the pilot script from which the illicit comic was adapted from originally saw Dr. Gaius Baltar killed off. In both the original and remastered series, Baltar survives and is given a much more prominent role to play in the story of the Colonists' survival.