Marvel Entertainment will publish “Star Wars” comics and graphic novels starting next year, the company announced Friday.

Marvel, a unit of Walt Disney Co. in Burbank, plans to release new comics. Marvel published the first Star Wars comics in 1977, going on to sell more than 1 million copies of “Star Wars #1.” The series went on for nine years.

The move represents a homecoming for the comics, which have been published since 1991 by Dark Horse Comics Inc. of Milwaukie, Ore.

“In 2015, the cosmic adventures of Luke, Han, Leia and Chewbacca will make the lightspeed jump back to Marvel, to begin a new age of adventures within the Star Wars universe, said Carol Roeder, director of Lucasfilm franchise publishing, Disney Publishing Worldwide, in a statement.

Disney acquired Marvel Studios in 2009 in a $4 billion deal that has been hugely successful, spawning the Ironman and other franchises.

Shares of Disney closed down 16 cents; or less than 1 percent, to $76.11 on the New York Stock Exchange.