Star Comics was an imprint of Marvel Comics that began in 1984 and continued to publish comic books until 1991. Titles published by the imprint were aimed at child readers and were often adaptations of children's television series, animated series or toys. Several of the original titles consciously emulated the house writing and visual style of then recently defunct Harvey Comics titles such as Richie Rich.
The imprint's signature titles were Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham and Heathcliff, its longest running title. Artists working on the line include Warren Kremer and Howard Post.
For a number of years the industry had benefited from an "age stepladder" whereby comics readers could ascend naturally from children's titles by Gold Key Comics (Disney and Looney Tunes licensee) and Harvey, upward to the Archie Comics titles for preteens, and finally graduating to the Marvel and DC titles for teens and older readers or to independent comics. So when Gold Key and other children's comic publishers went out of business, both Marvel and DC began exploring ways to fill that missing step on the reading ladder.
Star Comics is an Italian comic book publisher born in December 1985 that publishes Italian edition of manga and Italian comics in Italy. Until the birth of Marvel Italia (now an imprint of Panini Comics) in 1994 it also published Italian editions of many Marvel Comics's comic books. Star comics has twenty-eight publishing branches and as of 2007 has published a total of 316 manga series in Italy.