When did Marvel begin to do newspaper strips? I remember one for Spidey and even Howard the Duck. It seems unusual in retrospect they didn’t do the SW strip.
As far as I know Marvel had nothing to do with it. However, both Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson did work on the strips while also working on Marvel comics.
According to Wookieepedia; the SW strips were distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate and the Watertown Daily Times.
There might have been some kind of license deal though. Since Marvel held the comic rights, maybe the newspapers had to go via them?