Lucas apparently did keep an eye on the comic early on, as he objected to Han Solo's big meat eating rabbit ally. Whether he was watching things as closely in 1979 is anyone's guess.
Someone at Lucasfilm had to be paying attention as Marvel got perilously close to scooping the films more than once. Some cute fuzzy aliens had to be redrawn months before Jedi, with the Ewoks waiting in the wings.
Some of the pre-production art glimpsed on the Revenge of the Sith DVD does depict Anakin with a mohawk. Could someone have been inspired by the comic?
