Ain’t technology wonderful? I’m not going to lie and blame the length of my most recent absence entirely on the computer not being available, but that is a valid excuse for a least a portion of the time. But I believe we are back in business now. Keep your fingers crossed.
In previous posts, I’ve talked about how I file my comic books as opposed to the more typical alpha-numeric system. I’ve also mentioned my Web site previously, which lists a number of comic books I’ve cut from my personal collection because of taste and/or duplication. Both of those topics came up in a recent discussion with a friend about what I do with my spare time.
A large portion of my spare time is devoted to my comic book collection. Currently I purchase the bulk of my new comics from a mail-order company which ships me my stash once a month. But, because of money and interest limitations, the new comics I get each month only take me a couple weeks to read and file away. Once that’s done each month, I move back to the beginnings of my collection.
I am currently using that time to go back through my collection from the beginning for a number of reasons. It’s a good way to doublecheck that there are no errors in the way I have the books ordered. I’m also pulling some additional books out for placement on the Web site. And over the last several months, I have purchased a number of back issues which complete runs of some titles or give me a chance to sample series I missed the first time around. So far, I’ve made it to fall 1984. At this point, not counting miscellaneous issues of titles I collected sporadically, there are four main titles I own complete runs of from that time. We’ve already covered my enjoyment of Marv Wolfman’s and George Perez’s revival of the New Teen Titans. Another of those titles is DC’s The Warlord.
The Warlord was created, written and illustrated by Mike Grell beginning with First Issue Special #8 in November 1975. The story centers on Air Force pilot Travis Morgan and the hidden world of Skartaris he accidentally finds inside Earth. The one-shot was popular enough that The Warlord was given his own book almost immediately -- February 1976. Grell stayed with the book until the early 1980s. Cary Burkett took over the writing and the art chores were handled by Dan Jurgens and Rich Buckler.
The title is basically a sword and sorcery tale with elements from science fiction and fantasy thrown in. I first heard of Mike Grell during his work in the 1990s on DC’s revival of Green Arrow. From there, I also followed his work in the late 90s for Image Comics with his creator-owned titles Shaman’s Tears and Bar Sinister, both short-lived but popular series, from my understanding.
The gritty-realism in these later titles -- stories that could almost happen in the real-world, not just ultra-violent as that term has come to mean today -- impressed me enough to seek out other Grell titles. While The Warlord is conciderably more fantastical than realistic, I still enjoyed the story presented in a trade paperback I picked up which collected the first year’s worth of Warlord tales. Other commentators I have read online dismiss Grell as doing work, especially on The Warlord, that others did first and better, most notably Edgar Rice Burroughs in his Martian tales. I will agree that the title isn’t exactly ground-breaking in its use of a man taken out of his usual environment and forced to excell in alien surroundings, but Grell does weave a riveting tale as Morgan explores the hidden world, battles wizrds and monsters, uncovers lost secrets and more.
When Grell left the title and new creators came onboard, the tone of the series changed, emphasizing the science fiction aspects more than others, but the stories were still quite good. The Warlord is a series I highly recommend, at least through 1984. Next time, we’ll look at another title I am discovering from that timeframe.
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