Starlord - 10 June 1978

Massive, massive, MASSIVE apologies to anyone who's kept returning to this here site expecting an update and being denied.

Sorry about that - getting deeply back into modelling (especially of the Ma.K sort as seen on this sister site - http://2000admodelling.blogspot.com/ ), along with a resurfaced interest in Arthurian legends and WW2 history and a total disinterest in the comics i buy weekly/monthly (you bad boys know who you are), has made for little compulsion to dig out a dusty, musty back issue.

Feeling really guilty about that, so promise from now on to post here more regularly and get back to eBay for more fixes.

To balance it up i've had another delve at random into my childhood and here we have an issue just about falling into my remit of June '68 - '78 (the point i left school and become an adult. Whatever that means.)

I LOVED Starlord. Loved it more than 2000AD. By this time Tharg's organ had become pretty much established and, therefore, rather predictable. Starlord was different. i couldn't have cared less about the "editor" and his woes, these stories had a feel to them that 2000AD had kinda lost in the couple of years it'd been out. At least that's what i thought back then and still do now.

So what floats my boat in this issue?

First up, a stunning cover by Kevin O'Neill. Does it still exist? And if so, how much is it worth now? Its a measure of the titles still newness that things like characters colour schemes aren't set yet - witness the rather fetching blue of Ro Jaws.

Inside there's some brilliant art from Ian Kennedy on Ro-Busters, especially the stunning colour splash page, which brings back memories of Frank Bellamys work on Thunderbirds. One day Ian is going to get the credit he oh so much deserves for his work, and it won't be a day too soon. Its criminal how much he's been over-looked all these years. As for Ro-Busters, it was my favourite strip of the title and it still holds up very well now. Give me the upcoming GN of these tales rather than the palid, instantly forgettable ABC Warriors in the Prog right now.

Find it interesting that all the pull-out games in this comic are still in there. Guess all my friends had grown out of comics at this point so there was no reason to take them out?

Planet Of The Damned has a following these days, and quite rightly so. It was the nastiest of the strips and a lot of fun too - here we have Hell's Angel's types up against a Nazi submarine crew on an alien world. Brilliant.

And finally Timequake. A very much overlooked strip, with a a main character who was basically Dredger transplanted sideways, it had a lot of nice ideas, like this one here - the Nazis have won WW2 and Martin Bormann is a Time Traveller.

You'll notice i haven't mentioned Strontium Dog. That's for the reason i didn't - heresy - rate him that much at this time. Too 2000AD.