Friday 13 March 2015

Starlord issue 2



For my next dip i'm going almost to the end of the school years remit for this site, only two months before i left school.
So, issue 2 of Starlord and we've an odd cover - the Timequake figures at the bottom are certainly by Brian Bolland, but the Droon up top? Sure not his style at all.
Anyway, turn the page and we've got the first episode of "Mind Wars". I've gone on record as not being a fan of this strip, but the stunning art of Redondo makes it a must-read. Its a bit of an odd introduction to a hero twins - she's bathing ina very Forbidden Planet-style rock pool affair and her brother gallantly turns away as his sister emerges. This is very unusual for a strip of the time, to have actual nudity. I wonder if that was in the strip, or something Redondo came up with?



After that, we get a break-neck 4 pages of action depicting their parents murder, their abducution, their ship crashing, and their powers manifesting. Phew! Exhausting stuff, with superlative art:



We've next got "Timequake" with, bless him, the recently departed John Cooper on art duties. Quite a neat premise but hampered by having such a dunderhead as Blocker for the hero - him twigging they've started the Great Fire Of London is a classic.



"Strontium Dog" next and nothing more to say on that other than it was a bona-fide classic from the get-go, with a firing on all cylinders Carlos Ezquerra, complete with lovely garish 70's colouring:



And then we're on to "Planet Of The Damned," I LOVED this strip and i really don't understand why its not mentioned more. Fantastic art from Pena, with a real nasty edge to it - this could've been in Action two years before.



Finishing off, the superb "Ro-Busters" and this issue is noticble for me for two things - this shot of the Preying Mantis being attended to by Maintenance Droids, and the very first glimpse at Hammerstiens first head, pretty different to what we're used to it looking like:



"AIEEEE!" WATCH:
Despite quite a few deaths this issue, none.