Starblazer

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Starblazer - Space Fiction Adventure in Pictures was a British small-format anthology comic in black and white published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.

There were 281 issues, the first published in April 1979, and the last published on 1 January 1991. The front cover was printed in colour while the back page featured an ongoing subject that was relevant to the space programme. This included pictures of astronauts and brief details of the missions they were on, other subjects were satellites and the planets and planetoids of the solar system.

The Early Style of Starblazer cover with the single pane colour cover This is Issue 1, released in 1979.

Partway through its run, from issue 168 onwards, the anthology changed format. Instead of a single front cover and a black and white subject on the back, a new all-colour 'wrap around' cover was instituted, showing a collage of subjects from that issues storyline. The subject matters also appeared to have a more adult emphasis and there was a heavier focus on fantasy storylines. The title also changed format slightly to Starblazer - Fantasy Fiction in Pictures, although there were still a considerable number of Science Fiction storylines up till the final issue.

The later style of Starblazer cover from Issue 200, which had a wrap around effect. Also showing an emphasis on Fantasy storylines, this was the first appearance of the Kingdom of Anglerre.

Prior to the new format, there had been several issues that had been classed as interactive fiction, similar in idea to the then popular Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf gamebooks, but this idea was quietly dropped after a few issues after proving unpopular.

1 Recurring Characters
2 Artistic Peculiarities
3 Featured Artists and Writers
4 End of Run and the Future
5 External links

[edit] Recurring Characters

Although each issue was intended to be a 'one-off' storyline, a number of characters made reappearance in subsequent issues. The first of these was Matt Crane, who had appeared in issue number 5-The Shipeater, he subsequently appeared in issue 26-Alien Contact.

Other recurring characters include:-

The Suicide Squad. This series of stories follows the team of Lieutenant Steve Martin and his squad of misfits. Martin himself apparently was disgraced, and the remainder of his crew, Gunner Gee, Vidop Bello, and Navigator Henry also had issues. The first appearance was in issue 49-Rigel Express. Strangely enough, Steve Martin was called Steve Terry in that sole issue, but later issues used the Martin surname. As the issues went on, Martin became increasingly sickened by war, especially the human cost. Issue number 31-Starstrike featured a character called Steve Martin, though it's not clear whether this is intended to be the same character.

49-Rigel Express
75-Doomrock
122-Alien Invasion
162-The D Team

The Planet Tamer. Formerly known as Jubal McKay, a member of the United Planets Security Service who was rebuilt by cyberneticist Dr Hans Verringer. The whole side of his body was practically destroyed by a bomb that had been planted by a criminal by the name of Trent. The resulting damage left him effectively unable to live a normal life. Verringer rebuilt his body, integrating weapons and computer systems into his suit. Completely self-sufficient in space, he had a sled built at a ship engineers that he can control remotely. Armed with a wide variety of weapons the Planet Tamer operates outside normal law.

40-Planet Tamer
57-Galactic Lawman
90-Return of the Planet Tamer

Matt Tallis. One of the more irregular and short lived of the reused characters, Matt Tallis is an investigator/agent for the Galactic Security Service. He is stronger than the Earth normal, because his home world is a heavier gravity world. Tallis has his own ship, the Taurus, complete with a robot named Isak which can remotely control ship functions. Due to an implant that Tallis has, he can establish a telepathic style link with Isak.

52-The Mask of Fear
94-The Megaloi Menace

Hadron Halley. A member of the Fi-Sci (Fighting Scientists), a part of Earths Galac Squad. The Fighting Scientists are a small group of scientists who are extremely intelligent, but also enter combat areas, having been fully trained in combat techniques. Hadron Halley first appeared in issue number 50-Moonsplitter, which also saw the first appearance of General Larz Pluto who would later become Halley's commanding officer and friend. Issue appearances are as follows.

50-Moonsplitter
54-The Torturer of Triton II
62-Terror Tomb
77-Fortress of Fear
81-The Serpents of Sirius
109-The Sword of Solek
121-Nightmare Ship
146-Knight of Darkness
185-The Warlord of Laama

Mikal R Kayn. A former police officer who was invalided out of the force after an explosion burned out his eyes. Without the aid of special glasses he can only see in the infrared spectrum. He eventually meets Cinnibar, the female warrior from the planet of Babalon who helps him in a case to the abandoned research city of Valhalla Nova on the ice planet of Thrymheim. Curiously enough, Kayns first appearance in Issue 45-Operation Overkill makes no mention of his accident, or his disability. Though it is obvious that it is the same character.

45-Operation Overkill
127-The Death Reaper
167-Mind Bender
173-The Vegas Murders
199-Nether World
207-Citizen Kayn
211-The Dream Machine
219-Till Death Do Us Part
224-Supercop
247-Kayn's Quest
252-Head Case
256-Convict Kayn
258-Computer Killer
266-Badlands

Cinnibar. A fierce female warrior from the frontier planet of Babalon. Her character started in the Kayn stories. She had three spin off stories involving herself and her brother Wulf who also had made his first appearance in a Kayn story. Cinnibar is a tall statuesque, but slender woman who looks human. The most distinctive features of her, is her extremely long hair, and three striped marks on her face which could be tribal style tattoos. She favours combat with traditional style weapons like swords, although she is not averse to using ranged weapons like laser blasters. As Kayn once remarked, he remembered that "Babalonians had found methods to kill practically anything that moves". She has a cousin, Vivanna, who also became a semi-recurring character.

216-Trouble in Babalon
253-Revolt on Babalon
264-Banished From Babalon

Grok and Zero. One of the earlier series with a lighter tone to it. While some of the stories themselves are serious in nature, they do have a touch of humour to them. Grok is a humanoid alien, an experienced Space Policeman. His partner is injured in the first appearance and he gets assigned a new partner by the name of Smith, who he dubs 'Zero' which is derived from his service number. In this universe, Earth is not the origin of the human race, it is in fact a planet called Cappella VI, Earth having been the location of a crash of a colony ship some centuries before, from which the present population has descended, although it has regressed somewhat.

176-Grok and Zero
184-The Return of Grok and Zero
217-The Pirates of Penz-Anz
221-Beastworld
278-Zero's Hour

Frank Carter. More commonly referred to as just 'Carter', he is a mandroid, in effect, part robotic, but not quite enough to be called a cyborg. His background is revealed in a later issue. Frank Carter was a perfectly normal police officer until he received a gun blast to the head. A severe head wound meant that pioneering cybernetic surgery was tried. He was given enhanced strength and reactions, but the part of his brain that contained emotions had been destroyed. His basic no-nonsense attitude to lawbreakers, and some would say overly brutal methods are constantly bringing him into conflict with his superiors.

191-Carter's Law
215-Carter and the Killer
228-The Secret of Ice Mountain
235-Time Slip
239-Desolation City
243-Death Run
245-Rogue Mandroid
260-Carter Breaks Loose
265-The Termination
272-Carter's Fury
280 Carter and the Crazies

Starhawk. An intergalactic freelance troubleshooter, his real name is Sol Rynn. He answers distress calls from those in need who use a special card which slots into a computer interface. Starhawk also made a number of brief appearances in DC Thomsons Hotspur annual. His companion is a robot that goes by the simple name of Droid. He has a starship that he can remotely summon. The setting is the crumbling Earth Empire which has been ravaged by years of raiding from the alien Krell. Strangely enough, little background is given to the Krell themselves and the backstory of conflict between the Krell and that of Earth is never elaborated on. The result, instory though, is that much of the galaxy is in a state of lawlessness.

186-Starhawk
201-Return of Starhawk
222-Target...Starhawk

Skald. The Skald series of stories initially is set in the region of a castle where the population are enslaved by powerful 'warlocks'. The warlocks use energy weapons to dispense their own brand of justic and keep the population enslaved by fear. When Skald, a young herder finds out that he is to receive the 'collar of manhood', basically a life sentence in the mines performing hard labour, he rebels. Lashing out in anger, he kills one of the warlocks and flees the area. Later he meets with Linx, the Amazonian warrioress, a member of the matriarchial Yaba-Kel tribe.

190-The Power of the Warlocks
241-Revenge of the Warlocks
267-Skald
274-Skald-The Ultimate Conflict

The Anglerre Series. This series of issues set in the fantasy kingdom of Anglerre follows the royal family and their fight against various aggressors. The first appearance, in issue 200 of Prince Veyne was followed by a later issue which was a prequel showing Veyne's father, King Iagon. King Iagon had been vaguely referred to in Issue 200, both saying that Veyne had just ascended to the throne on the death of his father, and a ship named the 'Royal Iagon'. Much of the storyline of the Royal House of Anglerre is entwined with the god Vishena and the Demon Sword, Cerastes, who will make its user invincible, but will also kill its wielder after an unspecified period of time. The nature of Anglerre's opponents seems to make heavy use of Demons. A recurring character within this series is that of Myrdan, a seemingly immortal figure of unspecified power who could said to have been inspired by both Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings and King Arthurs court adviser, Merlin. In the issue Demon Sword, Myrdan at one point seems to merge with Vishena, which hints that he could be an avatar of the god.

200-Demon Sword
224-Rune
231-Godstone
250-Sun Prince
271-The Triune Warrior

Solo. This series charts the adventures of Solo, the sole human survivor of a cryogenic sleeper ship. The charter of his vessel, the Telurian Quest, grants him ownership of a planet. Unfortunately, he finds that his planet is already inhabited as FTL ships were launched some years after the Telurian ships. Solo was reared by an onboard android who educated him with tales of chivalry. Therefore Solo has a rather archaic way of looking at things and is also naive.

202-Lord of the Far Planet
229-Solo's Quest

The Robot Kid. One of the more humorous series of stories that later appeared. The initial Robot Kid story was set on a frontier planet under attack from bandits. The whole story had a quasi-western feel to it. The initial story had the townsfolk try to buy a Kelso Deathmek, a war robot, to protect them. What they got was a reprogrammed cinema usher. It's computerised mind had been loaded with all sorts of clichés and popular saying from Western films. Indeed, there were homages throughout the issue with a character by the name of Angel Eyes, and another character who bore a resemblance to Lee Van Cleef in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. With its body destroyed at the end of the story, the replacement body was manufactured by the Japanese arm of the company and was a parody of the many martial arts movies. The third and final appearance was a parody of the Rambo style movies.

204-The Robot Kid
232-The Return of the Robot Kid
273-The Robot Kid Strikes Back

[edit] Artistic Peculiarities

It was not uncommon for artwork to differ from frame to frame for something like a spacecraft. An item like this could look very different in one frame than it does in other parts of the same issue. There also seems to have been a reuse of artwork. For example, some character poses were reused with different faces and clothing, but the pose itself has been used in a previous issue.

[edit] Featured Artists and Writers

British comics creators to have worked on Starblazer include Grant Morrison, Alan Grant, Alan Moore, John Smith, Mike McMahon, Colin MacNeil, Cam Kennedy and John Ridgway.

[edit] End of Run and the Future

The Starblazer issues suffered from poor distribution, being rare in parts of Scotland and almost unknown in the rest of the United Kingdom. Due to a downturn in the general comic market, many newsagents never stocked them, or later would only take subscriptions. This contrasts sharply with the Commando comics from the same publisher that have enjoyed countrywide widespread distribution since their origin in the 1960s. Also, a slump in the Science Fiction genre would not have helped sales either.

There have been rumours that DC Thomson would release an anthology, basically a reprint of the old issues, but whether this is true or not, and whether this would be the complete print run is, as yet, unknown.