Elon Cody Starbuck
Elon Cody Starbuck is a fictional space pirate created by Howard Chaykin, who first appeared in Star Reach magazine issue #1 (1974), and also appeared in various issues of the graphics magazine Heavy Metal.
Like Chaykin's Ironwolf, Dominic Fortune and Monark Starstalker, Starbuck is a swashbuckling, "morally ambivalent, free-wheeling good/bad guy in a decadent, sexually explicit universe, who looks more than a little bit like [Chaykin] himself."[1]
When his Cody Starbuck debuted, his drawing style was very reminiscent of Alex Toth. A grand space opera, Cody Starbuck mirrored many of the themes later seen in Star Wars.
He can be seen as a more amoral version of Ironwolf, a character previously drawn and plotted by Chaykin for Weird Worlds in 1973.
Publication history
- Star*Reach #1 – first appearance; 16 pages, black and white. A planetary lord hired Starbuck to rescue his bride, who had been kidnapped for ransom by a monk of the Sanctuary of St.Berryl, a former leper colony.
- Star*Reach #4: The Return of Cody Starbuck (1976)
- Cody Starbuck one-shot, published by Star*Reach, 1978
- Portfolio of four full-colour prints, published by S.Q. Productions, 1980
- Heavy Metal Vol. 5 No. 2, May 1981, p. 48–59 and back cover
- Heavy Metal Vol. 5 No. 3, June 1981, p. 82–89
- Heavy Metal Vol. 5 No. 4, July 1981, p. 82–89
- Heavy Metal Vol. 5 No. 5, August 1981, p. 82–89
- Heavy Metal Vol. 5 No. 6, September 1981, p. 34–43
- The Star*Reach Companion, 2013
External links
- Philip Schweier, Howard Chaykin: Back to the Drawing Board
- Steven Grant, Permanent Damage
- Michael Heilemann, Howard Chaykin & The Swashbuckling Space Pirates
- Comic Vine
- Michael Netzer, Mike Friedrich Reaches for Stars
- Don Markstein, Toonopedia
- Pete Doree, The Bronze Age of Blogs
References
- Forgotten Comics: Howard Chaykin’s Cody Starbuck.
- John Clute and John Grant: The Encyclopedia of Fantasy