I dropped the ball on several notable anniversaries last year. Pretty high among them would be failing to honor Mike Grell on his seventy-fifth birthday. Not far behind that was me missing the anniversary of the premiere of Grell’s Starslayer #1 circa February, 1982. Since it’s January, I figure I’m still barely within the ‘anniversary year’ and will seek to save some few tatters of my honor.

For those who don't know, Mike Grell exploded on the 1970s comics scene with his stunning artwork on DC's The Legion of Superheroes, Green Arrow/Green Lantern and--especially--The Warlord. In that series, Grell created a sword-and-sorcery hero for the comics that served as the only serious competition to Marvel's Conan.

An early pinup of Torin/Starslayer. Sam is perched on his shoulder. This is the version that the DC editors would have seen.

Grell then created another series for DC: Starslayer. Its protagonist and setting would be something of a 'mirror image' of Travis Morgan/The Warlord and Skartaris. Instead of being a US Air Force pilot like Morgan, Torin Mac Quillan would be a barbarian from Celtic Britain. Instead of an 'Inner Earth' populated by dinosaurs and swordsmen, the setting would be outer space--complete with starships and rayguns. Starslayer's genre would be pulp-style Space Opera, not Sword-and-Sorcery. Pretty damned cool.

DC was ready to pull the trigger when the infamous 'DC Comics Implosion' hit. After that fiasco, Grell still retained all rights to Starslayer. Keep in mind, this was the late '70s, an era remarkable for two things, comics-wise. One was the rise of the 'Direct Market', which prompted the emergence of small comics companies. This coincided with many comics creators striving to follow the lead of Neal Adams, who spearheaded creators' rights in the comics industry. Another notable feature of this period was the proliferation of art portfolios from comics artists. Barry Windsor-Smith, Bernie Wrightson and Mike Kaluta pioneered that movement.

By the late '70s/early '80s, a score or two of other artists had jumped in the ring. In 1981, Mike Grell released his Starslayer: The Log of the Jolly Roger portfolio--featuring the artwork he used to pitch Starslayer to DC-- through Schanes and Schanes. This short-lived enterprise was run by Bill and Steve Schanes, founders of the legendary Pacific Comics comic shop chain in California. The portfolio sold well, which got the Schaneses to thinking...

The Schanes bros were already in the process of launching their own upstart comics company, Pacific Comics. They had signed up Jack Kirby to do his Captain Victory space opera comic. Why not bring on Mike's Starslayer and make it two? Grell was all about it and Starslayer: The Log of the Jolly Roger achieved liftoff in early 1982, shipping over one hundred and forty thousand copies. Not X-Men numbers, but very respectable for an indie comic. The Schanes brothers at Pacific Comics were quite happy.

It's easy to see why they sold so well. As the preview ads announced: "A Celtic barbarian in the far future! Strange new planets, sparkling cities and civilizations of wonder to explore!" It didn't hurt that this was right in the middle of Star Wars/The Empire Strikes Back mania. How many of you could resist that, sword-brothers? I certainly couldn’t.

Torin--the Starslayer--wasn't a clone of The Warlord. More like one-half Conan (or Black Vulmea) and one-half Warlord. More grim and brooding, with none of the modernisms of Travis Morgan. Also, Grell played the 'Space Opera pirate' angle to the hilt. Torin had a bionic 'eyepatch' replacing the eye he lost fighting Romans. His weapons were a sword that could produce an energy field and a very stylish blaster. In place of a pirate's monkey on his shoulder, Torin had Sam, a monkey-ish 'droid who occasionally provided info about the utterly alien future within which the Celt found himself. Sam also made himself useful in other ways.

Tamara in all her glory. The Jolly Roger can be seen in the upper right.

Torin's ship, the Jolly Roger, was a stylish--but obsolete--starship equipped with solar sails, a very fashionable concept in SF circles during that period. Torin was not the captain of the Jolly Roger, however. As with Conan on the Tigress, Torin was first mate to the actual captain, Tamara. Black-haired, beautiful, driven and aloof, Tamara was the one who saved Torin from certain death in the distant past. Like Belit, she also holds a mortal grudge against an evil, decadent empire. Thankfully, she isn't as bat-shit crazy.

I won't go too much into the quest/mission that Tamara makes Torin a part of. I'll just say that Starslayer #6 ends in a truly climactic fashion worthy of its pulp Space Opera inspirations.

Starslayer #6 saw the end of Grell's full involvement. He had been wooed away from Pacific Comics by Mike Gold. Gold, who had been Grell's editor at DC, was now firing up First Comics. He wanted Mike Grell to bring over Starslayer. As a bonus, Mike would get his new favorite project--Jon Sable, Freelance--published. Starslayer moved to First Comics, with Grell doing covers and writing. That soon faded out, with John Ostrand taking over writing and Tim Truman doing the art. This led to Grimjack debuting as a back-up in #10.

I should mention the very notable run of successful back-up features in Starslayer. Between #2 and #10, Starslayer debuted Dave Stevens' The Rocketeer, Sergio Aragones' Groo the Wanderer (more or less) and Ostrander/Truman's Grimjack. That has to be some kind of record.

I really need to do a post on Pacific Comics at some point. During a four-year period, they produced some amazing comics and blazed trails for other indie publishers--like First Comics.

Mike’s official website can be found here.

So raise a glass to Torin Starslayer and to Mike Grell, sword-brothers. Both have earned their share of praise.