"Starlord: Ұлыбританиялық ғылыми-қияли комиксі"

British weekly comic

Starlord was a British weekly boys' science fiction comic published by IPC Magazines from 13 May to 7 October 1978, when it merged with 2000 AD after 22 issues. The comic was created by Kelvin Gosnell, and was originally intended as a fortnightly sister title for 2000 AD with higher production values and an older audience, but late changes in production saw it converted into a weekly. While Starlord lasted for less than six months before amalgamation, it had a lasting effect due to debuting the long running strip "Strontium Dog", as well as "Ro Busters", the fore runner of "ABC Warriors".

2000 AD had been launched partly in anticipation of a boost in interest in science fiction due to Star Wars, and both the comic and the film had been successful. The runaway box office success of Star Wars in particular led to a massive boom in similar material, with Paramount planning to reactivate the Star Trek franchise, the BBC commissioning Blake's 7 and dusting off Flash Gordon serials for Saturday morning repeats, ABC preparing Battlestar Galactica and Marvel UK publishing Dez Skinn's news and reviews magazine Starburst. IPC Magazines' editorial director John Sanders would later relate he was "passionately obsessed with the 'me too' idea. If you thought you had a winner, do a duplicate of it right away", reasoning that there was potentially a market for two science fiction comics and it would be better for IPC to launch their own 'competitor' rather than allow it to come from Marvel UK or DC Thomson. Initially Sanders approached Pat Mills the driving force behind Battle Picture Weekly, Action and 2000 AD to create the new comic but he demurred, feeling it was far too soon. Mills was also in conflict with IPC over his growing desire for greater rights and remuneration for himself and IPC creators in general, leading to his working relationship with Sanders souring. Instead, Sanders turned to 2000 AD editor Kelvin Gosnell to put together the new comic. Gosnell would later greatly regret the move, calling it "one of the biggest mistakes of [his] life"; while he was still nominally editor of 2000 AD alongside Star Lord, much of the running of the former was carried out by assistant editor Nick Landau. He set out to make Starlord as more than a simple clone of 2000 AD by aiming for older readers by creating a fortnightly with longer stories of 10 12 pages per episode, with the move to 5 6 page stories in 2000 AD compared to the 3 4 in other boys' comics having been identified as a popular move with readers. Starlord would also feature web offset printing, and be all colour. Gosnell worked with several 2000 AD contributors to come up with the new title. He recruited Battle assistant editor Steve MacManus to work on the title, but Kevin O'Neill turned down the post of art director, preferring to stay on 2000 AD despite the chance of a pay increase. He would later relate " I didn't want to work on a knock off of 2000 AD. Starlord didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but it was a typical IPC thing to do". Instead Gosnell recruited Jan Shepheard, 2000 AD's art director. MacManus disliked the character, later describing it as "puerile". These two main features were to be joined by a rotating one off strip.

Boasting a cover mounted 'Starlord Trooper' fee badge, the first issue of Starlord was dated 13 May 1978, coming out on the preceding Monday the same day as new issues of 2000 AD, to encourage new readers to pick up both on the same trip to the newsagents. "Mind Wars" joined the initial trio of stories from the second issue, but MacManus would later note that the late change of plans left Starlord with "two good stories and three weak ones". Finding contributors was also difficult as many were heavily involved in other projects, with Mills busy on Judge Dredd storyline "The Cursed Earth" soon quitting as "Ro Busters" writer and many strips soon using a patchwork of artists. Gibson in particular found himself tapped for late fill ins after getting a reputation for overnight jobs for "Death Game 1999" in Action.

The first issue of the rebranded 2000 AD and Starlord was dated 14 October 1978. Gosnell briefly returned to the title, with Landau moved across to Battle in an attempt to defuse the pair's deteriorating relationship, with MacManus instead installed as the title's assistant editor. In the comic itself was reorganised, with "Ant Wars" and the controversial "Harlem Heroes" sequel "Inferno" dropped to make room for new arrivals "Strontium Dog", "Ro Busters" and "Timequake", with "Robo Hunter" and "Dan Dare" also put on a temporary hiatus. As was typical for merged titles, an all new story was started the same week in the form of a sequel to the popular "Flesh". The same year the comic was also covered in an episode of the 2000 AD Thrillcast podcast.

Rebellion Developments had taken over publication of 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine in 2001, and in 2016 purchased the remaining contents of Star Lord from Egmont Publishing along the rest of the post January 1970 IPC archive. Since then they have issued collected editions of "Strontium Dog" and "Ro Busters" that have included Star Lord material, while "Mind Wars" has been issued as a series of supplements with Judge Dredd Megazine with the strips from the weekly available with #408 and #409, and the story from the 1980 annual in #410.

Title ISBN Publisher Release date ContentsRo Busters The Complete Nuts and Bolts Volume OneRebellion Developments8 October 2015Material from Starlord 13 May to 7 October 1978Planet of the Damned & Death PlanetRebellion Developments10 March 2016Material from Starlord 13 May to 15 July 1978 and 2000 AD 29 April to 24 June 1978Strontium Dog Search & DestroyRebellion Developments12 November 2020Material from Starlord 13 May to 7 October 1978, Starlord Summer Special 1978 and Starlord Annual 1980 to 1982.