Filling out the issue are articles on related topics. My text piece is on comics adaptations of literary Sword & Sorcery characters.
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In dialogue with Robin, Batman fills the reader in that Travis Morgan was an Air Force pilot that disappeared over the Arctic in his SR-71 "years ago" as they follow the course of a more recent SR-71 pilot to disappear named Kreitzer. We are later told Morgan's disappearance was "a year or so" before Batman and Superman went public, so the timeline is kept vague, but they are clearly retconning his disappearance being in 1969.
Waid keeps (or rath re-introduces, since DC dropped this after Grell left) the aspect of time running differently in Skartaris than on Earth. Morgan is whitehaired as always and says he has lived "a lifetime" in Skartaris. Krietzer, who only disappeared recently from Earth's perspective has been there for "years" Skartarian time. In the original series, time was strange in Skartaris, but mostly it appeared that time ran quicker on Earth, so this inverts things.
Much of Warlord's supporting cast makes an appearance, including Machiste, Tara, Mariah, and Shakira make an appearance, prompting an amusing comment from Robin:
While the art looks nice overall (with Guerrero's coloring really stealing the show for me), I can't say I care for Guitterrez's rendition of Morgan or any of his crew. Morgan's winged helm looks like it has actually feathers stuck to it. None of the fur garments worn by Morgan, Shakira, or Tara look particularly like fur. I get the since Guiterrez is a superhero guy out of his area of competency drawing these Frazetta-descended costumes.
I went down to my local comic bookstore back on Saturday, May 2, for this years Free Comic Book Day. The story seemed to be doing good business. There were a lot of titles, and I picked up a few titles for myself and a few for my daughter. This is what I got:
Avatar: Legends/Minecraft (Dark Horse): My daughter and I are both Avatar fans, but she also likes Minecraft. This one is free in digital format, too.
Energon Universe 2026 Special (Image/Skybound): This one you can get digitally, but not for free. I've read the MASK story here. They've slowly been building up to the MASK series, which I'm not sure I'm interested in, but they've integrated it reasonably well with the existing universe. There are shorts with the other Energon Universe properties, but the only one I've read yet is the G.I. Joe stories that shows us whats going on with Hawk who we find out a few issues ago had been replaced for sometime by Zartan. We also get Zartan's origin.
Jem and the Holograms/My Little Pony (Dark Horse): A "Comics Giveaway Day" double feature, this one is a double-sided "flip" style like the Ace Double paperbacks back in the day. My Daughter has enjoyed the My Little Pony comics in the past, but this will be her first exposure to the 80s stylings of Jem.
Journey to the West (Manga Classics/UDON): This is like the Classics Illustrated of today, judging by most of the Manga Classics titles they produce, but Journey to the West piqued my interest in a way that Frankenstein or Jungle Book wouldn't. I'm going to attempt to get my daughter to give it a try. This is just part of the story, of course. The actual comic comes out in September.
Masters of the Universe/Dungeons & Dragons (Dark Horse): This is another book bills itself as for "Comics Giveaway Day," which I'm not really sure what the difference is. You can get this one digitally for free.
I'd mostly used the print-on-demand and independent bookstore site lulu for indie rpg stuff in the past, but I've noticed there are a number of vintage comic books and comic strip collections available there. Some are public domain, some are likely of unclear copyright status, and others are perhaps charitably classed as "abandoned" to various degrees.
Here are a couple of places to check for a number of 40s and 50s comics.
The Comic Strip Appreciation Group has a number of restored, vintage strips collected on their page.
Being a big fan, I always keep my eye out for comics news related to Mike Grell's Warlord. Most of the time, new items are few and far between, so it's kind of exciting to have two things on the horizon.
The first and biggest is the official word that there will be a second volume of The Warlord by Mike Grell Omnibus. It's scheduled for November and will include the last Grell issues of the original run and the first annual, plus some additional material. This leaves the 90s limited series and the 2009 series for a volume 3. I'd also like to see the remainder of the original series collected, even though Grell wasn't involved, but that's just me.
Also, the current World's Finest series by Mark Waid and Adrián Gutiérrez is slated to have a 3-part Skartaris arc starting in May with issue 51. Check out the covers by Dan Mora of the 3 issues here:
I've seen discussion of this on YouTube that suggests this takes things right up to the Detroit Era omnibus, but if that solicitations are accurate, that's not correct. Issues 207-232 (1982-1984) are left uncollected, some of which are more Conway stories, and Justice League of America Annual #1. I don't know if that's enough for a volume 5, but maybe they could find other stuff to stick in there. Hopefully, they don't plan to leave it uncollected.
