Starslayer No. 1 by Mike Grell

Mike Grell spent the 1970s at DC Comics drawing Aquaman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, The Legion of Super-Heroes and his own creation, The Warlord. As the 80s opened, he entered the growing direct market with another creation: Starslayer. Published by Pacific Comics, Grell wrote, drew – and likely lettered – the first issue. Original colour was by Steve Oliff, one of North America’s best of his era.

Where The Warlord’s Travis Morgan was a modern-day man thrown into a primitive world, Starslayer’s Torin MacQuillon was a Celtic barbarian thrown into Earth’s science fiction future.

If you’ve been following this site, you know I’ve done an awful lot of recolouring of covers to show the material in a different light. I’ve also done a whole story previously, but this post goes further and it’s a work in progress. Having found scans of the whole issue, I’ve taken on the extra task of replacing the lettering, which was a little rough around the edges. As a result of moving word balloons and text blocks, pieces of art needed to be drawn in to complete pages. That work is done, as is flatting the colours. You’ll see by the first couple of pages here that I’m using a more painterly colouring style to emphasise the organic world of ancient Britain. Pages will be added over time.

Painted cover by Mike Grell, trade dress re-created by me

Inside front cover with new typesetting