Strange Tales No. 178 featuring Warlock by Jim Starlin
Even at this late date it’s still hard to calculate the depth of the effect and influence this series had on me when I was a teenager. Wherever Starlin was drawing his influences from, the stories that leapt from the pages of Strange Tales and later the revived Warlock were told with distinct passion and a clear urge to push the boundaries of comic book science fiction.
Starlin and his collaborators certainly succeeded. The scene where Warlock must choose a life path to end a threat to the cosmos – and the consequences that play out later – is in and of itself one of the great moments in 1970s American comics. And it’s only one scene of many where you felt the stakes in the storyline being ratcheted up.
So here’s the cover from the first issue in the storyline. New colour by me.
As published.
Original art scan from somewhere on the web.
Art made production ready.
New colour version.
Re-created and new trade dress added.
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