Friday, January 30, 2009

Famous First Fridays: Starr, the Slayer

I know what you're thinking, Groove-ophile. "Who-the-what? What's so famous or first about him?" Well, we all know that Roy Thomas and Barry (pre-Windsor) Smith teamed up to produce the hottest, coolest, bestest sword and sorcery comic of all time, Conan the Barbarian (we do, don't we?), but did'ja know that about six months prior to that dazzling debut, Thomas and Smith teamed for a warm-up/try-out stab at sword and sorcery with a character called--yep, you guessed it!--Starr, the Slayer? Didja know that self-same savage made his debut in Marvel's Chamber of Darkness #4 (January, 1970)? Did'ja know that fateful feature was reprinted in Conan the Barbarian #16 (April, 1972)? Well he did and it was. Who knows, without Starr, Roy might never have convinced Smilin' Stan to take a shot at Conan--or Barry, for that matter! And then where would we be? Conan-less! Perish the thought! So, it's time to give old Starr his due, for without him, we might never have gotten the barrage of sword-slinging swingers we so enjoyed back in the Groovy Age! G'head, Groove-ophile! Get your groove on with Starr, the Slayer in "The Sword and the Sorcerers!"
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5 comments:

  1. Joe BlokeJanuary 30, 2009 at 7:55 PM

    absolutely gorgeous. I'd forgotten all about this. a cracking post, Groove.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Groovy AgentJanuary 30, 2009 at 8:55 PM

    Glad you dug it, Mighty Joe! Only the best for my Groove-ophiles!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 18, 2014 at 1:35 PM

    this story was a revelation to me back then. Barry's artwork is so raw, so passionately expressionistic, he makes the story leap out of the pages -romanticist / modernist / symbolist / fury / sudden peace- I am soooo glad that someone like John Buscema did not draw it. Not knocking him, but for him it would have been a routine pay check

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2015 at 10:28 PM

    This story is actually in the next issue of CoD.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Groovy AgentSeptember 3, 2015 at 6:08 AM

      You are right! Fixed it! Thank you, o anonymous one! :D

      Delete

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Special thanks to Mike's Amazing World of Comics and Grand Comics Database for being such fantastic resources for covers, dates, creator info, etc. Thou art treasures true!


Note to "The Man": All images are presumed copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented here as fair use under applicable laws, man! If you hold the copyright to a work I've posted and would like me to remove it, just drop me an e-mail and it's gone, baby, gone.


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