The Dundee publisher wisely decided to avoid trying to lauch a me-too anthology into a market where 2000AD and STAR WARS WEEKLY were already slugging it out (with DWW, STARHEROES and FUTURE TENSE all still to hit within the next year-or-so) and opted to bolster their successful line of black & white digest pocket libraries instead (a market Marvel was also about to enter... albeit without much longevity) with this done-in-one single story title.
SB started on a one-a-month frequency before swiftly upgrading to two issues - released simultaneously - each month. It ultimately staggered on until (barely) January 1991, clocking up an impressive 281 issues.
Despite some top industry contributors (Morrison, McMahon, Ridgway, Kennedy and more), DC Thomson have been slow to exploit the Starblazer inventory. Maybe they should consider a sale to Rebellion...
to a star age kid, these were manna from heaven along with COMMANDO.
ReplyDeleteand unlike the marvel pocket books, they used original stories.
a quick scan of the cover gallery on comic vine reveals the following :
ReplyDeleteas with most titles, the cover logo changed quite a few times.
towards the end of the run, the stories moved from hard sci-fi to a broader fantasy mix of sword and sorcery and horror.
one of the covers is a total steal from the Flash Gordon movie !
as seen here :
http://comicvine.gamespot.com/starblazer-183-the-cyborg-chaser/4000-294881/
anyone out there who owns a complete collection ?
one more fact :
ReplyDeleteissue 150 was a special role play story.
as seen here :
http://comicvine.gamespot.com/starblazer-150-captains-choice/4000-229714/