Starlord was a comic which ran from May to October 1978 before being merged with 2000AD. Leading up to and during its run there were adverts for it in 2000AD, met with letters from people who weren’t convinced about the need for another comic. It was a little pricier (still a matter of pence, admittedly) and Starlord was not as fun as Tharg as far as fictional editors go.

There was still a lot to love and when the comics merged, there was some fun in most of the stories and they pretty quickly were accepted. There were even people asking to see the titular Starlord.

When I go through these, I’ll cover both the Starlord issues from the 12th of May 1978 to 7 October 1978 and any of the strips that came over to 2000AD between issue 86 and issue 100, from 14th October 1978 to 17th February 1979.

Just in case you read this the first time, this is republished with no changes from the first time I released it, as it fits as-is with my current write-up of my encounters with 2000 AD year by year.

The stories were:

PLANET OF THE DAMNED

It’s a Lost! A plane goes missing when it flies through the Bermuda Triangle and lands in a mysterious place full of deadly threats! There are all kinds of strange things including people stranded from the past. Jake Flint has been trapped there for over a hundred years and leads the survivors on their way to a sanctuary, although several of them die thanks to the wildlife and from time-lost travellers who are also trapped there. It ends a bit early, but is still very good fun.

RPG Recommendation: Ben Robbins’ Follow puts a group of people on a quest and has you play through the mission, using tokens drawn in a bag to see whether you succeed or not. Using the ‘harder quests’ mechanics and possibly making extra minor characters to run people through the quest for survival might help.

Collected in: Planet of the Damned & Death Planet

RO-BUSTERS

I realised last issue that I’m a big fan of the freaky monsters in 2000AD and these robots aren’t much different. Apparently inspired by Thunderbirds, but replacing a dedicated family of planet-solving problem-solvers with defective robots makes it instantly endearing. Ro-Jaws is a sewer robot with horrendously jagged teeth, while Hammer-Stein is a traumatised robot soldier. The pair are joined by other robots such as Mek-Quake, a lover of ‘big jobs’ (not a euphemism!).

The pair work for Mr Ten Percent, a boss who has that much human left in him and a ton of telephones in his chest so he can take on any jobs to squeeze a bit more money out of the pair. They’re downtrodden but eager to do their jobs, they even have tax discs attached. 

Once they move over to 2000AD, we get the sometimes funny, sometimes tragic origin stories as some of the longer story arcs. We also get “The Terra-Meks” storyline where giant robots are enlisted to solve problems and end up wrecking things. It’s not their fault they’re too big, but it’s a problem the Ro-Busters have to sort out.

RPG Recommendation: This one’s difficult, I’ve got a few things which might work a bit for gigging robots helping but often causing chaos. Fiasco could make for a good engine to make Ro-Busters style stories. Mothership would capture the futility but it’d a bit too much on the horror and doesn’t really have a robot class in this style. I think Nice Marines would capture the chaos of accidentally horrifying or smashing apart anything around you either as an ex-warbot, a snappy sewer bot or a machine too giant to interact easily with anything else. 

Collected in: Ro-Busters: The Complete Nuts and Bolts Volume One

STRONTIUM DOG

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a massive X-Men fan. I’ve been reading everything from the start since August 2020 and posting my experience online on Facebook.

I’m saying this as I know a little about mutants. Strontium Dog presents a different view of mutated beings. People born under the shadow of Strontium 90 have mutations; some helpful, some really not. Luckily for Johnny Alpha, he has a suite of interesting powers and technology. The one job open for mutants is being a bounty hunter and Johnny’s very good at that role.

Johnny’s joined by time-lost Viking Wulf Sternhammer. What’s a Viking doing here? I’m not actually sure but I’ve learnt to go with it. That’s that weird puppet-looking creature called Gronk? Again, just go with it.

Johnny’s a good hunter, but the job doesn’t always make him popular. While he’ll complete the mission, that doesn’t always mean he’ll like it. The Starlord issues present a number of different cases, but there’s not a massive amount to go on here. I admit I was left wanting with the early strips, wanting to know more about what made this story unique. Sure there’s a Viking and the protagonist has odd powers as well as technology, but I wasn’t feeling it in this early incarnation. Luckily later on that would change.

RPG Recommendation: Ironsworn: Starforged presents a Mandalorian-style game about bounty hunting and questing in a starfaring future. Primarily a solo game, but able to be run with multiple players whether they have a GM or not, the game has a robust system for managing missions and for creating settlements.

Collected in: Strontium Dog: Search/Destroy Agency Files 01

TIMEQUAKE

James Blocker accidentally causes nuclear devastation, which is a great way to introduce us to our protagonist. He survives after being pulled out of the timestream by Time Control. They’re made up of people from all over time and have recruited him to their cause. The nuclear apocalypse was manufactured by the Droon, some aliens who will be defeated by humanity in the 21st century, so they’re going to try and win it early.

With the help of Time Control, especially the shapeshifter Suzi Cho, Blocker manages to stop them but is stick working for the organisation as he’s stuck travelling or he’ll deteriorate.

The next story has Nazis taking over the world after a rogue member of Time Control changes history. Then the Aztecs gained alien technology, left the Earth and have come back to take over.

The stories are brief and good fun, with Blocker starting out as a bit of a rubbish protagonist but getting a lot more skilled as he goes on.

RPG Recommendation: It’s going to have to be Timewatch, a game I’ve read but not played or run yet. A Gumshoe system, it focuses on investigation but adds time travel and allows for people from different eras. It also has a bit more depth of combat than the QuickShock versions of the system which I’ve used before.

Collected in: TimeQuake: Fleetway Files Vol 5 – Not currently in print

MIND WARS

Get ready for some really Star Wars stories, but with the Starlord treatment. The Jugla Empire has been warring against humanity and the tide’s about to turn. The Jugla have made the psychic twins Arlen and Ardeni who have devastating powers which will be used to destroy the Earth.

The twins aren’t so keen on this plan and try to resist their fate. They’re taken up by rebels but things are a bit tricky with strange alien planets and the psychic pull of the Jugla trying to force their hand.

Things end pretty tragically for one twin and the other goes from helpless to utterly vengeful. It’s a fun tilt as the series goes on. While it feels very Star Warsy, there’s something fun about making the young prodigies utterly terrifying.

RPG Recommendation: If you want to play a game with the tone of Star Wars, one of the best things you could do is download the free RPG, Lady Blackbird. The system brilliantly bounces pressure and downtime scenes to get some backstory or character interaction. There’s a little magic, especially from the titular Lady Blackbird who is often terrifying in how she’s presented. If you want to make a Mind Wars game, there are tools online to help make your own set of pregens and locations to fly through.

Collected in: Mind Wars

HOLOCAUST

A late addition to Starlord, this was possibly the one that least appealed. I don’t know if a longer run would have helped it.

Carl Hunter tries to stop an alien conspiracy with all manner of horrors put in his way. CIA training and a metal plate in his head helps him on his way, as does the revelation that the conspiracy was perpetrated by telepathic rats. Luckily rats are pretty easy to defeat if you’re a person.

RPG Recommendation: I almost said ‘nothing’, but thinking about the protagonist and enemy, I think Savage Worlds could probably handle this sort of thing well. It skews pulpy, but could do this kind of action conspiracy game well enough. 

Collected in: I’ve not been able to find a collection.

Next time, back to 2000AD!