OMG Another 5 Starblazer Comics

 

Yet more issues from my growing Starblazer collection

Starblazer #209 - The Ring of Gofannon - Through a nightmare of sorcery, Goll and his servant, Cutter follow the ancient maps of Gofannon in search of the legendary Ring.  Goll the warrior has to pit his fighting skills against all manner of unworldly creatures to merely survive and discover the truth.

Like every fantasy epic the ring of Gofannon is an archetypal quest to retrieve a magic ring and defeat a great evil descending upon the land.

Goll and Cutter must one by one overcome the trials and obstacles in their journey to find the legendary ring.  However, like every good Starblazer story there lies a twist in the tale, something unexpected which turns the story on its head.

The art for this story is great, simple when it needs to be and detailed when it needs to evoke a dense and rich background.  Very enjoyable and full of great one shot ideas for my own fantasy RPG stories. 

The cover art for this issue is a little bit uninspired.  However, this is what a fantasy story would look like if Sylvester Stallone was cast in the title role.

Starblazer #210 - Dragon Slayer - In a land overrun by evil, only one young boy had the courage and faith to seek out the warrior who could free the country from its sorcerous shadows - Dragon Slayer.., and he was 200 years old.

Another fantasy story, we must have hit the Conan the Barbarian vein in these recent issues.  The evil sorceror Drax has risen up and despite his magic waning he has enslaved the last of the Dragons Gorath to be his ultimate weapon and rule Pira IV unchallenged.

One brave villager and his son go against the wishes of the rest and vow to track down the legendary Dragonslayer who can free them from this cruel fate.  Sadly the villager is trapped by Drax and his son Bix must find the dragonslayer alone.

As ever we expect the Starblazer plot twist at the third act and this story doesn't dissapoint.  The final confrontation between Drax and the young lad Bix is a desperate but rewarding one.  The character of Bix is a shameless attempt at inserting the typical young reader into the story and it is very effective.  

I particularly liked the addition of the 6 legged scorpion tailed one eyed mini beholder creature which I will endeavour to write up a stat block for Savage Worlds and I will now forever call it a QERK!

Starblazer #211 - The Dream Machine - Kayn's the name, and finding people is my game.  Actually, I'm a private investigator, but I spent most of my trime trying to find enough creds to pay the rent.  Then one day I got a request for help... from a guy who'd been dead five years!

Kayn is back in another mystery chase murder story.  Futuristic Moscow is such an off choice for a setting.  I guess it's so that you can get away with simple brutalist architecture and a unbendening robotic state aparatus.  

Needles to say our hero Kayn is completely oblivious to the machinations of the secretive villain in this story.  He learns everything piece by piece at the same time as you read every frame.

Definitely a comic of its time with a run of the mill Starblazer storyline which is not all bad but very average. 

Starblazer #212 - Rogue Cop - Renko was a patrolman in a society diseased by corruption.  When this corruption touched him, he turned rogue to bring the offenders to justice.  But society doesn't like rogue cops and Renko was hounded to the edge of oblivion.

I was expecting a Robocop knock off but what I got was an interstellar crime wave and a man rescued from the brink of death by Space Brocolli!!

This is quite a fun little story, a classic tale of copy who goes rogue to bring down the big crime boss.  With no backup his luck runs out and he is stranded in the void with no hope so he decides to end it all by setting his ship to self destruct... as you do.

Saved by the benevolent space brocolli the Shreel, they turn him into a cyborg monster sending Renko into a depressive tailspin.  Howver, vengeance is a powerful emotion and Renko uses it to gain control of his new robotic body and take the fight to Hengis Furgaar to destroy his criminal emire once and for all.

Starblazer #213 - Skarr The Soldier - Stranded in Samek, many thousands of miles from his home, Skarr, the soldier of fortune, had to fight for a foreign ruler and an alien cause - or be executed!

This is a fairly stock story of a man caught between two factions waging a war at all costs.  There is not much exposition only action and it really does seem like an exercise in getting as many wild character illustrations on a page as possible.

This a treat from the fine pen of  Enrique Alcatena with an epic cover from the legend Ian Kennedy.

The character art is wild from the weird almost Napoleonic uniforms of the Margolian army to the down right bizarre mix of kimono clad Tarcils and the mask wearing denizens of Hetamec.  

This is my first Skarr story and I am encouraged to find the others.  

Whilst the plot does not offer much for the Roleplayer or DM, the artwork is a smorgasbord of inspiration.

Essential Starblazer Links

The Starblazer Checklist is a fantastic resource if you are collecting or want to know who wrote and illustrated each issue.

Many thanks to the chaps who run the Starblazer Covers archive, this is immensely useful resource when looking at ebay joblot listings.

Retro Sanctuary has a great article covering his top 20 Starblazer Issues which is worth a look and I'm looking forward to reading and reviewing some of these classics in the very near future.