Star Lord magazine
This weekly series from IPC Magazines Ltd., the same publisher as 2000AD, had the same general mission to deliver science-fiction adventure. Naturally, many of the same creators were involved. It was part of a procedure known as “match, patch, and dispatch.” The goal was to get new fans hooked, merge in a few strips from 2000AD, then drop the old comic in favor of the new. To everyone’s surprise, this one went the other way. 2000AD‘s readership was consistently growing, so Star Lord ended up being merged into it. The end result was that 2000AD inherited Star Lord‘s most popular characters (Strontium Dog and Ro-Busters), and kept them running in perpetuity.
The format was slightly different than 2000AD, 8.5″ wide by 11.75″ high. It was also 32 pages with color covers and three color spreads. The paper, binding, and printing quality were a step up with more painted and grey-toned art. It started out with four ongoing stories that ran 6 or more pages per chapter. It was definitely a more expensive magazine to make, which made the decision to drop it (after 22 issues) a bit easier.
I got SUPER lucky with this batch, finding the entire run all at once in a Chicago comic shop. So here they are!
