The Warlord is a bawdy and bloodthirsty comic book spawned from the late 1970s. One of many sword & sorcery titles to come out in the wake of Marvel's successful Conan properties, Mike Grell's The Warlord managed to become something of a standout; for a few years it was DC's top-selling title. What saved The Warlord from the Unforgiving Axe of Abrupt Cancelation? And why do I still get such a kick of reading it today?
The easy answers are A) Because comic readers of the era were mouth-breathing preadolescent geeks easily captivated by prurient trash like The Warlord, and B) I'm not above it, either. Be that as it may, a slew of other books just didn't hack it. There was no shortage of boobs, beasts, and broadswords in the comic world. Grell created something in The Warlord that set him apart from the rest. It's a ribald picaresque adventure tale, starring an American hardass who (unlike Conan and his brooding ilk) discovers life as a muscle-bound killing machine in fantasyland is actually a pretty good time.
The Warlord is Journey to the Center of the Earth meets Tanar of Pellucidar with a soundtrack by Manowar. Lt. Col. Travis Morgan's SR-71 Blackbird spy plane is shot up by Commie fighters, and he bails out over the North Pole, unable to make it to an Alaskan base. Much to his confusion, he parachutes into a jungle. Morgan is soon attacked by dinosaurs, then saved by a sword-wielding barbarian woman. Of course, they fall in love.
Morgan's modern mind, mad skills, and a .44 Magnum handgun make him a force to reckoned with in Skartaris. (Skartaris is inside of our own hollow earth, a land of eternal daylight.) Soon, our hero becomes known as "The Warlord," a devil-may-care rogue with a winged helmet and snow-leopard loincloth who fights sorcerers, robots, naturally occurring animals, and other "enemies of freedom" whenever they cross his path.
Mike Grell refused to draw a map for Skartaris, saying that to define the setting would be to limit it. He didn't mention that people without a map often get lost--and The Warlord is no exception. Still, if ever something was about the journey, it's Travis Morgan's story. He fights lizard men, chases a unicorn, is pursued by CIA assassins, becomes King of Shamballa, and basically lives a continuous series of outrageous events which only lead to more. He's left Earth behind, and doesn't want to go home.
What are the morals and politics of The Warlord? Honestly, I don't care. I suppose I could do a whole entry about how conflicted I feel about rooting for a muscle-bound military thug who lives a life of recreational violence in world not his own. (The silly moralism of this Slate article is a good case in point.) I don't. Not everything is meant to be an examination of our world. Sometimes fantasy is exactly that. The Warlord knew that it was, above all, supposed to be fun. And in a place like Skartaris, that's okay by me.
2 comments:
I wouldn't mind a go at it. Maybe for a summer project. It seems best to read comic books in summer time. I shall see if the library has any.
i think people would be further convinced if you included the picture of the Warlord going estatic about the unicorn.
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