Showcase Presents: Warlord Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Mike Grell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 22, 2009 | Series: Showcase Presents (Book 1)

Inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules Verne, WARLORD is the story of Air Force Pilot Travis Morgan, who crash-lands in the primitive, hidden land of Skartaris. Morgan becomes a leader of Skartaris, fighting to protect his newly adopted home from invaders wielding magical powers and hand-held weapons.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (September 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401224733
• ISBN-13: 978-1401224738
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.2 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #822,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At the Earth's Core, September 29, 2009

By 

Babytoxie (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Showcase Presents: Warlord Vol. 1 (Paperback)

Writer/artist Mike Grell has a well-established career in comics, as well as the fans to back it up. He's known for his work on DC's Green Arrow and the Legion of Super-Heroes, as well as his own creations John Sable: Freelance and Starslayer. But for many, Grell's claim to fame is Warlord, which is best categorized as "his own creation for DC" - meaning DC owns it, but if anyone other than Grell handles it, it just doesn't work (I'm looking at you, Bruce Jones). DC recently brought Grell back for a new Warlord series, and we now have a Showcase volume to help us catch up on the early stories.

Warlord was introduced in 1975 in DC First Issue Special #8, in which Air Force pilot Travis Morgan is shot down over the Arctic Circle and ejects over what he thinks is the Yukon Territory. He instead parachutes into the hidden world of Skartaris, where he embarks on fantastic adventures. If you think you've read this story before, you probably have in one form or another. Grell pulled every trick he could from the Edgar Rice Burroughs handbook - a hollow Earth; a savage, time-lost land; humans coexisting with dinosaurs; dangerous yet sexy women wearing next to nothing; a modern man dropped in the middle of it all - and then improved upon them. At times, it reads as a standard fantasy pastiche, using some familiar (and annoying) tropes, but then it goes beyond the genre with interesting angles and plot elements. Also, Grell makes it a point to end almost every issue with a tantalizing epilogue that either foreshadows events or contributes to the mystery of Skartaris' origin, making the overall story surprisingly cohesive. It's no question that Conan the Barbarian ruled the sword & sorcery roost of comics' Bronze Age, but Warlord was a worthy competitor.

The art is something to behold. While Grell's inexperience occasionally shows in the very earliest issues, he quickly settles into his trademark meticulous style. Imagine Neal Adams penciling over Gil Kane's layouts, and you'll have it. His panel arrangement is excellent, at times drifting into the experimental, and his characters are graceful and athletic - not chemically-induced bodybuilders. The art suffers somewhat in the second half of the collection due to the inking of Vince Colletta. Yep, the guy who took short cuts on Jack Kirby's Silver Age pencils inked a good portion of these stories. He still cuts corners on Warlord, but he appears to have paid more attention to Grell's lines - amazing since Grell's work is much more detailed than Kirby's.

I'm hoping I won't have long to wait for a second volume of Warlord, and I'd like to see more characters in this vein receive the same treatment. Having Arak: Son of Thunder in this format would make me very happy, and there were plenty of other short-lived characters in DC's sword & sorcery wave of the `70s, such as Beowulf, Claw, Nightmaster, and Stalker, that would make an excellent compilation.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is one showcase that has aged well., September 28, 2009

By 

Steve G. "Steve G." (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Showcase Presents: Warlord Vol. 1 (Paperback)

I've collected many DC Showcase and Marvel Essential titles only to disover that their charm is lost on an older, more jaded reader. I've also noticed that many series involve a painful slog through the first couple-dozen issues where the writer had yet to find his legs. Neither are the case here.

Mike Grell's Warlord starts off strong and then only gets better. Travis Morgan rarely feels like a cardboard cutout hero with a big lantern jaw. He's a canny adventurer, articulate and pragmatic. It's evident that this is a writer who actually knows about weapons and tactics, unlike so many writers who base their ideas on the contrivances they've seen in movies and other comics.

Unlike many wandering heroes of sword-and-sorcery tales, the Warlord boasts a supporting cast of fleshed-out characters. Grell created formidable females--Tara and Mariah--that were deadly warriors rather than helpess objects long before it became an obligatory cliche of politcial correctness. His fellow warrior Machiste serves as a foil with his more down-to-earth, self-interested point of view. And what's a great hero without a worthy nemesis? The arch-wizard Deimos menaces Morgan throughout the series, seemingly always ready to summon some gargantuan demon for Morgan to outmaneuver.

All of this and Grell's magnificant art. His penchant for double-page panoramas had a great deal to do with the comic's appeal in its day, as it delivered a lavish spectacle you simply couldn't get anywhere else. The absence of color is a pity.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the perfect blend of Sci-fi and Fantasy, May 31, 2010

By 

Tim Janson (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Showcase Presents: Warlord Vol. 1 (Paperback)

First introduced in DC's 1st Issue Special #8 in 1975, and getting his own title in 1976, Mike Grell's Warlord was strongly influenced by Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar series, borrowing the concept of a hollow Earth. Lt. Travis Morgan is an Air Force Pilot flying a reconnaissance mission over Russia. An encounter with Russian fighters damages his plane and he flees over the North Pole. When Morgan finally ejects he finds himself in a strange new jungle world. Morgan has entered a chasm some 800 miles below the Earth's surface to find a hidden, savage world where Dinosaurs still exist and ruthless tyrants dominate this world known as Skartaris. This hollow, inner world surrounds a miniature sun, making it daylight all the time and its inhabitants are unaware of the surface world.

Morgan and a native girl named Tara are captured and taken to the city of Thera. It is here where Morgan first encounters the High Priest Deimos who will become his archenemy. When Deimos attempts to assassinate Morgan and Tara, Morgan kills the assassins and he and Tara flee into the world of Skartaris for a life of battle and adventure, with Morgan earning the title Warlord from the free people of the land. Grell's series combines magic, science, and Atlantean lore. The Warlord's adventures range from typical swords & sorcery to strong science elements.

Grell is one of the most underrated comic talents of all-time. He is a magnificent storyteller and a very fine artist as well. In fact the black and white format of these Showcase editions perfectly "showcases" Grell's fine line detail. I've always thought the Grell's style was a blend of Silver Age greats Gil Kane and John Buscema. The 528 page book collects 1st Issue Special #8 and issues #1 - 28 of the on-going series. If you've never read Warlord this is a great chance to immerse yourself into a fantastic adventure epic about time DC gave The Warlord the Showcase treatment!