A Brief History of Starlord

Starlord began its brief life with a grand conceit. Unlike other comics, the entire content of Starlord would be themed, and a suitably contrived concept was soon devised. Like 2000AD, there would be a fictional figure set up at the helm of the title. Gosnell's original plan for a semi-naked Barbarella styled woman were quickly abandoned in favour of the eponymous Starlord. This cloaked Alvin Stardust look-alike, visualised by talented artist Ian Gibson, had been sent from across the galaxy to warn the citizens of Earth that they were under threat of invasion from the evil Interstellar Federation. Starlord's mission on Earth was to prepare Star Squads, crack teams of Star Troopers who would be ready for the invasion. These Troopers would be trained in the needs of intergalactic warfare by reading Starlord's Survival Blueprints, conveniently presented in comic strip format every week. Each Survival Blueprint would prepare the trainee Troopers for individual aspects of interstellar combat. There were to be six different Star Squads, their designations are detailed here, and their training would be enhanced with special features and quizzes.

Another innovation for the title would be its printed format. Most new launches began their print run in the web-offset style, using a high quality paper capable of carry multi-coloured ink processes, giving an all-round quality product with vivid graphics. Both Battle and Action began life using this format, before reverting to the cheaper and more common Letterpress appearance, printed on low grade paper with four colour ink processes. These and other IPC titles were limited to only four full colour pages, the front and back covers, plus the centre spread. Cheaper titles such as Valiant, didn't even warrant a colour centre spread. Starlord was to be published in a brand new, special format. The paper was slightly larger than web-offset, but of the same quality. The real innovation was to publish sixteen pages of full colour every week. There was, of course, a downside to this experiment. The knock-on effect of the paper quality and colour pages meant there would be an obvious increase in production costs. The result was a cover price that was almost 50% greater than anything else on the shelves.

The original idea was to aim at a slightly older audience, for a fortnightly or monthly frequency, and a higher page count with longer stories. IPC were seemingly swayed, and initially agreed to trial the new style, but this initial support was swiftly withdrawn. The comic would remain at thirty-two pages, as every page cost IPC money. To sustain longer stories in each issue, Gosnell had to accept fewer of them, with the first issue running only four strips. In the weeks before Starlord launched, it was decided to go weekly, and slash the amount of colour pages in half, leaving only eight, whilst maintaining the price at twelve pence, compared to the eight pence that the public were shelling out for 2000AD at that time. Would the comic buying public accept such a charge?

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