Starblazer 1 Starblazer Star Blazers is also the name for the American dub of t he anime series Space Battleship Yamato Starblazer The Early Style of Starblazer cover with the single pane colour cover This is Issue 1, released in 1979. Publication information Publisher D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd Schedule Monthly Format Ongoing series Genre Science fiction Publication date April 1979–January 1991 Number of issues 281 Starblazer - Space Fiction Adventure in Pictures was a British small-format comics anthology in black and white published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. History There were 281 issues, the first published in April 1979, and the last published on 1 January 1991. The front cover was printed in colour while the back page featured an ongoing subject that was relevant to the space programme. This included pictures of astronauts and brief details of the missions they were on, other subjects were satellites and the planets and planetoids of the solar system. Issues 1 - 3 were issued on a 1 issue per month basis. From issue 4, there were two issues a month, this continued until the series reached its end in 1991. Partway through its run, from issue 168 onwards, the anthology changed format. Instead of a single front cover and a black and white subject on the back, a new all-colour 'wrap around' cover was instituted, most of the time showing a collage of subjects from that issue's storyline. The subject matters also appeared to have a more adult emphasis and there was a heavier focus on Fantasy storylines. The cover title also changed format slightly to Starblazer - Fantasy Fiction in Pictures, despite the title change, there were still a considerable number of Science Fiction storylines up till the final issue.
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Star Blazers is also the name for the American dub of the anime series Space Battleship Yamato
Starblazer
The Early Style of Starblazer cover with the single pane colour cover This is Issue 1, released in 1979.
Publication information
Publisher D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
Schedule Monthly
Format Ongoing series
Genre Science fiction
Publication date April 1979 – January 1991
Number of issues 281
Starblazer - Space Fiction Adventure in Pictures was a British small-format comics anthology in black and white
published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.
History
There were 281 issues, the first published in April 1979, and the last published on 1 January 1991. The front cover
was printed in colour while the back page featured an ongoing subject that was relevant to the space programme.
This included pictures of astronauts and brief details of the missions they were on, other subjects were satellites and
the planets and planetoids of the solar system. Issues 1 - 3 were issued on a 1 issue per month basis. From issue 4,
there were two issues a month, this continued until the series reached its end in 1991.
Partway through its run, from issue 168 onwards, the anthology changed format. Instead of a single front cover and a
black and white subject on the back, a new all-colour 'wrap around' cover was instituted, most of the time showing acollage of subjects from that issue's storyline. The subject matters also appeared to have a more adult emphasis and
there was a heavier focus on Fantasy storylines. The cover title also changed format slightly to Starblazer - Fantasy
Fiction in Pictures, despite the title change, there were still a considerable number of Science Fiction storylines up
was the first appearance of the Kingdom of Anglerre.
Prior to the new format, there had been several issues that had been
classed as interactive fiction, with the title Starblazer - Space (or
Fantasy) roleplaying game in pictures similar in idea to the then
popular Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf gamebooks, but this idea was
quietly dropped after a few issues when it proved unpopular.
End of run and the future
The Starblazer issues suffered from poor distribution, being rare in
parts of Scotland and almost unknown in the rest of the United
Kingdom. Due to a downturn in the general comic market, many
newsagents never stocked them, or later would only take subscriptions.
This contrasts sharply with the Commando comics from the same
publisher that have enjoyed countrywide widespread distribution since
their origin in the 1960s. Also, a slump in the Science Fiction genre
would not have helped sales either.
There have been rumours that DC Thomson would release an
anthology, basically a reprint of the old issues, but whether this is true
or not, and whether this would be the complete print run is, as yet, unknown.
In May 2007 Cubicle 7 Entertainment announced that they were producing a licensed Starblazer role-playing game
using the FATE 3.0 system. The game was released by Cubicle 7 in August 2008, at Gen Con Indianapolis .[1]
A hard cover version of the licensed Starblazer role-playing game was released by Cubicle 7 in June 2009.[2]
The Starblazer role-playing game was nominated for three Ennies in July 2009.
An exhibition was held in Dundee in 2009 to mark the 30th anniversary of the title and attracted comics creators like
Alan Grant and Warren Ellis.
[3]
Featured artists and writers
British comics creators to have worked on Starblazer include Grant Morrison, Walter Cyril Henry Reed, John Smith,
Mike Chinn, Mike McMahon, Colin MacNeil, Cam Kennedy, John Radford and John Ridgway. There were also a
number of European and South American artists who did other work in British comics like Enrique Alcatena.
Artistic peculiarities
It was not uncommon for artwork to differ from frame to frame for something like a spacecraft. An item like this
could look very different in one frame than it does in other parts of the same issue. There also seems to have been areuse of artwork. For example, some character poses were reused with different faces and clothing, but the pose itself
Mikal R Kayn. A former police officer who was invalided out of the force after an explosion burned out his eyes.
Without the aid of special glasses he can only see in the infrared spectrum. He eventually meets Cinnibar, the female
warrior from the planet of Babalon who helps him in a case to the abandoned research city of Valhalla Nova on theice planet of Thrymheim. Curiously enough, Kayns first appearance in Issue 45-Operation Overkill makes no
mention of his accident, or his disability, only that he is a former law enforcement officer. However. it is obvious
that it is the same character.
• 45-Operation Overkill
• 127-The Death Reaper
• 167-Mind Bender
• 173-The Vegas Murders
• 177 The Midas Mystery
• 199-Nether World
• 203-Wipe Out
• 207-Citizen Kayn
• 211-The Dream Machine
• 219-Till Death Do Us Part
• 225-Supercop
• 247-Kayn's Quest
• 252-Head Case
• 256-Convict Kayn
• 258-Computer Killer
• 266-Badlands
Cinnibar. A fierce female warrior from the frontier planet of Babalon. Her character started in the Kayn stories. She
had three spin off stories involving herself and her brother Rulf who also had made his first appearance in a Kayn
story. Cinnibar is a tall statuesque, but slender woman who looks human. The most distinctive features of her, is her
extremely long hair, and three striped marks on her face which could be tribal style tattoos. She favours combat with
traditional style weapons like swords, although she is not averse to using ranged weapons like laser blasters. As
Kayn once remarked, he remembered that "Babalonians had found methods to kill practically anything that moves".
She has a cousin, Vivanna, who also became a semi-recurring character in two of the Cinnibar issues.
• 216-Trouble in Babalon
• 253-Revolt on Babalon
• 264-Banished From BabalonGrok and Zero. One of the earlier series with a lighter tone to it. While some of the stories themselves are serious in
nature, they do have a touch of humour to them. Grok is a humanoid alien, an experienced Space Policeman. His
partner is injured in the first appearance and he gets assigned a new partner by the name of Smith, who he dubs
'Zero' which is derived from his service number. In this universe, Earth is not the origin of the human race, it is in
fact a planet called Cappella VI, Earth having been the location of a crash of a colony ship some centuries before,
from which the present population has descended, although it has regressed somewhat.
Frank Carter. More commonly referred to as just 'Carter', he is a mandroid, in effect, part robotic, but not quite
enough to be called a cyborg. His background is revealed in a later issue. Frank Carter was a perfectly normal police
officer until he received a gun blast to the head. The severe head wound meant that pioneering cybernetic surgery
was tried. He was given enhanced strength and reactions, but the part of his brain that contained emotions had been
destroyed. His basic no-nonsense attitude to lawbreakers, and some would say overly brutal methods are constantlybringing him into conflict with his superiors.
• 179 Mandroid
• 191-Carter's Law
• 215-Carter and the Killer
• 220-Time Warp
• 228-The Secret of Ice Mountain
• 237-Rough Justice
• 239-Desolation City
• 243-Death Run
• 245-Rogue Mandroid
• 260-Carter Breaks Loose
• 265-The Termination
• 272-Carter's Fury
• 280 Carter and the Crazies
Starhawk. An intergalactic freelance troubleshooter, his real name is Sol Rynn. He answers distress calls from those
in need who use a special card which slots into a computer interface. Starhawk was one of the f lagship stories in the
short-lived DC Thomson comic Crunch. Starhawk also made a number of brief appearances in DC Thomsons
Hotspur annual. His companion is a robot that goes by the simple name of Droid. He has a starship that he can
remotely summon. The setting is the crumbling Earth Empire which has been ravaged by years of raiding from the
alien Krell. Strangely enough, little background is given to the Krell themselves and the backstory of conflict
between the Krell and that of Earth is never elaborated on. The result, instory though, is that much of the galaxy is in
a state of lawlessness.
• 186-Starhawk
• 201-Return of Starhawk
• 222-Target...Starhawk
Skald. The Skald series of stories initially is set in the region of a castle where the population are enslaved by
powerful 'warlocks'. The warlocks use energy weapons to dispense their own brand of justice and keep the
population enslaved by fear. When Skald, a young herder finds out that he is to receive the 'collar of manhood',
basically a life sentence in the mines performing hard labour, he rebels. Lashing out in anger, he kills one of thewarlocks and flees the area. Later he meets with Linx, the Amazonian warrioress, a member of the matriarchal
Yaba-Kel tribe. Many elements of the Skald stories centre around the fact that an Earth colony ship crash landed on
the planet and advanced technology found its way into the hands of a select few people, and the constant struggle for
this technology.
• 190-The Power of the Warlocks
• 241-Revenge of the Warlocks
• 267-Skald-The Saga Continues
• 274-Skald-The Ultimate Conflict
The Anglerre Series. This series of issues set in the fantasy kingdom of Anglerre follows the royal family and their
conflict against various aggressors. The first appearance, in issue 200 of Prince Veyne was followed by a later issue
which was a prequel showing Veyne's father, King Iagon. King Iagon had been vaguely referred to in Issue 200, both