The Warlord #4 - Video Review by ComicBook.beer

Taking it way back to January of 1977 for issue number four (The Warlord #4) of The Warlord from DC Comics. I love The Warlord series. It's science fiction, it's sword and sorcery, fantasy, just complete nonsense, and it's awesome. Issue four delivers.

And I hate word balloons on the cover from the design standpoint, but they're pretty funny. In this context, you took the woman I love, Deimos, after what, one or two issues together, and all the fiends of hell won't stop me from getting her back. That implies that she was yours to begin with, which I don't think she's really all that into them, but you know, maybe it's Slim Pickens and Skartaris. Who can say?

But there's Deimos, there's Terra, there's Travis Morgan, the Warlord, and this horrible monster in the background that we're certain he will fight. I would also like to point out that if you're worried about this, this has been approved by the Comics Code.

Sadly, there's no nudity or cocaine. But there is a whole lot of just absolute silliness as Deimos is taking the throne of Thera by using the Scrolls of Blood, and he just apparently sits there all day staring at Thera, who looks like she wants to kick his teeth in.

And then the attack begins as the Warlord leads his army of freed slaves and gladiators using catapults and siege engines. I love the opening spreads from Mike Grell here.

Written and illustrated by Mike Grell. I love his work. His illustrations are pretty inconsistent, but in a way that gives them a lot of character. I think when he put a lot of time into a panel, you can really tell. His page layouts are kind of crazy too. But they attack here, and watch out, you'll shoot your eye out. Catch that thing. Oh, you could buy jewelry in comic books back then.

Deimos is actually happy to see the Warlord because he's gonna spring a trap on him. All right, you got that? The trap is that he's gonna use his Scrolls of Blood to summon that thing, but there's this little gadget here, so keep an eye on that if you read this issue, which you're going to, because look at this. You wanna read this.

The Warlord battles magic with explosives and firearms because he's the Warlord. And you can get yourself a sweet genuine bullet necklace. What is that? The key chain, sorry, not a necklace. Appended. Oh, you could get a necklace, okay. Can I get one of each? For less than five dollars, I sure can. I'm gonna cut that out.

I'm still waiting on that Cheryl Teague's love pillow or whatever I said I was gonna order from a couple years ago. It never showed up. Though I think I might have forgotten to mail it in.

Anyway, I love the screaming, and just the page layouts are really unique from Mike Grell. I didn't show you how he may or may not have defeated that monster, but he does fight Deimos, and you can also get yourself a Batman and Robin hang up. That's what they call them, biggest life hang ups, with movable arms and legs. And you could also learn karate, which was like a big thing back then.

I'm just distracted by the ads. I don't want to show you the plot, but I do want to. I would wear every single one of these things. Those belt buckles.

Do you feel lucky, punk? Look who's smiling now. And the only downside to the, I don't wanna give away the ending. I want you to read this issue. It's really good.

The only downside to The Warlord series is that they were all really short for the most part, but you can spend some time reading the chain mail and obviously, as you've seen, all of the ridiculous advertisements that I'm so easily distracted by, like Dr. J, and it says Rick Berry, but I choose to believe that's Han Solo.

So just imagine how awesome it would have been to be a kid in 1977, and not just crawling around throwing up on yourself like I was, but to actually be aware that Star Wars was coming out in just a few months. How cool would that have been? Nobody knew how big it was gonna be, but it doesn't really change my statement, which is complete nonsense, but whatever.

When I get that time traveling AMC Eagle or El Camino, either one will work with the Magic 8 track.

The Art and Ads of 1977 Comics

Mark B

I don't personally believe the flux capacitor thing would have worked. I think if you put an eight track player in your AMC Eagle and just played the eight track tape backwards, you'd have gone back in time.

But this is the kind of quality that you could expect from comicbook.beer, which is to say questionable at best. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go check off one of everything here, mail this in, and await my sweet belt buckles and shirts. And those knit hats look really cool.

Super Ski Style, Ski Style hats. They don't call them that anymore. Let's bring it back from The Warlord, 1977.

Why doesn't Travis Morgan get a hat?