Warrior (comics)

''Warrior'' was a British comics anthology that ran for 26 issues between March 1982 and January 1985. It was edited by Dez Skinn and published by his company Quality Communications. It featured early work by comics writer Alan Moore, including ''V for Vendetta'' and ''Marvelman''.

This series of 26 issues in the 1980s was essentially a Volume #2; Skinn had edited/published #s 1-6 of a black-and-white fanzine version of ''Warrior'' (full title: ''Warrior: Heroic Tales Of Swords and Sorcery'') in 1974-75, with reprint and new strips, art and writing from Steve Parkhouse, Dave Gibbons esigned logo Michael Moorcock, Frank Bellamy, Don Lawrence, Barry Windsor-Smith, et al.

Rivalling '' 2000 AD'', ''Warrior'' won 17 Eagle Awards during its short run (including nine Eagles in 1983 alone). Because of traditional distribution and its format, it was one of the comic books in the British market that didn't just rely upon distribution through then format-driven specialist shops and expensive subscriptions for its sales base.

History

Skinn, former editorial director of Marvel UK, launched ''Warrior'' in an effort to create a similar mix of stories to the one he had previously put together for Marvel's '' Hulk Weekly'', but with greater creative freedom and a measure of creator ownership. The title was recycled from a short-lived reprint series Skinn had once published; he remarked that "''Warrior'' seemed an obvious choice nobody else had picked up on—both times! It fit perfectly as a newsstand logo". He recruited many of the writers and artists he had previously worked with at Marvel, including Steve Moore, John Bolton, Steve Parkhouse and David Lloyd, adding established creators like Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons, and emerging young talent such as Alan Moore, Garry Leach and Steve Dillon.

Skinn decided to revive Marvelman, a popular British superhero from the 1950s with a massive backlog of available pages, reasoning that "given the difference between a brand-new character who would sell no more copies, or a somewhat forgotten character who might sell about a dozen more, I opted to follow the similar relaunch I'd done with Captain Britain—tease at first, then, as a bonus, surprise those who actually cared. If it failed, it was only six pages out of 52—the beauty of the anthology approach". Skinn offered the writing first to Parkhouse who had earlier worked for Marvel, then Steve Moore, who had worked on the pre-Marvel UK US-reprint line Power Comics. Neither were interested, and Moore suggested a friend Alan Moore (no relation) who had said in a fanzine that he had an ambition to revive the character. Alan Moore was offered the first script on spec and Skinn was impressed enough to give him the assignment. Artist David Lloyd had been asked to create a mystery strip in the vein of his Marvel UK hit '' Night Raven'', and independently suggested Moore, with whom he had worked on '' Doctor Who'' and ''Star Wars'' stories at Marvel UK, as the writer; their collaboration became ''V for Vendetta''.

''Laser Eraser and Pressbutton'', a science fiction strip about a pair of assassins, featured Axel Pressbutton, a violent cyborg who had previously appeared in underground strips written by "Pedro Henry" (a pseudonym for Steve Moore) and drawn by "Curt Vile" (Alan Moore). At Skinn's insistence, ''Laser Eraser and Pressbutton'' featured a female partner, Mysta Mystralis, and was written by Pedro Henry and drawn by Steve Dillon. Under his own name, Steve Moore also wrote the occult adventure ''Father Shandor, Demon Stalker'' (continuing the stories from Skinn's ''House of Hammer'' magazine), among others. Steve Parkhouse, who had written the Arthurian-themed superhero strip ''Black Knight'' for ''Hulk Weekly'', wrote and drew a fantasy adventure called ''The Spiral Path''.

Using the same magazine format Skinn had employed for his earlier ''House of Hammer'' and ''Starburst'' to reach an older audience, ''Warrior'' was distributed nationally through newsagents and was launched to strong sales.

After a few issues Garry Leach bowed out as ''Marvelmans artist, giving way to Alan Davis. Leach became the magazine's art director, and later drew the ''Marvelman'' spin-off '' Warpsmith'' as well as ''Zirk'', a lecherous egg-shaped alien spun off from ''Pressbutton'', some of whose stories were drawn by Brian Bolland. After the completion of ''The Spiral Path'', Parkhouse teamed with Alan Moore to create the macabre comedy '' The Bojeffries Saga'', a kind of British working-class '' Addams Family'' owing much to Henry Kuttner's Hogben Family. Dez Skinn himself wrote ''Big Ben'', a spin-off character from ''Marvelman'', drawn by Will Simpson. Mick Austin contributed painted covers.

Skinn wanted each strip to form part of a "Warrior Universe" and connect with each other. This never really happened as Skinn intended, although there were some crossover strips, e.g. ''Big Ben'' and ''Warpsmith'' tied into ''Marvelman''. Grant Morrison's '' The Liberators'' was also part of this universe, set in the future of Big Ben's timeline and featuring alien characters in common.

Despite a strong launch and critical acclaim, sales were not strong and for much of its run the magazine was subsidised from the profits of Skinn's comic shop, Quality Comics. Offered to newsagents on a "sale or return" basis, it suffered a high rate of returns. The high level of creator control also led to problems: the second series of ''Laser Eraser and Pressbutton'' was never completed because artist Steve Dillon went AWOL, and issues began to turn up late when contributors missed deadlines and fill-in artists could not be commissioned, as the originating artists owned the work. The title had also managed to appeal to a female audience unlike ''2000 AD'' thanks to the inclusion of strong women characters but as later issues became dominated by more sexist material that readership declined. Though primarily a British publication, ''Warrior'' also had some distribution in the U.S. and acquired a fan following there.

''Marvelman'' last appeared in ''Warrior'' in issue #21. This was ostensibly because, after Quality published a spin-off ''Marvelman Special'' featuring stories from the character's original run, Marvel Comics objected that this was a trademark infringement on the better known Marvel brand name. The actual reason was a series of bitter financial disagreements between Skinn and Moore. Other strips were affected by creative disputes, with only ''V for Vendetta'' not suffering any gaps in publication. Many of the title's top creators were being offered work from U.S. publishing companies, causing problems in finding new talent.

''Warrior'' ended its run with issue 26 in 1985. Through Mike Friedrich's Star*Reach agency, Skinn signed all the Warrior work (except V for Vendetta) to Pacific Comics. Pacific folded within months, and another American independent publisher, Eclipse Comics, picked them up.

A final "Spring Special" flip book issue was published in #67 of Skinn's '' Comics International'' in 1996.

Skinn commented when interviewed about the title: "It did its job. Despite the inevitable disagreements such leads to, it showed what could be done with comics when creators are given ownership of properties".

Uncompleted stories such as ''Marvelman'' and ''V for Vendetta'' were completed elsewhere.

Stories

Stories that featured in ''Warrior'' include:
*'' Axel Pressbutton'' ("Pedro Henry" and Steve Dillon)
*''Big Ben'' (Dez Skinn and Will Simpson)
*'' Bogey'' (Antonio Segura, Dez Skinn and Leopoldo Sanchez)
*'' The Bojeffries Saga'' (Alan Moore and Steve Parkhouse)
*''The Black Currant'' ( Carl Critchlow)
*''Ektryn'' ("Pedro Henry" and Cam Kennedy)
*''Father Shandor'' ( Steve Moore, John Bolton, David Jackson and John Stokes) — Issues #1–10, 13, 16, 18–21, 23–25 (issues #1–3 reprint material from ''House of Hammer'' issues #8, 16, and 21; the rest are original to ''Warrior'') Skinn, Dez. Response to reader question, '' Halls of Horror'' #29 (1984).
*''The Legend of Prester John'' (Steve Parkhouse and John Ridgway)
*'' The Liberators'' (Grant Morrison and John Ridgway)
*''Madman'' (Paul Neary and Mick Austin)
*''Marvelman'' (Alan Moore, Garry Leach)
*''The Spiral Path'' (Steve Parkhouse, John Ridgway, David Jackson and John Bolton)
*''Twilight World'' (Steve Moore and Jim Baikie)
*''V for Vendetta'' (Alan Moore and David Lloyd)
*''Warpsmith'' (Alan Moore and Garry Leach)
*''Zirk'' (Brian Bolland, "Pedro Henry" and Garry Leach)

See also

* '' Revolver''

References

Further reading

* Khoury, George (2001), ''Kimota! The Miracleman Companion'', TwoMorrows Publishing,
* Khoury, George (2003), ''The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore'', TwoMorrows Publishing
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{{Refend

External links

''Warrior'' background
on Dez Skinn's site


by Richard J. Arndt at Enjolrasworld.com

Defunct British comics

Comics anthologies
Comics by Alan Moore
War comics
Science fiction comics