''Star Slammers'' was an

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of ''Action Comics'' ...

series written and drawn by

Walt Simonson Walter Simonson (born September 2, 1946) is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics' ''Thor'' from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill. He is also known for the creator-owned w ...

. The series was Simonson's first comics and it led to his getting work in the comic book industry. The comics have been released by various publishers including

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

Malibu Comics Malibu Comics Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Malibu Graphics) was an American comic book publisher active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for its Ultraverse line of superhero titles. Notable titles published by Malibu included '' ...

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known ...

and

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW), itself formed in 1999, and is regularly recog ...

Publication history

The series began after Simonson joined the

Washington Science Fiction Association The Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) is the oldest science fiction club in the Washington, D.C. area. It is also one of the oldest science fiction clubs, founded in 1947 by seven fans who met at that year's Worldcon in Philadelphia, the ...

(WSFA) after graduating college in the early 1970s with a Geology degree and did some work on the ''

WSFA Journal The ''WSFA Journal'' is a science fiction fanzine that has been published approximately once a month since 1965 by the Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA). (Update: In 2010, only six issues were published, and in the first half of 2011, ...

''. As part of their bid to host the 1974

World Science Fiction Convention Worldcon, or more formally the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during ...

(WSFC), he created what would become ''Star Slammers'', which the group would personally print and distribute at various conventions, with each six-page episode appearing every three to four months. The final chapter appeared in time for the 1972 WSFC that saw WSFA win the vote. He rated the early part of the work as "pretty good fan art" which, by the end, had become "marginally professional", so bound the second half of the story into one volume and used it as his portfolio.

Carmine Infantino Carmine Michael Infantino (; May 24, 1925 – April 4, 2013) was an American comics artist and editing, editor, primarily for DC Comics, during the late 1950s and early 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. Among his character creat ...

, who was the editor-in-chief at

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

, saw this portfolio and got him bits of work at DC; six months later, editor Archie Goodwin gave him his breakthrough—drawing " Manhunter", a backup feature in DC's ''

Detective Comics ''Detective Comics'' is an American comic book series published by Detective Comics, later shortened to DC Comics. The first volume, published from 1937 to 2011 (and later continued in 2016), is best known for introducing the superhero Batman i ...

'' written by Goodwin. The first Star Slammers title was published by

as ''

Marvel Graphic Novel ''Marvel Graphic Novel'' (''MGN'') is a line of graphic novel trade paperbacks published from 1982 to 1993 by Marvel Comics. The books were published in an oversized format, 8.5" x 11", similar to French albums. In response, DC Comics establ ...

'' No. 6 in 1983, and later in 1994 a new five-issue

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

Bravura In classical music a bravura is a style of both music and its performance intended to show off the skill of a performer. John Alexander Fuller-Maitland, ''A dictionary of music and musicians (A.D. 1450-1889)'p. 271-272/ref> Commonly, it is a virt ...

imprint emerged, though only four issues out of five were published.

published the final issue as a

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

special in 1996. Dark Horse also published an 8-page ''Star Slammers'' story titled "Fever Dream" in ''

Dark Horse Presents ''Dark Horse Presents'' was a comic book published by American company Dark Horse Comics from 1986. Their first published series, it was their flagship title until its September 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was published on MySpace, r ...

'' #114 (1996) that is a prelude to the 1994 Malibu series. In 2014

republished the Marvel and Malibu material in an eight-issue reprint limited series, with the initial 60-page graphic novel broken down into the first three issues for which he created new covers and introductory pages. Simonson has said that he has plotted out another eight-part ''Star Slammers'' story that he would like to get around to when he is less busy. The series was re-colored by Len O'Grady because "the second series was at the dawn of the age of digital color and, to be frank, left a lot to be desired and had dated hard over the intervening twenty years" and Simonson has said: "It's a director's cut in terms of the color. The original was largely colored by

my wife "My Wife" is a song by the British rock band the Who, written by bass guitarist John Entwistle. It was originally released in 1971 on ''Who's Next'' and later as the B-side of the single "Baba O'Riley" on 6 November 1971 in Europe by Polydor Re ...

and me. The '90s series were colored by digital means. It was all over the map".

Collected editions

The remastered series from IDW has been collected into a single volume: * ''Star Slammers: The Complete Collection'' (IDW Publishing, hardcover, 300 pages, May 2015, )''Star Slammers: The Complete Collection''
at IDW Publishing

References

External links

*{{comicbookdb, type=team, id=3905, title=Star Slammers (group) 1983 comics debuts Dark Horse Comics titles IDW Publishing titles Marvel Comics graphic novels