Definitely a fantasy story in its general feel and a much better one, I thought, than Moench's Weirdworld, which came out around the same time or a little later. Excellent artwork by Val Mayerik helped a lot, of course. I thought it was an interesting new direction for Ka-Zar as a character and a series - too bad the book was cancelled in the middle of the story. I never have read the rest of it, assuming it was continued elsewhere.

Ive been slowly working my way through the Dark Horse Conan books over the last couple of months and am finding the monster of the month to be a real drag.
Ive also become very conflicted about the re coloring, very pretty to look at, however it detracts from the reading somehow. The original books just work so much better.
I also have to admit to liking John Buscemas issues more than the Windsor-Smith books, which I found to be terrible reads.

Some books were only 17 pages back in the day, so feel free to count it as .9

I enjoyed it for the most part. The flow of the arc felt a little choppy, but I think that is a function of pages available. Grell tried to make each issue mostly stand on its own while being part of a larger whole, but with there being back ups in each issue (except the finale), each chapter was only 12-16 pages and so each individual piece really didn't have a lot of room to breathe and develop, and with Grell's use of full page and double page images (which artistically is a treat) it felt even more cramped at times. There was a lot of fast paced action packed into each segment, but the shortness of pages again made it feel like a lot of start and stop storytellng, hence the choppiness. The last chapter oddly, which was the only one to run a full issue (and even had extra pages) felt the most choppy however, as Grell tried to pack all the diverse elements going on into it and wrap it all up by the end of issue 50. The result was that the end felt a bit rushed and things felt tacked on rather than integrated (the Mariah/Machiste/Wizard World elements in particular) and certain elements felt underplayed (the death of Aton).

So overall, I liked it, but felt it needed a little more room to breathe and further develop. Even if it had the pages the back ups consumed, it would have helped. I know Grell was having deadlines issues (hence constant comments by Jack Harris in the letter columns, the rotation of inkers (Coletta, Bob Smith, Romeo Tanghal) on the main strip and the need for the back ups to keep things on schedule, but I think the overall execution suffered a bit because of it.

There are elements I really liked. I adore the character of Shakira and hope she is explored a bit more. But there are things I am tired of as well...Deimos has had 3 major stories as antagonist in 50 issues, he needs to lay fallow and other adversaries explored for instance...that hindered my enjoyment a bit.

If I were grading it, it would get a B maybe a B+, but there a few too many shortcomings in execution for it to get an A from me.

-M

Yep, that sounds about right. This arc had a lot of stuff I liked in it, especially Shakira and Jennifer Morgan, who will be getting a major spotlight in the next few issues. I am also a big fan of Ashir, and I really liked Aton and the questions that he poses for Travis Morgan. Warlord's knack for inspiring people to follow him to their own detriment is a major thematic element in later storylines, particularly when Grell returns for the 6-issue Warlord mini-series in the 1990's. This arc in #38-50 is kind of a touchstone for that exploration of his character; he's great at inspiring people to fight for him, but he's not so good at dealing with the aftermath of the fighting, and a lot of his followers often end up dead or worse.

I'm not a fan of Deimos, but I think this is his best arc. He does disappear for a good long time after this arc; I think it's a few years before he's brought back, though he does show up again two or three times much later.

As for the story pacing, funny you should mention it and the deadline issues Grell was encountering. The next issue, #51, is a reprint of #1. Then, starting with #52, Sharon Grell ghost-writes the book for the next couple of years. It's still credited to Mike Grell, but Sharon is doing the writing, and you can tell, as the pacing improves significantly, and the plotting becomes tighter and better, in my opinion. For this reason, #52-71, the issues she wrote, are my favorite run in the series.

After that, the team of Cary Burkett and Dan Jurgens take over for an epic storyline that runs from #72-100, which I am also a big fan of. It's funny, but even though I am a huge Mike Grell fan, I might be one of the only Warlord fans that prefers the title after Grell left it.

Just finished up six volumes of a book called El Mercenario which I uncovered at a used book store today and it was amazing! I've never heard of it before but it's by a Spanish artist named Vicente Segrelles and his comic work is all done in oil paint like those paperback fantasy books of yore.

Is this the story of his which was serialised in Heavy Metal years ago ?