One of the most wonderful world’s of imagination ever created!
life is a constant struggle for survival.
Here, beneath an unblinking orb of eternal
sunlight, one simple law prevails:
If you let down your guard for an instant you will soon be very dead.
The earliest issues as an exception, this teaser fell on the splash page of every issue of Mike Grell’s stunning run on The Warlord. That little snippet alone gave the reader a fair idea of what to expect from the adventures of the Warlord, Travis Morgan. While Travis and his well-rounded supporting cast always met with the unexpected, the reader could always expect one thing, outstanding storytelling and artwork during Mike Grell’s extensive run.
Mike Grell mentioned in the forward to the only trade paperback collection The Warlord has ever been given that, “imagination†was the key to the series. Grell never got tied up in explaining every last detail of the how, he just let his imagination roam freely and allowed us into this wonderful universe he created. This is why the book appealed to me so much. Grell fashioned one of the most interesting worlds in comics. A world where anything could happen and you never knew what would happen on the next page. There was never a rote feeling of the same-old-thing with Grell’s writing.
The Warlord was not considered a part of the DC Universe until sometime after Mike Grell departed the book. Since Grell was dead-set against it ever being pulled into that world, he was allowed tremendous freedom to tell his stories and have his characters grow and progress through the course of the story. Travis Morgan continued to grow. He was a much different man in issue #3 than in issue #33 and even still different from the man in issue #52 and beyond. During Mike Grell’s tenure we never were subjected to shoehorned appearances by Batman, Superman, or some other character that did not belong in the book.
Skartaris – Fashioning a New World
Travis Morgan debuted in 1975 in a little known try-out book called First Issue Special. The book lasted thirteen largely forgettable issues. The only major occurrence was the introduction of the Warlord.
We learn in the story that Travis Morgan is a United States Air Force pilot; he’s dispatched on a secret mission over the Soviet Union. His plane is damaged during the flight and he attempts to “limp†home. Over the Arctic he realizes that the plane’s not going make it back to U.S. soil. By Colonel Morgan’s calculations he should now be over the Yukon Territory; he lands in a dense jungle, which is about as opposite the Yukon as you can get. As we learn later in this origin story, Morgan, in fact, has flown through an enormous opening at the North Pole of the Earth and flown inside of the Earth, to the world of Skartaris. Hollow earth theories and stories had long been a tenet of storytelling, with Jules Verne’s seminal Journey to the Center of the Earth the most famous. While the idea may seem silly today, in a less-advanced technological age it was a reasonable premise.
Skartaris was a land of eternal sunlight with a brilliant sun held in place by gravity in the exact center of the Earth. After Mike Grell departed from the book many changes occurred, including bringing Travis Morgan into the DC Universe. Following Crisis on Infinite Earths Skartaris was retconned to actually be a wholly different dimension. The ways into the world were the same, but instead of actual openings that led to the center of the Earth, they were instead changed to inter-dimensional doorways. Before I digress too far, let’s get back to Mike Grell’s Warlord.
Not long after landing, Travis Morgan comes upon a seeming damsel in distress. He meets the unexpected once again as the woman, Tara, kills the dinosaur menacing her and not Travis. Travis and Tara attempt to communicate with one another, but a language barrier prevents any real speech. They are soon attacked by a band of sword-wielding thugs. Travis is able to halt their advance with his handgun. With only one bullet remaining, Travis and Tara “agree†to be taken to the city of Thera. Travis is able to bluff his way out of captivity by using his service pistol again, but in so doing raises the ire of court magician, Deimos.
Grell shows some plotting brains by having the Skartarians not understand English. The lack of a language barrier was often a silly mistake made by writers of this type of fiction. Travis is a master of many languages, and as he and Tara are guests of the ruler of Thera, he quickly picks up on the language of Skartaris.
Grell proves quite adept at telling his entire origin story. In the space of the trial run, he introduces the lead, the woman that will be his on-again, off-again romantic lead, as well as the hero’s major villain. A Warlord series began four months later, and became the only lasting book to spawn from First Issue Special; that’s of course when the real fun began!
The first great quest…
A big reason The Warlord remains so memorable are the wonderful characters that Travis Morgan encountered during his travels through Skartaris. Unlike many books of this ilk there was not a long list of one-off characters that served their purpose for a single story. Mike Grell, instead, brought to life a series of interesting, fully-realized characters that frequently shared the spotlight with the titular character. As we move forward you’ll notice that many of the highlights I chose to remember are the character-centered moments and not the big battles, which of course, there were many of too.
As the ongoing series began, Travis Morgan was becoming acclimated to his new world. In this first adventure he and Tara were taken prisoner (quite common early in the series). Travis was eventually able to free Tara, but was left for dead by his captors. He was quickly entrapped again, this time by a group of slavers. Fortunately, while in captivity this time, luck shone down upon the Warlord, as he met up with a man that would remain his ally for the remainder of the series.
Machiste was the The Warlord‘s most interesting and deeply developed supporting character. There are frequent complaints about the lack of strong black characters in comic books. This is certainly a fair assessment. However, Mike Grell created one of the strongest, non-stereotypical characters the medium has seen. Machiste was far ahead of his time in the comic book world. We would learn in issue #7 that he was King of Kiro. He was Travis Morgan’s truest male friend; he frequently fought valiantly alongside the Warlord. He never took a backseat or was shown to be inferior in any way. This was but one in a long line of memorable characters Mike Grell fashioned for the series.
After breaking their bonds and escaping gladiatorial slavery, Travis learned that his “love†Tara had recently been captured by Deimos. Travis began to build his legend at this point. He pulled together a large army of his fellow former-slaves; their goal: to end tyranny in Skartaris, defeat Deimos, and free Tara.
A funny thing then happened; after only two issues, DC cancelled The Warlord. Yup, that’s it folks. Short column, huh?
Alright, DC did cancel the book. But that was not the end. In the mid-1970’s there was no quick way to glean sales of a new title. Sales of a title actually depended on the amount of returns from news vendors and not the amount shipped. It took six months, but when the sales on The Warlord came in, they were good enough to return it to the publishing schedule.
Travis and Machiste gathered a great army of their fellow gladiators and other men they found along the way. Issue #3 served to reacquaint everyone to the character that had been away a little longer than he should have. Issue #4 was a memorable affair as it was the first time that Travis killed Deimos. Yes, you read that right. Travis, Machiste, and company storm Deimos’ castle and free Tara. Along the way Travis strikes Deimos down, seemingly for all eternity.
Let the triangle begin…
Following the defeat of Deimos, Machiste returned to the kingdom of Kiro, and Tara was leading Travis to her own kingdom of Shamballah. In issue #5 the pair stumble across a high tech chamber which reveals many of the secrets behind the settlement of Skartaris. The earliest people to come to the world were in fact members of the Atlantean race. Travis and Tara are separated when Morgan checks out a subway-like vehicle. Once again, as will often be the case with the book, Travis and Tara will not find one another for some time.
Travis Morgan finds another long-term traveling companion in issue #6. The vehicle has returned Travis to Earth at Machu Picchu in Peru. He encounters a group of archeologists that include the beautiful Russian redhead Mariah Romanova. It became apparent to Travis during his adventures that time moved in an extremely odd fashion in Skartaris, but Travis could not believe that 8 years had passed since he first landed in the strange land. He was considered by his government a Soviet defector, and written off. After a series of harrowing events, Mariah decides to return with Travis Morgan to the world of Skartaris.
No outward moments of love ever occur between the pair, but Travis and Mariah will travel together often. Mariah eventually will start up a love affair with Machiste, but Tara will often feel threatened by Mariah’s presence, thus creating a strange love affair, that will only become stranger as more interesting characters join the fray.
How’d he get that cool look…
The Warlord didn’t have his well-known look from the start, but it came quickly and has endured.
The Warlord gained his signature feathered helmet in issue #3, with no fanfare whatsoever. You’ll remember that there was a six-month gap after issue #2, and then on the first page of issue #3, Travis just had his most recognizable item. He gained the leopard loin cloth and most of his ruby accessories in issue #9, during an incident involving a moth-like being. Again there was little hooplah—the items were in the creatures cave as she nursed an injured Warlord back to health.
The return from cancellation with issue #3 brought about the start of the tradition of pages 2 & 3 being a beautiful double splash-page that would start the action. This was a tradition that would follow through to the end of the series and would be broken only a couple of times in a comic carrying as a title The Warlord.
Travis, you sly devil, you!
Throughout the course of the series, Mike Grell interspersed a number of sword and sorcery quests and travails for Travis and his companions to face. Many times these quests went on for a number of issues before reaching their resolution. Along the way you could be sure that there would be ample time for character growth, development, and loads of surprises.
Travis Morgan and Tara would frequently reunite, and issue #15 brought the pair together for the first time since issue #5. It was revealed by Tara that she and Travis now have a child named, Joshua. Joshua will serve as the crux of a very important story and a mystery that the Warlord has to this day, not yet solved.
Ashiya, a witch that Travis encountered earlier in the series resurrected Deimos, and his course of revenge upon Travis is stealing Joshua. Following these events Travis embarks on his quest. It was not until issue #21 that some resolution would come to the series of events. Travis, Tara, Mariah, and Machiste go to Deimos’ castle fortress at the Terminator. This is the spot where the inner and outer worlds meet, and thus it is cast in shadow. Deimos forces Travis to fight a speedily aged version of Joshua, and Travis has no choice but to kill his own son. In actuality Travis only killed a clone, but he does not know that. Joshua would show up as a boy nicknamed Tinder in the later part of Grell’s run and many times after. There would be some teasing of a family reunion, but to this day, nearly 30 years later, he still does not know. Talk about a tragedy.
Shakira
Following Joshua’s death, Travis separates from those he loves and seeks out adventure on his own. The darkest time in the Warlord’s history brought about the introduction of Shakira, who is, by far, my favorite supporting character. Shakira is a slinky, dark-haired beauty in a fur bikini that has the ability to transform into a beautiful black cat. The long running mystery about Shakira, “is she a woman that turns into a cat, or a cat that turns into a woman.†Who knows? Mike Grell certainly isn’t telling, and that’s the way it should be. The secrets and mystery only further enhance the “imaginative†world.
Even though Travis loves Tara, Shakira will remain his most frequent traveling companion from this point forward. Shakira’s impulsive nature and fiery behavior makes her the perfect companion for Travis. They get into an almost unending series of trouble together, but always find their way out. Shakira is Travis’ greatest ally, she is always there for him, never asks him to be anything but who he is, and never makes unfair demands of him. She’s a true friend.
Jennifer Morgan
Issue #38 introduced Travis’ daughter Jennifer to the story. Jennifer, along with a Secret Service man named Chambers, came to Skartaris in search of her father. They sail into the world and meet up with their quarry. Chambers actually came to murder Travis, but since he had fallen in love with Jennifer he allowed Travis to stay in Skartaris. The pair set sail back for Earth but are shipwrecked. Chambers perishes, but Jennifer has greater a far greater destiny.
Jennifer resurfaced in issue #44. She meets up with Faaldren who will long serve as her aid. For now though, Faaldren serves a different master, Deimos. Deimos has been destroyed by Travis Morgan three times at this point, but that dark wizardry of his keeps allowing him to return for revenge. At the moment, Deimos resides in a box and is nothing more than a disembodied head and hand. He will soon return to full power, and threaten Travis Morgan once more.
The big 5-0 and beyond…
Issue #50 served as the TRUE final battle with Deimos, at least in the ongoing series. After an waging an epic battle at Castle Deimos, Deimos flees into the bleak cold of the Arctic. When Travis catches up to a thoroughly beaten Deimos, he nurses the villain back to health and leaves him to be devoured by wolves. That’s finality!
In issue #53 Jennifer begins training with Travis Morgan’s longtime enemy Ashiya the Witch. Unbeknownst at the time, Ashiya hoped to use Jennifer to destroy her father. Jennifer figured this out in the nick of time and vanquished her teacher. Jennifer thus became the most powerful sorceress in all of Skartaris, and possibly in the entire DC Universe.
I want to backtrack a moment to issue #52; at this point, Mike Grell would take a major step back from the ongoing Warlord series. As the series began Mike Grell was the writer, penciler, and inker of the book. As a bi-monthly book Grell was able to handle all of the chores. When issue #15 rolled around the book was granted monthly status and Grell dropped his inking duties. Issue #52 brought about the end of Grell’s tenure as penciler. Other then a number of covers over the years, he would never pencil or ink the character again. Grell remained on as the sole writer in name only. His then wife, Sharon Wright, actually penned much of what we saw credited to Grell until his final departure with issue #71.
The ongoing series lasted 62 issues after Grell left. Finally the book was cancelled in 1987 after a long and mostly successful run of 133 issues and 6 annuals. Only two other scribes would work on the book. Cary Bates would fashion an epic run through issue #99 that captured most of the good points of the character. Michael Fleisher had a far less successful run bringing the series to a close. To be fair, this is when the DC Universe began to crop up more regularly in the title. Something the true fans did not want to see.
Still, 133 issues is a magnificent achievement. In the final letters page of the series, it was mentioned that the book was the only ongoing series introduced in the 1970’s that was still being published at the time of its cancellation.
A six-issue return by Grell!
1991 saw Mike Grell return to his roots with a wonderful series that deconstructed the character of Travis Morgan and brought into play each of the important supporting cast members one more time.
Joshua was now a grown man. He was a traveling minstrel trying to get to the heart of what the Warlord legend and the man behind it was and meant to the world of Skartaris. Travis was a broken down figure still haunted by the loss of his son and one too many problems with Tara. It was wonderful irony that his son was so close, yet so far.
As happens with all great heroes, Travis rose from the ashes to protect fair Skartaris from a reborn Deimos one final time. The second to last page shows a portrait of the entire cast united in joyful celebration. In the end Travis Morgan does not hang around to revel in victory. Instead, he and Shakira depart to find adventure—a more than fitting ending for the character.
Where have you gone Travis?
The characters of Travis Morgan, Machiste, Mariah, Tara, and Shakira have made appearances since, but they are few and far between. There have been appearances in Aquaman, Green Arrow (recounted in my last Near Mint Memories column), Justice League: Task Force, and Teen Titans. Most recently Travis, Shakira, Jennifer and Machiste showed up in the pages of Wonder Woman 179-183. While the best moments with the characters were under the watch of Mike Grell, there are a number of worthy stories that Mike was not involved in as well.
The big mystery is: Where is the Warlord? Why has DC forsaken the character that at one point in the 1970’s was their top-selling book? Sword and sorcery is immensely popular once again. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is possibly the most popular film series ever and Dark Horse’s new Conan series was recently the best selling non-DC/Marvel comic in the Top 300 of Diamond’s sales charts. DC hasn’t had a good sword and sorcery yarn in years, and the The Warlord does have a built in fan base.
Yet, inexplicably, the character lingers in obscurity, even though Mike Grell has said numerous times that he’s willing to return to the character he made famous! DC, if nothing else, owes Mike Grell, the character, and his fans a final one-shot story!
The Reading Rack:
Warlord: The Savage Empire: This collection reprints First Issue Special #8 as well as issues 1-10, 12 of the ongoing series. The collection contains the introduction of most of the most famous denizens of Skartaris and some bang-up sword and sorcery action.
Errata: In the previous Near Mint Memories, I mistakenly credited the creation of Green Arrow to comic legend Jack Kirby. Oliver Queen was created in 1941 by writer Mort Weisinger and artist George Papp. He first appeared in More Fun Comics #73. Jack Kirby would work on Oliver Queen’s Green Arrow, but not until 1957.
