One of the most appealing aspects of Starlin’s legendary Warlock series is the breadth of the scope of its undertaking. Starlin combined Shakespearean-type drama with a Don Quixote-like quest (along with an actual Pancho Villa in the form of Pip the Troll), threw it all into space, mixed it with some truly bizarre plot twists and some jaw dropping art. When I read it, this left me, and I am assuming a few others, filled with wonder and amazement as well as admittedly a little confused, as I was somewhat younger at the time- LOL!.
Like many people, the visionary aspect of these comic books, remains with me to this very day. While I was happy to find a panel page from Strange Tales 181 with some nice shots of Warlock a couple of years ago, I was that much more pleased to find a full page battle splash with all four major characters (Warlock, Thanos, Pip and Gamorra) as well as Magnus in spirit (well represented by his mindless minions!).
To me, this page is a rare and wonderful little vision into what I consider one of the most fruitful, experimental and interesting periods of comics, and quite frankly, something that I did not expect would make its way into my collection as I’ve never owned the original Warlock comics, having only read the reprints. In addition, like other Starlin splash pages (see Len Callo’s gallery) there is some production “patina” on this piece which also gives us a little glimpse of how the process of making comics and the handling of the original art has changed over the years. Thanks to Mark McDermott for making this page available.
