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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 numerous figures who would go on to successful careers in the industry, including Alan Moore, Alan Davis, David Lloyd, Steve Dillon, and Grant Morrison; it also included contributions by the likes of Brian Bolland and John Bolton, while many of the magazine's painted covers were by Mick Austin.
The title Warrior was recycled from a short-lived fanzine Skinn had once edited/published; in 1974-1975, he had produced six issues of Warrior: Heroic Tales Of Swords and Sorcery. The fanzine featured reprints and new strips, art, and writing from such creators as Steve Parkhouse, Dave Gibbons (who designed the logo), Michael Moorcock, Frank Bellamy, Don Lawrence, and Barry Windsor-Smith.
Following the success of House of Hammer and Starburst, Skinn was head-hunted by Stan Lee of Marvel Comics to take over the company's ailing British division. There, his work included creating the well-received anthology Hulk Comic, which mixed reprints of extant American material and work sourced from the burgeoning British comics scene, much of it drawn from Skinn's contacts in both the industry and fanzines. In 1980, Skinn left Marvel UK – later explaining that he felt the demands on the wing's output had reduced it from making "quality material" to "quantity material". In response he set up Quality Communications, planning to follow the same successful template with a creator-owned ethos. He revived the name of the 70s fanzine for the project:
"Warrior seemed an obvious choice nobody else had picked up on — both times! It fit perfectly as a newsstand logo".
The contents of Warrior deliberately mimicked the successful elements from his work for other publishers - Marvelman was planned to emulate the revival of Captain Britain in the Hulk Weekly's Black Knight strip, V for Vendetta traded on similar motifs to Night Raven, Axel Pressbutton had a similar theme to Abslom Daak from Doctor Who Monthly and Father Shandor fitted the sword-and-sorcery profile of Conan the Barbarian. Skinn recruited many of the writers and artists he had previously worked with at Marvel, including Steve Moore, Gibbons, Steve Dillon, Steve Parkhouse and David Lloyd, adding established creators like Bolland and Bolton, as well as emerging young talent such as Alan Moore and Garry Leach. Leach would subsequently be assigned as the magazine's art director.
Part of the attraction for the creative staff was Warrior's unusual payment model. While page rates for the initial work were lower than those offered by rivals IPC Magazines, DC Thomson, and Marvel UK, the creators of each strip would receive a share in their output's ownership and increased royalties for reprints, instead of the normal industry practice of work-for-hire. Skinn hoped to follow the example of the French anthology Métal hurlant, with the various strips both syndicated overseas and, as each reached enough material, in collected albums.
The 52-page magazine had colour front and back covers (the latter usually carrying advertising, but occasionally containing a 'clean' version of the front cover) but was otherwise in black-and-white; initially it was priced at 50p. The first issue was dated March 1982, with Skinn's editorial noting work had begun in April 1981, but the creators had been encouraged to work at getting the first issue "right" rather than working towards a deadline. The issue included a two-page article introducing the creators behind the magazine. Both the editorial-cum-contents page and Skinn's replies to readers' letters would adopt a similarly candid approach, giving a generally unvarnished look at the magazine's frequent production problems. Letters page 'Dispatches' would print both positive and negative missives, with the latter often being upbraided by Skinn or other members of the creative team.
A Summer Special was planned in 1982 to be a separate special edition alongside the regular issues, featuring self-contained stories. However, various production issues saw some of the planned material merged into various regular issues of Warrior instead; in 2007, Skinn would attribute this to himself getting excited and overextending. Repurposed material included the cover for #4 – which bore the text 'Summer Special' instead of a date. As a result, both Big Ben and Raiko from Demon at the Gates of Dawn were featured in the illustration but not in the magazine's content, causing some confusion to readers. The Summer Special also bequeathed The Golden Amazon, the V for Vendetta strip "Vertigo" and the two-page Madman strip "ChronoCycle Mk.1" to Warrior #5. The magazine would fluctuate between monthly and bi-monthly, which Skinn would state was in response to the industry slowing down in the winter.
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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 numerous figures who would go on to successful careers in the industry, including Alan Moore, Alan Davis, David Lloyd, Steve Dillon, and Grant Morrison; it also included contributions by the likes of Brian Bolland and John Bolton, while many of the magazine's painted covers were by Mick Austin.
The title Warrior was recycled from a short-lived fanzine Skinn had once edited/published; in 1974-1975, he had produced six issues of Warrior: Heroic Tales Of Swords and Sorcery. The fanzine featured reprints and new strips, art, and writing from such creators as Steve Parkhouse, Dave Gibbons (who designed the logo), Michael Moorcock, Frank Bellamy, Don Lawrence, and Barry Windsor-Smith.
Following the success of House of Hammer and Starburst, Skinn was head-hunted by Stan Lee of Marvel Comics to take over the company's ailing British division. There, his work included creating the well-received anthology Hulk Comic, which mixed reprints of extant American material and work sourced from the burgeoning British comics scene, much of it drawn from Skinn's contacts in both the industry and fanzines. In 1980, Skinn left Marvel UK – later explaining that he felt the demands on the wing's output had reduced it from making "quality material" to "quantity material". In response he set up Quality Communications, planning to follow the same successful template with a creator-owned ethos. He revived the name of the 70s fanzine for the project:
"Warrior seemed an obvious choice nobody else had picked up on — both times! It fit perfectly as a newsstand logo".
The contents of Warrior deliberately mimicked the successful elements from his work for other publishers - Marvelman was planned to emulate the revival of Captain Britain in the Hulk Weekly's Black Knight strip, V for Vendetta traded on similar motifs to Night Raven, Axel Pressbutton had a similar theme to Abslom Daak from Doctor Who Monthly and Father Shandor fitted the sword-and-sorcery profile of Conan the Barbarian. Skinn recruited many of the writers and artists he had previously worked with at Marvel, including Steve Moore, Gibbons, Steve Dillon, Steve Parkhouse and David Lloyd, adding established creators like Bolland and Bolton, as well as emerging young talent such as Alan Moore and Garry Leach. Leach would subsequently be assigned as the magazine's art director.
Part of the attraction for the creative staff was Warrior's unusual payment model. While page rates for the initial work were lower than those offered by rivals IPC Magazines, DC Thomson, and Marvel UK, the creators of each strip would receive a share in their output's ownership and increased royalties for reprints, instead of the normal industry practice of work-for-hire. Skinn hoped to follow the example of the French anthology Métal hurlant, with the various strips both syndicated overseas and, as each reached enough material, in collected albums.
The 52-page magazine had colour front and back covers (the latter usually carrying advertising, but occasionally containing a 'clean' version of the front cover) but was otherwise in black-and-white; initially it was priced at 50p. The first issue was dated March 1982, with Skinn's editorial noting work had begun in April 1981, but the creators had been encouraged to work at getting the first issue "right" rather than working towards a deadline. The issue included a two-page article introducing the creators behind the magazine. Both the editorial-cum-contents page and Skinn's replies to readers' letters would adopt a similarly candid approach, giving a generally unvarnished look at the magazine's frequent production problems. Letters page 'Dispatches' would print both positive and negative missives, with the latter often being upbraided by Skinn or other members of the creative team.
A Summer Special was planned in 1982 to be a separate special edition alongside the regular issues, featuring self-contained stories. However, various production issues saw some of the planned material merged into various regular issues of Warrior instead; in 2007, Skinn would attribute this to himself getting excited and overextending. Repurposed material included the cover for #4 – which bore the text 'Summer Special' instead of a date. As a result, both Big Ben and Raiko from Demon at the Gates of Dawn were featured in the illustration but not in the magazine's content, causing some confusion to readers. The Summer Special also bequeathed The Golden Amazon, the V for Vendetta strip "Vertigo" and the two-page Madman strip "ChronoCycle Mk.1" to Warrior #5. The magazine would fluctuate between monthly and bi-monthly, which Skinn would state was in response to the industry slowing down in the winter.