Guess Who's Back

More great news coming out from the convention. Mike Grell is back writing The Warlord for DC Comics starting sometime in early 2009. Perhaps even better news is that the series won't have anything to do with the miniseries from 2006 (what a disaster that was).

I consider The Warlord my gateway drug into the world of super hero comics. I didn't start reading funny books until I learned that new Star Wars and Indiana Jones stories could be found at comic shops. My interest in those waxed and waned for some time, and so did my interest in comics. Then I tried The Warlord. And WHAM! just like that, I was hooked. I loved the swords, I loved the epic battles and evil overlords with cool names (reminded me of the Pelucidar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs), and of course, I loved the scantily clad ladies.

As a boy, I couldn't get enough of the series. Every month I was at the comic shop or at 7-11, hoping to learn what happened next to Travis Morgan, Tara, and Machiste. I could never decide what I wanted to see more on the cover: Morgan with sword in hand battling some creature or the half-naked Shakira (of course, the best featured both). And because I became somewhat of a Warlord junkie, I began to frequent the local comic shop more and more. Eventually the owner tempted me with Green Arrow, Batman, The Amazing Spider-Man, and Uncanny X-Men. After that, all that remained for my love affair with comics was to learn how to keep them pristine and minty fresh.

I'll always consider The Warlord my first love. So I'm very excited to have him back. With Grell penning the series, my expectations are high, and I know it'll be difficult to recapture that same feeling I had reading the series as a kid. But I've got my fingers crossed. Even if the new book isn't that great, I still hope that DC finally gets around to reprinting those old stories. That way I can get my fix one more time without risking damage to those nearly perfect copies in my closet.