Thursday, February 10, 2011

Visit scenic Skartaris!

Buy insurance first...
This was a two page spread in Warlord Annual #4, but I'm not sure who drew the map, or wrote the page of notes for it. The main story "Sins of the Father...Fate of the Son..." was from writer Cary Burkett, art by Pat Broderick, inks by Bob Smith; but that doesn't necessarily mean they did the map as well. Even GCD didn't help with this one.

The notes, titled "Inside the Hollow Earth," explains how this is the explored regions, and only a small portion of Skartaris. The dinosaurs and mermaids should clue you in to the inexact nature of the map, as should the lack of scale; the notes tell how distance is measured by a bowshot, a league, or a march, meaning your guess is as good as anyone's. Also, the locations of a few specific issues are noted, and tease such back-issue moments as an Atlantean city inhabited by robots, an undersea kingdom, and a cobra-woman.


If you played D&D as a kid, like I did, figure you'll eat this up; and the rest of the issue follows suit, with the return of the Evil One, the secret origin of the magic-resistant Hellfire Sword, a visit with the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend, and Morgan and his son Tinder...still not reunited, missing each other by that much. Again.

In very super-heroic fashion, Travis and Jennifer go to kick the Evil One's ass pretty much on their lonesome, leaving Tara and Shakira and all in reserve.

I think this issue was the high-water mark for post-Grell Warlord: the book would run for a few more years, but I don't recall liking any later issues quite as much as this one.

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