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After a mere 22 issues, Starlord was merged with 2000AD, the first combined issue, Prog 86, was dated 14th October 1978. The merger itself was unusual. IPC's house policy was to merge a failing title with a more successful one, but in this case, Starlord was reportedly outselling 2000AD at the time of the merger. There has been much speculation about IPC's reasoning. Obviously merging two titles combined the readership, giving the lead title an instant boost to its sales of up to 60% that would hopefully carry on in the mid-to-long term. Whichever title was folded should guarantee the continued success of the other, but Starlord was different because, unlike most IPC products, it was printed on expensive paper and had eight colour pages; 2000AD was published on cheap newsprint and was mostly black and white. Were Starlord to become the lead title, there was doubt that the new readership would be prepared to pay for this increased quality. Initially Starlord cost 50% more than other IPC titles, at 12p to their 8p, but IPC had already increased this to 10p, invalidating the argument. So in fine IPC tradition, Starlord succumbed to the third part of their "hatched, matched and dispatched" policy. This caused several problems on the creative front. Pat Mills had walked out of the 2000AD offices swearing never to return, having hastily concluded the Judge Dredd saga The Cursed Earth. He'd even quit writing Ro-Busters for Starlord. Carlos Ezquerra vowed never to work for 2000AD again after he was bumped off the first installment of his creation, Judge Dredd. Ezquerra was livid that the original episode he'd drawn had been axed on censorship grounds following the fallout from the Action ban. The first published Dredd was by Mike McMahon, and even though it aped Ezquerra's style, he believed that he would no longer be the artist identified with his creation. Nick Landau had just been fired from the Acting-Editor's post at 2000AD, which he had been filling for Starlord Editor Kelvin Gosnell, who still held the Editor's post officially. Landau had been replaced by Gosnell's Sub-Editor on Starlord, Steve MacManus, effectively leaving the Starlord editorial team in charge of the merged title. Without Landau, Art Editor Kevin O'Neill decided to quit his position after he'd convinced Pat Mills to return to the title, but was himself persuaded back as a freelance artist by Steve MacManus. John Wagner had quit writing Dredd, but was still working on Strontium Dog. Eventually the more contentious issues were worked out, and the first combined issue ran with Judge Dredd, by Wagner and Brian Bolland, Strontium Dog, by Wagner and Ezquerra, Ro-Busters by Mills and Dave Gibbons, and Flesh Book II, by Gosnell and Massimo Belardinelli, all behind a Gibbons cover. Of the remaining Starlord strips, only Timequake returned on 19th January 1980, for a brief four-part adventure by Jack Adrian and Jesus Redondo. The Starlord name was dropped entirely after Prog 126, having been made progressively smaller week by week, to clear the decks for yet another merger, this time with Tornado, another of IPC's failures. Starlord managed a Summer Special and three limp Annuals between 1979 and 1981, but its legacy remains in the continued success of Strontium Dog and the ABC Warriors. |
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