If you missed the last one…
This post is brought to you by Whispers of Ice and Sand: Space Westerns but only half of the book is made up of Space Westerns about Neely the ex-Ranger. The other half is straight Space Adventure with Sudana on the ice planet of Hel III where she meets Zaar the android for the first time. Later they visit jungle worlds and burning rock asteroids and finally a world where robot prisoners mine radioactive ore. (That’s Sudana in the background on the cover.) The title refers to the planet Utukku where the whispering winds erase tracks in minutes, a nod to Erle Stanley Gardner’s Whispering Sands and the ice on Hel III.
Last time we looked at all the groovy space pirates of the 1970s. (Oh the eye-patches!) By 1980, everything is in a Star Wars vein, but the eye-patches persist. We even get comics that take pirates literally into space like Swords of the Swashbucklers and Starslayer. Just like Skeleton Crew playing now on Disney +, the actual Star Wars franchise offers real space pirates in the Ewoks comic from Marvel’s kiddie line Star Comics. Heavy Metal will bring back “Cody Starbuck” in color, the Green Lantern and Hawkman will face off against several pirates, as the superhero comics try to navigate the new Sci-Fi era. The Brits will do marauders in Starblazer and Judge Dredd. Lastly, we will finish with a visual treat in Alex Nino’s Space Clusters graphic novel. A nice way to say goodbye to the Bronze Age.
“The Pirates of Vega III” (Starblazer #22, 1980) was written by Gary Rice. Space Navy versus the pirates. In their first encounter the Navy doesn’t do very well but by the end, after discovering their secret, the tide turns. An early issue of a black and white anthology comic that would run to two hundred and eighty-one issues.
“Space Pirates” (The First Kingdom #14, 1981) was written and drawn by Jack Katz. Katz’s sprawling mega-history begins in primitive times with a comic more Sword & Sorcery than SF but expands into space. Of course, there are space pirates out there. After working in the regular comics field, Katz moved to California and explored underground comix publishing. Wanting complete control, Katz published the series with Bud Plant. The results are idiosyncratic but stunning.
“Pirates of the Black Atlantis” (2000 A. D. #197-200, January 31-February 21, 1979) was written by Alan Grant. After Dan Dare and Strontium Dog facing off with pirates, it is now Judge Dredd’s turn. Dredd deals with Mutie Pirates both on Earth and in space.
“The Exaggerated Death of Ultra Boy”/”Of Pride, Passion and Piracy!” (Legion of Super-Heroes #274-275, April-May 1981) was written by Gerry Conway. The Legion thinks Jo Nah, Ultra Boy, is dead but he is actually found by a band of space pirates led by Frake. When the Legion takes on the pirates, Ultra Boy betrays his new comrades for his old ones. (At first I thought of Jonathan Frakes for that pirate name but Star Trek: The Next Generation began in 1987. I suspect it is mean to sound like “Drake”.)
“Starbuck” (Heavy Metal, May-September 1981) was written and drawn by Howard Chaykin. This was Cody Starbuck’s big return and in Chaykin’s classic painted style. He did several projects with Samuel Delany and Michael Moorcock in this style. This would be Cody’s last appearance. Two years later he would change directions with American Flagg.
“The Pirates of Ka-Lor” (Starblazer #66, 1982) was written by John Speer. The second set of pirates for the comic but this time with eye-patches and other cliches. The plot revolves around an agent who must bring a space pirate to trial back on Earth. He has help from his robot companion. The art is by a young Enrique Alcatena who would later wow fans of Conan the Barbarian.
“Pirates of the Spaceways”/”Out Into Space in Ships” (World’s Finest #279-281, May-July 1982) was written by Bob Rozakis. Hawkman deals with pirates kidnapping people but gets little help from Batman or Superman. He fights a villain with a laser sword and ropy tentacles to defeat the marauders. This is a superhero comic trying to please Sci-Fi readers. Hawkman always had that edge from the beginning when Gardner F. Fox created him as a more Sword & Sorcery influenced character. Fox wrote the Sword & Planet series about Llarn.
“A Matter of Snow” (Green Lantern #154, July 1982) was written by Mike W. Barr. Medphyl the one-eyed Green Lantern deals with pirates who are raiding the peaceful people of a distant planet. This is the first of three space pirate stories to appear over the next year.
Starslayer: The Log of the Jolly Roger (Pacific/First series, February 1982-April 1983) was written and drawn by Mike Grell. This comic was originally going to be a DC product but the DC Implosion forced Mike Grell to look elsewhere. He chose to publish with independent comics. The story has an ancient Celt named Torin joining a crew aboard a galleon in space. Like all comics of this time period, he isn’t about booty but fighting the Empire. Grell would hand the series off when it moved to First Comics, with Timothy Truman finishing the run. Like Swords of the Swashbucklers (below) this comic co-opted the buccaneer look but wasn’t always about pirating. It’s pretty hard to write a comic just about killing people and taking their money.
“The Gladiator’s Apprentice” (Green Lantern #156, September 1982) was written by Paul Kupperberg. Wylxa attempts to train his apprentice Lantern Tahr with space pirates in the mix.
“Pirates of the Ether Sea” (Starblazer #100, 1983) was written by Ray Aspden. Space ships meet pirate ship. This seems to be a favorite image of the 1980s, stumbling upon a galleon in space. The usual explosions and zappings ensue.
Frank Frazetta painted this cover in 1974 for Richard A. Lupoff’s Into the Aether, an early steampunk adventure. I don’t think Lupoff’s book had much to do with it but Frazetta’s image must have inspired some of these space galleons.
“Ring Against Ring”/”A Ring of Endless Night” (Green Lantern #167-168, August-September 1983) was written by Joey Cavalieri. Space pirates capture Hal Jordan and make him fight a giant space blob. (We all know how good a story that makes, GL fighting space blobs!)
“Space Pirates” (Archie Giant Series #533, October 1983) was written and drawn by Bob Bolling. Ovo Vovo, richest kid in the galaxy, gets chased by space pirates to Earth where Sabrina is headed to a Halloween costume party. The pirates crash the party too but Sabrina uses her magic to make illusionary doubles of Ovo., who escapes but promises to come to next year’s soiree.
Swords of the Swashbucklers (Graphic Novel, 1984/First series, March 1985-March 1987) was written by Bill Mantlo. Art by Butch Guice, Geof Isherwood, Ricardo Villamonte and Colleen Doran. Domino Drake is a thirteen year old girl who joins a space crew of pirates. Turns out she’s Johnny Storm and can turn all fire and fly too. It’s a mixed bag with magic and solar sails. Like Starslayer, it co-opts the pirate look (even more strongly) without necessarily being about pirates all the time.
“Rites of Power” (Ewoks #2, July 1985) was written by Dave Manak. Remember that time space pirates came to Endor? I’m not talking about Ewoks: the Battle For Endor (1985) but that Wilfred Brimley vehicle obviously inspired this comic. The space pirates want to capture some Ewoks so they can tell them where the gem trees are. The villains are no match for the short hairy dudes and their pet goats. The comic looks like an episode of Richie Rich because the artist is Warren Kremer.
Space Clusters (DC Graphic Novel #7, November 1986) was written by Arthur Byron Cover. Marvel, DC, First and others experimented with “Graphic Novels” in the 1980s. This came about when the European comics like Asterix and Obelix and others finally became popular in the US. For more on this, go here. Space Clusters was written by the novelist Arthur Byron Cover. For me the important thing is Alex Nino, one of my favorite artists. This one has a female Terran agent, Kara Basuto, trailing the universe’s most notorious pirate, Ethan Dayak. Dayak flees into the K-Cluster for an ending that is challenging and not your standard comic book fare.
Conclusion
Hollywood loves to jump on a bandwagon and Star Wars was no exception. If it wasn’t John-Boy in Space it was Caroline Munro in silver underwear. But The Ice Pirates (1984) comes closest to the comics we have looked at here. All the pirate cliches along with Star Wars style space opera. Robert Urich of Vegas along with a younger Ron Perlman in a script that is more tongue-in-cheek than most (Spaceballs aside). There is even a lost “seventh world” to go and find. All you Battlestar Galactica fans know what planet that is… Poorly budgeted knock-offs do nothing to elevate Space Opera any more than the plethora of bad Sword & Sorcery duds did for heroic fantasy. (If you need to renew your faith in the powers of a well made space movie, there is always Dune. No, I mean Dune. No space pirates exactly but somehow it works.) The 1990s aren’t as kind to space pirates though the TV show Farscape may suffice. If you can wait Firefly will give us Reavers (2002) and The Expanse will do add some after 2015. Which is just my way of saying…space pirates ain’t going anywhere.
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