DC 1st Issue Special (The Warlord): Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The unusual DC comic "1st Issue Special" ran for 13 issues in 1974-1975. The title was an anthology series that featured a different character each issue, testing their potential to headline their own comics. This issue, no. 8, introduced one of the few characters to headline his own comic, Mike Grell's fantasy hero "The Warlord."

"Sword and sorcery" fantasy was in vogue at the time of the Warlord's premiere, with DC's rival Marvel Comics finding success with its interpretation of pulp author Robert E. Howard's "Conan The Barbarian." Following his premiere in "1st Issue Special," the Warlord titled his own comic for 133 issues, (1976-1988,) and has been featured in several revivals since.

"The Warlord" is United States Air Force pilot Travis Morgan. After flying through a hole in the North Pole, the Vietnam veteran finds himself in the magical "lost world" of Skartaris, where he becomes a freedom fighter, trained in combat by his future wife Tara.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1976
• date made: 1978
• date made: 1975
• maker: D. C. Comics, Inc.
• Object Name: comic book
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 6 3/4 in x 10 3/4 in; x 17.145 cm x 27.305 cm
• Subject: Comics
• Subject: Fantasy
• ID Number: 2013.3039.033
• catalog number: 2013.3039.033
• nonaccession number: 2013.3039
• Credit Line: Gift of George R. Zug
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.