"The Sword and the Sorcerers"

Chamber of Darkness #4 ->
Chili #12
Kid Colt Outlaw #145
Marvel's Greatest Comics #26
Millie the Model #181
Our Love Story #4
Rawhide Kid #75
Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #77
The X-Men #67 (reprints The X-Men  #12)

Supporting Characters:

• Len Carson
• Whitney, his publisher
• Morro, Starr's minstrel
• O'Neal, a police officer

I'd venture a guess that few Marvel Zombies picking up the fourth issue of Chamber of Darkness realized that they were seeing history unfold before their pre-teen eyes. "The Sword and the Sorcerers" by Roy Thomas and Barry Smith is an obvious prototype of Conan the Barbarian (who would make his legitimate Marvel debut six months later), right down to the loincloth and horned helmet.

• "The Sword and the Sorcerers" (#4, April 1970; one-shot character Starr the Slayer)

Writer Roy Thomas, penciler-inker Barry Smith

Conan the Barbarian #16 (July 1972); The Conan Saga #6 (Oct. 1987); The Essential Conan, Vol. 1 (Marvel, 2000, ISBN 0-7851-0751-7)

I know what you're thinking, Groove-ophile. "Who-the-what? What's so famous or first about him?" Well, we all know that Roy Thomas and Barry (pre-Windsor) Smith teamed up to produce the hottest, coolest, bestest sword and sorcery comic of all time, Conan the Barbarian (we do, don't we?), but did'ja know that about six months prior to that dazzling debut, Thomas and Smith teamed for a warm-up/try-out stab at sword and sorcery with a character called--yep, you guessed it!--Starr, the Slayer? Didja know that self-same savage made his debut in Marvel's Chamber of Darkness #3 (January, 1970)? Did'ja know that fateful feature was reprinted in Conan the Barbarian #16 (April, 1972)? Well he did and it was. Who knows, without Starr, Roy might never have convinced Smilin' Stan to take a shot at Conan--or Barry, for that matter! And then where would we be? Conan-less! Perish the thought! So, it's time to give old Starr his due, for without him, we might never have gotten the barrage of sword-slinging swingers we so enjoyed back in the Groovy Age! G'head, Groove-ophile! Get your groove on with Starr, the Slayer in "The Sword and the Sorcerers!"It's a comic that dosen't suck,but I put it up anyway.

Synopsis for "The Sword and the Sorcerers"

The story begins as a sorcerer known as Tull,attempts to kill off Starr the Slayer.Trull,looks allot like a writer Len Carson-obvious a take off on Lin Carter

' who is selling barbarian stories of Starr the Slayer that come to him in dreams.Trull,must came the name Jephro Tull.Trull summons up a big demon and grasp Starr.The Slayers managed to get free and throw his sword at Starr the Slayer,before the sequence interupted by Len Carson waking out of a dream. Carson-plans to kill off Starr in the next story because the dreams are putting too much of a strain upon his health.Carson calls his publisher Whitney-obvious a reference to Whitney Ellesworthe.Len Carson,arrogantly tells him,this is the story and he'll kill off Starr in the end of this final tale.This is also a reference writers like Sir Arthor Conan Doyle,who wanted to kill off Sherlock Holmes.Imagine,what if say Robert E.Howard,wanted kill off Conan.You can see the connections Roy Thomas was making between Conan outlasting his creator Two Gun Bob and another writer with the middle Conan,wanting to off his creation.Lin Carter wrote or co-wrote Conan stories,so his is used as a substitute for Howard.Bob Howard,claimed,he did simply wrote Conan stories,but had the Cimmerians ghost tell him tales of his adventures and REH simply wrote them down.You can see the creative wheels as Thomas put two and two together to create this story.

 On his way to the office,poilkce officer ask Len Carson how much enjoyed the lastest Star the Stayer story.O'Neal, Starr assaults Carson-  out of an alley with accusations of assassin upon his lips.Starr see him more evil than Trull,being he somehow summoned him into this city,whose crystal minerettes dwarf the towers of proud Zardath. The writer is unbelieving, even to the point that Starr raises his sword and strikes him down.Len Carson dies,as pages of his last tales scattered upon the darkenned alley. Starr wakes in his own world and relates a dream to his faithful minstrel Murro wherein he struck down a grave threat to his life. 

We can assume,publisher Whitney never receives the final   Starr the Slayer tale,since Len Carson will found dead by a unknown murderer.Starr lives in his other world,as we can assume the fictional alternate world of  Starr the Slayer's adventures are written by other hands.A kind of statement of a creation,outlives his creator by other authors,despite he might want to do with his creation after his death.

Barry was obviously still working on mastering the human form as Starr the Slayer's torso, while nicely muscular, changes from panel to panel, swinging the pendulum from anorexic to bulky. That aforementioned loincloth looks to be two times the size of Starr's midsection in some shots, resembling a diaper that hasn't been pinned properly. Acknowledging the prototype, Roy and Barry reprinted the story in Conan the Barbarian #16 (July 1972) and it's been reprinted a few more times since. That Conan #16 also featured a reprinting of "Night of the Frost-Giants" from Savage Tales #1, the reprintings a result, no doubt, of Barry missing a deadline.

Note the unusual fitting of Starr's jockey shorts