As I’ve said in the past, I’ll buy pretty much any comic book that lurks on the outer edges of DC and Marvel. That’s where the off-the-wall, non-continuity stuff can be found, and there are some real gems that feel like someone’s sliding them under my door and running off. Starr The Slayer is one of the latest, written by Daniel Way (Deadpool) and illustrated by the most-excellent Richard Corben (Den; Hellboy; Cage).

In the first issue of this four-part mini-series, pulpy genre writer Len Carson enjoys wild success with a series of Conan-like books called Starr The Slayer. So successful that he’s soon churning out books like crazy and driving fast cars packed with top-heavy women. Y’know, just like real life. He soon tires of success because “the lit scene calls to me.” Twenty years after he’s abandoned his barbarian creation and failed to crack the world of tweed jackets, college professors and Borkum Riff, he’s ready to tackle his greatest creation one last time.

In a parallel story, Starr, a barbarian with a hot temper, journeys from his village to “civilization” with his family. They promptly hit a wall of trouble, his family is killed and Starr is forced to fight in an arena, where he brutalizes a local named Trull so badly that the disfigured guy runs away to concentrate on the black arts—and making these two parallel stories collide.

Right away, this is not some run-of-the-mill barbarian comic. Way is after some larger, deeper game while getting Corben to bash a few heads in the process. No one draws head-splattering violence from an angry barbarian quite like Corben, who’s been a master at this kind of story since the 1970s. I thought Way’s troubador-like sing-song narration would bother me, but by the second page, I bought into the conceit. Plus, I recognize pulp auteur Len Carson in more than a couple of friends of mine. Jose Villarubia’s colors are vibrant and very Corbenesque—their combo creates a “Hog-Beasts’ Dunghouse” that makes me feel unclean just looking at it.

It’s unfortunate that this is not the kind of comic book that Marvel (even with their Marvel Max imprint) does well with. It’s a stand-alone series that isn’t part of the Marvel Universe and can’t be traced back to the work of Stan and Jack and Steve. Yeah, it ties in a little with a Chamber of Darkness story from 1970 by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, but that’s not the same as having Starr be Reed Richard’s cousin or the founder of Barbarian Avengers. Starr The Slayer also doesn’t tie into Marvel’s movies or other media exploitation either, and despite the fact that I like this book quite a bit, I don’t think these kinds of comics are what Marvel (and DC, too) are going to be publishing under their new leaderships. Get ‘em while you can.

[Artwork: Cover to Starr The Slayer #1 by Richard Corben, © Marvel Characters]