Mind Wars
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| "Mind Wars" | |
|---|---|
 "Mind Wars" on the cover of the 22 July 1978 edition of Starlord. | |
| Publisher | IPC Magazines |
| Publication date | 20 May – 7 October 1978 |
| Genre | |
| Title(s) | Starlord 20 May to 7 October 1978 |
| Main character(s) | Arlen Lakam Ardeni Lakam |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Alan Hebden |
| Artist(s) | Jesus Redondo Ian Gibson |
| Editor(s) | Kelvin Gosnell |
"Mind Wars" is a British comic science fiction adventure story published in the weekly anthology Starlord from 20 May to 7 October 1978 by IPC Magazines.
The story takes place in the year 3000 during the midst of a galactic war, following 17-year old twins Arlen and Ardeni Lakam. Alien invaders attempt to turn them into living weapons by activating their powerful latent psychic abilities, leading to the siblings becoming caught in the middle of the conflict.
Starlord was originally planned by IPC and editor Kelvin Gosnell as a high-quality science fiction fortnightly with two ongoing 10-12 page serials in the form of "Strontium Dog" and "Ro-Busters". However, with the launch impending IPC management changed their minds and ordered the comic to be a regular weekly, requiring Gosnell and assistant editor Steve MacManus to find three new strips on short notice to fill the comic.[1]
Alan Hebden had primarily written war comics and was working on Battle Picture Weekly at the time, where he had worked with Carlos Ezquerra on the likes of "Major Eazy" and "El Mestizo" but enjoyed the science fiction genre - being fan of Cordwainer Smith - and pitched "Mind Wars" to Glosnell and MacManus, rapidly getting the nod - and also being assigned to rewrite "Planet of the Damned", an abandoned Pat Mills story originally pitched for the early issues of 2000 AD, which Hedben repurposed as a quasi-sequel to his own "Death Planet". He would later feel Ardeni being a strong female character enabled the script to work well.[2] Art duties were assigned to Jesus Redondo, a Spanish artist who had primarily worked on girls' comics for DC Thomson and had a reputation for a fast work-rate.[3] He was already committed to working on a series for Dutch girls' comic Tina at the time, and would later recall: -
I remember doing Mind Wars at the same time as another story for Netherlands; for five days in a week I sleep only three hours a night... It was terrible. It is curious because the editors tell me, "Well, it's your best work, Congratulations."
— Jesus Redondo, quoted by Michael Molcher, "Days of Wine & Warlocks", Judge Dredd Megazine #296 (31 March 2010)
Publishing history
Due to several additional features in the first issue of Starlord, "Mind Wars" didn't debut until the second, dated 20 May 1978. Starlord was a modest sales success, but it soon became clear it was splitting the market with 2000 AD and that the comics would need to be merged. "Mind Wars" was not selected for continuation, and Hebden was forced to rewrite the story by combining two scripts to make a conclusion for the 22nd and final issue of Star Lord, dated 7 October 1978. Hebden was disappointed at Starlord's demise, feeling "it was much better than 2000 AD, as it had better stories and was a better all round comic", though he gained some recompense as he was paid for both the two scripts and for rewriting them into a single episode. He would later rate "Mind Wars" alongside "Meltdown Man" from 2000 AD as his favourites from his own work.[2]
A new story would feature in the 1981 Starlord Annual.[4] In 2019, "Mind Wars" was issued as a series of supplements with Judge Dredd Megazine - with the strips from the weekly available with #408 and #409, and the story from the 1980 annual in #410.[5]