Star Slammers was an American comic book series written and drawn by Walt Simonson. The series was Simonson's first comics and it led to his getting work in the comic book industry. The comics have been released by various publishers including Marvel Comics, Malibu Comics, Dark Horse Comics and IDW Publishing.
The series began after Simonson joined the Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) after graduating college in the early 1970s with a Geology degree and did some work on the WSFA Journal. As part of their bid to host the 1974 World Science Fiction Convention (WSFC), he created what would become Star Slammers, which the group would personally print and distribute at various conventions, with each six-page episode appearing every three to four months. The final chapter appeared in time for the 1972 WSFC that saw WSFA win the vote. He rated the early part of the work as "pretty good fan art" which, by the end, had become "marginally professional", so bound the second half of the story into one volume and used it as his portfolio.Carmine Infantino, who was the editor-in-chief as DC Comics saw this portfolio and got him bits of work at DC, six months later editor Archie Goodwin gave him his breakthrough drawing "Manhunter", a backup feature in DC's Detective Comics written by Goodwin. The first Star Slammers title was published by Marvel Comics as Marvel Graphic Novel No. 6 in 1983, and later in 1994 a new five-issue limited series by Malibu Comics' Bravura imprint,[4] though only four issues out of five were published. Dark Horse Comics published the final issue as a one-shot special in 1996. Dark Horse also published an 8-page Star Slammers story titled "Fever Dream" in Dark Horse Presents #114 (1996)that is a prelude to the 1994 Malibu series.
