This story had been previously adapted to comics in a version written by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway, pencilled by Gil Kane and inked by Ernie Chan for Supernatural Thrillers #3 (1973).

[7] Although Corben stated in 1981 that Bloodstar was his favorite story up to that point,[8] he initially hesitated to take the assignment, finding the characters in "The Valley of the Worm" lacking in depth.

It is illustrated in black and white in mixed media in startlingly three-dimensional looking images rendered in airbrush, markers and colored pencils[11] and features some ground breaking narrative sequences.

"[16] The introduction continues, "The dazzling illustrations of artist-adaptor Richard Corben imbue the hero, Bloodstar, with the throbbing, tormented life force of a Rodin sculpture and animate each panel with the visual intensity of an Orson Welles film.

"[16] The introduction goes on, "Just like a cinematographer, the cartoonist pans, tilts, and zooms from angles which best accomplishes his dramatic purpose ... Corben employs "camera movement" to give his narrative a rhythmic flow and a tension.

James Van Hise wrote, "...I believe that it is the only time someone has rewritten Howard and retained the atmosphere and the subtext while also transforming it in to something as good as the original, however different it is in substantial ways.

"[17] D. Aviva Rothschild agrees, calling Bloodstar "pulp adventure fiction brought to life by a master illustrator... much more interesting, both textually and artistically, than the insipid Conan adaptations by Marvel.

"[18] Comics historian Maurice Horn believes that Bloodstar is "A bizarre commingling of Greek and Norse mythologies, with a light admixture of science fiction, it embodies the sum of Corben's fantasies and nightmares in its fantastic array of repulsive-looking monsters, incredibly muscled heroes and impossibly big-busted maidens.