The story of an archeologist who stumbles through a time portal and winds up in Atlantis became the story of US spy pilot whose SR-71 is damaged while on a mission over Russia and plunges through an opening at the North pole into the world at the center on the earth, where creatures of from mythology and Earth's ancient past co-exist amid fantastic cities and leftovers of the civilization of Atlantis... drawing on many sources, including my own US Air Force experiences to lend a note of authenticity to the characters background.

[3] where the character Travis Morgan, a U.S. Air Force pilot, discovers a passage into a world called Skartaris through the Earth's North Pole.

[6] Creator Mike Grell wrote and drew the comic for six years, handing over the art chores after issue #59 (July 1982).

[8] Arak, Son of Thunder, created by Roy Thomas and Ernie Colón, first appeared in a special insert in The Warlord #48 (August 1981).

[10] Arion, a sword and sorcery title by writer Paul Kupperberg and artist Jan Duursema, began as a six–page backup feature in The Warlord #55 (March 1982).

Another backup feature was The Barren Earth by writer Gary Cohn and artist Ron Randall, which was concluded in a four–issue limited series.

Vietnam War veteran SR-71 pilot Travis Morgan passed through a hole in the Earth's crust while flying over the north pole in 1969[16] and landed in the underground world of Skartaris, a place strongly reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Pellucidar.

There, Travis, wielding his .44 AutoMag pistol and joined by Shamballah's Princess (later Queen) Tara, became The Warlord and fought villains such as the evil sorcerer Deimos as well as various kings.

[18] Although The Warlord has a superficial resemblance to the DC character Oliver Queen,[19] he is based more upon his creator Mike Grell, who was a former member of the Air Force.

[26][27] The Warlord appears in the Justice League Unlimited episode "Chaos at the Earth's Core", voiced by Paul Guilfoyle.