If you thought you had a winner, do a duplicate of it right away", reasoning that there was potentially a market for two science fiction comics and it would be better for IPC to launch their own 'competitor' rather than allow it to come from Marvel UK or DC Thomson.

He recruited Battle assistant editor Steve MacManus to work on the title, but Kevin O'Neill turned down the post of art director, preferring to stay on 2000 AD despite the chance of a pay increase.

[4] The team decided to follow 2000 AD's popular gimmick of being edited by the fictional character of 'host' Tharg the Mighty, and the eponymous Starlord - a bouffant-haired superhero, designed by Ian Gibson - was developed by MacManus and the experienced Chris Lowder; each issue's editorial content took the format of a primer for survival in the galaxy, and would be signed off with a catchphrase imploring readers to "keep watching the stars".

[7] While Mills and O'Neill had turned down staff posts with Starlord, both contributed work to the title - partly as favours to Gosnell - with the strip "Ro-Busters", about a robot disaster-response squad.

Judge Dredd co-creator John Wagner meanwhile worked on futuristic mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha as the lead of "Strontium Dog", though Gosnell would recall they had difficulty coming up with a name for the character and the strip.

First of all the colour pages were cut back to eight per issue and then the reality of the cost of radically different printing began to dawn, and Sanders ordered the comic to be turned into a weekly, albeit with improved quality paper to retain the web offset design.

Finding contributors was also difficult as many were heavily involved in other projects, with Mills - busy on Judge Dredd storyline "The Cursed Earth" - soon quitting as "Ro-Busters" writer and many strips soon using a patchwork of artists.

For his part Gosnell grew rapidly disenchanted with the perceived interference of managing editor Bob Bartholomew, who effectively had to sign off on all IPC's magazine output before it went to press.

In the comic itself was reorganised, with "Ant Wars" and the controversial "Harlem Heroes" sequel "Inferno" dropped to make room for new arrivals "Strontium Dog", "Ro-Busters" and "Timequake", with "Robo Hunter" and "Dan Dare" also put on a temporary hiatus.

[4] Gosnell's return was short-lived as he was soon recruited by Sanders to work on another launch, for the ill-fated Tornado - a development which saw MacManus promoted to 2000 AD editor, initially on a temporary basis.

[11] The title would remain the same until the 18 August 1979 edition, when it had to be changed to accommodate a merge with Tornado, but many consider the new strips and boost in sales from Star Lord to have gone some way to assuring 2000 AD's medium-term future.

As the weekly was heading towards cancellation, a 48-page Star Lord Summer Special was issued, featuring self-contained "Timequake", "Ro-Busters" and "Strontium Dog" strips, as well as one-off "Trash".

Three Starlord Annual hardbacks were also produced for the Christmas market in 1979, 1980 and 1981 - per standard industry practice, these were dated for the following year to make it easier for retailers to move on unsold stock.

Due to the comic's small number of features and overlap with 2000 AD the contents were eclectic in nature; they included reprints of old Lion stories "Captain Condor", "Jimmi from Jupiter", "The Return of the Sludge" and "The Robot Builders" from Tiger as archives were raided for anything science-fiction related.

[2] When the title was cancelled and merged with 2000 AD, Starlord announced that his mission on Earth had been successfully completed and he was off to battle the evil Interstellar Federation on other worlds, though he urged his readers to "keep watching the stars".

[15] Rebellion Developments had taken over publication of 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine in 2001, and in 2016 purchased the remaining contents of Star Lord from Egmont Publishing along the rest of the post-January 1970 IPC archive.