RIP: Steve Lightle
By now it's probably not news to anyone that former Legion artist Steve Lightle passed away recently due to complications from COVID-19. NBC News has a nice obituary.
His big break came from DC when he was chosen after doing artwork on a few stories in New Talent Showcase, he jumped right into the Legion just after their move to the v3 "Baxter" series taking over pencil duties from Keith Giffen. It was a dream job for him but I've read that he found it difficult to do 22 pages per month plus a cover on a regular series, so for most of the rest of his career, he contributed covers to not only the Legion in several long runs but also Flash, and Classic X-Men and Marvel Comics Presents over at Marvel.
Here's an alphabetical checklist of Steve's Legion work (non-reprints):
- Action Comics (2008)
- Cover only
- #860 (variant)
- Cosmic Boy (1986-87)
- Cover only
- #1, 2, 3, 4
- Flash 80-Page Giant (1999)
- Story
- #2 (XS)
- History of the DC Universe portfolio (1988)
- Pinup
- Legends of the Legion (1998)
- Cover only
- #1, 2, 3, 4
- The Legion (2003-04)
- Story and cover
- #24, 34
- Legion of Super-Heroes v3 (1984-89)
- Story only
- #3, 4, 5
- Cover only
- #6, 11, 15, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, Annual 2
- Story and cover
- #7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 23
- Legion of Super-Heroes v7 (2012-13)
- Story and cover
- #8
- Cover only
- #9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
- Pinup and cover
- #0
- Secret Origins (1986)
- Cover only
- #8
- Showcase '96 (1996-97)
- Cover only
- #11, 12
- Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes (1985-86)
- Cover only
- #329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 334, 335, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, Annual 4
- The Wanderers (1988-89)
- Cover only
- #9, 10, 11, 12, 13
- Who's Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes (1988)
- Story and cover
- #1, 2
- Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe (1985-87)
- Pinup
- #3 (Blok), 5 (Colossal Boy), 8 (Fatal Five), 12 (Karate Kid), 13 (Legion of Super-Villains), 16 (Mon-El), 18 (Polar Boy), 20 (Sensor Girl, Shadow Lass), 23 (Tellus, Timber Wolf)
- Who's Who Update '87 (1987)
- Pinup
- #4 (Mentalla)
- Who's Who in the DC Universe (1991)
- Pinup
- #6 (Ayla Ranzz)
- Crisis on Infinite Earths Companion Deluxe Edition (2019) (RC)
- vol 3
- The DC Universe by John Byrne (2018) (RC)
- History of the DC Universe (1988)
- Legion of Super-Heroes v3 (2008-09) (RC)
- An Eye for an Eye
- The More Things Change
- Legion of Super-Heroes v7 (2013-14) (RC)
- vol 2: The Dominators
- vol 3: The Fatal Five
- Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes (2008) (RC)
- Superman: The Man of Steel (2005) (RC)
- vol 4
- Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes (1985-87)
- Story
- #328, 329, 330, 332, 333, 334, 335, 337, 338, 339, 341, 348
Here's the trademark symbol he came up with for Dream Girl:Another hint at what may have been considered comes from Steve Lightle, longtime comic artist. This came from an interview on RTM: Steve's first experience with the toy world came back when he was the regular artist on DC's Legion of Super-Heroes. He was contacted by the design team for Kenner's DC Super Powers Collection. Unfortunately, Steve's work never made it to the shelves. "I was asked to come up with a trademark symbol for ...can you believe it...Dream Girl! I gave them the design, but the toy was never made. Another one that they told me about that never came out was Dawnstar. Wouldn't that have been a fantastic figure?"