Legion Worlds: coming eventually

Here's an excerpt from a project I've been working on since May 2015. I call it "Legion Worlds" (for now, at least). Or maybe it should be "Where's Where in the Legion of Super-Heroes"? I guess "Encyclopedia Galactica" is already taken.

This logo by Josh Beatman of Brainchild Studios, as seen on Todd Klein's blog of Legion logo studies here.

Back in 2007, Geoff Johns (who apparently read my blog at the time) emailed me to ask if I could help with a project he was working on, which later turned out to be Legion of 3 Worlds. He asked "Do you know where I can get a list of the members of the United Planets from the original series - up to Crisis?" I was able to give him the list of UP worlds in a list that combined the "World Book" and the "Atlas of the DC Universe" from the Mayfair role playing game, "Who's Who in the LSH", and Mark Waid's Legion index (later published as "The Official Index to the LSH" from ICG). I came up with a list of 158 named worlds. If he used anything from my list, I don't know for certain.

But that exchange got me thinking, "I should do some more research to find out if such a list exists". Never found anything that had been created as part of Interlac of the Legion Outpost. But I eventually found a list generated by "Portfolio Boy" on the Legion Worlds message board in 2014, and it was just what I was looking for - but it only went up to Adventure Comics #349.

So beginning in 2015, I went back and looked up every Legion story starting with Adventure Comics #247, and made notes on every dimension, galaxy, solar system, star, planet, country, city, and building that I could find, including whatever history was given, notable inhabitants or animals, whose homeworld it is, and anything else the Encyclopedia Galactica said about it. I'm up through LSH v3 #45 now, covering up to early 1988 ("only" 30 years of history!). I intend this first volume to cover the Pre-Crisis, Post-Crisis, Five Years Later, Retroboot, and New 52; the Reboot, Threeboot, and Rebirth versions will come later (and will be far shorter). This should be the definitive list of Legion-related worlds (plus some 20th century places they visited).

Once I'm done (eventually), I will release it with a Creative Commons license.

This is just the list of "A" places (1958-1988). Who remembers all of these? I have 93 pages of notes so far, covering A-Z plus numbers and unnamed places.

1. Aarok
2. Aegea
3. Aktar
4. Aldebaran
5. Alkoz
6. Alkrania
7. Alpha-4
8. Alpha XVII
9. Altair
10. Althar
11. Amadus
12. Amarta
13. Amazonia
14. Ananke (12th Moon of Jupiter)
15. Andalu
16. Andromeda Galaxy
17. Angtu 
18. Anakar
19. Ankar
20. Antares II
21. Anterio
22. Anti-Matter Universe
23. Anv
24. Anvor
25. Apokolips
26. Arane II
27. Arbro
28. Arctoraan
29. Arcturus
30. Ardemo
31. Arguv
32. Arion Star
33. Arnak
34. Arok-1 and Arok-2
35. Arturus
36. Asteroid 108
37. Asteroid Archipelago
38. Asteroid 73-Q
39. Asteroid Belt
40. Asteroid X52
41. Asteroid YW-89
42. Asteroid Z
43. Asteroid Zone
44. Asteroid ZYX-1W
45. Avalon
46. Avatanda

LSH31C on FCBD

I realized it, but I didn't realize it.

In a comment over on The BEAT, Kevin Huxford notes:

I’d think there’d be a bit more comparing DC’s FCBD reprint offerings versus Marvel’s completely new offering. Or something about how the FCBD Legion offering is coming so quickly after the copy that customers are expected to pony up cash for.

He's right. Free Comic Book Day is May 5th, while the retail version of this book comes out for sale on April 18th.

For what it's worth, I've decided that my abbreviation for this title will be "LSH31C". Much easier than typing in "Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century", though only marginally easier than "Legion Adventures".

Here's what the cover will look like with the FCBD trade dress. Notice that the logo is based on the logo from the TV series (to be expected, of course).



Over at Every Day Is Like Wednesday, Caleb looks at the FCBD selections, of which LSH31C is one.

Additionally, I can’t imagine it being a book that’s going to lead to life-long comics readers or, if it does, that it’s the best one to start them on. I’m about as nerdy a DC reader as you can get (Hell, I blog on their comics, for chrissakes!) and even I’m leery of the LOSH. The first year’s worth of Mark Waid and Barry Kitson’s current series is the longest I’ve ever read any Legion series, and I wouldn’t have even attempted that if it weren’t a hard reboot. Legion continuity is a fucking desert full of mirrors, and any traveling into it are risking their own sanity.

That said, I do plan on reading this new series for a couple of issues, at least. All of DC’s cartoon tie-ins are incredibly hit-or-miss, but this one has the advantage of Chynna on art chores. Of course, Chynna writing and designing her own LOSH series would be even cooler than this, but I’ll take Chynna art wherever I can get it.

Free copy of Adventure Comics 247!

No, not a dream, a hoax, or an imaginary story. I have an extra copy of the original Adventure Comics 247 from 1958 that I want to get rid of but can't figure out how.

Lemme explain.

At the San Diego con in 1995, I stumbled across a reasonably-priced copy of this issue. As a Legion fan, it was my "holy grail" of comics. Here's how I recounted it a couple years later:

I got mine at the 1995 San Diego con, just beating out Jim Drew for the right to buy it. A dealer (Mike Carbonaro) had bought a large collection to sell at SDCC and pulled out the top books to display. They didn't really get a chance to look at everything closely, the guy said. Jim and I passed by the booth and I noticed it in a display case, the first time I had ever seen a copy. It was way more than I wanted to spend for the convention, but I rationalized it as a Congressional "off-the-budget" purchase. I was still wavering, and Jim told me that if I didn't buy it, he would. So I had to buy it. :) Of course, I didn't look at it closely enough until I got home, only to find out that (a) it had been restored (rice paper strengthening the cover, new staples, minor color touchups) and (b) the centerfold was missing. I wound up contacting him and getting a rebate the next year (which I wound up spending on Adventure 267 and Action 267 from him anyway).

(If anyone here was reading Usenet or the LSH-L mailing list in 1995, this is the infamous "milkshake copy".)

So for 11 years I had my copy of Adventure Comics 247, missing a centerfold. Someone sent me scans of what I was missing (a Little Pete gag page, a two-page ad, and the first page of the Green Arrow story), but I was always on the lookout for a spare centerfold from the issue. Of course, those never show up, so I eventually started looking for crappy beat-up copies with the centerfold intact, thinking I'd cannibalize the issue. And whaddaya know, this summer I finally found the right candidate. For the grand sum of $35, I bought a copy that was missing the cover and the first wraparound (which is the first two pages of the Legion story, and two ads) and had a detached centerfold. Score! (The seller threw in a copy of the Silver Age Classics issue too.)

But what do I do with rest of the issue? The pages (that are left) are in decent condition, considering it's nearly 50 years old. If I were to put it up on eBay, the selling price would barely cover my listing fees - per Overstreet rules, it's probably worth about ten bucks.

I figured that since November 8th is my one-year blogiversary here at the Omnicom, I'll just give it away as a celebration gimmick. But how and who? That's where you guys come in - I'll let my readers (about 150-200 per day) figure it out. It's not a beg-a-thon and I'm not asking for anything in return. How should I get rid of this issue and who should I give it to? If you want it, tell me why you should get it. Bribery is an option but not a guarantee.

For the winner, I'll also throw in that Silver Age Classics reprint and a CD with scans of the missing pages. Absolutely free, I'll even pay for postage.

To Freedom, Friendship, and Frunt!