Happy anniversary! (Plus: The long and winding road of page 8A of Superboy #212)

On Wednesday, July 15, 1975, "Superboy" #212 was just appearing on the newsstands across America. Sometime around then, I picked it up from my regular shop (a 7-11 near the local mall). It was just a month shy of my 9th birthday. I think it was a little while before I became a regular reader, eventually getting the back issues that I had missed, but I consider this to be my anniversary of being a Legion fan.

So in honor of that, here's a story in 3 parts behind the story in that issue; in particular, about a single page of art in that book that never even appeared in the first place. Surprisingly, I don't think I've told this story to a wide audience before.

Part 1: How a Comic is (Un)Created

If you have read ""Last Fight for a Legionnaire!", the story from "Superboy" #212 about the Legion of Super-Rejects and Matter-Eater Lad getting drafted, in Legion Archive #11 and compare it to the printed issue, you'll notice that there's an extra page in the reprint, the page where Karate Kid gives Tenzil a pep talk. That page was cut from the original issue. Why? Well, here's Jack C. Harris (aka Production Assistant Lad), to tell us why, from the pages of "Amazing World of DC Comics #9" (cover dated December 1975), the special all-Legion issue, in an article entitled "How a Comic is (un)Created".

In prior installments of this feature, various writers revealed how comics spring from the scripter's or editor's mind, are translated into penciled pages, inked and finally become finished artwork.

Boy, did they ever make it sound easy! To hear them tell this wonderful story, you'd think there were never any problems! Oh, if it were only so!

Every snag or delay that could possibly happen -- has! Even those problems that couldn't ever occur -- do! Thankfully, most of those difficulties are little ones that can be corrected in the early stages. But some require more drastic action.

For instance, here's a problem that confronted us in March of this year. Murray Boltinoff and I had just turned SUPERBOY starring THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #212 in to the production department for final corrections before it headed to the printer. Originally, these stories were scheduled for the lead pages of a 50¢ Giant. Since we'd recently discontinued that format, we kept the 12-page cover feature ("Last Fight For A Legionnaire"), the 8-page back-up ("A Death Stroke At Dawn") and my Super-Talk letters page (my first one for that book!) as our regular 25¢ Issue.

The day after we turned it in, production manager Jack Adler rushed in (Adler constantly rushes nowhere) to tell us the page count of the 25¢ books had been reduced. We had to cut two pages....

The first thing we sliced was my letters page! It was a good one, so I could easily add some new comments and have it ready for #213. But how about that second page? Somewhere, somehow, we had to cut some story! After careful re-reading, Murray and I found that the 8th page of the first story could be omitted without losing the even flow of action, even though we had to sacrifice a good bit of Jim Shooter's dramatics concerning the resignation of Matter-Eater Lad. It was an editorial decision -- lose some characterization or some action -- and characterization lost out! The page was removed, the remainder was re-numbered and the book left for the printers.

Now the question arose as to what to do with this un-used, paid for, Mike Grell page of Legion art. Murray suggested that we use it for a "springboard" and write a new story around it -- which we still might do someday. In the meantime, instead of letting it collect dust on our shelves, we've decided to present it here within our special Legion issue of AWODCC!

If the purists among you wish, you can color the opposite page, clip it out and insert it between pages 7 and 8 of SUPERBOY #212's lead story, thus maintaining the tale in its original form.

However, since those two pages are back to back, this might prove a bit difficult. Because we've just told you how we solved one of our problems, we figured, to be fair, we'd offer suggestions as to how to overcome this page manipulation problem:

1. Buy an extra copy of SUPERBOY #212.
2. Find yourself an incredibly sharp razor blade to split pages 7 and 8 apart.
3. Make your own Editor's Note at the bottom of page 7 referring to this page of AWODCC.

If you can think of any others, please keep them to yourself -- we've got problems of our own!

Click on each image to embiggen.

 

Part 2: How an Archive is Created

I'm sure this will come as a shock to some readers, but I've been tracking Legion reprints for over 20 years. In the 1990s, I was Archives Lad, and once a year I'd post to Usenet's rec.arts.comics.dc.lsh newsgroup my best guess for what would be coming in the Legion Archives, which were at the time being published annually. Here was my guess for Archives 11 as posted in July 2000. As you can see by scrolling down a bit, Paul Levitz lurked in the newsgroup (as "DCOLevitz", the DCO standing for "DC Online" which was part of DC's AOL presence at the time) and posted from time to time.

I predicted the volume would cover issues 203-214 (it ended up being 203-212), and then said this (emphasis added in bold):

That's 233 pages (not including covers). None of these have already been reprinted. The stories are by either Bates or Shooter, and the art is all Grell (except for Cockrum pencils in 205 and inks by Bill Draut in the backup of 214). I'm hoping for a new cover by Grell, too.

This volume will cover the death of Invisible Kid, Brainiac building a Supergirl robot, the intro of the clone bank, Dvron, Flynt Brojj, Roxxass, Matter-Eater Lad resigning, and the appearance after 26 years of the page that was cut out of issue 212 when they had to cut out a page of story for budget constraints.

And for what it's worth, this volume catches up to the first LSH issue I bought off the newsstand (the aforementioned issue 212).

At some point years later, Paul Levitz was interviewed by Comic Shop News for their site csnsider.com (unfortunately, the content has long since been removed and I don't have the original URL to check the Internet Archive), came this quote that I copied into a post on the LSH-L email list:

An Internet board that I poke my head into occasionally was having a discussion of the Legion Archives; they remembered a page that had been cut out of a Grell Legion issue and published in an Amazing World of DC issue later, and they wanted to know if we were going to put the page back in the Archives. I was one of the editors of the book it was reprinted in, and I didn't remember it; I was thrilled to find that page there, and I ran down to Dale Crain and said, "Look what I found!" That will make the Archives a vastly better book.

So that's how that deleted page ended up being put into LSH Archive #11. It's page 8A in the book, as seen colored below. (It has since been reprinted again, in 2008's "LSH: 1050 Years of the Future" TPB.)

Part 3: How an Art Collection is Created

OK, not "created" so much as "added to", but that would have wrecked the flow of the three headings.

In 2008 I attended the San Diego Comic Con. Among the many pieces of Legion art I would have loved to have bought but didn't have the budget for, was this page for sale for $1500. Taking and owning this photo is as close as I would be able to get to owning the page itself:

I did not buy it, but not too long afterwards Tom Fleming did. He bought it and posted it to his ComicArtFans page in 2009, where it presumably sits in his collection today (and is likely worth a lot more than $1500). Notice the little stamp in the upper left corner, it says "N.P.P. INVT'Y", meaning that National Periodical Publications wrote that off as inventory.

So there you have it. The long and winding road of page 8A of Superboy #212.

Legions of Future Past

You may recall this Legion/X-Men mashup from a few years ago here, where artist Bob Layton re-created the Byrne/Austin cover of X-Men 141 ("Days of Future Past") with Legionnaires in the X-Men roles. Here's an all-new, all-different version by former Legion artist Mike Netzer (formerly Nasser):

Thanks to Richard Caldwell for passing this one along to me.

Bits of Legionnaire Business

Haven't done one of these in a little while, so here's a linkdump of Legion-related stuff from the past week or so. "Smallville" news at the bottom.

• First of all, anyone who thinks that DC is really going to "let the characters rest for a little bit and see where we go from there" following the cancellation of LSH v5, and who thinks that DC doesn't know what to do with the characters, should read this summary over at io9.com. They know exactly what they're doing, and "Legion of Three Worlds" will end with a new status quo for the team(s), and all signs point to Geoff Johns being involved.
  
  
• Tim Callahan had a long interview with Barry Lyga at CBR.
  

  One of the biggest Legion fans I know is author Barry Lyga, of "The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl" fame. His new novel, "Hero Type," landed in bookstores a few weeks ago, and I wanted to talk to him about how the Legion shaped his notion of storytelling and what we both thought about the past, present, and future of the 31st century's greatest super-team...

  
  
• Foremer Legion editor KC Carlson reviews the DC Vault (Amazon link), a book with lots of fanboy collectibles (or reproductions) tucked inside. Among them is a reprinted version "of the poster that was included in Graphitti Design’s deluxe version of the History of the DC Universe — a mind-blowing group shot of over 50 DC characters as drawn (and signed) by over 50 legendary artists." That poster, which was never released commercially and is difficult to find on the secondary market, contains the White Witch as one of the characters in the jam poster (drawn by P. Craig Russell). Click to enlarge the picture. (Full disclosure: this is one book that I'm going to order with the 6% I get back from Amazon when you click on one of my links and buy something!)
  
  
  
• Revealing a "secret" which was all but apparent during the Post-Zero Hour Legion run, that very same KC Carlson commented on Tim Callahan's review of L3W #2 that R.J. Brande was indeed supposed to be the long-lived Martian Manhunter. (original comment here, more discussion here.)
  
  
• Matthew at the Legion Abstract shows off his son's costume. He might be eligible for the Legion in a few years.
  
  
• The Legion of Substitute Podcasters produced episode 2, featuring ADV 267 and ACT 267 plus some recent stuff, and episode 3, featuring SBOY 86 and ACT 276.
  
  
• Francis Manapul offers the original pencils to the wraparound cover to LSH v5 #50 on his home site, and answers some reader questions.
  
  
• The "Supergirl on a comet" cover by Adam Hughes is offered as a computer background screen.
  
  
• The Fortress Keeper at the Fortress of Fortitude has a unique, um, "prediction" for a spinoff of "Smallville" starring Supergirl and the Legion. Don't hold your breath for this one, but then again, given The CW, who knows.
  
  
• Superman Homepage notes that the current issue of Smallville Magazine, issue #29, has an article "which explores Superman's relationship with the Legion of Super Heroes" in for those readers who don't know much about the Legion.
  
  
• KryptonSite has the latest Smallville SPOILERS, so read at your own risk.
  

  UPDATED 10/29/08: Don't expect the Legion to be wearing full-on costumes. However, they will be wearing clothing that is evocative of their comic book counterparts, much like Clark has his blue shirt and red jacket.
  
  UPDATED 10/28/08: Alexz Johnson [IMDB, Myspace, fan site, fan site] who starred in The N's Instant Star, is said to be filming a role on Smallville this week. Could that role be that of Imra Ardeen, a.k.a. Saturn Girl of the Legion? Visit Rumorville for more details...
  - The villain Geoff Johns mentioned using is not Darkseid, Mordru, or the Time Trapper; however, there is an additional threat - it's not just Brainiac .
  
  UPDATED 10/14/08: Three Legionnaires from the future will appear - and if you're guessing it's the same roster that appeared in their first appearance way back when, you guessed correctly... the three Legionnaires will be Garth, Imra, and Rokk, who have powers of electricity, telepathy, and magnetism, respectively.

  
  

Other stuff

So here's a bunch of stuff I was going to get to before we heard about the latest cancellation (more on that in another post, this is for non-cancellation stuff), still trying to dig out from under my Hurricane Ike-imposed internet blackout.

• The Comic Treadmill reviews Adventure Comics 367-369. Oh noes, they're almost at the end of reviewing the entire Adventure run!
  
• Writer J. Torres explains what he had planned for the LSH31C comic, had it not been cancelled.
  
• John Kahane lists his top 5 bad ideas in Legion history.
  
• This unfortunately came and went during my down-time, but "Ordinary People Change the World" had a Legion-related auction. The group, started by author Brad Meltzer, is raising money to restore the Jerry Siegel home in Cleveland, coming from Siegel & Shuster Society Charity Auction (as seen in this CBR article). Mark Waid had donated the original Curt Swan cover to the Legion Index #2, and it sold for $7600 on eBay.
  
• ToonZone has a review of the LSH v3 DVD (that's the cartoon, not the 1980s comic series).
  
• Someone's got a couple of rare Legion promo items on eBay from the 1980s, the first being the 35th Anniversary promo from 1983 and the second being the "Flight Ring Village" promo from 1989. At this writing they're $3.99 each with no bids.
  
• Christopher "MightyGodKing" Bird has reason #45 why he should write the Legion.
  

Also coming out of Baltimore, apparently prior to the cancellation news, was this info from the Superman panel, which hints at more of the Johns post-Crisis v3-ish Legion:

The Supergirl/Superman interaction with the Legion of Super-Heroes was asked about, given that Superman now had spent time with the "original" Legion and Supergirl logged some hours alongside Waid and Kitson's “threeboot” Legion. Geoff Johns assured the fans that the overlap would be made clear.

...The current reintroduction of the Science Police was brought up and it was asked if they were tied to the Legion Science Police. Robinson promised an upcoming arc featuring the secret behind the Science Police.

...The Superman team does have plans for Mon-El.

SDCC08: final thoughts

Final thoughts on this year's Comic Con.

• This guy wore a pedometer to count the number of steps he walked at the convention. He recorded over 36 miles of walking from Preview Night on Wednesday to the close of the con on Sunday. I can totally believe it. (via Comics Reporter)
  
  
• Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog made an appearance (at the NBC panel, maybe?). Here's the clip from the Conan O'Brien show. (via Mark Evanier)
  
  
• I whipped up a business card for the site on Powerpoint, had a sheet of them printed out on cardstock at my local Kinko's, then cut the sheets by hand into card-size chunks. Between what I handed out and what people took from the Legion World table, I probably gave out over 100 cards. Welcome, new readers, and if you're new, please leave a comment!
  
  
  
• I was pleasantly surprised by people who recognized me from my name, picture (the Simpson-ized one at the upper left), or the Omnicom logo I created for my badge holder. Many people said they read this site regularly, so thanks to all of you who said hi.
  
  
  
• I talked to Paul Levitz at the DC booth early in the con. I told him that when I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up (I almost made it). When astronauts go into space, they get what's called a "personal preference kit" in which they can bring up souvenirs and stuff. I told Paul that if I ever made it into space, I'd bring my Legion flight ring, and have one of my fellow astronauts take a picture of me wearing it. That would disprove the label on the original box that said "warning, ring does not enable wearer to fly".
  
  
• When I gave him my card, Paul said he recognized the name and that he pops in here from time to time. Score!
  
  
• One of the nice things about conventions is the opportunity to get free sketches from artists, something quick as opposed to a detailed commission. Keith Giffen was drawing Ambush Bug but said he'd draw anyone they wanted. I asked him to draw Karate Kid, and he looked at me seriously and said "no", but then asked if he could do it however he wanted, even if that meant Karate Kid's hand reaching from the grave. I said however he wanted to do it. So he gave me Ambush Bug in Karate Kid's outfit. Robert Loren Fleming did the dialog.
  
  
  
• At his panel, Geoff Johns said that if DC ever put out a new "Who's Who in the Legion" that he wanted to draw Sun Boy. So when he was at a signing at the DC booth, I asked him to draw Sun Boy. I think he should keep his day job.
  
  
  
• I've been to 8 cons since my first one in 1995. What makes it fun is hanging out with all of my online buddies (first Compuserve, then Usenet's rec.arts.comics.*, now message boards and blogs) and meeting them for the first time.
  
  
• I even got to meet Bully, who gave me a couple pins for recognizing him (how could you not recognize a stuffed bull in a Batman costume?).
  
  
• Hat's off to the Legion World guys and gals for their showing this year, they bought a booth in the fan area. Hope everyone got to see them.
  
  
• I signed up for a Twitter account shortly before the con, thinking I might be able to tweet from the panels, seeing as how we had free wi-fi. But I took notes and text-messaged posts here, so I'm not sure how much use you at home found it. Still, I picked up 18 followers. I'll probably keep it going, if only to use it to announce new posts here.
  
  
• As you probably know, the cover to this year's con program was a reprint of Alex Ross's Legion litho from a few years ago. I took the opportunity to have as many of the Legion creators who were there as I could find to sign the book. I got Keith Giffen, Jeff Moy, Chris Batista, Neal Adams, Jim Starlin, Adam Hughes, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Mike Grell, Colleen Doran, Paul Levitz and Geoff Johns to sign it. I missed out on Joe Staton, Mark Waid, and Karen Berger.
  
  
  
• Also pleasantly surprised that Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, and Mike Grell recognized me by name or sight.
  
  
• Big disappointment - there was no LSH stuff being given away at the DC booth, not even the pins that they've handed out in years past, or some sort of promotional poster. It would have been nice, seeing as how the Legion was on the cover of the convention book and it was one of the themes of the con.
  
  
• A lot of people stopped me and asked where I got my Legion pin and my Watchmen pin. I told them that the Legion pin was an old one, but the Watchmen pin was just a generic smiley face button with a red Sharpie marking it up. DC had no Watchmen promotional material either, missing an opportunity since by this time next year the movie will have already come out 4 months earlier and they'll be talking about the DVD for Thanksgiving.
  
  
• Lots of viral marketing stunts. HBO's "True Blood" went all out, sponsoring banners inside the convention center and stuff outside as well, including happy hours at some of the bars in the Gaslamp District, giving out a free pint of beer with a logo glass, free t-shirts and comics, and branded coasters and napkins. "Fringe" had some stuff going on too, including a "follow the clues" thing that ended up in a preview of the pilot episode (and for some reason, one of the clues was a parking lot full of cows. No, really.). The remake of the "Prisoner" show also had a booth, website, and skywriting.
  
  
• Too bad that some panels that I wanted to see were too crowded, especially the media ones. But I did get shut out of the first DC Nation one, too. Lots of people are talking about what to do but when you've got 140,000 people and you've maxed out your space, there's not much that can be done. You either wait in line for an hour or more, missing some other stuff, or you miss the panel you wanted to see live and wait to read the recap or watch the video on YouTube later.
  
  
• I talked with Chris Batista in Artist's Alley. I had no idea he was such a big fan of the Legion, both before and after his run on the book. We made tentative plans to set up an interview so hopefully you'll read something here in a little while. I bought a really cool page from him from the Foundations storyline. He also told me that he's working on an Animal Man miniseries with Gerry Conway, who's been off doing TV stuff for a while.
  
  
• If you can't make a stop at Ralph's Supermarket on the way, I highly recommend the Cine Cafe in the Gaslamp. It's only about 2 blocks away from the convention center. Prices are a little higher than you'd seen a supermarket (typical convenience store markup) but they make fresh sandwiches. Each morning before I entered the con I stopped there for a sandwich and chips to take with me. Much better than convention center food and much cheaper.
  
  
• Very impressed with the costumes this year, though I did not see a single Slave Leia. Here are all my photos.
  
  
• Huge thanks to Angus MacLennan at the WizKids booth, who brought me a bunch of Legionnaire Heroclix figures.
  
  
• I didn't hear anything about Jim Shooter allegedly leaving the Legion book, though everyone was coy about what was coming after L3W. Didn't hear anyone talking about the Superboy/Superman lawsuit, either.
  
  
• At the Pro/Fan Trivia contest (podcast here), I was disappointed that Mark Waid and Kurt Busiek were not able to make it, I really wanted to see them go head to head with Tom Galloway on Legion trivia. What made up for it was that Tom wasn't able to correctly answer some of the questions that I submitted (all of which came from my previous trivia quizzes here).
  
  
• I'll believe Mattel's Legion figures are real when I see them in person.
  
  
• Finally, Ali Kokmen (whose name I remember from Usenet years ago) wraps up the con with a speech that only Shakespeare could have written. "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers..."
  

SDCC08: Sunday in pictures

A few more pictures from the floor on Sunday:

This is the JSA Starman figure coming soon from DC Direct.

SDCC08: Thursday in pictures

Some of the many pictures I took on Thursday:

I finally got to meet Bully the Little Stuffed Bull, who was all decked out in his Batman costume. Bully is a fan of the Omnicom as well; why, if we join forces, we could rule the blogosphere!



The folks at Legion World got themselves a booth with the other fan organizations. They're set up next to the 501st Stormtrooper Legion and the Rebel Legion. Good thing the Alien Legion and the Foreign Legion didn't have tables.



Some more original art.





Keith Giffen (with Robert Loren Fleming, in the Mattel booth)



Mike Grell



No convention report is complete without a Stormtrooper Elvis sighting.



Finally, how come the Legion of Super-Villains get their own parking instructions outside the Marriott?

SDCC08: Thursday (update 1)

Seeing as how I'm at the con and not in front of my computer, I'll find out the information at many of the panels first had, but you guys will have to help out keeping this thing up to date. Please post links to news stories on the web and maybe a news item or two, but don't quote huge chunks of text in the comments. I hope to update this page sometime tonight.

A fairly light start before the madness that is Friday and Saturday.

Thursday 7/24
2:00-3:30 Spotlight on Todd Klein
6:00-7:00 DC Nation

I'll be liveblogging any Legion stuff I overhear at my Legion Omincom Twitter feeds.

Update: never made it to the DC Nation panel. I was in the overflow line and they never got to me.

Via Newsarama:

... Johns discussion Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, featuring George Perez drawing "every Legion member ever."

... In a question that would not make sense to anyone outside of DC fans, "how many Cosmic Boys will we see after Legion of Three Worlds?" DiDio: "Read the book."

Via CBR:

..."If you heard news Paul Levitz and I were returning to the Legion, how would you respond?" Giffen asked, and the crowd was shocked into applause. "Just wondering."

Apparently there was something at the Superman: Man of Tomorrow panel. Via CBR:

...Can you use the Superboy name? Johns: "Superboy-Prime's a different character, we're okay with him. We can't really talk about it, though, that's more of a DC question."

...Are you going to play up the relationship between Superman and Superboy-Prime? Johns: 'That's the central focus point of 'Legion of Three-Worlds.'"

...After Legion of Three Worlds, are we going to see the Pre-Crisis Legion? Johns: "I can't answer that question. I wish I could."

Via Newsarama:

...“I’ve noticed the Superboy name pop up in solicits. Has that been cleared up?” Johns said, “Superboy Prime is a different character, so we can use him. But we can’t really talk about it.”

I also traded a dealer a splash page of original art from Mike Grell's Green Lantern/Green Arrow run for the cover to Karate Kid #5.

Here's what I had:


Here's what I have now (in black and white, of course; in place of the UPC code, which is blank on the original art, are the autographs of Ernie Chan (who had drawn the cover as "Ernie Chua" and Grell):

SDCC08: Wednesday

Preview night was a madhouse. I am afraid for what the weekend will look like.

Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen were among those in attendance at the DC booth.

Nearby, Alex Ross's site had his Legion mural running from ceiling to floor.



They didn't appear to have Legion pins this year, but the ones Wednesday might just have been a subset. Levitz told me that he has found and read this site from time to time, adding that if the internet as we know it today had been around then, he probably would have been a blogger too. Of course, he was writing the comic (with good results) while I'm writing here. I didn't get a chance to talk to Giffen.

Colleen Doran, over at her booth, chatted with me about her "Orbiter" book and space stuff. She's a fan of this site as well, even bestowing an award on it a little while back. But she said to her mom that this is a cute site. "Cute" isn't what I was going for, but oh well.

Took some pictures (below) of some original artwork for sale. Want.

WANT!

But cannot afford.

I've got a birthday coming up, in case anyone was looking for ideas.

Update 6/29/08: sold, for $6,600.

Manapul on the evolution of a cover

Current Legion artist Francis Manapul has a blog post on the evolution of the cover to LSH #39 (recently announced for February).

From this:


to this:




Previously: the evolution of the cover to #38

In other Manapul original art news,

I'm pleased to announce that we will soon begin selling Francis' Legion of Superheroes artwork starting with issue 37! Francis and John Livesay have agreed to split the artwork as whole issues, and Francis will receive 2 of every 3 issues completed. Francis will have all of the artwork from issue 37 and we will make it available for online purchase in December. We will let you know the exact date once Francis receives his art returns.

Here's the first item he had for sale, some concept sketches for the team.

Greg LaRocque

Former Legion artist Greg LaRocque contacted me the other day to say that he'll be selling original art on eBay soon. To whet your appetite, here's an image he sent me titled "Greatest Hero of Them All" (click to enlarge):

For the young'uns, LaRocque pencilled the bulk of the v3 run in the '80s, from issue 15 to issue 48 (following Steve Lightle and preceding the return of Keith Giffen).

LaRocque is one of those artists who absolutely shines with the right inker. He was lucky to have had two of them on the Legion books, Larry Mahlstedt for a few issues at the beginning and then Mike DeCarlo for most of the run. Here are the covers to those issues (at the Grand Comics Database).

---

Update 11/13/07: Here's the auction for this piece on eBay, starting bid of $100.

New goodies on eBay

If you have a few thousand dollars lying around with nothing to spend it on, why not check out these eBay auctions?

The original art to the Mike Grell alternate cover of Action Comics 861, starting bid at only $2500:

Or for just a bit more, you can have the original Alex Ross painting for the Adventure 247 recreation cover of the 1999 Overstreet Price Guide, in a Heritage silent auction, starting bid of $4000:

eBay: The Legion's "Days of Future Past"

The Legion already met the X-Men in their "Days of Future Past" storyline back in the "Unlimited Access" miniseries a while back, but someone commissioned artist Bob Layton to re-create the iconic cover of "X-Men" 141 with the Legion replacing the X-Men. This piece of original art is up for auction on eBay this week.

A One of a Kind Cover Commission from Bob Layton! It's an X-Men 141 swipe featuring the Legion of Superheroes. The premise is Darkseid has taken over the world and the big three of Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are all that remain. This great piece is on 11x17 comic board. The lettering are stats and there is a small amount of whiteout. Stunning piece. Retails at $400. No need to wait months and months for a commission.

It's on a "Buy It Now" for $375, or "Make an Offer". Click on the picture to see an enlargement on the actual auction page.

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Note: as a companion piece to this "The Legion replaces Marvel characters", I wanted to show a piece of commissioned art, done by Mike Grell, recreating an Avengers scene, where the LSH was substituted in place of the Avengers (Colossal Boy for Giant-Man, etc.) on the left side, and some Legion villains (maybe the Fatal Five?) were substituted in place of Avengers villains on the right side (Emerald Empress for Enchantress?). Unfortunately, I can't find the copy of the image either on my computer or via a Google search, so if you know where this is (or if you're the owner), please put a link in the comments.

The Award-Winning Omnicom

A few weeks ago, I put this website down on Colleen Doran's "What Are You Working On?" post. She took everything there and evaluated it for her first Creator’s Grant Prize.

Well imagine my surprise when I found out that I won Second Runner-Up!

Yeah, I know I didn’t say the runner ups were going to get anything, but there you go. Never let the idea that not being #1 at something means there are no rewards to being #2.

Or even to being #3.

Michael, otherwise known as Wizardimps when he posts to this blog wins for The Legion Omnicom, because I am an ancient Legion of Superheros fan , and holy crap what a lot of work that blog is, tons of fanboy research, and I am impressed. And OK, I am totally prejudiced and he wins because I am a Legion fan, so there you go. This only proves that judges can be completely arbitrary in their decision making processes.

The online comic Busted Wonder won the main Creator's Grant prize, with Suso Fashions as first runner-up and Marina Lemar as third runner-up. Congratulations to my fellow Creator's Grant winnahs!

Now I have to make a little icon button to put on the side somewhere. Wow, whod'a thunk I'd win something just for doing this?

For those of you who aren't familiar with her, Colleen Doran is, as she says, a long-time Legion fangirl. She's got a special crush on Element Lad. You may remember her from the "Young Love" issue of LSH v4 with Element Lad and Shvaughn/Sean Erin, or for the last ten issues of "Valor". She also did lots of pinups in the various "Who's Who" books, including "Who's Who in the DC Universe" and "Who's Who in the Legion". Guess who did the Element Lad pages?



Of course, she's also big into Lord of the Rings and her magnum opus, "A Distant Soil". You can find her over at her blog at adistantsoil.com.

I've been lucky enough to meet Colleen at conventions over the years, and I've bought two of her Legion pages. Click each to enlarge.

From the Young Love story in LSH v4 #31, here's p. 17:


From an End of an Era story in Valor #22, here's p. 10:

Jim Lee does Saturn Girl

Well, OK, just one Legionnaire, Saturn Girl, but it looks darn good. Here's Jim Lee's rendition as drawn at the recent Planet Comicon in Kansas City. Read more about it here. "Hopefully, he'll get to draw her and the rest of The Legion of Super-Heroes someday too."

Interestingly, the piece is for Sidne Ward, who happens to be a good friend of mine and a fellow member of the Legion of Super-Gamblers. Check out Sidne's gallery of Saturn Girl sketches.

Linkfest, March '07

I have to stop collecting these and post them sooner.

Wacky Silver Age-ness

• Jonathan and Paul review the Adventure-era tryouts. Relive the glory of Lester Spiffany, Storm Boy, and a bunch of unnamed applicants who are revealed to be The Lavender Target, Ask-Me-How-I-Recently-Lost-Over-65-Pounds Lad, Awesome Girl, The Bouffant, You'd Look Great in Powder Blue Kid, Biting Brad, Chet Kord (Ted's descendant), The Spelunker, The Two-Fisted Seismologist, and Gastrointestinal Discomfort Boy.
  
• Dorian at Post-Modern Barney reflects on the Legion of Super-Jerks.
  
• Scott at Polite Dissent notes that it must be a drug company conspiracy.
  
• Over at Prism Comics, Chris Sims reviews A Very Special Episode of the Legion. Drugs are bad, mmm-kay?
  
• ComixBear wonders why there's a flying carrot in the 30th century.
  

Fashion in Action

• Chris at the ISB reviews Orion the Hunter's costume, and declares it a Crime of Fashion.
  
• Project: Rooftop and Girl-Wonder.org take a week to review the best submissions for Supergirl costume updates. Here are parts part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6. Meanwhile, scans_daily looks at the last time this happened, back in 1970 (part 1 and part 2).
  
• Gone and Forgotten takes a look back at reader submissions for Legion costumes, too.
  

Artwork

• Colleen Doran posted some of her Element Lad commissions.
  
• Colleen also posted an Element Lad commission she got from Curt Swan.
  
• Not to be outdone, Allan Harvey at Gorilla Daze found some very early (1980!) artwork that Colleen had used while a member of the Interlac apa.
  
• In non-Colleen drawings, here's a look at what one corporate trainer does when he's stuck in a meeting.
  

Legion on TV

• Here are a couple of reviews of the animated show from people who had never seen an episode before, or were unfamiliar with the show.
  
• Gordon at Blog This, Pal! watched the most recent new episode ("Chain of Command") and said "This One's for the Fat Guys".
  
• Animated Legion vs the Animated Teen Titans - ho'od win? This answer might surprise you.
  
• Will the Legion appear on "Smallville"? That question was asked at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction convention last month. Sadly, the answer is no, according to series producers Millar and Gough.
  

Characters

• Christopher Bird posts this example of Wildfire and Dawnstar, the original "emo" couple, 20 years before we knew what "emo" was.
  
• Chris at the ISB reminds you that even if you have the second-most useless power in the entire Legion... It Can Always Get Better.
  
• T. Collins says BEHOLD: Ral the Orchid!
  
• But suddenly... Karate Kid flipped out and beat the crap out of everyone.
  
• Jeremy reveals how Blockade Boy, Weight Wizard, and Plant Lad escaped from Nardo's Super Stalag of Space - they all played dead. Then the last two came back to the 21st century looking for Blockade Boy.
  
• Matthew at the Legion Abstract provides some character reviews of Dawnstar, Gear, and Brainiac 5.
  
• Christopher Bird reminds us that despite a 12th-Level intelligence, Brainy can be pretty stupid sometimes.
  
• Siskoid's Blog of Geekery takes a look back at some of the other Legion tryouts throughout the years.
  

That's enough for now.

Stuff on eBay

The first of an occasional series of posts about interesting things for sale on eBay.

• Fred Hembeck's recreation of the cover of Adventure Comics #290, Sun Boy's introduction.
  
  
  
• The actual printing plates used for the covers to Legionnaires 3 #3 (as published) and Legion of Super-Heroes (v2) #278 (as published).
  
  

  

  
  
  
• The original art to the splash page of Superboy and the Legion #256 by Joe Staton and Dave Hunt.
  
  
  
• The original art to the cover of Superboy #225 by Mike Grell.
  
  
  
• The original art to the cover of Supergirl and the Legion #23 (the variant cover to the current issue) by Adam Hughes.