It Came from the 1990s: Turok, Dinosaur Hunter

The first issue of Turok, Dinosaur Hunter is now 30 years old, having been released by Valiant Comics in late April 1993. I’m going to take a look back at the first year of that series, which had some incredibly talented creators working on it.

Pencils by Bart Sears, inks by randy Elliott, and colors by Jorge Gonzalez & Carol VanHook

Turok, like the characters Magnus, Robot Fighter and Solar, Man of the Atom, was a pre-existing character that Valiant licensed and integrated into their own comic book universe. Turok had previously made his debut in Four Color Comics #596 from Western Publishing / Dell Comics, cover-dated Oct / Nov 1954.  Turok and his young friend Andar were Native Americans who wandered into a mysterious hidden valley occupied by dinosaurs, cavemen, and other inhabitants from eras long past. The ongoing series Turok, Son of Stone ran from 1956 to 1982.

In the Valiant continuity, Turok and Andar became trapped in the other-dimensional “Lost Land” which was eventually conquered by Erica Pierce, a woman from an alternate reality who had gained godlike powers and taken on the mantle of Mothergod. Pierce transformed a number of the dinosaurs in the Lost Land into cyborg “bionosaurs” that possessed near-human intelligence.

After Mothergod was defeated in the epic Unity crossover, the Lost Land disintegrated, and its various time-displaced inhabitants were deposited back on Earth, albeit in eras much different from the ones they had originated. Turok found himself in Columbia, South America in the year 1987, a century and a half after his own time. He soon discovered that the bionosaurs led by the vicious Mon-Ark, as well as large numbers of regular, unenhanced dinos, were also materializing around the globe. Even though Turok was now a man out of time in an unfamiliar world, he nevertheless felt compelled to protect it by hunting down the bionosaurs, who were making humanity their prey.

Written by David Michelinie, penciled by Bart Sears, inked by Randy Elliott, colored by Jorge Gonzalez and lettered by Tony Bedard & Ken Lopez

Turok’s arrival in the 20th Century was set up in X-O Manowar #14-15, published by Valiant in early 1993. It took me years to find those two issues because they immediately sold out everywhere I went, and Wizard: The Guide to Comics then began promoting them as “hot” issues, resulting in them selling for some really crazy prices.

I didn’t have any such problem with Turok, Dinosaur Hunter #1, though. That first issue, with its chromium-enhanced cover, had a print run of over a million copies, which meant it was everywhere! Valiant editor-in-chief Bob Layton had written, with co-plotter Jon Hartz, the two-part X-O Manowar story that served as a lead-in to Turok, Dinosaur Hunter. Layton brought in his friend and longtime collaborator David Michelinie to write the series’ first three issue story arc. Pencils were by Bart Sears, inks by Randy Elliott, and colors by Jorge Gonzalez, all of whom had also worked on those X-O Manowar issues. Tony Bedard & Ken Lopez did the lettering. Bernard Chang penciled the second half of Turok, Dinosaur Hunter #2 over Sears’ layouts before contributing full pencils for issue #3.

I was already familiar with Sears’ work from Justice League Europe. He had this style that was simultaneously hyper-detailed and somewhat cartoony, and he specialized in extremely muscular men and well-endowed women. Sears’ work was definitely of the time, fitting in with the early 1990s superhero aesthetic. I always found his art to be fun & distinctive.

I was disappointed that Sears’ didn’t finish penciling the initial Turok, Dinosaur Hunter arc. However, the work by Bernard Chang on the second half was very good. Chang had only just gotten started in comic books a few months earlier, but he was already contributing quality penciling to several Valiant titles, and later in 1993 he became the regular artist on The Second Life of Doctor Mirage, where he did great work.

Written by David Michelinie, breakdowns by Bart Sears, finished pencils by Bernard Chang, inked by Randy Elliott, colored by Jorge Gonzalez and lettered by Tony Bedard & Ken Lopez

Michelinie’s story chronicles Turok’s activities immediately following his arrival in South America in 1987. Seriously outnumbered by Mon-Ark and his bionosaurs, Turok is forced to ally himself with a drug lord who provides him with the weaponry and men needed to wipe out the creatures. Although Turok ultimately succeeds in defeating Mon-Ark, he discovers the bionosaurs have begun to reproduce and spread out across the globe.

Since I hadn’t begun reading most of the Valiant titles until after Unity and I’d missed those two X-O Manowar issues, I was appreciative that Michelinie had spent the first few pages of issue #1 recounting Turok’s background. As I’ve observed before, that sort of “bringing new readers up to speed” feature unfortunately really isn’t done by most publishers any more, since most stories are intended to be collected soon after they’re completed.

I remember back in 1993 I found the first three issue arc on Turok, Dinosaur Hunter to be somewhat underwhelming, and I almost didn’t pick up the next issue. However, re-reading it this past week, I enjoyed it quite a bit more. That said, I still feel there was a serious uptick in quality in subsequent issues.

Beginning with Turok, Dinosaur Hunter #4 Timothy Truman became the series’ writer. I had only begun reading comic books regularly in the late 1980s, and as such had been unaware of Truman’s work until he wrote a very unusual Wolverine serial that ran in Marvel Comics Presents in late 1991, which saw Logan fighting monsters in the Canadian wilderness in the late 19th century. I actually met Truman at a big comic con in NYC in January 1992 and got my copy of MCP #93 signed by him. I was peppering him with questions about that Wolverine story, and with the benefit of hindsight, now knowing about the critically acclaimed work he had already been doing throughout the previous decade, he must have thought me a bit weird to have only known about him because of that story.

Nevertheless, I remembered Truman’s name, and over the next year and a half I began discovering his older work via back issues. I realized that not only was he a great writer, but also an incredibly talented artist. So, when I learned Truman was to be writing Turok, Dinosaur Hunter, I decided to continue following the series.

Written by Timothy Truman, penciled by Rags Morales, inked by Randy Elliott, colored by Bill Dunn & Erik Lusk and lettered by Chris Eliopoulos

I asked Kevin VanHook, who was the editor of Turok, Dinosaur Hunter, if it was his idea to bring Truman onto the title. He responded:

“It’s hard to remember for sure because Bob [Layton] and I worked very closely together. I had worked with Tim on a book for Innovation called Newstralia.  I was aware of his love and knowledge of Native American culture and history.”

Whoever was responsible, it was a brilliant idea. Truman possesses a great interest in American history, especially the 19th Century, and he has a genuine love for & knowledge of Native American culture. I feel as if he invested the character of Turok with a real sense of authenticity.

Issue #4 jumps forward to the then-present of 1993. Turok has returned to North America to discover his people had been driven to near-extinction by the European colonists, and the remnants of the once-great tribes have been sequestered on reservations, their cultures almost forgotten. The government assigns Dr. Regan Howell, a cultural anthropologist & paleontologist, to serve as Turok’s guide in the modern world. Regan is incredibly sympathetic to Turok’s plight, but even she, a product of 20th Century America, cannot fully understand what he is going through.

Turok is reunited with Andar, his old friend. After the dissolution of the Lost Land, Andar had been deposited by a time portal back in the early 1900s. The now-elderly Andar asks his old teacher to look after his angry, impulsive grandson, who is also named Andar. Truman does a good job writing the relationship between Turok and the hotheaded young “Andy.” The former is very much the mature, knowledgeable, experienced figure who hopes to teach the young man about his forgotten heritage, while the latter has a pragmatic understanding of the modern world that Turok is lacking. I feel that the ensemble of Turok, Andar and Regan really helped to solidify the appeal of the series.

Turok, Dinosaur Hunter #4-6 were penciled by Rags Morales, paired with returning inker Randy Elliott. Morales had previously done some solid work for DC Comics. I really liked his penciling on Turok, Dinosaur Hunter, where he did a great job drawing the real-life settings of the American Southwest, the Native American communities, and the dinosaurs. Morales also showed some quality storytelling abilities here, making the extended conversations between the characters interesting. It’s the hallmark of a great penciler if he can render a “talking heads” scene to be dramatic, and Morales definitely succeeds.

Penciled & inked by Timothy Truman and colored by Paul Autio

As much as I liked Morales’ work on these three issues, I was thrilled when Truman not only wrote but also penciled Turok, Dinosaur Hunter #7-9. He was paired up with acclaimed, veteran artist Sam Glanzman on inks. The work by Truman & Glanzman on the three-part “People of the Spider” is absolutely gorgeous, with rich coloring by Bill Dunn.

In this arc Turok, Andar and Regan are brought in to investigate dinosaurs that are appearing in the New River Gorge in central West Virginia. The trio soon discover that a neolithic tribe that became trapped in the Lost Land has also been deposited in the present day.

Adding a bit of humor to the proceedings, Truman introduces Professor Challenger, the loud, ill-tempered grandson of the protagonist from the classic Arthur Conan Doyle novel The Lost World published in 1912. Just imagine Brian Blessed as a paleontologist charging across a hostile handscape, bellowing at the top of his lungs, and you have Professor Challenger.

I appreciated the comedy, because it added a certain levity to an otherwise-grim narrative. There is a genuine atmosphere of sadness & mourning to the issues written by Truman. It was previously established that the bionosaurs needed to be killed specifically because they were too much like human beings, making them cruel and power-hungry. The ordinary dinosaurs who are turning up in the modern world, even though they are undoubtedly dangerous, are nevertheless only operating according to their own instincts. The Clan of the Spider are also, in their own desperate way, attempting to survive in a world that is alien to them, and Turok perceives the very real threat that their culture will be wiped out just like his was.

Written & penciled by Timothy Truman, inked by Sam Glanzman, colored by Bill Dunn and lettered by Bethanne Neidz

There’s an unsettling scene at the beginning of issue #7 where Turok views the exhibit of Native American artifacts held by the university where Regan teaches. Truman really brings across just how distressing and sacrilegious it is for Turok to discover the bodies of his ancestors on display. It really does make me have second thoughts about all of those exhibitions of ancient civilizations held by institutions such as the Museum of Natural History and the British Museum. Are they preserving the past… or are they looting it?

I was disappointed when Turok, Dinosaur Hunter #10 came out to find that Mike Baron was now writing the series, because I really had been enjoying Truman’s work. I suppose the blow was softened somewhat by the return of Morales, Elliott & Dunn, all of whom were still doing quality work on the art & coloring. I also didn’t like that Andar and Regan were nowhere in sight, although at least Baron did pick up the plot threads of Turok’s dissatisfaction from the conclusion of issue #9. Baron’s story has Turok tracking down a ruthless crime lord who is slaughtering endangered species to sell their body parts on the black market.

Looking at Turok, Dinosaur Hunter #10-12 again, I was genuinely surprised to see that Baron demonstrate a great deal of sensitivity for the Native American position and for the importance of environmental preservation. It’s shocking because Baron is one of those comic book creators who in the last decade or so has really taken a hard-right turn politically. I definitely find it depressing to look back on the past quality work of writers like Baron who seemingly used to be sane & empathetic, but who now spend their time ranting about transgendered people and drag queens on social media. 

Whatever the case, Baron did write a good story, with a lot of fantastic action. It just wasn’t quite what I had come to expect from the Truman issues. That’s probably why I ended up dropping the series with issue #12. Of course, years later I learned that Truman returned the very next issue, and that he wrote Turok, Dinosaur Hunter on and off for the next few years straight through to the book’s cancellation with issue #47 in 1996. Well, there’s always back issues!

Written by Mike Baron, penciled by Rags Morales, inked by Randy Elliott, colored by Bill Dunn and lettered by Adam Niedwiecki

I did end up picking up one other Turok, Dinosaur Hunter issue, though. Turok Yearbook #1 was released in May 1994, featuring penciling by legendary artist Dave Cockrum. I had discovered Cockrum’s art on X-Men and The Futurians via back issues and immediately became a fan, and I was disappointed that he was hardly receiving any new work in the 1990s. I suppose that was one of the earliest occasions when I learned just how difficult it could be in the comic book industry, how the artist on a bestselling series might end up scrambling for work a decade and half later.

However it occurred, in 1994 Cockrum did get the jobs of penciling the Turok Yearbook and Harbinger Files #1, the latter of which revealed the origin of the Machiavellian master villain Toyo Harada. On both stories Cockrum was inked by Peruvian artist Gonzalo Mayo. I felt Mayo’s inks were a bit on the heavy side, but when I met Cockrum at a store signing around that time and asked him about it he told me he liked Mayo’s work. So I’ll defer to Cockrum’s judgment on this.

“Mon-Ark Lives” was written by Baron, colored by Wanderlei Silva, lettered by Adam Niedzwieki, and edited by Tony Bedard, with a painted cover by Eric Hope. The deceased bionosaur Mon-Ark’s cyborg brain case is acquired by the ruthless Omen Corporation, who transplant it into the body of a human being in order to access the highly-advanced data stored on it. This reckless procedure results in Mon-Ark returning to life, and even though he’s now inhabiting a human body he’s still the same ruthless would-be tyrant. Turok has to return to South America to once again battle his old foe.

Turok Yearbook #1 was an enjoyable story. Looking at it now, I really wish Valiant had given Cockrum additional work. He was a very talented artist and would have been a quality asset to their books.

Written by Mike Baron, penciled by Dave Cockrum, inked by Gonzalo Mayo, colored by Wanderlei Silva and lettered by Adam Niedzwieki

Nowadays I expect Turok, Dinosaur Hunter is best known as a highly-popular video game series released by Acclaim Entertainment between 1997 and 2002 following their acquisition of Valiant. Following the bankruptcy of Valiant / Acclaim in 2004, Western Publishing licensed Turok out to Dark Horse comics in 2010 and then Dynamite Entertainment in 2014. Western was eventually acquired, via a succession of corporate sales, by NBCUniversal, who are apparently the current owners of the character of Turok. Given all of this, it’s unlikely the Valiant run of Turok, Dinosaur Hunter is likely to be reprinted any time soon, if ever. Fortunately, most of the early issues had large print runs, and so back issues can be found for affordable prices.

Back Issue #144 from TwoMorrows Publishing has the theme of “Savage Lands” and will be shipping in late June. One of the articles, written by Bryan D. Stroud, will be on the 1990s revival of Turok. So if you found any of the stuff I discussed in this blog interesting, I highly recommend purchasing a copy.

It Came From the 1990s: Imperial Guard

Earlier this month was the birthday of the late, great Dave Cockrum, one of my favorite comic book artists. Cockrum was one of the greatest character designers of the Bronze Age, successfully creating or revamping dozens of characters for both Marvel and DC Comics during the 1970s and early 80s.

Over on the Dave Cockrum Art Appreciation Group, in a discussion about Cockrum’s greatest character designs, I mentioned that the Shi’ar Imperial Guard had some awesome designs, and I wished that more was done with them.

Who are the Imperial Guard? Simply put, they are thinly-veiled expies of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Drawing Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes in the early 1970s had been a dream assignment for Cockrum, and he had only reluctantly left DC Comics after they reneged on a promise to return original artwork to him. Going over to Marvel Comics, he co-created the all-new, all-different X-Men with Len Wein. After Wein departed X-Men, Cockrum was paired up with writer Chris Claremont, and in X-Men #107 (Oct 1977) they introduced the Imperial Guard, the elite super-powered soldiers of the alien Shi’ar Empire.

Insert obligatory smartass comment about the X-Men not wanting to fight all these guys because there’s practically a Legion of them.

Now I’m not sure why Cockrum decided to toss in a veritable army modeled on the Legion into an already-crowded storyline, other than the fact that he really loved the Legion and he missed drawing them. But whatever the case, even if most of them were thinly-drawn on the characterization side of things, almost all of them had interesting visuals.

For most of their history the Imperial Guard were basically just blindly following the orders of whoever happened to be running the Shi’ar Empire, which typically put them into conflict with the X-Men or the Avengers or whoever. Other than their leader Gladiator the characters have only ever gotten the spotlight on a few rare occasions. The first of these was the three issue Imperial Guard miniseries which Marvel published in late 1996. It was written by Brian Augustyn, penciled by Chuck Wojtkiewicz, inked by Ray Snyder, colored by Brad Vancata, and lettered by Jon Babcock, Phil Hugh Felix & Janice Chiang.

And, yeah, I cannot believe that it’s been 25 years since this came out!

Thinking back, I don’t know if at the time I was aware that the Imperial Guard characters were a homage to the members of the Legion. I didn’t actually become a huge Legion fan until about four years later, when I started picking up the hardcover Archives collections and various back issues. But re-reading the Imperial Guard miniseries a quarter century later, the nods to the Legion now leap right out at me.

The creative team on the Imperial Guard miniseries is also noteworthy. Augustyn is a longtime writer & editor at DC Comics, and Wojtkiewicz had just come off of a year and a half stint penciling Justice League America. This miniseries makes up pretty much the entirety of either of their work for Marvel. So this was pretty much a case of Marvel bringing aboard a creative team from DC to work on a team of characters modeled after a DC property.

Imperial Guard came out at an odd time in Marvel’s publishing history. This was immediately after the “Onslaught” crossover in which the Avengers and Fantastic Four seemingly died so that they could be exported to an alternate reality for the “Heroes Reborn” event overseen by Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee. For the next year this led to some rather offbeat projects coming out from Marvel that perhaps might not otherwise have gotten published. The most notable of these was Thunderbolts by Kurt Busiek & Mark Bagley. We also got the much-underrated Heroes for Hire by John Ostrander & Pascual Ferry, as well as this odd little miniseries.

I’m FB friends with Wojtkiewicz, so I asked him how Imperial Guard came about. Here’s what he had to say:

“Once DC flipped the crew on Justice League, I floated around doing fill-ins and such for a while. Brian Augustyn decided to leave DC and asked me if I’d like to do the IG mini. We met in NYC and had lunch with Mark Gruenwald for lunch and launch. It seemed to be going so smoothly, but it turned out to Mark’s very last lunch, as he died the following morning. Somehow it kept going, and his assistant stepped in as editor.  I forget his name – I’m terrible that way. I decided to do the series in with a cartoony vibe, and nobody stopped me. Also: sideburns. 😊

“I really enjoyed this assignment- doing the costume, environment and prop concepts was a blast.”

The miniseries was ultimately edited by Terry Kavanaugh, and was dedicated to the memory of Mark Gruenwald.

Following the apparent deaths of the Avengers and Fantastic Four, Lilandra the Majestrix of the Shi’ar feels partially responsible, as she was the one who way back when inadvertently awakened the dark side of Charles Xavier’s psyche (as seen in X-Men #106 or, if you were a teenager in the 1990s like me, “The Phoenix Saga Part 2: The Dark Shroud” on X-Men: The Animated Series) which ultimately led to the creation of Onslaught. Lilandra has covertly dispatched several members of the Imperial Guard to Earth see if they can provide assistance to our beleaguered world.

The members of the Guard featured in this miniseries are Gladiator (standing in for Superboy), Electron (Cosmic Boy), Sibyl (Saturn Girl), Flashfire (Lightning Lad), Nightside (Shadow Lass), Mentor (Brainiac 5), Earthquake (Blok) and the latest addition to the team, the Kree conscript Commando (Mon-El).

The introduction of Commando aka M-Nell (see what they did there?) ties in with another recent Marvel event, the Avengers storyline “Operation: Galactic Storm” which saw the Shi’ar apparently destroy the Kree Empire with the apocalyptic Nega Bomb. In fact the entire war between the Shi’ar and the Kree had been engineered by the Kree’s Machiavellian leader, the entity known as the Supreme Intelligence, who sought to jump-start his people’s stalled evolution with the Nega Bomb’s energies. At this point in time the Supreme Intelligence is quietly biding its time, waiting for its deadly experiment to begin showing results, and Commando, ignorant of all this, finds himself having to serve alongside the Shi’ar forces who he regards as his conquerors.

Augustyn is a great writer who did high-quality work over at DC, and on his sole foray into the Marvel Universe he also crafts a compelling story. He does a good job of creating M-Nell, and of developing the other Imperial Guard members, the majority of whom, up until this point in their nearly 20 year existence, were basically one-dimensional ciphers.

Wojtkiewicz’s pencils are fun. He was a very underrated artist over at DC Comics, working in an “animated” style alongside the late, great Mike Parobeck on the Impact Comics line in the early 1990s. I always thought Wojtkiewicz should have had a bigger career, so I enjoyed seeing his art on Imperial Guard. His wrap-around covers for this miniseries were also great.

Besides, I really love that Wojtkiewicz drew Imperial Guard with “a cartoony vibe” during the exact same time that Marvel farmed out their main characters to Extreme Studios and Wildstorm with their hyper-detailed art styles. Honestly, the comic book industry could have used more artists like Wojtkiewicz in the 1990s who had their own fun styles.

It was enjoyable revisiting this three issue miniseries, and it makes me regret that the Imperial Guard have subsequently very seldom been in the spotlight since. They did have a five issue miniseries during the Realm of Kings crossover about a decade ago. I never did get around to checking that out, so perhaps I’ll give it a try.

Anyway, if you haven’t read this miniseries, it’s worth tracking down.

The Daily Comic Book Coffee, Part Eight

Welcome to another collection of the Daily Comic Book Coffee. I have been posting these daily in the Comic Book Historians group on Facebook. The challenge by group moderator Jim Thompson was to see how many different pencilers you can find artwork by featuring a specific subject. I chose coffee.

36) Murphy Anderson

Today’s artwork is from the Atomic Knights story “Danger in Detroit” drawn by Murphy Anderson and written by John Broome, from Strange Adventures #153, published by DC Comics with a June 1963 cover date.

The Atomic Knights was a wonderfully weird post-apocalyptic sci-fi feature created by Broome & Anderson.  It appeared in every third issue of Strange Adventures from #117 to #156, with a final chapter appearing in issue #160.  DC issued a hardcover collection in 2010. 

Set in the far-off future year of, um, 1986, the Atomic Knights were a team of adventurers who sought to restore civilization to North America after World War III left the planet devastated.  The six Atomic Knights all wore suits of medieval armor that, through some fluke, had become resistant to radioactivity.  From their base in the town of Durvale, the Knights fought a variety of offbeat monsters and menaces that plagued the devastated world.

In the previous installment in Strange Adventures #150, “The Plant That Hated Humans,” the Knights encountered an army of giant ambulatory plants created by the botanist Henderson.  The Trefoils turned against humanity, but the Knights defeated them by cutting them off from their water source.

As this story opens, we see two of the Knights, Douglas and Marene, having some after-dinner coffee in the Durvale Community Hall.  They are being served by “an unusual-looking waiter,” namely a Trefoil.  Henderson managed to create a new strain of Trefoils, “one without a trace of the vicious hatred of humanity that the old crop seemed to grow with.”  Nevertheless, Marene bluntly states “That creature Mr. Henderson sent us gives me the jim-jams!”

Looking at this from a 21st Century perspective, you have to wonder at Henderson’s decision to resume his experiments after they almost ended in disaster the first time around, as well as the ethical issues of creating a new life form designed to be servants.

Marene’s thought balloon in the final panel, complete with “and yet I’m just a woman,” hasn’t aged well, either.

All that aside, I still enjoyed the Atomic Knights.  Broom’s stories are imaginative, quirky and fun.  The artwork by Anderson is absolutely gorgeous.  Broom and Anderson both considered the Atomic Knights to be among their favorite work from their lengthy careers.

37) Dave Cockrum & Gonzalo Mayo

Harbinger Files #1, penciled by Dave Cockrum, inked by Gonzalo Mayo, written by Fred Pierce & Bob Layton, lettered by Rob Johnson & Santiago Vázquez, and colored by Mike McGuire, published by Valiant with an August 1994 cover date.

Toyo Harada is one of the major antagonists in the Valiant universe.  An incredibly powerful telepath & telekinetic, Harada established the Harbinger Foundation to recruit & train those with similar psionic abilities.  Harbinger Files #1 reveals his previously-untold origin, as well as explaining how he survived his encounter with Solar, Man of the Atom.

After his private jet crashes on a desolate mountain, the badly-injured Harada is rescued by hermit Dusty Berman.  Recuperating in Berman’s cabin, Harada details his history & motivations.  Seeking to convince the skeptical recluse, Harada uses his powers to levitate Dusty’s cup of coffee.

Harada is an interesting figure.  A charitable view of him would be that he is a well-intentioned extremist, someone who feels compelled to make difficult choices to save the world from itself.  He could be viewed as an embodiment of the expression “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”  A much more skeptical analysis of Harada would be that he is engaged in a massive self-deception, that he is in fact an incredibly selfish, avaricious, tyrannical individual who has managed to convince himself that he is working towards noble goals.

Dave Cockrum was one of the preeminent artists of the Bronze Age.  He played a major role in the successful revamps of both the Legion of Super-Heroes and the X-Men.  Unfortunately by the early 1990s Cockrum, like a number of his contemporaries, was having difficulty finding work, his style regarded by certain editors as “old-fashioned.”  I am a huge fan of Cockrum’s art, so I was glad when he got a couple of jobs penciling for Valiant in 1994.

“Redemption and Reward” is a story that mostly consists of Harada and Dusty conversing, with flashbacks to Harada’s early years.  You need a penciler who is really strong at storytelling & characterization, which is just what Cockrum was.  He does an excellent job with what is mostly a “talking heads” story.

Inking is by Gonzalo Mayo, who worked regularly at Valiant.  The Peruvian-born artist has a very lush style to his inks.  He worked really well over a number of different pencilers at Valiant, giving the art a very nice illustrative look.  I got my copy of this comic autographed by Cockrum a couple of years after it came out, and he told me he liked Mayo’s inking over his pencils.

38) Steve Ditko

I’m glad I located a coffee-drinking page drawn by the legendary Steve Ditko.  This is from the story “Partners” written by the prolific Joe Gill from Ghostly Haunts #29, published by Charlton Comics with a January 1973 cover date.

“Partners” is the tale of prospectors Max Aarens and Henry Farr.  As the story opens Max and Henry are in the Northern Canadian wilderness, sitting by the camp fire drinking coffee as they celebrate having struck gold.  Unfortunately greed & paranoia soon descend, and each man makes plans to betray the other.

Ditko utilizes some extremely effective layouts on this story, superbly illustrating both the brutal blizzard and the psychological trauma that strikes the characters.  The facial expressions & body language of his characters is incredibly evocative.  Even here, on the relatively quiet first page, Ditko deftly establishes the mood of harshly cold isolation, and foreshadows the treacherous nature of the protagonists.

By the way, the lady in green & red on the left side of the opening splash panel is Winnie the Witch, the lovely host of Ghostly Haunts.  As he often did on the Ghostly Haunts stories he drew, Ditko has Winnie lurking in-between panels and on the borders of pages of “Partners,” knowingly observing the unfolding events.

I originally read this in black & white in Steve Ditko’s 160-Page Package published by Robin Synder in 1999, which collected 20 of the Ditko-illustrated stories from the various Charlton horror anthologies.  It looks really crisp & effective in black & white.  There are scans of the full story in color from Ghostly Haunts #29 on the blog Destination Nightmare.

39) Dwayne Turner & Jerome K. Moore

Sovereign Seven, created by writer Chris Claremont and penciler Dwayne Turner, was the result of an interesting arrangement: It was published by DC Comics, and set within the DC Universe, but all of the original characters introduced in it were owned by Claremont. These two pages are from S7 #1, cover-dated July 1995, and issue #6, cover-dated December 1995. Turner inked issue #1, and Jerome K. Moore inked #6. Letters are by Tom Orzechowski & Clem Robbins, and colors are by Gloria Vasquez.

The Sovereigns were a group of aristocratic refugees from different parallel Earths whose worlds had all been conquered by the mysterious Rapture. They were gathered together by Rhian Douglas, aka Cascade, who was fleeing from her seemingly-tyrannical mother Maitresse, although eventually we discover there is much more going on there than either we the readers or Rhian herself suspect.

The main setting of S7 is the Crossroads Coffee Bar, situated at the intersection of three state borders (implied to be Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts) and which contains portals to other dimensions. Crossroads is run by sisters Violet Smith and Pansy Jones, who were based on folk musicians Emma Bull and Lorraine Garland. It is here that the fleeing Sovereigns find sanctuary. As a result, there were a lot of characters drinking a lot of coffee in a lot of issues.

To earn their keep the Sovereigns end up working at the Crossroads. It’s somewhat odd to see a group of what are basically One Percenters sliding into the thankless service industry with a bare minimum of complaints, although it is implied that the societies they came from all possessed systems of noblesse oblige, and that the conquest of those worlds by the Rapture brought these seven down to Earth, both symbolically and literally.

Darkseid shows up at Crossroads in the first issue, and it is suggested that he has frequented the establishment in the past. Sipping an espresso, he satisfactorily comments…

“An excellent brew, Violet, as always. I can’t get anything quite like it at home.”

Perhaps someone ought to explain to Darkseid that if he hadn’t transformed Apokolips into an industrialized fascist hellhole it might be much easier to come by quality caffeinated beverages?

Jumping forward to issue #6, it’s Halloween at Crossroads. Italian mercenary Marcello Veronese has come to town, and he is instantly taken with the fully-armored Fatale, who he spots serving coffee.

Marcello: That waitress in black, she is one striking woman!

Pansy: Say that to her face, you’ll see just how striking.

Marcello: The reward, I’ll wager, would be well worth the risk.

Pansy: You want risk, chum, I’ll introduce you to my sister.

I found S7 an interesting & enjoyable series. That said it probably was overly ambitious. Launching a book with seven lead characters, an expanded supporting cast, and a complex backstory right when the comic book market was experiencing a glut might have been a mistake. I think S7 ended up getting lost in the crowd. It did ultimately last for 36 issues, plus two annuals and one special, which is a fairly respectable run.

We will return to S7 and the coffee-drinking crowd of Crossroads in a future entry, when we look at the work of the series’ second regular penciler.

40) Terry Moore

My girlfriend Michele is a huge fan of Strangers in Paradise, which was written & drawn by Terry Moore.  SiP is a semi-comedic soap opera that eventually ventured into mystery and crime noir.  I figured there would probably be at least a few coffee-drinking scenes in SiP.  Flipping through the first “pocket book” trade paperback from Abstract Studio, I found one from the very first issue of volume one, which was originally published by Antarctic Press in November 1993.

I asked Michele if she could briefly explain what SiP was about.  She started telling me how it was about two women, Katrina, aka Katchoo, and Francine, who are best friends.  Katchoo is bisexual and is attracted to Francine, but Francine is straight and wants to one day have children.  Making things even more complicated is David, an artist who falls in love with Katchoo.  After attempting to summarize the various plotlines that Moore had running through SiP over the years, Michele finally shrugged and said “It’s complicated.”  She then suggested I look it up on Wikipedia.

Michele also had this to say about Strangers in Paradise…

“My issue with SiP is that it borrowed from Love and Rockets in regards to the (that word again) “complicated” relationship between Maggie and Hopey. SiP does manage to steer into its own plots. Just that similarity. Terry Moore is a great artist.”

In this scene from the very first issue, Katchoo and David have met for the first time at an art gallery, and David has convinced the very reluctant Katchoo to have a cup of coffee with him.  They walk over to the coffee shop in a rainstorm, and when David suggests to the sneezing Katchoo that she take off her wet clothes, she goes ballistic.

It’s a funny scene that establishes right off the bat that Katchoo is assertive, but also very melodramatic.  The page ends perfectly with a waitress who deadpans “How about that de-caff now, honey?”

Mantis: The Celestial Madonna tattoo

One of my favorite comic book characters is Mantis.  I wrote about her once before.  Created by writer Steve Englehart, she made her debut within the pages of Avengers #112 (June 1973).   Mantis was initially designed by the much underrated Don Heck, who penciled that issue.  Two months later, in Avengers #114, her distinctive costume, designed by John Romita, made its debut.

Mantis was the central focus of the story arc “The Celestial Madonna,” which ran through Avengers #128 to #135 and the quarterly Giant-Size Avengers #2 to #4.  Englehart explored both Mantis’ mysterious past and the cosmic history of the Marvel Comics universe.  Englehart did excellent work developing Mantis during his time on Avengers.  The character experienced a fascinating arc of change and growth.

This past Saturday, I got a tattoo done on my right leg.  I’ve been thinking about getting this piece for several years.  After selling a couple of pages of original comic art from my collection I finally had the funds to have it done.  It is a tattoo of Mantis based on Dave Cockrum’s stunning artwork for Giant-Size Avengers #2 (Nov 1974).

Mantis tattoo

I had originally hoped to have this done by Becca Roach, the artist who did my Beautiful Dreamer and Watchmen tattoos.  Last week I contacted Becca on Facebook… and learned that she’d moved to Hawaii a couple of months ago.  Oops!

I sent Becca another message, asking if there were any other tattoo artists in NYC who she would recommend.  She suggested Daniel Cotte, with whom she had recently worked with at SenaSpace Art + Tattoo, located at at 229 Centre Street in the East Village.

Daniel was a really cool guy.  It turns out that he is also a comic book fan.  He mentioned that he really liked Joe Kubert’s work on Enemy Ace.  Daniel appeared interested in tattooing this particular piece, which was good to know.

Daniel finished the tattoo in a little less than two hours, which was a relief to me because, yipes, was it painful!  This was by far the most detailed piece that I’ve ever gotten.  It was especially uncomfortable when Daniel was tattooing all of the details of Mantis’ feet & ankles, because that was on my ankle, where there’s a lot less muscle under the skin.  But I just gritted my teeth and tolerated it, telling myself to hold still because in the end I would have a really nice piece.  And, yes, it does look fantastic.  Thanks again, Daniel!

Daniel Cotte tattooing Ben’s leg

After I got home Saturday night, I e-mailed a photo of the Mantis tattoo to Steve Englehart.  He really liked it, stating that it was “gorgeous!”  I also sent the photo to Dave Cockrum’s widow Paty, who responded with “Wow! Totally awesome tat, kiddo!”

I am a huge fan of artist Dave Cockrum.  He is well regarded for his work on X-Men.  But shortly before he revamped Marvel’s mutants, Cockrum briefly worked on Avengers.  He inked several issues of the monthly title, providing wonderful embellishments for the pencils of Rich Buckler, Don Heck, John Buscema and Bob Brown.  Cockrum did the full artwork for the second issue of Giant-Size Avengers, and then penciled the third one, with Joe Giella inking him there.

In my assessment, Cockrum’s work on Giant-Size Avengers #2 is dynamic, some of the best of his career.  Especially striking is the beautiful, haunting page which contains the figure of Mantis that I had tattooed.  Here is a scan of it from the Celestial Madonna trade paperback.

Giant-Size Avengers #2 page 26

I think that this is it for tattoos, both because I can’t think of anything else I’d want done, and I’m running out of areas where I can get them that can be covered up when I go to work.  But you never know what will come to mind in the future.

If you have never read it, I recommend the Steve Englehart era of Avengers, which contains some groundbreaking stories and quality artwork.  Most of the issues which contain the Mantis storyline are reprinted in black & white in Essential Avengers Volume 6.

By the way, rumor has it that Mantis will be appearing in the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie.  So keep an eye out for her.

Thank you to Michele Witchipoo for the photos ❤

Happy birthday to Richard Howell

I want to wish a very happy birthday to comic book creator Richard Howell, who was born on November 16th.  Not only is Richard a fantastic artist and a talented writer, but he is also a genuinely nice guy who I have had the pleasure of meeting on several occasions.

Looking back, I probably discovered Howell’s work when he was penciling Tony Isabella’s great Hawkman stories.  The two of them collaborated on the four issue Shadow War of Hawkman miniseries in 1985, which was followed the next year by a special and then an ongoing series.

Isabella had a great conceit for his storyline: Hawkman and Hawkwoman discovered that their fellow Thanagarians were covertly invading Earth. Unfortunately, Carter and Shiera Hall were forced to combat this infiltration completely on their own.  The Thanagarians possessed a device called the Absorbacon which enabled them to read the minds of anyone on Earth (the Hawks were immune because they were also from Thanagar).  So there was no going to Superman or the Justice League or anybody else for help.  Their only ally came in the unlikely form of their old enemy the Gentleman Ghost, who took it as a challenge worthy of his larcenous talents to “steal back” Earth from the Thanagarians (being dead, presumably they were unable to read his mind).  As a ten year old kid, I found this set-up majorly chilling & spooky, the idea that Carter and Shiera were seemingly all on their own, everyone else on Earth was compromised, and their one source of assistance was an untrustworthy villain.

Unfortunately, Isabella departed the ongoing Hawkman title with issue #7 due to disagreements with editorial, and his successor wrapped up the invasion storyline in a rushed, unsatisfactory manner.  Nevertheless, the work that Isabella & Howell did do together was really great.  Howell really showed his versatility, rendering the Kubert-designed Hawks with their combination of high-tech & primitive weaponry, the science fiction designs for the Thanagarian invaders, and the supernatural aspects of the series.

Around this time, Howell was also over at Marvel, penciling the twelve issue Vision and the Scarlet Witch series written by Steve Englehart.   This took place in real time, which meant that we saw Wanda get pregnant and, in the last issue, give birth to twin baby boys.  Unlike some, I was never terribly bothered by the notion that Wanda used magic to conceive children with an android.  (I was quite annoyed when a few years later John Byrne did a major retcon, wiping the twins out of existence, but fortunately Allan Heinberg eventually reversed this and brought them back into being as super-powered teenagers in the pages of Young Avengers.)

Howell did some really great work on this series.  The wide range of guest stars that popped up enabled him to render a significant portion of the Marvel universe.  A few years later, Howell again had the opportunity to draw the Scarlet Witch in the four chapter serial “Separate Lives” which ran in Marvel Comics Presents #60-63.  He also wrote, lettered, and colored the entire story, demonstrating he was a man of many talents.  Between that story and his work a few years earlier, I thought that Howell drew one of the most all-time beautiful, sexy depictions of the Scarlet Witch.  Years later, when I told him that, he modestly responded “It’s not difficult drawing a beautiful woman who was visually created by Jack Kirby and then developed into a star by Don Heck.”

Another group of characters who Howell drew really well were the Inhumans.  In addition to drawing their appearance in Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Howell penciled a “Tales of the Inhumans” short story written by Peter Gillis and inked by Sam De La Rosa which saw print in the back of Thor Annual #12, of all places.  I just found a copy of that comic about a year ago.  The splash page by Howell & De La Rosa is gorgeous.  Howell also penciled & colored a double-sized Inhumans Special written by Lou Mougin published in 1990 that delved into the history of the Royal Family immediately prior to their first appearances in the pages of Fantastic Four.  Vince Colletta inked that one and despite his tendency to do rush jobs, especially in his later years, Howell said he was generally satisfied with how the art turned out.  If you want to check it out, that Inhumans Special was just reprinted by Marvel in a trade paperback along with their 1988 graphic novel written by Ann Nocenti.

In the 1980s, Howell also drew All-Star Squadron, the Green Lantern feature in Action Comics Weekly, various profile pics for Who’s Who, DNAgents, and his creator-owned Portiz Prinz of the Glamazons.  That last one first originated as a self-published project in the late 1970s.

Howell did some work on Vampirella for Harris Comics in the early 1990s.  He then co-founded Claypool Comics with Ed Via in 1993.  I first found out about Claypool several years later.  As I’ve mentioned before, I used to see artist Dave Cockrum quite often at conventions & store signings.  When I asked him what he was currently working on, he told me he was penciling Soulsearchers and Company for Claypool.  Since I loved Dave’s artwork, I had my comic shop order the current issue, which was #30.  I read it, and thought it was awesome.  The series was a supernatural comedy written by Peter David, with co-plots & edits by Howell.  I was soon following Soulsearchers and Company on a regular basis.

Claypool also published three other series.  There was the twelve issue Phantom of Fear City, written by Howell’s old collaborator Steve Englehart, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, an anthology featuring the campy, vampy horror hostess, and Deadbeats, a dark vampire soap opera written & penciled by Howell, with rich embellishments by Argentine illustrator Ricardo Villagran.  Howell acknowledges that Dark Shadows had an influence on Deadbeats, and series actresses Kathryn Leigh Scott, Nancy Barrett & Lara Parker have each written introductions for the three trade paperbacks.

It took me a while to get into Deadbeats, simply because I’ve never been a huge fan of vampires.  This was around the time that Interview With A Vampire and Vampire: The Masquerade were really popular, and I just thought the whole notion of the undead as these refined, romantic, aristocratic beings was so annoying & pretentious (you can just imagine what I think of all that Twilight nonsense nowadays).  And so I unfortunately assumed that Deadbeats was more of the same.

However, corresponding with Howell via e-mail, he wore down my resistance, and I finally picked up the first two TPB collections, “New In Town” and “Learning The Game.”  And I have to confess I loved them.  Yes, the vampires in Deadbeats were super-sexy (both the women and the men, got to give Howell points for fairness) but most of them were unabashedly evil, committing brutally violent killings in their quest for fresh blood.  There were also a few morally conflicted members of the undead, as well as some who had relatively benevolent agendas, such as the vampire king Hermano (no relation).  There was also a really interesting cast of humans who were batting against the vampires of Mystic Grove, led by teenage couple Kirby Collier and Jo Isles.  Anyway, once I was done with those two TPBs, I started following Deadbeats with issue #50.

One of my favorite covers from Deadbeats is #53, penciled by Howell, with lush inking by Steve Leialoha.  I don’t know who did the coloring, but it looks fantastic.  One of the subplots in Deadbeats concerned Kirby’s long-lost father Adam arriving in Mystic Grove and recruiting vampire hunter Dakota Kane in an attempt to track down the mysterious bat cult that had kidnapped his wife years before.  It turned out that sultry lounge singer Countess DiMiera, currently performing at Mystic Grove’s popular social spot the Bat Club, was a member of that secret society, as well as a conduit for their dark deity, Murcielago the Bat-God.

I really loved Howell & Leialoha’s depiction of the sinister songstress on that cover (in hindsight, she might have reminded me of a more wicked version of Howell’s Scarlet Witch).  I asked Howell to let me know if he ever wanted to sell the original artwork.  He responded that he typically held on to all of his originals.  But a few years later he was kind enough to do a really nice sketch of the Countess and her disciples for me.  You can view that, and a few other beautiful pieces he has drawn for me, on Comic Art Fans:

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerydetailsearch.asp?artist=Richard+Howell&GCat=60

Unfortunately, due to low sales, in 2007 Diamond Distributors decided they would no longer carry any of Claypool’s titles (this is the kind of thing that happens when you are stuck doing business with a monopoly).  Deadbeats, Soulsearchers, and Elvira were all canceled.  Since 2007, Howell has continued the Deadbeats story as an online comic at the Claypool website.  I’m glad he’s been able to do that, but I really hope that one of these days he has the opportunity to collect those installments together in print editions.

As you can see, Richard Howell has had a very diverse career, during which he has written and drawn some amazing comic books.  I really enjoy his art, and I hope to see more from him in the future.  Happy birthday, Richard.  Keep up the great work.

Remembering Dave Cockrum

I wanted to take a moment to remember one of my all time favorite comic book artists, Dave Cockrum, who was born on November 11, 1943 and passed away on November 26, 2006 at the too young age of 63.  Today would have been his 70th birthday.

A few days ago I wrote about how I became a huge fan of Legion of Super-Heroes, and how Dave Cockrum’s significant contributions to that series played a major role in that.  In addition to successfully redesigning the majority of the team’s costumes, Dave created new team member Wildfire, villain Tyr, and occasional allies Infectious Lass and Devil-Fish.  Dave had ideas for quite a number of other new Legion members, including a certain blue-skinned, pointy-tailed fellow named Nightcrawler, but his editor Murray Boltinoff feared that the character was too strange-looking.

A beautiful 1976 painting of Nightcrawler by his creator, Dave Cockrum

After Dave left Legion over a dispute concerning the return of his original artwork, he took the unused Nightcrawler with him to Marvel in 1975.  There, the character became one of the members of the mega-successful revamp of X-Men by himself and writer Len Wein.  Dave co-created Storm, Colossus, and Thunderbird with Wein.  Although he was not involved in the initial development of Wolverine, Dave was the first artist to draw him unmasked, giving Logan his now-iconic hair & facial features.

The overworked Wein departed from X-Men after only three issues, and Chris Claremont became the series’ new writer.  Chris and Dave collaborated very well together, and they were responsible for revamping Jean Grey into Phoenix, as well as introducing Black Tom Cassidy, Lilandra, the Shi’ar Empire, the Imperial Guard (who were sort of a parody of the Legion), and the Starjammers.  Dave also helped Chris out on his other ongoing assignment, Ms. Marvel, penciling two issues wherein he designed a fantastic new costume for Carol Danvers.  Although he did not draw their first appearances in the pages of Ms. Marvel, Dave was the designer of both Deathbird and Mystique.  In the case of the later, Dave explained in 2003:

“This drawing was done for fun and hung in my office until my partner Chris Claremont wandered in one day, saw her, and started to drool. ‘I want her!’ he said. He named her Mystique, gave her powers and added her to the Uncanny X-Men rogues gallery.”

Dave Cockrum’s stunning drawing of the character who would become Mystique

Due to X-Men going to a monthly status, Dave left the series in 1977, and John Byrne became the new penciler & co-plotter.  Byrne & Claremont had a great, memorable run, producing many classic stories, but the two eventually parted ways in 1981.  Dave came back for a second run penciling Uncanny X-Men, paired with inkers Josef Rubinstein and Bob Wiacek.  During this time, Chris and Dave collaborated on several great stories, including “I, Magneto” in Uncanny X-Men #150, which first revealed Magneto’s history as a survivor of the Holocaust, “Kitty’s Fairy Tale” in #153, and a flashback to Xavier and Magneto’s first encounter in #161.  Chris and Dave also introduced the insidiously evil alien monstrosities known as the Brood.

Dave once again departed Uncanny X-Men in 1983 to create his Futurians graphic novel.  He also wrote & drew an enjoyable four issue Nightcrawler miniseries that saw the swashbuckling Kurt Wagner bouncing from one strange dimension to another.  On more than one occasion, Dave had said that Nightcrawler was a sort of romanticized version of himself, so he must have enjoyed working on these issues.

Futurians #0

Around this time, Dave took the creator-owned Futurians over to a small company called Lodestone Comics.  Unfortunately, they folded after publishing only three issues, leaving Dave’s fourth issue unreleased.  However, on a couple of subsequent occasions it was finally published, first in a trade paperback by Eternity in 1987 and then as a black & white issue by Clifford Meth’s Aardwolf Publishing in 1995.  That later edition also included a brand new five page story by written by Meth & drawn by Dave.

Dave remained a fan of Legion of Super-Heroes, and over the years he would return to the series to draw the occasional cover or short sequence, plus some profile images for Who’s Who in the Legion.  It was always a delight to see his work on the characters.

In the 1990s, Dave unfortunately had some trouble finding regular work.  He did get the occasional job from Marvel, DC, Valiant and Defiant.  One of my favorite stories that he drew was “Depth Charges” in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #3, written by Michael Jan Friedman, which features an aquatic alien member of the GL Corps.  Dave did fantastic work on that.  He was briefly reunited with Chris Claremont when he penciled a series of back-up stories for Sovereign Seven.  Dave also became the penciler of the really fun supernatural comedy Soulsearchers and Company which was co-written by Peter David & Richard Howell, and published by Claypool Comics.  Again, he did really great work on those issues.

Dave Cockrum’s super-sexy splash page of Bridget and Baraka in a bubble bath,
from Soulsearchers and Company #37

For a number of years Dave and his wife, artist & colorist Paty, lived in upstate New York.  I would often see them at local comic book conventions & store signings.  They were both really nice, fun, intelligent people, and I’m glad I had so many opportunities to meet them.  During this time, I was fortunate enough to acquire a few pages of artwork that Dave had worked on, as well as a few sketches.  I’ve posted scans of those on the Comic Art Fans website.  Here’s a link:

http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=2441

During the last few years of his life, Dave was sadly plagued by ill health.  Clifford Meth helped raise money to assist in paying his medical bills, publishing The Uncanny Dave Cockrum…A Tribute through Aardwolf.  Numerous artists contributed drawings of Dave’s numerous creations, with the originals subsequently being auctioned off to raise further funds.

Recently on his Facebook page, Meth announced the following: “In 2014, Aardwolf Publishing will release the final, never-before-published Dave Cockrum FUTURIANS comic, pencilled and written by Dave himself. We have a terrific assembly of comics’ stars participating, but we want EVERYONE to help us make this a HUGE success. Want to help? Artists are invited to contribute pin-ups of Dave’s Futurians’ characters, which we’ll include in the printed and/or digital book, and also use as Kickstarter perks. You’ll be in star-studded company–we promise. Please join us!”  I’m definitely looking forward to this, and I wish Meth great success in bringing this to print.  I’ll keep everyone updated once I learn more information about the upcoming Kickstarter campaign.

Dave Cockrum was undoubtedly a superbly talented artist, as well as an incredible designer, who left an indelible mark on the comic book biz.  He left behind a rich legacy of wonderful artwork and colorful creations for us to enjoy.

How I learned to love the Legion

Back Issue #68, the most recent edition of the excellent magazine edited by Michael Eury and published by TwoMorrows, took an in-depth look at the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 1970s and 80s, topped with vintage 1973 art by the late, great Dave Cockrum.  I really enjoyed it, and was inspired to write about how I myself became a fan of these champions of justice from a thousand years in the future.  In comparison to some readers who have been fans of the Legion for many decades, I’m a relative newcomer.  And it was a rather long, convoluted road that led me to becoming a devotee.

The Legion of Super-Heroes, as illustrated by Dave Cockrum in 1973.

When I first began reading comic books in the 1980s, I was almost exclusively into Marvel.  I’d pick up an issue published by DC here or there but, really, Marvel was my thing.  Then, in 1989, the Tim Burton Batman movie came out and, with the massive accompanying hype, I began picking up a few of the actual comics.  I enjoyed those Batman stories, and quickly moved on to the Superman books, buying the then-current issues by such talents as Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway, as well as catching up on the recent John Byrne stories via back issues.  Those, in turn, led me to several other DC books including Legion of Super-Heroes.

Let me be honest: 1990 was probably not an ideal time for a virtual newcomer to the DCU to pick up the Legion cold.  The title was still experiencing the aftershocks of Crisis of Infinite Earths (you can see my blog post “Should Superman Kill?” for a rundown on the entire Pocket Universe retcon of Superboy and the Legion’s history).  In addition, a new Legion ongoing had recently started.  Helmed by Tom & Mary Bierbaum, Keith Giffen and Al Gordon, this book had leaped forward half a decade into the future from the end of the previous volume.  During that gap the Legion had disbanded & scattered across the galaxy, the United Planets had been plunged into a massive economic depression, and EarthGov had been covertly taken over by the alien Dominators.  So even though I did rather enjoy the handful of Legion issues that I picked up around that time, I had a lot of difficulty figuring out who was who and what was what.

As I would find out years later, it also did not help that there were behind-the-scenes creative conflicts, with the editors of Superman laying down edicts that Superboy could not be referred to any longer, and neither could Supergirl, and a bunch of other stuff.  Editors Mark Waid & Michael Eury (yep, him again), Giffen, Gordon and the Bierbaums did their best to come up with ways to work around all this, such as substituting Mon-El for Superboy and creating the character of Laurel Gand to take Supergirl’s place in the Legion’s history (for a detailed rundown on all of this, check out the excellent article “Too Much Time On My Hands: The History of the Time Trapper” by Jim Ford in Back Issue #68).

Legion of Super-Heroes vol 4 #9, featuring Laurel Gand, who bears absolutely no resemblance to Supergirl, we swear to Grodd!

One source of information that assisted me immensely was the latest edition of Who’s Who in the DC Universe which was edited by a certain Mr. Eury.  There were a large number of entries for Legion characters in that 16 issue incarnation of Who’s Who, and it really helped me figure out up from down.

Anyway, all the various tortured retcons eventually caused the entire Legion history to be totally rebooted from scratch.  And then several years later it got rebooted again.  None of this did anything to motivate me to follow the series regularly.

So what finally did make me a fan of Legion of Super-Heroes?  It was two gentlemen by the names of Dave Cockrum and Jack Kirby.

Dave Cockrum is nowadays best known for co-creating the “All-New All-Different X-Men” with Len Wein in 1975, and then going on to pencil two runs on the series, paired with writer Chris Claremont.  Back in the 1990s, Dave and his wife Paty lived in upstate New York, and so I often would see them at local conventions & store signings.  I became a huge fan of Cockrum’s work and, in the process, I learned that right before he came over to Marvel to revamp X-Men, he had had a short but extremely influential stint on Superboy, a title which in the early 1970s was the home of the Legion as a back-up feature.

In 2000, DC published Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volume 10, which reprinted the majority of Cockrum’s work on the series.  I picked it up, and I instantly fell in love.  It was immediately apparent that Cockrum had really played a crucial role in reviving the Legion.  If you look at the first few stories in that Archives volume, the ones written by E. Nelson Bridwell & Cary Bates and drawn by George Tuska, they’re decent and entertaining, but nothing especially memorable.

Then Cockrum comes along, paired with Bates, and over the next few stories you can see a real shift.  Cockrum started to draw the Legion members as slightly older, so that they were in their late teens, and he designed new uniforms for them, ones that were more fashionable & risqué.  You could almost say he sexed up the Legion, although by today’s standards what he did is quite mild & innocent.  (My favorite was Cockrum’s costume design for Phantom Girl, and I’m happy I had the opportunity to get a nice sketch of Tinya by him.)  Cockrum revamped the technology, the look of the future, drawing a lot of inspiration from Star Trek.  Cockrum’s art also contained this energy and dynamic quality.  He really knew how to tell a compelling story, to draw exciting layouts and detailed sequences featuring multiple characters.

Superboy #200, featuring the wedding of Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel, beautifully illustrated by Dave Cockrum. (Click to enlarge!)

Cockrum may have got me to pick up that hardcover collection, but it was Bates’ writing that really hooked me.  He did an amazing job scripting the numerous members of the Legion, making them seem like real people who were teammates and friends and occasionally romantic partners.  I really got invested in this group of super-powered pals.

Cockrum’s stay wasn’t very long, lasting from 1972 to 1974, but by the time he left, the team had taken over the covers of Superboy, and the book was unofficially titled “Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes.”  Cockrum’s replacement was newcomer Mike Grell.  I enjoyed Volume 10 of the Archives so much, I picked up the next one, which has the beginning of Grell’s run, paired with both Bates and Jim Shooter on writing duties.  Obviously Grell has grown by immense leaps & bounds since the mid-1970s, but even back then you could see a great deal of talent & potential in his wonderful Legion art.

I also mentioned Jack Kirby.  As far as I know, the King of Comics never drew the Legion.  However, one of his most significant creations would play a major role in the annals of the team’s lore, courtesy of Paul Levitz & Keith Giffen.

“The Great Darkness Saga” originally ran in Legion of Super-Heroes #290-294, published in 1982.  A mysterious, shadowy “Master” and his “Servants” are ravaging the United Planets, stealing various objects & sources of mystical power, in the process even taking down longtime Legion foes Mordru and the Time Trapper.  After four issues in which the Legion has been beaten back by these mysterious beings, the identity of the “Master” is finally revealed: Darkseid, lord of Apokolips.  Using the immense magical energies he has stolen, Darkseid teleports the planet Daxam to a yellow star and seizes mental control of its now-superhuman occupants, giving him an army of a billion beings with the strength & abilities of Superman.  What follows is a titanic battle across the whole of the galaxy, as the Legion calls in practically every single one of their reserve members & allies to try and halt Darkseid & his enslaved pawns.

Darkseid’s identity was well-hidden back when “The Great Darkness Saga” was first published.  In hindsight, you can see that Levitz & Giffen sprinkled in several clues for those who were really paying attention.  Of course nowadays Darkseid’s role is very well known.  So, as a huge fan of Kirby’s New Gods, I was absolutely interested in reading this now-classic story in which Darkseid was the villain.  “The Great Darkness Saga” was definitely an epic adventure.  At the same time, Levitz invested his script with a number of personal, quiet moments and pieces of characterization.  Once again, I really got interested in these people, in finding out more about them.

Legion of Super-Heroes #294: Darkseid revealed!

“The Great Darkness Saga” had not one, but two, epilogues, which appeared in Legion Annual #3 (1984) and Annual #2 (1986)… the series restarted with a new #1 in-between these two, which explains that odd numbering!  Having failed in his quest for universal domination, Darkseid sought to achieve a more personal, hurtful victory.  And what he did was genuinely horrifying.  But more on that (hopefully) in a future installment!

In any case, between the work of Cockrum, Grell & Bates in the 1970s and “The Great Darkness Saga” by Levitz & Giffen in the early 1980s, I really became interested in Legion.  I picked up several of the previous Archive editions, which contained the work of Edmond Hamilton, John Forte, Curt Swan, and a very young Jim Shooter.  I also searched out many of the Legion issues that Levitz wrote in the 1980s working with artists Steve Lightle and Greg LaRocque.  It was all really good stuff.  And when the pre-Crisis continuity of the Legion was more or less restored several years back, I picked up the new stories by Levitz and Geoff Johns.  But, again, I’ll talk about that another time.

Silver Age artist Nick Cardy, who recently passed away, had a brief connection to the Legion.  In addition to his runs illustrating Aquaman, Bat Lash, and Teen Titans, Cardy created stunning, dramatic covers for numerous DC titles throughout the 1960s and 70s, including Superboy.  This meant that once the Legion took over as the regular cover feature in 1973, Cardy had the opportunity to draw the heroes of the 30th Century.  And he did so beautifully, composing a number of striking images for the title, until Grell took over the cover chores two years later.  Probably my favorite Legion cover by Cardy is Superboy #203.  He does a superb job, depicting the menacing Validus looming over the unsuspecting Legionnaires.

Superboy #203 cover art by Nick Cardy.

Within that comic, behind Cardy’s fantastic cover, was “Massacre by Remote Control.”  This featured the tragic death of Invisible Kid, who sacrificed himself to save his teammates from the near-mindless monstrosity Validus.  It’s a very moving, emotional story by Bates & Grell.

And that, in turn, goes back to why I’ve come to be such a fan of the Legion.  Writers such as Bates and Shooter and Levitz really had the ability to get readers to care for the characters in the series.  Over the decades, those characters have grown and developed, been in and out of relationships, seen great triumphs and terrible failures.  And sometimes, sadly, members of the Legion would fall in battle, such as what happened to Invisible Kid, or when Shooter & Swan showed us Ferro Lad bravely giving his life to stop the apocalyptic menace of the Sun-Eater.  When incidents like this happened, it really did affect the reader.  It’s no wonder that the Legion has such an amazingly dedicated fanbase.