JL #45 "Toyman's WAR on Christmas" Afterwards

So....what did you think?

First off I want to thank my cyber friends Tim Wallace and Ashton Burge with giving me two great "variant" covers this time out. Thanks guys, they look great!!

As for my cover, a tip of the hat to Ramona Fradon and Bob Smith, who provided the source for me on Super Friends #24. I originally played with the idea of having a smiling Toyman on a videoscreen ala the Wonder Twins, but I kinda like how the caroling mannequins turned out.

In case you haven't read the story yet, let's continue this discussion WITH SPOILERS after the jump.

JL #44 Ladies' Night/Flames of Justice AFTERWARD

So, what did you think? Spoilers after the jump, so if you haven't read the stories yet, please do and then come right back...!

JL #43 "Luck Of The Draw!" Afterward

So, what did you think?

JL #42 "Universal Heroes!" Afterward

So that was fun, wasn't it? Believe it or not, this story has been in the pipeline for nearly two years! I think I seriously started working on it in early 2014 to have it finished for Halloween 2014, then Halloween 2015, and now Valentines' Day 2016!

JL #41 "They Mystery of the Fiery Eyes!" Afterward

A REQUEST!
If you have not yet read this story, please DO NOT READ THIS AFTERWARD. Skip this article and go down one post to read the story. Then come back. Please!
If you have already read this story PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL THE STORY in any links or shares etc. I went to a lot of trouble to try to write a "real" mystery, and I would like as many people as possible to read it "cold," without already knowing the ending. Thank you!

So, now that my request is out of the way...what did you think? We can talk SPOILERS after the JUMP---!

JL #40 "....Dangerous Brain Storm!" Afterward

So, what did you think?

I will be the first to admit that some of the art was not very good. I guess when I take time off my artistic abilities kind of stagnate? Or maybe I just get lazy or rushed? Some of the art is good, but too many panels remind me myself of Vince Colletta with dull or blank backgrounds. And for that I apologize. I will try to do better in the future.

Of course, I have said it before and I will say it again: I consider myself more of a writer than an illustrator. And I DO like the story, and some of the dialogue. Let me tell you about how this particular story metamorphosed....

JL #38 "The Yellow Alert!" AFTERWARD

So...what did you think of my newest collaborative effort on "my" Justice League?

I am prejudiced, of course, but I think Andy Kapelusch and I did a pretty good job on it. As I mentioned in the Forward, Andy did the pencils for the majority of the story and I did the inks and dialogue. Andy did supply suggestions or hints to what he was thinking, but I was free to use or over-ride his suggestions. Overall I think the story reads pretty darn well. Shall I go over the parts I am especially happy with?

I love this panel. I think Andy did a great job setting up three people on one side of Green Lantern and three people on the other side. I only wish I did a better job with the green energy aura coloring.

JL #37 "Every Little Breeze...!" AFTERWARD

So, what did you think?

When my co-creator Rick Duncan sent me his script for this story, I immediately realized that it had been written with Bronze Age DC Comics in mind. The Hawks were archeologists working at Midway City Museum, for example, and Zatanna was a member...but so was Plastic Man!?

JL #36: "The Polaris Gambit: Part II End-Game!" Afterward

SPOILER ALERT: 
Don't read this Afterward until you have read the story!

So...how many of you guessed that this story was going to bring Hawkman and Hawkwoman back into the ranks of the Justice League? I mean, similar to THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK, could you imagine this story happening and then Thanagar sending the JLA back to Earth *without* their two favorites? I suppose it is possible, but as the writer I knew the whole point of this story was to get Katar and Shayera back on Earth. Hopefully there was enough suspense about it so at the very least when you got to the end you smiled and thought, "I hoped so!"

So what else is there to say about this story? First of all, I hereby declare that I will *never* write another alien invasion story! This story with the lizards and purple brutes, and the earlier story with the Queen Bee and her bee-men...let's stick to super-villains and their ilk for awhile, shall we?

Speaking of which, this is the first issue that somebody new came and played in my sand-box. Another hearty THANK YOU to cyber-pal Luke Daab for providing such a great cover to this story. I loved being the editor to his freelance artist...although the hardest decision I ever had to make was to CUT Aquaman to make space for the Hawks!! Now that Luke has broken the ice, so to speak, I am happy to announce that next issue will be a story drawn by me but written originally by another friend, Rick Duncan! And the issue after that is a collaborative "Marvel Style" story by me and Andy Kapellusch. I am having so much fun!

And now a few random thoughts about what I think I did well this issue and what I think I could have done better...

I did extensive research on Thanagar and the Hawks to write this story. I borrowed the HAWKMAN ARCHIVES from the library and also read up on the characters on Wikipedia and Being Carter Hall . So I *think* I got all the main facts right, atleast as they relate to the Silver Age Thanagar. For example, the Veil of Valmorra really (?) is a waterfall resort. It's where Katar and Shayera met for the first time and began to fall in love.

There are a few different versions of Despero out there, and when I investigated which "look" I liked best, I was actually surprised to find that the number of "fins" on his head kept switching between five and seven! I finally went with five, but I had to be conscious of this or I would accidentally give him seven! I ended up liking my take on Despero, too....creepy, strong, and dangerous, but not a Hulk-ing mess.

However, drawing him and his fins in profile *was* a pain in the ass. 

You know what else was a pain in the ass? The damn chess board. I had to be careful when drawing it to keep track of where the chess pieces were, and how many spaces there were in each direction. Because I do the art piece-meal, a few pages or even a page at a time, this was a huge bother. When I was nearly complete with everything I suddenly realized that the board was not consistent in-between "shots," so I pulled each page that featured it and re-drew most of them. So like my alien invasions embargo mentioned above, I hereby announce that I will never feature a chess-board in a story again!

In a story like this the "little moments" in the original script are the ones that have to disappear first. Still, I managed to keep a few in....such as the "wink" moment between Katar and Shayera as they agree to challenge Despero to his deadly game. I liked how that turned out. Another scene was this one below: it appears simple, but with a touch and a quick comment, it conveys the trust and friendship of these characters. I specifically didn't draw a background in this panel because I didn't want to take anything away from the two women and their moment.

As for Aquaman and his Thanagarian Finny Friends...I love how I colored this scene. Like the shark in JAWS, you never see anything, but you are still very conscious that *something* is in the water. So you had better listen to Aquaman, fellas!

I'm sure I've said this before, but I'll say it again. It seems like every time I draw the Flash, I have to draw him a dozen times. Here he is once, but in fact i had to draw him FOUR times! Sheesh. Is that why I'm happy about the next issue, when he loses his super-speed? Well...yes, yes it is! 

My favorite bits in this story are the ending and the scenes with Green Arrow and Green Lantern fighting to free the Thanagarian Hawk Guards. When I did my research on Thanagar and tried to find three or four places that Despero would want to take over, it made sense that one of them would be the police headquarters. And then as soon as I decided on that location, I *knew* I had to assign Green Arrow to help free it. His comment about "isn't it ironic?" made me laugh out loud as I was writing it. And John's statement about having enough arrows in his quiver is something I always thought when I read GA adventures...

As for the ending, I think Green Arrow and Hawkman have enough of an antagonistic relationship to constantly tease each other, but it made sense to me that Hawkman, with all the stress he had to have endured over the last two issues, would cut through Ollie's crap and give him a big hug. No?

I like the following panel. This is something I think Batman would *always* think as he attacks armed bad guys, whether he shouts it or not, it's his mantra....

When I started plotting this story I originally considered following the DC history of The Shadow War of Thanagar, where the planet becomes more militant under the control of a minor super-villain named Hyathis. However, I abandoned this idea pretty quickly because I didn't want a military Thanagar plot hanging over my characters. In the end I decided that the best way to over-rule the command to the Hawks to return (shown in #31) would be for the king to over-rule the bureaucrat(s) who had ordered them back in the first place. So now the Hawks can come and go as much as I may need them to...!

Hope you enjoyed this story and I hope you like that Hawkman and Hawkwoman are now back in "my" Justice League! Next issue, they play a pivotal role in their first adventure back. And in what seems to be a trend for me, the story is one that was written waaay before anything you have already seen!

JL #35 "The Polaris Gambit!" Afterward

SPOILER ALERT: 

Don't read this Afterward unless you've already read the story! 

So...did you guess or know who the bad guy was? Did you guess that this story would re-introduce Hawkman and Hawkwoman?

A little background information: when I finished my first run of JUSTICE LEAGUE stories in 2000, I had Hawkman and Hawkwoman return to Thanagar. As I was leaving Japan at the time, they stood in for me, saying good-bye to all the people that I was also leaving. So my series ended with them gone.

However, when I decided that I wanted to tell more JLA stories set in "my" universe, I realized immediately that I wanted The Hawks back. So the first plot that I came up with was this one, the Hawks in danger and calling their friends for help. However again, when I thought about it I realized that in the fictional world of "my" DC universe, the Justice League would have gone on without the Hawks. When Hawkman quit in "true" DC continuity, he was gone for seven issues. So I decided that I would tell a story or two (or three) without the Hawks, just to show that they had, in fact, been gone. Hence my stories with the Queen Bee, Dr. Destiny, and the JLA-JSA team-up.

And now finally here we are at the story I plotted out first, more than a year ago! This story is based very loosely on JLA #177, which had Despero playing chess with the Martian Manhunter. At that time J'onn was no longer a JLAer, so the situation was similar to my story need. However, that is about the only plot point I kept from his story.You will see next issue that my story is nothing like JLA #178, either.

Now here are a few moments that I really liked.

For me, Red Tornado and Elongated Man seem destined to be friends. Their personalities are absolute opposites, but maybe that's why they seem to work together so well. When I thought about how to start this story, I wanted to do two things: mention Red's adoption of Traya, and toss out a Firestorm reference. For some reason it just seemed natural that these two would be hanging out with their significant others. Is this just me?


Mera is one of my favorite characters, but she really hasn't gotten a lot of respect until the last few years. It made sense to have her here on patrol with her husband; it also allowed me to have another point-of-view so Aquaman wasn't just talking to himself as he dealt with the mystery of the alien chess pieces.
Sad to say, it never even occurred to me to bring Mera into the next issue. As soon as one of my buddies asked me about it, I realized I could have (should have) had her join in the fun. Sorry, Mera!! 


The Wonder Woman section was the most difficult for me to write. The way I had it originally, Diana defeated the chess piece easily, in a story that only took two pages. I realized I had to make it more difficult for her somehow. Eventually I hit on the idea of the chess piece being mobile, and being able to dodge her "bullets and bracelets" maneuver. This worked, and gave me the extra pages I needed.  

Did anybody realize that Green Arrow and black Canary were ignoring Count Vertigo because they had put ear-plugs in? This is why the chess piece attack comes as a great shock to them; they hadn't heard it moving behind them.

As soon as I was near completion of this section I thought I should have used a different villain (Slip Knot, anybody?) but by that point it was too late. I do think I have used the Count a bit too much. I will try to retire him for the foreseeable future.

One of the reasons I wanted to use Superman in this story is because I don't like how I draw him. I wanted an excuse to practice on him. He turned out okay, but he and The Flash are still my least favorite characters to draw. 

The other reason I wanted to use Superman is because I wanted to use Lex Luthor. What a great villain! He thinks he can stop The Man of Steel just by using his brains! What an ego! I knew I wanted to write for this guy. Two of my favorite bits are included here. 

 

One last thing about my name-dropping of Firestorm. After the original issues this story is based on, Firestorm joined the JLA in the very next issue. So will Firestorm join "my" JLA in # 37?! Stay tuned to find out...!*

 NEXT ISSUE ON-LINE THE WEEK OF SEPT 15

*No. No, he won't.

JL#34 "Cross-Cultural Crisis Exchange!" Afterwards

So what did you think? As I mentioned in the Forward, of the three *new* adventures I have shared so far, this one is my favorite. This might be because I love the Justice Society so much, but I think it's also because it's the best plotted of the three. I sat down and thought about the JLA and JSA as if they were similar to two companies. I work for a company that has offices in other parts of the world, and we often have "guest" engineers or auditors come, or we go someplace else. So I tried to think what really would happen if they had an exchange program or a business trip between "sites." And the story went from there.

Originally, I was only going to follow one group of heroes. Then I couldn't decide which group to use, as I wanted to use The Horned Owl Gang on the JSA world, but also liked the idea of visiting Atlantis with Star Girl and Aquaman. So then I decided to split this into a two-parter. THEN as I plotted it I realized that the action didn't really warrant two full issues. So I combined them again, deciding to go back-and-forth within the issue. Let me know if the juggling of plots worked or not.

If you are a long-time reader, you may notice that this issue starts in the exact same way as my first JLA-JSA team-up in Number 21, except from the JSA point-of-view instead of the JLA. I actually went back to Number 21 and wrote this opening sequence based off of the first one.

 

In lieu of "roll call portraits" I showcased the three new members, with some extra time devoted to each...

As I had already established that Black Canary was originally from the Justice Society world and went back to visit each time the groups met, I thought it would be nice to establish that some JSA members  would not ever go the JLA world. Chief amongst these members would be Wildcat, who would always want to see Black Canary.

In the original comics, Red Tornado leaves the JSA world and relocates to the JLA world. Only once does he try to return to his old life; after that he is never even shown teaming up with his previous team-mates. So there is never any scene such as this as the JSA learns that he is not dead. I would have liked to have seen this scene.

When I decided to include new JSA members Mr. Terrific, Star Girl, and Obsidian, I decided I would naturally have to include their origins. Going back to my initial thesis that if these were real people, the JLAers upon meeting them would just naturally ask, "What do you do? How did you happen to join the Justice Society?" etcetera. So I had to have them answer those questions! And within one of those answers is the only appearance you will ever get of the original Mr. Terrific in my universe. So enjoy him while you can.

Speaking of guest-appearances in origin stories, I also decided to include The Spectre, who, even more so that Superman or Thor, should never have been a member of any group. If The Spectre can't solve whatever the problem is by himself, characters like Mr. Terrific or Black Canary aren't going to be able to help him! I did always like that The Spectre was instrumental in the creation of the new Mr. Terrific, though.

One of my favorite "new" characters over the past 20 or so years has been the new Star Spangled Kid. She was created by writer Geoff Johns as the step-daughter of Stripesy (from The Seven Soldiers of Victory) after the original kid was murdered by Solomon Grundy. I always thought she was a great character and couldn't wait to use her. And as an extra-added bonus I got to include The Seven Soldiers of Victory!

Courtney originally disliked and resented her step-father, but after being a super-heroine for some time and maturing some (and meeting her biological father) she now loves him as if he were her father. I wanted to include that character bit in my story.

More recently, Courtney changed her name from Star-Spangled Kid to Stargirl. I am not really a fan of that name, but I did like the reasoning behind it: as a continuation of the Star MAN legacy.  When or if I do another JSA story, I promise to re-visit this idea.

As I mentioned earlier, I originally was going to have the JLA-JSA team-up to fight a new and improved Horned Owl Gang. I even did research on owls and came up with new character names and looks for characters like Great Horned Owl, Snowy Owl, and Barn Owl. However, that seemed like a lot of work for characters that will never be seen again...so I decided to "dumb" them back down to more closely match their "true" appearance, from JUSTICE LEAGUE 113 (Oct 1974). Check out my version, and my inspiration (by Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano): 

Northwind is probably one of my least-favorite "new" generational characters. In original DC Comics continuity he is the god-son of the Earth-2 (JSA) Hawkman and Hawkwoman. As a non-white character, I *want* to like him. In actuality, however, he's dull and he's complicated. And he has a stupid costume (I gave him pants in my version). You will probably not see him again....

No real reason to include this panel other than that I liked how it turned out, both in terms of color and in terms of personality. Visiting Atlantis for the first time ever *should* be exciting!

Actually drawing Atlantis, however, is NOT exciting. I based my illustrations off of the drawings by Marshall Rogers in the original WHO'S WHO IN THE DC UNIVERSE book.

And while I was visiting Atlantis (the first time I had ever been there in *my* universe), I wanted to establish that there were two cities in the continent, and that Lori Lemaris was from one and Aquaman was from the other. I doubt we'll ever see Lori again, but it's nice to to know she's there if we ever need her.

I had already introduced Mera and Aqualad and the Teen Titans into my universe, but this is the first time they appear in the revival. Say HI to the folks, Garth. I wasn't sure how Aquaman would introduce Aqualad to the Justice Society..."son" seemed wrong, "friend" seemed insufficient...let me know if you disagree with my word choice.

This panel tells you about Obsidian and how he and Star Girl relate more easily and naturally than anything I would have had to force into the dialogue. I liked how I handled this.

I don't know if Black Canary would visit her parents' graves EVERY time she went back to her home dimension, but I figured she would at least TRY to... And I liked how Power Girl, the Huntress, the Sandman, and Hourman all credit her with being the "first of the second generation heroes." All of those "new" versions appeared several years after Black Canary (II) did, so it seems natural that they would look at her as something akin to an elder sister. Or is that just me?

I included this flash-back to remind the readers that my JLA-JSA history is basically the same as that  established in the comics. Trivia freaks, can YOU spot the two continuity errors in these two panels?

1. The Flash did not appear in the "seance" sequence; both Jay and Barry had been kidnapped by the Crime Champions before that; 2. Alan Scott has his ring on his right hand. It had been established that Alan's ring is on his LEFT hand (as I draw it throughout this story). However, this panel is based off the actual panel by Mike Sekowsky in JLA #22 in 1963. I didn't realize that it was wrong until it was too late.

The Wizard attacking with flying monkeys is a direct plot assist from my friend Terry Castle. When I told him I needed the Wizard to do something to keep our heroes occupied, he came up with the idea of turning people into flying monkeys. Thanks, Terry! 

I love that The Huntress is such a bad-ass here that she'd shoot the flying monkeys in their wings. Ouch!

And lastly, I wanted to include some Aquaman foe at the end to disrupt the visit to Atlantis. With the newer versions of Ocean Master he is a would-be sorcerer, so him wanting Dr. Fate's helmet or Green Lantern's ring made sense to me. Of course, even with all of his super friends around, Aquaman had to be the guy to take Ocean Master down.

That's all for now. Next time: the story I actually re-started this series to tell! Be there, aloha!

JL #33 AFTERWARD

So, what did you think?

I will say up-front that I really liked this story as it was written, but I'm not a big fan of my art. Again, I have to say that I think of myself more as a writer-designer and less as an artist. 

That being said, I *did* like how I started and ended the story with the traditional straight-lined comic box outlines, then with all of the dream sequences using rounded outlines. Did you notice that? That's the only artistic point I'm really proud of in this issue. 

As for the story, I wanted to bring back Dr. Destiny because I really didn't like the way his original story went (issues 15 and 16). One of the stories I have been thinking about for years was his return. I had all sorts of ideas for nightmares and dreams that I considered using. I finally settled on this plot. 

JLA #32 "Drones of the Queen Bee" Afterward

So what did you think?

As I said in the Forward, I came up with this Queen Bee story at the same time I thought up the stories  that will be numbers 33 and 34. I ended up making my come-back with this story for two reasons. One, because the very first story I ever did featured Queen Bee, and I like the symmetry of using her in my come-back issue. And secondly, because this story is the most "straight forward" of the three: JLAer finds menace, contacts the League, they split up to battle the menace, and then come back together to finalize things. This technique would get boring if it is used every issue, but I do like it. And I think it really would be the way most JLA adventures would occur if they were real. Also, there is no guest-star in this issue, which I can't say about the next two. So there is that, too. 

First of all, I apologize for all the mistakes. It's typical for the creator to find only mistakes in their own work, but in my case there really are a lot of them to overlook. Like I said before, I'm a story-teller and not an artist. So the art could be better; I know. You'll have to take my word for it, but in the issue I'm working on right now I think I *have* slowed down a bit and that I'm getting better. We'll see if you agree. I just finished coloring number 34 and I never want to find that many mistakes ever again! 

Speaking of mistakes, did you happen to see the first mistake I made here? It's on the cover and title page....! I wrote the story as "Drones of the Queen Bee" but then when I went to draw the cover, for some reason I lettered, "Return of the Queen Bee!" in the upper right corner. It was too late to change all the chapter titles, and I had already colored the cover, so...it stayed. Oops!  I know that titles on covers sometimes don't match the actual titles inside, but I'll try not to make that mistake again, haha!

From when I was a kid I was a sucker for the "meanwhile" type scenes shown here, where we get to see what the various members are doing when they get the emergency call. And to help show everybody exactly who "my" JLA is, I included it here. Hope you got a kick out of cameos by Mera and Alfred. By the way, in my universe Black Canary dyes her hair blond; she wears a dark wig as Dinah Lance, not the other way around. I think this makes more sense, don't you? Also by the way, in my universe Kathy Sutton, the girlfriend of Red Tornado, was introduced as an African-American. I had no idea that I was starting a trend of changing the ethnicity of supporting characters when I did it, though! 

As I said, Queen Bee as a character appeared in my very first issue, back in 1991. However, it was done so badly that I have never scanned it and uploaded it here. So no one here has read it. To explain just who she is in "my" universe I relied on Red Tornado and his accurate memory chip. Thanks, Red. 

Speaking of Red Tornado, in an age of international communication I thought it made perfect sense to have Red be able to communicate with or in all the world's languages. I don't know *why* it occurred to me, but as soon as it did I liked it and kept it in. And I liked how he assumes it is not a big deal, although Wonder Woman thought it was. Red is always going to be the "ah, shucks" type of hero who doesn't even realize he is doing something wonderful.

Although I have to say I changed the blue in his cape so that next time it won't scan in to look so purple next time!

 

One of the many things I liked about the Steve Englehart run on JUSTICE LEAGUE in the late Seventies was his take on The Flash. Instead of being this world-weary cynic (like Green Arrow) I agree that he should be a guy who still sees the wonder in what he does. In that regard he and Elongated Man are similar, I think. Ralph shows his enthusiasm openly, but Barry doesn't. That's the big difference. And although Barry is friends with Green Lantern, a cosmic police-man, he never gets used to it. The Flash is a Mid-western boy at heart, and I like that about him. 

And lastly, just one word about my favorite member, Aquaman. I know he doesn't fit into every single story, but, really, nobody does, right? I think it's silly for comic-book writers to complain that Aquaman is "difficult to write" when he really isn't. Aquaman is probably fourth in terms of sheer strength (behind Superman, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter); he's faster than most of them, and he's used to being a leader and tactician. So although he won't be in every issue, if he's around he's going to be doing stuff. 'Nuff said!?

See you in another month with another brand-new adventure!

NEXT ADVENTURE ON-SITE THE WEEK OF MARCH 10