Tuesday, September 15, 2015
All-Star Comics - Society Assembled!
This beautiful cover by George Perez is obviously inspired by the cover of the sixteenth issue of All-Star Comics by Frank Harry, in which the heroes are nestled in among common folk fighting the war which absorbed the commitment of the whole nation.
That issue always inspired the utterly fabulous cover by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano which wrapped around one of DC's seminal 100-page events.
The Justice Society like to get together and pose as shown by this throwback image of smiling faces by Murphy Anderson from Justice League of America #76. The poses here are delightful, from Johnny Thunder typically trying to sneak in a crack during the shoot to Ma Hunkel looking askance at that other Red Tornado next to her.
George Perez steps in again to create a similar group portrait, this time putting the Society alongside the Justice League of America. By this time Black Canary and Red Tornado are League members and the JSofA has many more of its legacy contingent. Johnny Thunder looks older, but no more mature.
Fred Hembeck does his own true but totally idiosyncratic and scrumptious version.
And this attractive assembly, the splash page for DC Special #29 by Joe Staton and inker Bob Layton catches that time when the team was moving on into its legacy years.
Bob Layton recreated that moment in this rendering.
And here one of my most favorite images of the team, incomplete as it is. Dick Dillin and Sid Greene combined here for a sleek and elegant shot of some JSofA members for Justice League of America #64 (Dillin's debut). They are handsome and colorful (look at all the yellow) and full of superhero vigor,
Always the team makes for a handsome group shot, as mostly they seem to like being friends and sharing company -- hail fellows well met indeed!
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I always liked that Murphy Anderson double-pager from Justice League #76. I think I saw it reprinted in a 100-page Super Spectacular issue though. Cranky old Superman & Batman (who didn’t really show up with much frequency to the JSA meetings, did they?) - look a bit narcissistic standing over the rest of the heroes though.
ReplyDeleteI almost commented on that very notion. Supes and Bats are on the League cover too, introducing two JLofA stories that neither participates in.
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