The following is from Comic Book Resources (01/18/12):

SIMONSON ON ART, COMICS AND “LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES”

This week, writer Paul Levitz makes a detour from the action in his ongoing DC Comics series Legion of Super-Heroes.  Instead, for Legion #5, Levitz examines the daily lives of the Legionnaires, checking in with the various members for a day-in-the-life of story that spans the Legion, their headquarters and everything in between.

Legion #5 also marks a departure when it comes to the creative team as series regular artist Francis Portela steps out and comic book legend Walt Simonson, the man behind Orion, The Mighty Thor, and half the creative team on X-Force (along with his wife and industry giant of equal stature, Louise Simonson), plus a host of other major mainstream comics, steps in for a self-contained story.

CBR News caught up with the veteran writer/artist to talk about the issue, along the way stopping to discuss his working relationship with Levitz, how Simonson’s father influenced his art process, and why the legendary creator is as excited to draw Stonehenge as he is the Legionnaires!

CBR News: Legion of Super-Heroes #5 is sort of a stand-alone story.  What attracted you to drawing a single-issue story?

Walt Simonson: I’ve known Paul Levitz for a long time, we go back to pretty much the beginnings of both of our careers.  Back in, gee I don’t know, ’77, somewhere about then, we hooked up and he was writing Legion back then and I did the layouts that Jack Abel finished, who was an inker.  I did a full issue — I think this was in a longer issue.  They had a little more heft.  It was Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, it was kind of a long-ish thing, and it was fun.  I mean, I hadn’t worked with Paul before really and we did the issue then.  Basically every fifteen to twenty years we get together and do another issue, so this was our time!

Actually this was only the second complete issue that we’ve done, but we’ve done like oddballs; I did maybe ten years, fifteen years ago a little short squib of some kind.  I did a short piece in a much longer Legion issue, a lead in for something Paul had planned for something coming up.  At one point I had penciled and inked a single page where a couple of guys were aliens and one of these guys was helping a soup kitchen somewhere downtown.  So we had little squibs every so often, and about a little over a year ago, when Paul was getting ready to leave DC staff and go freelance, my wife and I took him out for lunch.  We’ve eaten plenty on Paul’s nickel so we thought we would take him out and we had a very nice lunch and in the course of that I said, “Well, once you go back to writing freelance if you’re game I would love to draw one more issue of the Legion, we’re about due.”  He was amenable to that, so this was our issue.  And because I was just doing the one issue he made it kind of a one-off story, so it’s really a day in the life kind of story, there’s not a lot of action as far as physical action goes.  It’s one of these things where almost every page, not quite, are different characters in different locations and we’re kind of seeing different Legionnaires in their daily lives, trials, and tribulations, and then occasionally triumphs.

The solicitation teases every single Legion member popping up, so I imagined that for this issue were you crouched over, adding in panels and drawing hundreds and hundreds of Legionnaires.

[Laughs]  I didn’t do hundreds and hundreds!  You know, Paul and I did this what we used to call Marvel style: Paul wrote a plot, I drew it, and then he wrote the dialogue from the art, which is a way [of working] that used to be common and is not so common anymore.  So he really lined out who all the characters were and what they were doing and their situations.  In some case it was just a single page with a couple of characters on it; some cases it was a page with three or four characters.  Probably the most challenging part of it really was, even though it wasn’t hundreds of characters there were enough characters, and especially with DC’s relaunch of the New 52, that some of the characters had been redesigned.  Some of them had not, but of course all Legionnaires over the years have been redesigned, most of them a number of times, so it was a challenge to gather their reference in a timely fashion to be able to draw all these different guys.  If I’d been drawing one or two or four Legionnaires in the issue, you reference those characters once and you’d be done with your reference.  In this issue pretty much every page had reference challenges.

For example, Glorith is in her room, she is writing a letter to some friends and it turns out it’s her own quarters in the Legion Headquarters.  In this incarnation of the Legion those quarters have never been drawn before.  So I didn’t have to reference them, but I did have to work out what I thought a young girl’s room would look like given her sort of powers and interests.  I talked to Paul about it some, I made some suggestions, and there was a redesign of her costume which I think Jim Lee did.  I was sent a drawing that I think is Jim’s — if it wasn’t you, I’m sorry! — but there were some notes on it that were intriguing.  Because of that it gave me a handle on something to do with her room, so in the room there’s kind of a living tree which seems to echo some of the stuff that she’s about.  I thought it would make the room rather different from your standard science fiction quarters, stainless steel and stuff like that, and it gave me a whole direction.  She has a desk which I use, a kind of old wood desk that’s actually roots coming up from the legs, so it’s almost a part of the living tree, and that of course just for me echoes the Odyssey and Penelope and Odysseus’ bed where the part of the one leg is from a living tree originally that couldn’t be moved.

Now that I’ve said that people who read this article will know that’s what that’s about, but it’s a way of finding something interesting to draw and to think about when you’re trying to design that stuff.  There were other rooms I got to do my thing, there were several rooms like the big conference room with all these TV screens and monitors where DC has a computer model that [regular artist Francis Portela] worked out — thank you very much, it makes life a lot easier! — and it was just the table and all the chairs in the conference room, all the backgrounds.  That made it much easier to work from because I had several different views of the same room.

One of the pages in the book takes place in Stonehenge.  That was really a very kind thing that Paul did for me that was actually pretty funny.  The story is, a million years ago I drew the Metal Men for about a year, they were bi-monthly so it was about five issues.  In it there was a story, I believe Marty Pasco wrote it, we were working together, and it involved Stonehenge and stone monoliths based on that work.  At the time, this was like ’76 maybe, the web did not exist so we did not have any options like that and I scavenged around for reference.  Of course reference was always problematic back then because you didn’t have a lot of time to go searching.  I’d go to the library and use the clipping file, I’d buy books that had pictures and so on, and I found a really, really teeny picture of Stonehenge in the American Heritage Dictionary, this little tiny black and white picture.  And that was the entire reference for Stonehenge the time.  In the way these things work, I was living in New York City at the time, and I went to the Strand bookstore — this has got to be within two or three weeks of me finishing that job.  So I’m in the Strand bookstore and I come across a series of Time Life books, which I used to love because they had fabulous pictures, which were great for reference.  And these were about Paleolithic culture and the evolution of man, the development of man, and one of the books was about the Neolithic stone culture in Europe.  I’m thumbing through it and the way those mostly work is they have a chapter and then a photo essay with a number of pages, and then a chapter with a photo essay, then a chapter with a photo essay, not difficult reading but they were really lovely pictures made for reference.  I’m looking through it and the last photo reference is Stonehenge.  So two weeks after I have to draw Stonehenge I find pictures of Stonehenge in the rain.  Stonehenge in the morning.  Stonehenge at dusk.  Stonehenge in the fog.  An overview of Stonehenge.  An under view of Stonehenge.  So of course I bought the book — and never had the opportunity to draw Stonehenge again!

So when Paul and I were talking about the story I told him this and he said, “I’ll fix it for you.”  So I have a Stonehenge page inside the Legion issue and that’s why that page is there.  And I had great reference!  [Laughs]  This is one of the things I enjoy about working with other creators, whether it’s writers or artists, is everybody gets in their two ce

In terms of your art process, obviously references are a big thing you draw from and something that you’ve done throughout your career.  I know before you worked in comics you were considering going into paleontology — is that research background something you bring to each job you work on?

Well, part of it might go back to my paleo days when I was a geology major.  It’s also partly my upbringing.  My father was a scientist, he was a soil scientist, and studied soil around the world.  It wasn’t just about farming, it was really trying to figure out about the different kinds of soils and how human habitation above them was related to them, how it affected them, how it could be utilized or what you had to do to be able to be there.  Including things like he was in Okinawa about a year after World War II and mapping soils there, and one of the things the army wanted to know about the soils in Okinawa, they wanted the island broken into four specific groups so that they would know what kind of soap to issue their soldiers.  Because in some places you could use ordinary soap and it would work fine.  In some places you would have to have tougher soap, some places even tougher soap, and there were some places where no matter what soap you used you couldn’t get the stuff out of your clothes, but they wanted the best tough soap they could use.  So they wanted to know how to zone the island so they would know what to issue men located in different places.

But one of the things my Dad was very big on, and my brother who is a geologist I think got this from Dad as well, Dad was very much interested in the empirical evidence.  He wanted to know what the facts were in the ground, so to speak, in order to start figuring out how things were working, rather than coming up with theories and then going and seeing if the theory worked.  In a way that’s kind of what the reference is for me.  I want the story first so I know what I’m going to have to draw, and then I’m very interested in getting a hold of as much real stuff [as possible].  Even in the course of Legion where I’m drawing a young girl’s room in the 30th century with a tree in the room I’m looking at trees, I’m trying to figure out how to make them work, I’m looking at some architectural ideas, I’m looking at desks and chairs, and then of course there’s a million varieties.  I’m trying to figure out some way to put those together in what I would regard as a coherent whole — not trying to design the room as if I’m some designer from TLC and done some amazing work, but I’d like it to look like it’s part of a whole.

And that’s really true for all of the comics I’ve done.  It’s one of the things I find interesting, to try and find out what’s different about the different locations, the people, the costumes, all that kind of stuff, and then bring that knowledge to bear in some way on the drawing.

As you mentioned, it’s basically every fifteen or so years you and Paul get together to do a Legion thing.  With this issue did you go take a look back at any of your other Legion work and compare or think about how your style has changed from the last time you drew the Legionnaires?

I didn’t do a lot of that.  I remember the old jobs, some of them fairly clearly, although the one that goes back into the ’70s was a long time ago.  But I didn’t really go back and dig out that stuff to look at.  I actually looked at some of the recent Legionnaire stuff, some of Yildiray [Cinar’s] stuff and some other guys in for the past year or two or more.  I have some of the trades of Legion stuff, I went back and dug that work out to see kind of how the drawing was done, who was working on what, what kind of feel they gave to some of the characters or their backgrounds or the conference room.

In my own case I know what my work is like, at least as I’ve developed over time, and in many ways I’m more interested to see what other guys are doing because that’s the stuff I’m not doing.  I may find some bit of inspiration somewhere, something I wouldn’t have thought of looking at my old work.  So I look at a lot of fairly recent stuff.  At the time I was working on it DC sent me a couple of PDFs of, at the time, unpublished issues, so I was able to look at that.  A concrete example is the cover of the comic, which is a crop shot of the Legion clubhouse.  While it’s always been this rocket ship with its nose stuck in the ground it has looked really very different based on that kind of model over the years and even fairly recently so I didn’t take a lot of liberties but I found some recent versions that were coherent and tried to use that imagery with the clubhouse I drew.

Having looked at so much work by other artists, do you feel there are any new artists whose work you really admire, or any up-and-comers you are keeping your eye on?

You know, probably nobody I could name; if I like something I pull it aside and put it in a pile and kind of go through it every so often.  The guys who I could name as the new guys have probably already been in the business for fifteen years!  [Laughs]  I mean one of the guys I’m a huge admirer of is John Paul Leon, and John Paul was one of my students back in the early ’90s at the School of Visual Arts, started working on Static for Milestone originally while he was still in art school.  He’s just flourished into an astounding draftsman and storyteller who spends a lot of time considering the work and trying to figure out how to make it better.  I’m just fascinated by his stuff and the work he does.  Bernard Chang and some of the guys in BLVD Studio, I think those guys are phenomenal.  So there’s stuff like that but there’s no real young new guys, at least none who I’ve connected a name up and go, “Oo, this is that guy.”  But one guy, again this is not a brand new guy at all, but Olivier Coipel who’s been around for a while and been doing Thor over at Marvel — with Olivier I’m just in awe of his draftsmanship, I pick up any comic he’s drawn because I just think it looks great.

To digress slightly, last year between the Thor movie and IDW’s The Mighty Thor: Artist’s Edition, people have once again become very aware of your run on the character and that era of the comic.  With all of that mainstream attention, has there been temptation to come back to writing other Thor stories or to write on your own superhero series again?

Well, we’ll have to see.  This is my interview for Legion so I’d hate to throw a plug in for another company!  [Laughs]  But it was just announced that I’m going to be drawing six issues of The Avengers with Brian Bendis writing, which would be the first real monthly comics I’ve done in maybe ten years.  I worked on a number of miniseries, I worked with Michael Moorcock a couple of times on the Elric stuff, I just finished a graphic novel for DC that involves a series of short stories all strung together.  The overall story is called “The Judas Coin” and the individual characters are all DC characters.  They’re mostly unknown ones, fairly minor ones, if you were a DC fan you’d probably know them: The Golden Gladiator and the Viking Prince and Bat Lash and Manhunter 2070.  The one guy that people would know because I talked about before is Batman and Two-Face square off in this, so it’s really sort of a Two-Face story and Batman kind of shows up to lend his presence to the tale.  But that was a story that I did write and draw, I inked it as well, that’ll be coming out sometime this year.  I don’t know for sure when that’s going to happen.  But it’s almost a hundred pages long, it took me a while to get done, and that was challenging.  That was something where, with each story I was doing there were different time periods; the Golden Gladiator is the Roman Empire, Captain Fear is a Pirate in the 1700s, and so for each of those stories with whatever success I could manage I tried to draw each of the tales in a somewhat different style.  So that was writing and drawing and inking myself, so that was a lot of fun finishing that stuff up.

But I like sort of bouncing around, I’m looking forward to drawing some stuff somebody else is writing for a while.  Then I may go back and do some creator-owned stuff, I have some ideas about that as well which is not something I’ve done very much of, but maybe it’s about time.  So once The Avengers is over from my end of it I may go back and look a little more deeply into creator-owned material and try and head in that direction for a little while.  If I do that it would be stuff I would be writing as well as drawing.  I enjoy jumping around a bit partly because the attempt there, for what it’s worth, is to try and keep fresh.  I’ve done comics for a long time now but I find that I was always concerned about burning out and wanted not to do that if I could avoid it.  I thought, “So some comics I write and draw, some comics I just write or just draw.”  The different combinations really present you with different sets of problems that you have to solve, even if you work with some guy for a while.  That means hopefully you have to keep thinking about the work, and figuring out how to make it the best story you can mange with a different partner every so often.  Hopefully that keeps the work fresh.

To end things back on Legion, you’ve already let us know the most challenging aspects of the issue — what was the most fun part for you to draw?

There was a girl who was called Dragonwing I think, she’s a Phil Jimenez character, and she was quite challenging.  It turns out that I could have done some stuff with her with an overlay, which is extremely smart in order to get this kind of transparent cloak with dragon designs on it.  I was the idiot, I just went ahead and drew the whole thing!  But she was a lot of fun to do sort of a Goth girl, so I enjoyed doing her.  But really Glorith was very interesting, probably because of the room, probably the costume, probably the character herself.

One of the things I did like was that when Paul gave me the plot there’s all these different Legionnaires and he frequently described them and their personalities through their body language.  Someone is withdrawn and you get the impression he hunches shoulders and the elbows are in — it wasn’t quite detailed in that regard but it was about the body language which was really an enormous help visually.  I don’t think I ever had anybody send me a plot or a script where that was quite so concentrated, and it was an enormous aid in getting a hold of characters, some of whom I know and some of whom I really didn’t know, in something as short as one issue.  In this case as a one off guy it was a great way to be given insights into the character in ways that actually functioned to aid the drawing.  There were bold, gutsy people and there were very quiet, shy people who whispered, there were people with brash actions and other guys who were annoyed about that — there’s one great moment of someone being annoyed, which was a lot of fun!  [Laughs]  So even though the characters are only on stage very briefly, they’re with other characters and have interactions, which were fun to try to realize in their acting.

It was just fun in general.  It was challenging because there were so many characters and they all had to be referenced, but it was fun to try to put it all together in a comic in which the usual bombast of “Let’s show a bunch of guys beating each other up,” wasn’t really there.  It’s more a brief series of character studies.  That was a pleasure to do.  You know the Legion has the overall gestalt I hesitate to even touch because it’s such a huge future that Paul has developed and it has a legion of fans, pun was mildly intended there.  It was neat to be able to touch that and work in that corner, and maybe in fifteen years I’ll come back and Paul and I will do another story!  [Laughs]  I’ll talk to Paul about that!

The following is from Newsarama (01/12/12):

Best Shots Rapid Reviews: ULTIMATES, THUNDER AGENTS, More

Legion: Secret Origin #2 (Published by DC Comics; Review by David Pepose; ’Rama Rating: 4 out of 10): There’s still some major static going on this book, but at the same time, I’m also finding some pleasure in some of the smaller moments of this book.  Let’s start with the surprisingly good: artist Chris Batista, who reminds me a bit of Phil Noto spliced with Joe Eisma, with a hint of Barry Kitson’s open-space sensibilities.  He’s got some surprising heart to the artwork, particularly with Brainiac 5 and Phantom Girl, who are pretty cute, all things considered.  The downside, though: this story’s direction still seems needlessly convoluted, not quite streamlined enough to be revolutionary and not quite adding enough to the mythos to seem important.  The Legion has always been a tough group to crack, and isn’t the point of a Secret Origin is to have that sort of instant access point?  New readers beware, but diehards may find this (slightly) new angle one to watch.

The following is from Comic Book Resources (01/11/12):

DIAMOND RELEASES 2011’S TOP 500 COMICS, TRADES

Diamond Comic Distributors released its year-end numbers for 2011 with Marvel Comics taking the top spot in both dollar and unit share for the year.  Marvel’s 37.29% dollar share and 40.93% unit share was followed closely by DC Comics, who had a 31.41% dollar share and 36.77% unit share.  Despite DC’s second place finish to Marvel in 2011, Justice League #1 was the bestselling comic book of the year based on total unit sales to comic book shops.  Furthermore, DC’s New 52 had nine of the top ten bestselling issues, but only seven of the top grossing.  Marvel’s highest grossing single issue release was Ultimate Spider-Man #160, with Fantastic Four #600 and Amazing Spider-Man #666 close behind.

QTY RANK	DOLLAR RANK	DESCRIPTION	PRICE
265	359	LEGION of Super-Heroes #1	$2.99
332	416	LEGION LOST #1	$2.99

The following is from Comic Book Resources (01/10/12):

COMIC BOOK EASTER EGGS – SPIDER-MAN IN THE 30TH CENTURY!

In Legion of Super-Heroes #300, Giffen did a wonderful double-page spread of all the Legionnaires…

He also threw in some special guests, including Spider-Man and Garfield!  Here is a detail so that you can see it easier…

A few different folks suggested I feature this Legion one.  Thanks!

The following is from The Buy Pile (01/05/12):

THE BUY PILE FOR JANUARY 4, 2012

Honorable Mentions: Stuff worth noting, even if it’s not good enough to buy

The interplay between teams in Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #4 was way better, with in jokes for each side.  The last page reveal tying the two properties together was a smart move, but describing the idea works better than the actual execution of the work.

The following is from Bleeding Cool (01/03/12):

Swipe File: America’s Got Powers, Wildguard, Idolized And… Superboy?

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool told you about America’s Got Powers, the new Image comic from Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch, about Tommy, the only one of his San Franciscan peers to be powerless.  And who finds himself working in the stadium where all of the powered are competing on reality TV to be in the world’s biggest super hero team.

A few Bleeding Cool readers found this rather familiar.

 

 

One stressed Aspen’s Idolized from David Schwartz and Micah Gunnell, a series running this year with… superpowered people entering a reality TV show to join the world’s biggest superteam, that had resaders vote on the design of the characters.

 

 

 

Or indeed Wildguard from Todd Nauck, an Image comic with… superpowered people entering a reality TV show to join the world’s biggest superteam.

Now, from what I’ve read, America’s Got Powers has an interesting twist, that of a Midwich Cuckoos-type of characters competing against each other, and a powerless lead, which should bring out all sorts of petty insecurities, boastful posturing, and at its heart, a mystery.

 

 

But to be fair, auditioning to join a superhero team has been around for a while now.  The Avengers did it, Justice League International did it, and Who Wants To Be A Superhero actually did it on the television, but there’s precedent for using the three judges format and the In or Out button format of America’s Got Talent from quite some time ago.

See?  Jim Shooter Otto Binder invented everything!

 

 

The following is from Jim Shooter’s Blog (12/28/11):

And So This Is Christmas Plus More Sex

Somebody Asked

If there was a Legion of Super-Heroes artist who drew the figures nude and let the inker add the costumes.  I think that was Jim Sherman.  If so, he wasn’t the first comics artist to do things like that.

The following is from Jim Shooter’s Blog (12/27/11):

Sex and Drugs – Part 2

And, the Legion is about “underagers” full of raging hormones.  Anyone writing such characters without addressing sex and sexuality never was a teenager.

Regarding the LSH, here’s a comment made a while back by a misinformed Anonymous regarding my analysis of Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 as related to my LSH work, and my answer:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post “DC Comics the New 52”:

Waaaaaaiiiit a second…

Aren’t you the guy that turned Saturn girl from a confident leader into someone with really low self-esteem, who can’t understand why leadership is more important than relationships, and sleeps around instead of talking about it?  The one who had Night Girl’s outfit shred to pieces in her first appearance?  Aren’t you the one who had Brainiac 5 sleep with an unconscious woman (which is rape, by the way, maybe look that up).

The women you write are sex objects and clusters of soap opera like cliches and offensive stereotypes strung together nonsensically.

I have no issue with a lady being depicted as wanting to have sex without commitment.  But I forgot that a lady sleeping with two people is only okay if she does it out of a lack of self-esteem rather than her own desire.  I forgot it’s only okay if she behaves immaturely and nonsensically (low self esteem + telepathy?  Really?).

Like wow.  PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF.

For the record, I had absolutely no problem understanding the paneling and what was happening.  It was cinematic and very clear to me.  The fact that you can’t follow along is amazing and sad.

Posted by Anonymous to Jim Shooter at October 8, 2011 3:39 AM

ANSWER:

RE: Saturn Girl: Affairs of the heart have a way of troubling even the most confident leaders.  Saturn Girl did not sleep around.  She didn’t sleep with anyone except Lightning Lad.  Maybe you missed this scene in LSH #49:

[script fragment not included — go read the original post]

Saturn Girl, after being ignored, taken for granted and worked near to death precisely because of her leadership abilities by Lightning Lad had a moment of weakness (while under the influence of an intoxicant) and the thought of a fling with Ultra Boy crossed her mind.  She almost did it, but stopped short.  The point was that a) Saturn Girl has to have an incredibly disciplined mind due to the nature of her power, b) what happens on the mental plane, i.e., in thoughts, her own and others, is as real to her as physical things are to normal people, and c) a moment of weakness of no consequence to folks like us is a very big deal to her.

RE: Night Girl.  Much set up had been done regarding the Legionnaires’ new, super-durable costumes, a key element in the arc.  Night Girl’s clothes being torn was meant to be a further illustration of that and a realistic touch.  To people of Superboy-level strength any ordinary cloth would be gossamer.  Yes, it was meant to be a sexy scene.  I repeatedly told Francis to be careful.  Look at what he drew.  Did he go over the top?

RE: Brainiac sleeping with unconscious Dream Girl.  I wasn’t the one who did that.  I think it was Mark Waid  There was no suggestion of sex, as I recall.  Was there?  Anyway, I didn’t write that.  Dream Girl was long dead when I started.

[additional script fragment from LSH v6 #50 not included — go read the original post]

The following is from The Buy Pile (12/22/11):

THE BUY PILE FOR DECEMBER 21, 2011

Honorable Mentions: Stuff worth noting, even if it’s not good enough to buy

Legion of Super-Heroes #4 had more going on than its little pages could handle, with even the heroics of Chemical Kid getting short sheeted.  The Daxamite threat, for example, needs more room to be understood, let alone the rare element that enabled it.

The following is from Bleeding Cool (12/21/11):

Sixteen Thoughts About Sixteen DC Comics – Justice League, Batman Inc, Catwoman, Captain Atom, Wonder Woman, Red Hood And The Outlaws, Batman, Blue Beetle, Supergirl, Thunder Agents, Batman Odyssey, Blue Beetle, DC Universe Presents, Birds Of Prey, Green Lantern Corps And Legion Of Super-Heroes

Legion Of Super-Heroes #4 has clearly felt left out, while charges of sexism have been thrown at the likes of Red Hood, Catwoman, and Voodoo.  Well, with this issue, it seems to want a bit of that for itself.

The following is from Jim Shooter’s Blog (12/21/11):

Sex and Drugs

Drugs

I think I wrote the first drug use story in the Comics Code era.  It appeared in this issue of Action Comics.

It was the second feature, a Legion of Super-Heroes story entitled “Forbidden Fruit.”  Comic Book Database, while often useful, gives credit for writing this story jointly to Mort Weisinger and me.  Why do they do that?  Mort never co-wrote anything with me, or even made a significant edit on any of my scripts.  Sigh.  No, I wrote it, just me.

The story was published in April of 1969.

The story, MY story:

A very rare fruit from Planet Oomar in the Tenth Galaxy called the lotus fruit contains a highly addictive, psychotropic chemical.  A nefarious miscreant, referred to only as the “Doctor,” controls the only source of the fruit in this galaxy.  Through some ambitious machinations the Doctor manages to manipulate a Legionnaire —Timber Wolf, as it happens, but anyone would do — into drinking the distilled nectar of the lotus fruit.  One shot of the concentrated nectar is enough to get Timber Wolf thoroughly hooked.

The Doctor’s plan is to get Timber Wolf to get other Legionnaires hooked, and then…?  Who knows what evil lurks…

Timber Wolf is driven by his addiction to cooperate.  He’ll do anything the Doctor asks in order to earn his next piece of fruit.

Timber Wolf offers his girlfriend, Light Lass, a lotus fruit, but something odd in his manner makes her suspicious.  She refuses.

Light Lass clandestinely follows Timber Wolf, sees him eat the lotus fruit he offered her and witnesses its effects.  Later, she follows him on his way to meet the Doctor, desperately seeking more fruit.

The Doctor offers Timber Wolf a big basket of lotus fruit if he will promise to share it with other Legionnaires.  Timber Wolf would agree to anything at this point.

Light Lass uses her gravity manipulation powers to levitate the basket out of the Doctor’s hands and grabs it.  She has come prepared.  She places a sensor in the basket wired to a small explosive device on her belt.  If it goes off, the blast will surely kill her, though the collateral damage will be slight.  If one of the fruits in the basket is but touched, she dies.  No one else will be harmed.

Timber Wolf almost takes a piece of the fruit he wants so badly, but cannot.  Not if it means his beloved will die.

Timber Wolf summons enough willpower to resist his addiction long enough to strike down the Doctor.

Light Lass calls the police.  Disarms the bomb.  Yes, it was for real.  And she allows Timber Wolf to eat a lotus fruit to end his suffering.  She holds him, comforts him.  Her faith in his love led her to risk all.  His love for her saved her, and now her love for him will see him through the dark time ahead.  He’ll have to go through a difficult rehab, but he’ll be okay, she knows it.

The End.

But that’s not how the story saw print.  The Comics Code Authority rejected the story.

There was nothing specific about drug use in the 1954 Comics Code, still in effect in 1969, but there was a catch-all provision:

“All elements or techniques not specifically mentioned herein, but which are contrary to the spirit and intent of the Code, and are considered to be violations of good taste and decency, shall be prohibited.”

Drug use fell under that dictum, apparently.  If you are not familiar with the 1954 Comics Code, it’s available in many places.  Here’s one: http://www.comicartville.com/comicscode.htm.

So, Mort Weisinger and DC caved in.  I had to rewrite the ending so that Timber Wolf was cured the second his love for Light Lass broke the spell of the lotus fruit.

To this day, I don’t know why that ending is supposedly better, or why it satisfied the Code.

The following is from Bleeding Cool (12/14/11):

Sixteen Thoughts About Sixteen DC Comics – The Ray, Legion Lost, Suicide Squad, Grifter, Batgirl, Mister Terrific, Batman And Robin, Frankenstein, The Shade, Deathstroke, My Greatest Adventure, Resurrection Man, Green Lantern, Demon Knights, Batgirl and Batwoman

Legion Lost sets out to separate its characters here, both physically and in terms of identification.  We are given a narration from Dawnstar, and in doing so contradicts and comments on her other teammates.   We learn more about them, and so much more about her, and her attitude to the world.  It’s a clever trick and works well.  But I’ve still finding it hard to care.  My Legion allergy has reader its ugly head again.

The following is from Comic Book Resources (12/13/11):

SALES ESTIMATES FOR NOVEMBER, 2011 — DC, MARVEL GAP CLOSES

QTY RANK	DOLLAR RANK	INDEX	DESCRIPTION	PRICE	EST. SALES	% CHANGE
71	—	20.85	LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #3	$2.99	31,479	-25.95%
80	—	18.61	LEGION LOST #3	$2.99	28,101	-26.80%
108	—	14.86	LEGION: SECRET ORIGIN #2	$2.99	22,433	-41.35%
124	—	11.78	Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #2	$3.99	17,781	-15.13%

Most of the New 52 titles in the Top 50 saw drops in the 15–20% range.  The ones below the top 50 saw drops in the 23–29% range, with the two continuing Legion titles right in the middle.

The 41% drop for the Secret Origin mini-series is much more dramatic, a larger drop off than would usually be expected for a mini.  Meanwhile, the Star Trek cross-over mini had a smaller than usual drop for a mini, and was IDW’s second highest charting item for the month (so they are probably pretty happy with it).

The following is from The Line It is Drawn (12/8/11):

THE LINE IT IS DRAWN TRY-OUT WEEK 2, GROUP 1

Welcome to the first Week 2 batch of drawings by artists who are trying out to see if they can nab a spot as one of the regular The Line it is Drawn artists!

Rufus Edge (whose website is here) teamed up the Invisible Girl with Invisible Kid from the Legion of Super-Heroes…

Andre Richard teamed-up a whole pile of suggestions as he put together 70′s era Storm and Shadow Lass, Angel and Dawnstar, Iceman and Sun Boy, the X-Men and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Wolverine and disco-era Timber Wolf, the Sailor Scouts and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and Jean Grey and Death.

The following is from Bleeding Cool (12/06/11):

Tuesday Runaround — The Marshall Plan

DeFalcoWatch: Tom DeFalco will be writing Legion Lost from issue 6 on, taking over from Fabian Nicieza.  So we have one ex-editor-in-chief of Marvel writing underthe ex-editor-in-chief of Marvel who replaced him…

The following is from Newsarama (12/05/11):

Exit Interview: FABIAN NICIEZA Explains LEGION LOST Split

Fans of DC’s new Legion Lost comic are losing one more thing — the title’s writer, Fabian Nicieza.

After launching the “New 52” title in September, Nicieza is leaving after February’s Legion LostLegion Lost#6.  As Newsarama reported earlier today, he’ll be replaced by Tom DeFalco, although artist Pete Woods is staying on the book.

Nicieza is well known to DC fans as the writer on Red Robin, but also worked at Marvel for many years on X-Men and Avengers titles.  In fact, X-Men fans may remember his sudden departure from X-Force because of a rumored disagreement with then-Marvel editor (and current DC Editor-in-Chief) Bob Harras about the comic’s direction.

But this time around, Nicieza is making it clear that his departure from Legion Lost is the result of things outside the world of comics.  He works for two other companies, and Nicieza said recent changes at those businesses have required him to dedicate more time to them.

According to Nicieza, he is still under contract with DC and intends to write again for the publisher — but his current time constraints keep him from dedicating the level of commitment required for a brand new team book like Legion Lost.

To get the details, Newsarama talked to Nicieza.

Newsarama: I know that you came into this kind of reluctantly in the first place, but you’ve told me time and again that you just like the Legion characters so much that you decided to take the book.  Was that the same thing that pulled you away?

Fabian Nicieza: No, that has pretty much nothing to do with what’s going on.  It’s almost like the perfect storm happened since we talked at the convention and kind of caught me in a big honking wave.

In my non-comics work for Starlight Runner Entertainment and FunGoPlay, which is about 75 percent of my life, a couple things happened at both the companies that has required far more attention on my part.  Some of this is positive, specific writing opportunities, and some of it negative, but both have necessitated my increased focus on those responsibilities.

So all of that happened in the last four to six weeks.  And I quickly realized that I couldn’t keep up with the extra amount of work required to do for a book in the New 52 line, especially a team book, on the kind of schedule that I think is right.

I believe the work should be done when it’s supposed to be done, and an artist should have an entire script waiting for him while he’s still drawing the previous script.  And we were just getting tighter and tighter, to the point where I wasn’t going to be able to make that happen the way I wanted to.  So I just felt, for the sake of the book, for the rest of the creative team, the characters and my own sanity, that it would be better if I closed out my tenure on Legion Lost after the first arc.

Nrama: So it sounds like it was something you didn’t anticipate at all when you started the project?

Nicieza: Not at all.  The book has been a lot of work, but a team book always is, and I knew that it would be more time-consuming than a solo book.  But combining that with the intensive focus on these launch titles and everything else I do on a daily basis, I didn’t want the work to suffer.

These are characters that I’ve liked and enjoyed and wanted to write since I was 12 or 13 years old!  The choice hasn’t been an easy one by any means, but I think it was the right one.

Nrama: Are you going to miss these characters?

Nicieza: Yeah, I am.  I had a lot of good ideas about where I wanted to take them, but none of that really matters now.  Tom DeFalco takes over with issue #7 and I’m really curious to see what he does with the book.

Nrama: Have you talked to Tom about it?

Nicieza: I just talked to Tom, but we only briefly discussed the title and the characters.  I’m not one to say, “This is what I was going to do and this is what was going to happen.”  I believe that the next writer in line should have the opportunity to do whatever the heck they want and not have to deal with too much baggage carrying over.  I’d say he’s got more than enough experience that he doesn’t need my feedback on the book.  Besides, we’ve been friends for 25 years and we don’t get to touch base often enough, so there was plenty of other stuff to talk about than just comics!

Nrama: Favorite thing you got to do in this comic?

Nicieza: There are about 500 scenes I haven’t gotten to do yet!  But for what’s been printed?  My favorite scene I got to do was Timber Wolf stealing the police car.  There are some Dawnstar scenes in #4 and #5 that I really enjoyed.  A moment between TWolf and a guest-star in #6 I loved.  And also a scene with Tyroc in #6 that will hopefully make Tommy D’s life a lot more interesting!

Nrama: You’ve also gotten to reveal the individual voices of the characters because each one is narrating an issue.  I think some of them have rarely had that much exploration in a comic.

Nicieza: Yeah.  I think it’s a combination of getting to hear them in more depth than they’ve had a chance to in the regular Legion book historically.  But also, the way this story ended up being structured, it was such a rush for the characters.  They don’t get a lot of breathing space in the first six issues, so doing the narration was a good way to have internal monologues slow the pace down a little bit.  What’s happening in the panels and in the art is still pretty break-neck speed, but the narration lets you give it some deeper perspective and insight.

Nrama: Does this mean we won’t see you doing comics anymore for DC?

Nicieza: I sincerely hope not!  I’m under contract to DC, and happily so.  There are no issues in that regard.  It’s really just a matter of needing a little bit of breathing space right now, specifically to make sure that my day jobs are going the right way.  But also one of the assignments for Starlight is an exciting writing opportunity that has to be done by, like, February-March.  So I’ve got to really focus a lot on that in the next few months.

I’ve already talked a little bit with a couple editors and with Dan [DiDio] to make them all very aware that if they want me, I want to be had!  It’s just a matter of finding the right book or character that will work for all of us.  My relationship with DC has been really comfortable and professional for years now, so I’m very confident that we’ll find something soon.

The following is from Newsarama (12/05/11):

LEGION LOST Loses Nicieza, Gains DeFalco in New 52 Shake-Up

DC Comics has announced that Tom DeFalco will be taking over writing duties on Legion Lost beginning with March’s issue #7.

“For this series I have seven characters that I’m getting to know better and better with each passing day,” DeFalco told Newsarama in a phone interview.  “And then the more I get to know them, the more I like them.  What I like is these are characters who were given an impossible mission and put into a very desperate situation…  They represent that part in all of us, every time we face a new job or an unexpected drama or situation in the family that suddenly goes sour, and you’ve got to step up and discover what you’re really made of.”

Current Legion Lost writer Fabian Nicieza is leaving the title, which launched in September as part of DC’s New 52 relaunch, after issue #6.  Pete Woods, the current artist on Legion Lost, will continue on the comic despite the writer change.

Nicieza said he’s leaving because of pressing issues in his non-comics work.  “A couple things happened at both the companies that has required far more attention on my part,” he told Newsarama via phone.  “Some of this is positive, specific writing opportunities, and some of it negative, but both have necessitated my increased focus on those responsibilities.”

The addition of DeFalco to DC’s ongoing plans for the Legion spin-off titles is a little surprising because the writer hasn’t worked with DC for several decades.  The one exception came earlier this year, in August, when he wrote a one-shot Superman Beyond comic.

Before that, DeFalco had been closely associated with Marvel, where he even served as Editor-in-Chief from 1987 to 1994.  In fact, when he left the position in 1994, among his replacements at the head of Marvel was Bob Harras, who is now DC’s editor-in-chief.

DeFalco is also well known as a writer for the Marvel character Spider-Man, and more recently with a 100-issue run of Spider-Girl.

This creative shake-up from DC is the latest in a string of changes the publisher has announced since it introduced the DCnU in September.  Among previous changes are the departure of writers on Green Arrow (J.T. Krul), Static Shock (John Rozum), Superman (George Pérez), and Voodoo (Ron Marz).

Legion Lost #1, which launched the new title in September, caused some concern among long-time Legion fans when two Legion characters appeared to die in the issue, although Nicieza later explained to Newsarama that the “deaths” weren’t what they seemed.

The issue also launched the title with a very frenzied tone, showing a group of characters in the midst of peril and disorientation from the beginning.  Some reviewers questioned the approach, and even Nicieza admitted to Newsarama that the issue’s confusion was not his “original intention,” but DC wanted “a sense of frantic, chaotic turmoil and uncertainty.”

“There’s a lot of good to that, but there’s some bad too,” he told Newsarama in October.  “And I do think clarity is one of the things that got sacrificed in that first issue, which is a bit frustrating.”

However, Nicieza had said publicly ever since Legion Lost was announced that he was very busy with other projects when he decided to launch the title.  He told Newsarama all the way back in June that he was originally reluctant to take on another project because he was busy.  “I seem to have a whole lot going on in my non-comics life,” he said, but emphasized that he was such a huge Legion fan that he couldn’t pass up the chance to launch the book.

Only three issues of the title have been released so far.  Legion Lost #4 will be released December 14th.

Newsarama will have full details later today about our discussions with both Nicieza and DeFalco about Legion Lost.

The following is from Comic Book Resources (12/05/11):

TOM DEFALCO TAKES OVER DC’S “LEGION LOST”

Over the course of its opening months, DC Comics’ New 52 relaunch of its superhero line has comes with a number of creative changes.  While some such as Ann Nocenti’s stepping on board Green Arrow came due to some mystery creative moves, others like Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen’s jumping on to Superman made the press in surprising fashion.  But today, the publisher has announced a creative change who’s rhyme and reason falls to one of the classic causes of switch-ups: scheduling.

Starting with issue #7, DC’s Legion Lost title — which chronicles the adventures of a number of its Legion of Super-Heroes characters in the modern day — will welcome Tom DeFalco as new ongoing writer.  In a post on DC’s The Source blog, series editor Brian Cunningham explained that current writer Fabian Nicieza had to bow out from the book due to other commitments.

“His schedule just couldn’t keep up with a monthly series right now,” Cunningham wrote.  “It’s a bummer because Fabian and I had discussed some really cool ideas for the series, but I understood his reasons, and we parted on a positive note with hopes that someday we can reteam on something else down the road.”

DeFalco comes back to monthly comics for the first time in over a year since the final cancellation of he and Ron Frenz’s fan favorite Spider-Girl series at Marvel, though the former Marvel Editor-in-Chief has had plenty of writing gigs of late including stints at Archie and a Superman Beyond story for DC earlier this year.  “Tom seemed the ideal candidate,” Cunningham explained.  “He understands how to build characters from the inside out and make us care about them.  He makes the fantastic feel gigantic and yet at the same time all too human and flawed.  He puts his characters through the wringer, crafting entertaining tales that compel us to keep reading.”

The editor went on to tease upcoming stories for Legion Lost by saying, “A crossover with Teen Titans involving the organization known as N.O.W.H.E.R.E. — with a revelation that will change the entire course of Legion Lost!  A Timber Wolf romance that could rip the team apart!  A power struggle for leadership!  Tyroc has a deadly secret… and the team isn’t happy when they learn it!  And a traitor lurks in their midst!”

The following is from The Source (12/05/11):

LEGION LOST: A PASSING OF THE TORCH

Hello, DC Nation!

No doubt you’ve already heard that issue #6 of LEGION LOST will be Fabian Nicieza’s last as writer.

His schedule just couldn’t keep up with a monthly series right now.  It’s a bummer because Fabian and I had discussed some really cool ideas for the series, but I understood his reasons, and we parted on a positive note with hopes that someday we can reteam on something else down the road.

So I needed to hire a new writer, someone I felt could take the groundwork laid by Fabian and strive for even greater heights.  No small task!

In discussions with my fellow editors, one name came up that intrigued the heck out of me: Tom DeFalco.

A master storyteller, not to mention Marvel Comics’ former Editor-in-Chief, Tom seemed the ideal candidate.  He understands how to build characters from the inside out and make us care about them.  He makes the fantastic feel gigantic and yet at the same time all too human and flawed.  He puts his characters through the wringer, crafting entertaining tales that compel us to keep reading.

Lord knows, I’m a sucker for anything Tom writes.  He hooked an 11-year-old me with a doomed romance between two A.I. robot characters — let me say that again: robots! — and I think I’ve read practically everything else he’s written ever since.

So Tom came into my office with his infectious enthusiasm, and we just talked about LEGION LOST for over an hour.  I really loved what I heard.  And then we got on the phone with series artist Pete Woods, and the ideas kept flowing.  Carrying over subplots that Fabian had been developing, Tom’s inclinations felt so completely fresh that we were sold instantly.  Here’s a taste:

A crossover with TEEN TITANS involving the organization known as N.O.W.H.E.R.E. — with a revelation that will change the entire course of LEGION LOST!

A Timber Wolf romance that could rip the team apart!

A power struggle for leadership!

Tyroc has a deadly secret… and the team isn’t happy when they learn it!

And a traitor lurks in their midst!

I gotta say, I didn’t think it possible, but Tom has me even more excited for the series’ future!  I really hope you’ll join us to see his ideas come to fruition.

The following is from Comics Continuum (12/05/11):

MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2011

BRIEFLY

* DC Comics has announced that Tom DeFalco will replace Fabian Nicieza as writer of Legion Lost as of #7.

The following is from Jim Shooter’s Blog (12/01/11):

Items of Interest — And Gary Gygax

Items of Interest

Another DC newsstand sales figures memo:

[These are figures for issues from late 1978/early 1979; I’m not sure what issue numbers those match to for Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (but it should be in the Gerry Conway issues).  I believe that the three numbers for each issue represent the print run, the number actually sold at the newsstand, and the sell-through percentage.  Several things to note:

• Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes was decidedly middle of the pack at this time, not the top-seller it became a few years later.  Interestingly, other than Superman, the top selling books were mostly the war titles.  Talk about a genre that has gone away!
• Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes is one of the few series whose sales were climbing at the time.
• It also had the highest typical newstand sell-through percentage.]