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Post by benday-dot on May 23, 2014 20:13:14 GMT -5
The writers would get a cover and be told to write a story with that scene in it. (That was how DC worked, wasn't it?) I think this practice was typical for the Big Two across the board back in the day. Marvel Method aside, when it came to the cover it was usually drawn up at the same time as the previous issues interiors were being completed. In the comics biz covers were kind of their own beasts.
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Post by foxley on May 23, 2014 20:24:21 GMT -5
I think my first exposure to the JLA was an Australian reprint containing the stories from Justice League of America #155 and 156 ("Under the Moons of Earth" and "The Fiend with Five Faces"). I have followed the series off and on, but tend to regard the 'Satellite Era' as my Justice League.
My favourite JLA/JSA team-up is JLA #195 - 197, where Ultra-Humanite reforms the Secret Society of Supervillains with a plan to banish all heroes permanently from either Earth-1 or Earth-2 by capturing five members each of the JLA and JSA and banishing them to Limbo. Awesome George Perez art and my first exposure to a lot of Golden Age supervillains (Mist, Monocle, Rag Doll, Psycho-Pirate and, of course, Ultra-Humanite himself).
My least favourite (of the ones I've read) was JLA #183 - 185 featuring the New Gods. I've never been a big fan of the whole Fourth World thing.
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Post by Rob Allen on May 23, 2014 21:01:26 GMT -5
In my early, eclectic years of comic buying, I bought:
JLA #26 - Despero's convoluted plan is foiled by Wonder Woman and her magic lasso. JLA #33 - the Alien-Ator from the future. JLA #44 - the Unimaginable in disguise
Two of the three involve JLAers being transformed in some odd way - they get aged in one story and grow to gigantic size in the other. The third one has them fighting each other for a while.
Then I spent a few years as a Marvel zombie, and started buying JLA again with #109 and stayed with it until #157, the Atom's wedding issue. I remember enjoying the Dillin art and the JSA teamups.
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Post by Action Ace on May 23, 2014 22:18:03 GMT -5
My history with Justice League of America starts in the Hall of Justice with the Super Friends. Within a year I got my first comic book, Justice League of America #118 by Elliot S! Maggin and Dick Dillin. By a stroke of luck, I was able to get the next one as well. As a kid I purchased more issues of Justice League of America than any other comic. Today I have everything in either an Archive or the original issues from Justice League America, International, Europe, Task Force, Elite, Adventures, Unlimited etc. etc. etc. And I have all the Super Friends too. My favorite eras would be the Fox/ Sekowsky Silver Age run, Steve Englehart's run in the 1970s and the Grant Morrison/ Mark Waid era in the 1990s. There are plenty of others I like as well from all eras right up to Justice League #30 that I bought on Wednesday.
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Post by Action Ace on May 23, 2014 22:36:09 GMT -5
You're absolutely right with your assessment Hoosier.Here you had all these uber-powerful heroes together-the villian's methods of challenging these god-like characters issue after issue would drive many writers nuts.Plus the individual editors at DC were very protective in how the heroes they were responsible for were used in other editor's titles.I'm sure Mort Weisinger gave Schwartz alot of grief over how Superman should be portrayed.Just look at all the panels where Sekowsky had to cram in all the JLA members together-you can tell he was under orders to handle the art that way.The only continued stories were the JSA teamups,and thats where you would have double the amount of heroes.I'm sure there were many writers and artists who wanted to stay clear of working on this title From page 22 of my Justice League Companion... "If they'd assigned one of those [Justice League issues] to me, I'd still be working on it." Jack Kirby (according to Mark Evanier) In a way, Jack did get his chance in the 1980s Super Powers series.
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Post by Cei-U! on May 23, 2014 23:13:25 GMT -5
We had a wide variety of comics passing through our house when I was a wee'un so I was aware of the existence of the League long before I actually read an issue of their comic, thanks to DC's ubiquitous house ads. I think my first issue was #55, the first part of that year's JLA/JSA crossover and my introduction to Hourman, Wildcat, Mr. Terrific and the pink fella in my avatar pic. The occasional stray JLA found its way into my twisted little clutches but it wasn't until my parents bought my friend Rob Luettgen's collection for me as a graduation present (Woodrow Wilson High, Class of '75) that I started deliberately snapping them up. Today I have a pretty fair chunk of several series including #21-22, 25-33, 35-38, 40-42, 44-47, 49-57, 59-66, 68-75, 77-84, 86-92, 94-114, 117-120, 123-126, 128-129, 132-139, 143, 147-148, 151-152, 154, 156-157, 159-186, 193-212, 217-220, 228, 231-36, 244-246, 248, 250, 252, 254-261 and Annual #1-3 of the original 1960 series (plus Volumes 1-3 of the Justice League Archives and the Zatanna's Search TPB); #6, 8, 13-34, 38, 40, 43, Annual #2-3 and 80-Page Giant #1 of the Morrison series (plus the trades American Dreams, A New World Order, Earth 2, Rock of Ages, Superpower and Virtue and Vice), the mini-series Age of Wonder, Justice, Paradise Lost, The Nail, World Without Grown-Ups and Year One (plus the trades of A Midsummers' Nightmare and JLA/Avengers) and the Justice League Companion from TwoMorrows. I also have several DVDs of DC animation including (the New Frontier adaptation) and a shelfful of PVC figures. I guess that makes me a fan.
I love the early issues up through around #40, even though today you can see the story's gears churning and Fox's verbose prose is tough at times to wade through. After that, quality gets spotty writing-wise until Len Wein takes over with #110. His run is all good, as is Englehart's. I have no great love for Gerry Conway's League in any of its incarnations, though when he is good, he is very good (the Red Tornado origin in #192-93, the clashes with the Secret Society of Super-Villains in #166-68 and #193-95, the awesome #200), but i will never warm up to the Detroit bunch. I followed the post-Crisis title for about a year and a half, mostly for the Maguire art, but burned out on Bwah-ha-ha pretty quickly. Today I have nothing from that era. I liked the '90s JLA for its initial "back to the basics" approach and stuck around until economics dictated I stop buying ongoings. Of the minis, I particularly like Year One, The Nail, Age of Wonder and JLA/Avengers. My favorite Leaguers are Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Englehart-era Wonder Woman, Phantom Stranger, Morrison-era Steel and J'onn J'onzz, and the animated version of Hawkgirl but I can't consider any version of the team legitimate that doesn't include Superman, Batman, Flash and Green Lantern. My favorite JLA villains are Amazo, the Manhunters, Starbreaker, Dr. Destiny, Morrison's Starro and the Ultrahumanite-led Secret Society.
Cei-U! I say my piece!
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Post by thebeastofyuccaflats on May 24, 2014 10:24:41 GMT -5
First JLA anything I ever got was issue #69 of vol. 2, a tie-in to The Death Of Superman. Got into it more on a regular basis with Morrison & Waid's JLA in high school. By the early-to-mid aughts, I mostly strayed (Morrison & Ed McGuinness's, Gail Simone & Jose Luis Garcia Lopez's, and Warren Ellis & Butch Guice's JLA: Classified arcs being notable exceptions to my growing apathy). I gave post-One Year Later's JLA a try with Meltzer (more due to my then still strong enough sense of fan-completism than much faith in the writer), was bored to death, got over it in time for the announcement of JLU mastermind the late, great Dwayne McDuffie's run.
And that was where it all ended for me. We all know that particular horror story by now: capricious editors emptying their musk glands all over it, all that. That one-two punch of the dog's breakfast of what had been a promising run at the start by The Maestro and the-equally editorially-spoonfed schlockfest Cry For Justice, this is effectively what killed my interest in the comics for good. I haven't put money down for a non-animated JLA (though not since Doom or Young Justice) since McDuffie's firing, and it's unlikely I ever will again.
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shaxper
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Posts: 22,376
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Post by shaxper on May 24, 2014 10:33:59 GMT -5
There's only ONE Satellite of Love, and Dr. Light's never been aboard it:
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Post by Hoosier X on May 24, 2014 10:44:33 GMT -5
There's only ONE Satellite of Love, and Dr. Light's never been aboard it: Dr. Light was on Titans Go! a few days ago. It was very creepy seeing him posing with Starfire and Raven with his arms around them.
(By the way, I like the Titan Go! version of Starfire better than any version I've ever seen in the comics.)
I sure do miss Joel and the 'bots. But I think they ran out of movies that really fit their criteria. (My favorite is Manos, the Hands of Fate. Or maybe Red Zone Cuba? "Every frame of this movie looks like somebody's last known photograph.")
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Post by thebeastofyuccaflats on May 24, 2014 10:55:19 GMT -5
There's only ONE Satellite of Love, and Dr. Light's never been aboard it: Dr. Light was on Titans Go! a few days ago. It was very creepy seeing him posing with Starfire and Raven with his arms around them.
(By the way, I like the Titan Go! version of Starfire better than any version I've ever seen in the comics.)
I sure do miss Joel and the 'bots. But I think they ran out of movies that really fit their criteria. (My favorite is Manos, the Hands of Fate. Or maybe Red Zone Cuba? "Every frame of this movie looks like somebody's last known photograph.")
Red Zone Cuba is in the Mike-era. But yeah, it is one of his best ("Sgt. Justine, I want you to call me Lt. Vivian") And my mini Manos one-sheet by Steve Vance signed (even by J. Elvis Weinstein!) by the crew is one of my prized possessions.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on May 24, 2014 11:00:27 GMT -5
But I think they ran out of movies that really fit their criteria. Nah. There are a LOT of bad Sci Fi and Horror B movies left untouched. I still can't believe they never tackled Ed Wood's "Glen or Glenda" I'm glad the cast is still active, albeit fragmented and in other formats. I got to see Rifftraxx live with my wife and mother for my birthday last year.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 24, 2014 11:15:25 GMT -5
I've always understood why they never tackled Glen or Glenda. It's perfect!
Did they ever do The Terror of Tiny Town? That's another one that I thought they couldn't make any funnier, but I'm not sure they didn't try it.
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Post by thebeastofyuccaflats on May 24, 2014 11:20:34 GMT -5
I've always understood why they never tackled Glen or Glenda. It's perfect! Did they ever do The Terror of Tiny Town? That's another one that I thought they couldn't make any funnier, but I'm not sure they didn't try it. I recall Bill Corbett remarking that they tended to avoid taking the piss out of bad comedies/farces as they felt there's only so many times you can go 'that's not funny' for 90 minutes.
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Post by Icctrombone on May 25, 2014 6:31:15 GMT -5
I remember first being introduced to the Justice league in # 91 and 92. This was the aforementioned JlA/JSA crossover that had the earth 2 Robin in a new costume. I consider the best era to be from 91-about 120. My favorite JL/JS crossover was issues 100-102, it was a story that had the teams looking for the Seven Soldiers Of Victory through the time stream. Apparently, an event happened to scatter them through time and they heroes had to split up into teams in order to bring them back to the present. The SSOV had defeated the villain that the combined teams were having trouble with. Sorry to say that the JL series could never keep me as a fan because of the lackluster artwork by Dick Dillin.
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Post by foxley on May 25, 2014 7:24:35 GMT -5
Dick Dillin? Lackluster? Sacrilege!
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