Golden Age DC Heroes NOT in the JSA or 7 Soldiers - 6-15-16 - Unofficial Original All Star Squadron?

So if there were only 3 super hero teams actually done in the golden age of comics (1938-1952 roughly), 2 from DC (The Justice Society of America, The 7 Soldiers of Victory) and one from Timely/Marvel (The All Winners Squad), then that must have SURELY included all of the golden age comic book super heroes there were, right?????

WRONG!

In the Golden Age of comics, there were well over half a dozen publishers of the=ose grand 4 coor heroes..it was a BOOM time. It's just that the super hero team was looked at solely as a way to promote their heroes with regular features to increase readership and wasn't seen as the awesome entity it is unto itself.

But what if there WERE more super hero teams of the 40's?  DC alone could have easily filled out there roster to a couple more teams.  Back in the 70's (80's?) Roy Thomas went to the powers that be at DC and wanted to do a book with ALL of his childhood heroes (under license by DC that is) and that included all of DC's roster as well as the recently acquired Quality Comics roster and a few Fawcett creations as well, and called the new team with adventures set back in the 1940's "The All Star Squadron".

I didn't draw the All Star Squadron here, but rather ONLY the DC heroes left over after the 2 actual teams that they actually did do in the 40's.  

The "original" All Star Squadron??

Left to right FRONT:  Johnny Quick, Zatarra, Manhunter, Aquaman, Air Wave, Robotman, The Black Knight.

CENTER:  Lando Man of Magic, Sargon the Sorceror, Gary Concorde the Ultra Man, Mr.America/The Americommando, The King, Tarantula, Liberty Belle.

REAR:  The Gay Ghost, Merry the Girl with 1000 Gimmicks, Little Boy Blue (sans the Blue Boys), Captain X of the RAF, TNT and Dan the dyna-Mite, The Guardian

Quite the roster.

Of course you know, this obliges me to draw more teams that never were from other publishers, right?

OK

Talk to you soon.

Timely's "All Winners Squad" - 6-13-16 - That's "The Invaders" to you!

So I've doodled the Justice Society of America and the 7 Soldiers of Victory, back in the 1940's the super hero "team" wasn't as prevalent a thing as it is now.  While nowadays there are the big 2 publishers (DC and Marvel) back in the 1940's there were more than a handful of prominent comic book publishers, yet it was only DC and Timely (Marvel's precursor) that dipped into this well.

And Timely only did it twice.  All Winners Comics #19 and #21.

Here they are, the All Winner Squad.

Left to right: Toro, The Whizzer, The Sub-Mariner, Captain America, Bucky, Miss America and The Human Torch.

In the 1970's Marvel rebooted the team and ret-conned them as "The Invaders".  Roy Thomas (champion of all things golden age and leader in the comic book fandom movement in general) wrote that series and served them well.

But I'm a purist, and for me it was never The Invaders, it will always be The All Winners Squad and those 2 measly stories.

The rest of their history is a speculative mystery.

Talk to you soon.

7 Soldiers (plus 1) of Victory - 06-08-16 - More comic book super hero teams

Last time I doodled my version of The Justice Society of America, the first ever comic book super hero team way back in 1940.  This comic was such a success, that DC even gave the super hero team a second shot, using some of it's lesser known characters and called them "The 7 Soldiers of Victory" or sometimes "The Law's Legionnaires".  

Left to right: Wing, The Crimson Avenger, Vigilante, The Star-Spangled Kid, Stripesy, The Shining Knight, Speedy and Green Arrow.

The team was pretty successful, they appeared in 14 issues of Leading Comics right up until it was decided that super heroes weren't a selling commodity anymore and Leading became a humor comic.

7 Soldiers was a standout in more ways, too.  Other than Sir Justin, The Shining Knight who was a transported to modern times from medieval times and rode a magic flying horse, there are no super powered members.  

It also prominently featured side-kicks as part of the team.  Green Arrow's little buddy Speedy, Age-reversal team of The Star-Spangled KID and his adult side-kick Stripesy and The Crimson Avengers wing-man Wing.

And before you start doubting your math skills, yes there are 8 members of the 7 Soldiers.  Sadly with the anti-Asian sentiment of WWII, Chinese sideman Wing was not counted as a full soldier.

Ouch,

Talk to you soon.

Justice SOCIETY of America - 5-30-16 - Since DC might...

While I may rail against DC's crappy movies...their TV shows are pretty fun.

It's been said the Justice Society of America will appear in next seasons Legends of Tomorrow and sure enough in the last scene in the season one finally we got a glimpse of Hourman.  AND with Jay Garrick's Flash being introduced in The Flash's season two finale...I'm pretty dang excited.

For those out there not steeped in comic book lore, The Justice Society of America was the precursor to the Justice LEAGUE that you're probably more familiar with.

In fact, they are the precursor to every dang super hero team and even super hero team up EVER!

They the shit!!

Here's a Jeffy take on them.

Round the table there are the charter members:  The Atom, The Sandman, The Spectre, The Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Green Lantern and Hourman.  Working clockwise in the rear:  Wonder Woman, The Red Tornado, Dr. Mid-Nite, Superman, Starman, Black Canary, Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt, Wildcat, Mr. Terrific, Batman and Johnny Thunder.

I Love these guys (and girls).

Talk to you soon.

The Justice League of America - 5-18-16 - Since DC won't...

People seemed to enjoy my "Jeffy cartoon take..." on the superheroes from the movie "Captain America Civil War".

Marvel has done a really solid job of bringing their characters to the silver screen over the course of 13 movies in 8 years.  DC however....

In the same time frame they've done 2.  Both of them reeked to high heaven.

They've so far starred 2 of their characters (Superman, Batman), featured 1 (Wonder Woman) and cameoed 2 (Flash, Aquaman).

Step on the gas, DC.

So since they're never going to get around to making a good Justice League movie (they are doing a movie, it just won't be good) I thought I'd cartoon me up a version of my own.

To be fair, DC does a kick-ass job with it's animated forays and it's TV versions of these heroes currently on CW/CBS have been lots of fun.

I'll point out that while they've onnly brought 3 of their heroes to the big screen, no less than 8 pictured here have appeared full-bore on their TV shows (Red Tornado, Hawkman, J'onn J'onzz, Firestorm, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Flash and the Atom), 1 has appeared from a distance, in silhouette and mentioned often (Superman) and at least TWO more have at least been alluded to (Green Lantern, Elongated Man).

Seriously, DC.  Pull the trigger on the movies.

Talk to you soon.

Pictured: (top row) Red Tornado, Green Lantern, Hawkman, J'onn J'onzz, Friestorm.

(bottom row) Green Arrow, Black Canary, Aquaman, Superman, Elongated Man, Batman, Wonder Woman, Zatanna, The Flash, The Atom.

Avengers DIS-Assemble! - 5-11-16

Man Oh Man!

I saw that there "Captain America Civil War" on Saturday.

A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Comic Book Super Hero Fan Nerd-vana!!

Talk to you soon.