I did it!

When I originally started my sketchblog in 2008, I planned to post once a week. The reality was, more or less, I posted weekly plus a few extra, ending up at 60 posts per year in 2008 and 2011, and 75 in 2009 and 2010.

After a rough 2012, in an effort to kickstart my comics again, and practice a bit before I continued tackling pages of comic art, I gave my web-site and social media a mini overhaul, and set a goal to finalize sketches I had been drawing throughout 2012, plus new ones—and post a year's worth of actual entries in one month.

It's 12/31/12, and I am very proud to say without any cheater entries, I have met my goal. Yay!

Next up in 2013, I will resume posting here once a week (ish). As for actual comics, I'm not sure if I will continue/finish "baby makes three," continue working on my S/LSH fanfic, or pursue another project. At the end of the day, I will only pursue what makes me happy, as creating comics has become fun again.

Along the way, I have a few pieces of commissioned furniture to make, and I have the top of a dresser to refinish. I've been looking at dog rescue societies, too, keeping my eye out for one screened as "needs a quiet home" and not one that "needs to be around other pets" or "needs a yard."

Oh—today's sketch is a self-portrait in pencil. No, I do not look like that. 

Happy New Year.

S/LSH #203 deleted scene 4 of 4

The ending of Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #203 doesn't make too much sense for the 30th century no need to hide our gay love angle, so the 4th delete scene really only requires one more panel, after Phantom Girl declares how Lyle and Myla can now be together forever, the romance of a lifetime.

So here I tack on a final panel, which puts everything into homo-friendly perspective. 

After this issue, Chemical King makes almost no appearances, as I suppose writers couldn't figure out how to write his powers effectively, and I think he was seen in the hall of dead heroes in a future tale. He died preventing the outbreak of World War VIII.

In my fanfic, he'll be far more tormented by Lyle's death, the fact that they never fully reconciled,  that Lyle was seemingly going bonkers and he wasn't there for him. Plunging into despair, he won't have much to live for and very willingly plays the pivotal role in issue 228.

If you haven't read S/LSH, or #203 in particular, none of this will make much sense to you. Your take-away is that many fans assume Lyle and Condo were a couple, and I am feverishly writing out their romance in my head and sketchbook. :-)

S/LSH #203 deleted scene 3 of 4

I couldn't remember the chain of events too precisely, and the way issue 203 unfolded presented a few challenges. Invisible Kid's love for Myla is revealed early in the issue, and is crushed to death by Validus at the end. In my favor was the mid-80s storyline featuring the very same "invisible dimension" which if memory serves was filled with demons trying to ensnare Legionnaires to their doom.

However, adding a deleted scene between pages 6 and 7 (which would probably require a page and a half) and a second deleted scene of two pages between pages 12-14 would provide a fuller picture of the homo-friendly version of the attempts to grab Invisible Kid.

But then there's the chat Lyle has with Phantom Girl, who, if you take her reaction at face value, seems to endorse this newfound love. So this deleted scene, also inserted between pages 12-14 solves that, as she contacts Chemical King.

I won't reveal much, but in my head, at this point, Condo is probably struggling with his own insecurities about being a useless Legionnaire and focusing on his career and candle handle all Lyle's lonely clingyness.

Condo and Lyle TLF

Inspiration is fun!

Instead of posting my planned-for posts yesterday, I was consumed with "research" thanks to GeorgiaUnity's comment that Invisible Kid and Chemical King were gay, and with each other.

So, I dug through my collection and scanned through Adventure Comics #s 374-380, and Action Comics #s 378-392 (basically, from Chemical King's first appearance onward) looking for hints, clues, or anything I could read into.

In his first fight, against Spider-Girl, Chemical King assumes a full bottoming position—sold!

I was also scanning for tales where they were together, or both absent so I could write out an elaborate fanfic of their bittersweet romance. Of course, it has to have all the classic Tim Fish ups and downs, but let's face it, they were both killed in action, so it would be ending poorly no matter what.

In the last issues of their run in Adventure, the Legion stories generally included half or more of the roster, either as focal or background players. Still, there are moments here and there I can work with. The get to know you flirtation time, I guess.

As a backup feature in Action, the shorties generally featured 3-6 Legionnaires, and only once, in the same issue, were they present. I noted the rosters of all these, so I know which other team members would be fair game for my fanfic. Or dare I say, pitch?

I skipped ahead to Invisible Kid's death, but next I need to backtrack to the backup stories in Superboy, then Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #197-202 before Lyle was crushed by Validus. Then, I'll scan through Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes up to #228 looking for Condo's rare appearances.

Long live the Legion—equality

 

PART III: EQUALITY

It's common in the super-hero world that women wear much less than men. But the Legion took it to an extreme between the Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell years. In the early-mid '70s ridiculously revealing costumes were sported by Saturn Girl, Shadow Lass, Princess Projectra, Duo Damsel, Dawnstar (check my other posts tagged for the Legion to see my take on them). Not far behind (surprisingly) were Cosmic Boy, Colossal Boy, Star Boy, and Tyroc. That's not bad, right? Except Colossal Boy soon reverted back to his less revealing garb, and Tyroc was a non-entity. Duo Damsel retired, and Shrinking Violet's neckline plunged, making the final score girls 5, boys 2.

Not much to say here, but, boys, show some skin! We need as many looking like they stepped out of an International Male catalog as there are women fighting in bikinis. Of course, the creepy thing here, no matter what, is this was a comic book about teenagers. They made lots of excuses as to why these teens were getting married and stuff, but still.

My drawings above: the Star Boy I promised Xavier, with '70s plunging neckline. Since I think he really preferred the '80s beefy bearded Star Boy, I compromised here with scruffy indie Star Boy. Ditching his turtleneck undershirt is Chemical King; then Cosmic Boy as he appeared in the comic—NO EXAGGERATION. And lastly, Ultra-Boy in a short-sleeve version of his shirt, and square-cuts. 

SPECIAL NOTE TO ALL MALE AND FEMALE COSPLAYERS: It is my firm desire that all cosplay be suspended until a very smooth cute guy shows up as '70s Cosmic Boy. Who's Who in the DCU asserts Cosmic Boy is 6'0" 190 lbs, so let's go with that too.

Long live the Legion!—girl power

PART II: WEAK WOMEN

Growing up around strong women like my grandmother, mother, family friends, and probably my latent gay boy self showing itself, I didn't care much for weak super-hero women.

Marvel's teams in the 60s and early 70s featured women as the weakest links (Invisible Girl, Marvel Girl, the Wasp), but DC's didn't (Wonder Woman, Wondergirl, Elasti-Girl)—except for the Legion. 

The only powerhouse, Supergirl, was "retired" off leaving the weaker, defense, peripheral members like Saturn Girl, Phantom Girl, and Shrinking Violet. 

Spotlight on: Princess Projectra

One of the worst offenders was Princess Projectra, whose illusion powers generally created fake giant monsters to frighten or confuse foes. In later years, they really got her powers right when she re-appeared as Sensor Girl. 

But the worst offender of all was Dream Girl, a precognitive who couldn't use her powers on command, and often fainted when she had powerful or upsetting visions. She went through extensive training with Karate Kid, so she could fight, and they made her willful, and could use her flight ring like no other Legionnaire. But these weren't super, so you were left with a basically an average pretty girl who couldn't help, really, unless she randomly had a useful vision.

By contrast, Night Girl was rejected as an applicant. Her dad had infused her with super-strength, but since she was from a planet without a sun, her powers faded in day light or bright light. So, a girl, who for 12 hours a day (night shift) or in deep space (where a lot of Legion tales took place) who would reliably be among the most powerful members, male or female... Rejected! But a girl who can't use use powers on command, and faints when she does... Accepted! To say nothing about how Invisible Kid invented the serum to give himself powers, Saturn Girl invented a serum to keep Mon-El safe from lead (which Brainiac 5 perfected), and Supergirl invented cancellite to negate the powers of Durlans. Couldn't these whiz-kids have perfected things for Night Girl, giving her at least some super-strength during the day? The did cartwheels for Mon-El, why not her?

Long live the Legion!—diversity

Spotlight on: TYROC

As I graduated out of kiddie comics such as Charlton's editions of Speed Buggy and the random Batman issues my dad bought me, I started scooping up Whitman 3-packs whenever I could, especially when I could see Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes included. I love love loved the Legion.

The Legion was ideal kid-reading. Team of teenagers whose massive roster was determined by having a unique super-power: no dups! Some of my earliest super-hero art is of the Legion (follow the tags for the vintage stuff).

Recently, Xavier said I would be great on the Legion, and I thought, "would I?" "what would I do?" Sure, ideas came to my head, but here's the rub: in order to fix problems, update, and Tim Fish-ize, would it be the same Legion I (and others) loved?

Nope. But it did get my sketchpad full of ink identifying my biggest complaints of the original comics. Enjoy.

DIVERSITY

For a series that takes place 1,000 years in the future, with a membership consisting of mostly alien races, there are sure a lot of white teens on the team. Maybe it was creative, maybe it was editorial, maybe it was the publisher's decision, or maybe it was thought that only white kids read comics. Who knows. 

Karate Kid (who should have been at least stereotypically Asian), only looked Asian once in a while, thanks to certain artists. Even characters where race didn't matter—such as Wildfire, a disembodied teen living in a containment suit—were white. Enter Tyroc, whose powers were complicated, whose backstory was pretty racist, and whose persona was separitist/angry...he made maybe 3 appearances before being written out of the series. Enter Dawnstar, whose species descended from American Indians. Enter the second Invisible Kid, who was depicted as French black and a reluctant hero.

The roster was nearly 30 members, ex members, honoraries...but the 10% rule 3 should have been some variety of homo. Of course, these comics were written in an era that none of them would have been out, but about an era that they surely would have been free to express themselves? Or was that a future far too frightening for the imagination?

So, we have the first Invisible Kid, described as "an incredibly lonely Legionnaire." Later he befriends a ghostly gal who turns out to be a figment of his imagination of something. Maybe a demon. Sounds closet gay, yes? Element Lad was suspected to be gay, too, because he never had a girlfriend and seemed shy around the ladies. In one of the re-boots, I understand Element Lad was gay for a time. And I seem to recall some hints at lesbo action in the mid-80s as I stopped reading the series, between Shrinking Violet and Lightning Lass. Probably went nowhere.