My Favorite Mostly Obscure Comic
Hi all,
This week's going to be fun! We're going to talk about one of my all time favorite comics, Justice League Adventures #6!
But first, to get the more serious stuff out up top: At time of writing, we are 150 days into the assault on Gaza and the continued genocide against the Palestinian people. The current information is that over 30,000 people have been killed, over 70,000 are injured, and more are missing, presumed dead, or on the brink of starvation. The most major pieces of news this week are that the Israeli Occupying Force opened fire on people crowding an aid truck, leading to over 100 deaths and more than 700 injuries; there is no evidence that the New York Times piece about sexual assault being used as a war tactic during October 7th and that this thing that's been used to justify the response is made up; Israel is being pressured about it's use of AI in weapons systems; the US has joined other nations in providing aid via airdrop, which is not the most efficient way to provide aid and certainly doesn't begin to make-up for the US's complicity in the devestation so far, but is at least a small step in the right direction; protests continued all across the country and world, as well as vigils for Aaron Bushnell, the airman who self-immolated as an act of political protest and died from his injuries (I will also note here, reports have come out both that while he was aflame, local police pulled their weapons, leading to one officer eventually saying “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers.” There has also been a claim made by one of his friends, though not yet proven, that Aaron had knowledge of US troops participating in the slaughter, not just on the ground for identifying American hostages.); and in just the past few hours, any talks of even temporary ceasefire have seemingly stalled as Israel refuses to come to the table.
There's more. There's always more. But that's the current update there. And now that we are firmly in the US Primaries season, I'd like to call out the action of protest votes! In the Michigan primary, while Biden ultimately won, Uncommitted came in second as over 100,000 people made a protest vote specifically on Biden's handling of the Palestinian genocide. Other states where that is an option have had local activists pushing for uncommitted voting, though here's a handy resource for whether or not your state is particularly open to protest votes (unfortunately, mine is not). Beyond the presidential race, there are so many downticket races to keep an eye on in the upcoming months: from my local creep, Juan Vargas who I made a protest vote against (not sure I count as a qualified write-in, unfortunately) to Tennessee rep Andy Ogles who said that all Palestinians should be killed. I mean, personally, I think in a just system, guys who say shit like that or have been found guilty for sex crimes or advocate overthrowing the government or misuse their judicial power as justices of the Supreme Court should be tossed on a rocket and shot into space never to be seen again, much less be allowed to continue holding office or able to run again, but since things are falling apart, that reasonable solution doesn't seem to be an option.
Besides voting, as always, make your calls, send your faxes and your emails, contact the White House, send snail mail, find local protests and demonstrations and take the advice of organized bodies like AMP, the Democratic Socialists, BDS, and JVP. Remember you can buy esims for Gaza (and the Cartoonist Coop's still doing their donation drive too) and donate to a number of organizations that're trying their best to make a difference on the ground.
Now Let's Talk Justice League
I think a lot of comics creators have at least one weird book that is not particuarly popular or well-known, but is near-and-dear to their heart. I know I have a number of these, but one of the big ones is Justice League Adventures #6. Justice League Adventures was the tie-in comic to the Justice League animated series. It came out pretty quickly after the show launched and was not subject to the same constraints of the show, so at various points in the Adventures and later Justice League Unlimited run, you'd see characters who would never be on the show notably I think Power Girl, Ted Kord Blue Beetle, and a bunch of cats in this very issue. When it launched, the series had rotating creative teams issue to issue, so #6 was by Dan Slott (yes, that Dan Slott, who wrote a few really memorable issues of this series and it's my favorite work of his, issue #13 with this same team is also a bright spot), Min S. Ku, Dan Davis, John Kalisz and Heroic Age, and Kurt Hathaway.
The story, in short, is the time-traveling villain, Chronos, has managed to capture the Justice League in frozen time and is going to auction them off to supervillains for the highest bidder to unmask or kill or whatever. Something like 40 villains, mostly from the Silver Age (and often at odds with how they'd later appear on the show) come out to bid. And the big reveal is that it was a sting by the League to arrest any supervillains dumb enough to show up to a supervillain auction. If you want to read it and have the DC Universe Infinite app, you can do just that!
What I like about this comic is it's fun! There are a bunch of weirdos and villains who get their little spotlights. There's confusion of "which ones of these bad guys are actually the Justice League" and infighting between the baddies. It's incredibly Silver Age in the costumes and a lot of the characters, like Queen Bee, Shark, The Key, and Chronos.
To my recent blogs about evergreen comics, this inhabits a really interesting space. The barrier to entry's fairly low--it's part of a series, sure, but it's a standalone issue and it's meant for kids! But I know I was unique as a kid who, when this book was released, I believe had a parent still technically working for DC (I think this came out right at the tail end of my dad's time at Wildstorm) and through the DC Archive Editions collections and old Who's Who issues and the like knew who all these characters were. I was psyched to see these guys as I knew them, from the Gardner Fox Justice League era, from the ones that appeared in the mid-80s comics I read like New Teen Titans and Crisis on Infinite Earths, and was probably opening at around that same time the first set of DC Heroclix that had some of these guys in their Grant Morrison/Howard Porter JLA era designs.
With this in mind, maybe it isn't as surprising that over 20 years later (YIKES!), I still remember who all is in this random issue and the dynamics of like the Brotherhood of Evil and the Rogues! But also, I think it speaks to the efficiency of storytelling. A lot of the characters have very strong, distinct looks. The choices for who is being replaced by a Justice Leaguer in disguise largely make sense. The moments they do get to shine really do make the characters very clear.
I'm a big advocate for characters being less bogged down in continuity than in the... emotional truths of the characters. You can communicate in a couple pages who Captain Cold is and what he's about and it doesn't matter if this fully jives with every little thing he's done in the past, as long as it tells you who he is now. And, for me, for a long time, that's what's been kind of the hallmark of a evergreen superhero comic, particularly from DC: it is cognizant of the legacy of the medium, but neither beholden to it, nor in such active conversation with the times that it could never be released at any other point. If DC released this book today, it'd be basically as effective as it was then. I keep pointing to it, but I think stuff like Far Sector or Galaxy: The Prettiest Star would read equally well in the past or the future. And that's why this random issue of the Justice League cartoon spin-off book is one of my favorite comics.
Next week: We'll figure it out then! Sometime soon, I wanna talk about a weird little comics historical thing.
New Releases this week (2/28/24):
Godzilla: War for Humanity #4 (Editor - IDW, post-leaving)
Sonic: Fang the Hunter #2 (Editor- IDW, post-leaving)
New Releases next week (3/6/24)
Godzilla: Best of Destoroyah (Editor - IDW, post-leaving)
Golgotha Motor Mountain #1 also get's a special shout-out. I ultimately did not end up editing this, but I helped bring it in and Lonnie and Matthew wrote a hell of a book, so I hope you pick it up.
Announcements:
Whoa! We actually have some!
Becca and I have a number of shows coming up. First up is this Saturday, March 9th, Becca'll be tabling at BizBaz @ AleSmith from 12-6! It's a free event. They'll have some cool stuff. come on out and buy things from Becca. Unfortunately, it does mean I'm probably going to miss TFCon LA this year, but if you're going, say hi to my friends for me!
The end of the month (March 29-31st) is WonderCon in Anaheim. As per usual, Becca'll be there with Mysterious Galaxy hockin' books. I'll be up there too. I don't have a booth or any plans for signings or anything, but do feel free to reach out if you'll be at the show and want to get together.
There may not be a blog WonderCon weekend (or it might be short). There also might not be a blog the weekend of April 13th or the weekend of May 18th as I expect to be traveling. And I'll announce anything past San Diego Comic-Con in July in the coming weeks!
Sorry it's been a bit of a deadzone for comics updates, both in my personal projects and my company projects. I am hoping to announce more stuff in the not too distant future, but for the moment, just don't have a ton to share! So, watch this space!
But, Becca had big news last week! You can still order their Godzilla Rivals: Mothra vs. Hedorah cover at all fine comic shops. Josh Trujillo and Josh Cornillion have a rad story for ya and, well, look at that cover by Becca that was featured on the official Toho Godzilla account on Instagram!
Finally, if you want to support us/me in other ways: You can check out my Patreon! I've brought it down to just three tiers and am going to try to do a better job of free public posting too, especially because... I think I'm gonna be closing down my Tumblr. It's still a little undecided, but this post isn't there this week, so... There's a $1 tip jar, a $5 main tier that includes new and legacy blogs as well as some Patreon exclusive blogs and the occasional comic or other special feature, and the $10 "high end" tier that includes monthly exclusive extras of various sorts (February didn't have one because I was troubleshooting Patreon most of the month, sorry!) and Discord access and that sort of stuff!
Please also check out my webstore, my Kofi (that includes our newest edition of our Anti-AI zine), and/or my eBay for additional ways to support us and get a little something for yourself! You can check out Becca's site for their portfolio and merch! We're getting married in Japan this September and if you can contribute to that, it'd be really lovely!
What I enjoyed this week:
Nancy (Comic), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video Game), Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game), Blank Check (Podcast), Solve This Murder (Podcast), The City We Became (Book), Witch Watch (Manga), One Piece (Manga), Lore Olympus (Webcomic), The Sopranos (TV show), Superstore (TV show), Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), The Traitors (Reality TV), Lost (TV show), planning the trip and trying to learn some Japanese, listening to records.
Pic of the Week:
Here's a very cute picture of Becca from the event at Gossip Grill last weekend!
