Justice League of America #1 Ad

The ad that started it all! What kid could have possibly turned this book down?

Justice League of America #8 Ad

One of thousands of quarter-page ads DC did in the 1950s and 1960s, where you could just drop two different covers in ad infinitum. I found this in an issue of Wonder Woman--naturally, if you're reading Diana's solo title, maybe you'll like this other book she's in!

Justice League of America #53 Ad

Very charming and dynamic ad for Justice League of America #53, presumably designed by DC's in-house genius Ira Schnapp. How he managed to get so much info in such a tiny space and yet not make the ad look crowded is still a mystery to me, and I've been looking at these ads since I was a kid.

Justice League of America #71 Ad

Pretty simple ad for Justice League of America #71, though I have to admit I'm not sure what, if anything, "point of no return" is referring to. Is it Blanx's attack on Mars? Manhunter's dedication to his home planet, which eventually pulls him out of the JLA? Or is it just about the cover? We'll never know.

Also, I feel like someone at the last minute realized the ad didn't mention when the book went on sale, so they grabbed a pen and squeezed it in.

Justice League of America #4 Ad - 1961

This is one gorgeous ad for Justice League of America #4, the induction of the team's first new member. Most likely the work of Ira Schnapp, who could cram a ton of material into a tiny amount of space and still have the final product look clean, elegant, and exciting as all heck!

I like how they took the classic JLA "shield" logo and raised it up a bit so they could fit in the "...as a full-fledged member" line. In the pre-desktop publishing era, that was probably a lot of work!

Justice League of America #10 Ad - Jan. 1962

I found this full-page promo in a contemporary issue of Aquaman; I never get tired of finding "new" JLA ads!

Mystery in Space #75 Ad

Be here tomorrow for the Justice League and Adam Strange in "The Planet That Came To A Standstill!"

Justice League of America #42 Ad - 1966

I missed this ad during the blog's original run, and its too spiffy not to post--"Metamorpho Says No!"

DC letterer/designer Ira Schnapp (who most likely designed this ad) was a genius at cramming in a ton of text in a small space, yet making everything look clean and readable. An amazing talent!

Hey Kids, JLA!

Early on in the blog's run, I would devote a whole day's post to any and all house ads DC ran for Justice League, since I have a love for those old ads that knows no bounds.

Over time, I didn't like how the ads "broke" the momentum of the blog as it went from issue to issue, so eventually I downgraded them to being at the end of a regular post.

But I still love them, so here are all the ones I collected since last November, including a few I found since:

...it was a fun ride, wasn't it?

Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #31 - Dec. 1982

During the same month as JLA #209, the World's Greatest Superheroes headlined another digest collection, with front and back covers by Gil Kane!

Inside are "In Each Man There Is A Demon", by Denny O'Neil, Dick Dillin, and Joe Giella (JLA #75), "Specter in the Shadows" by Len Wein, Dillin, and Dick Giordano (JLA #105), "Wolf in the Fold" by Wein, Dillin, and Giordano (JLA #106), and "The Reverse-Spells of Zatanna's Magic" by Gerry Conway, Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin (JLA #161).

Collecting issues where new members joined is time-tested, great idea, so I only have two quibbles:

1)Hawkgirl is "skipped" over. That's probably because the issue she joined (JLA #146) isn't really about her joining, the way the above stories focused on Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, and Zatanna, respectively. Plus, the story was extra long, so to include it would've bumped one of these.

Still, Hawkgirl gets the short shrift so much, it was a shame she couldn't be included here in some way.

2)Someone at the printers must have bumped the machine, because pages 26-27 and 74-75 are printed out of sequence, so the Black Canary story suddenly stops and we get the final page of the Red Tornado story and the cover to JLA #161, then vice-versa later on, a jarring effect.

But there is this super-cool, retro ad for JLA #209, which I really wish they had run somewhere in color, its so cool:

DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #11 - July 1981

The JLA headlined their first digest in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #11, released between JLA #s 191 and 192. It features a solid collection of four stories, along with this spiffy cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.

Inside is the complete 3-part story from JLA #s 100-102: "The Unknown Solider of Victory", "The Hand That Shook The World", and "...And One of Us Must Die!", all by Len Wein, Dick Dillin, Joe Giella, and Dick Giordano.

Also included is "Triumph of the Tornado Tyrant", from JLA #17. Considering the storyline in the next two issues of the regular JLA book, this surely was a sort of hint of what was to come. Well played, editor Len Wein!

The book also features a low-key ad for the next issue of JLA, which we'll get to tomorrow:

Justice League of America #181 - Aug. 1980

Green Arrow leaves the Justice League!

The Story: "The Stellar Crimes of the Star-Tasr!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. The story opens with Green Arrow, alone, relating this case into a tape recorder.

The story opens with Black Canary and Green Arrow transporting down to Star City, and they are discussing his increasingly uncomfortable presence in the JLA. He feels out of place and not doing the kind of work he really wants to do.

Suddenly they hear an explosion a few miles away, so Arrow fires a rocket arrow which carries them both to the scene of the melee.

Meanwhile, Arrow's presence in the team is also the subject of discussion at the JLA satellite. They all mention they've noticed a change in his demeanor, and it's Aquaman who seems to have the least sympathy for the Emerald Archer:

...ouch.

Anyway, this talk is interrupted by a distress signal, and the JLA heads own to Star City, just in time to see Arrow caring for a nearly-dead Black Canary, having been attacked by...the Star-Tsar!

At the hospital, Snapper Carr shows up, but Green Arrow nearly belts him before he can explain. Turns out Snapper's old costume was stolen from the Metropolis Police Department (way to go, MPD), so obviously someone else has assumed the role.

The JLA splits up, and both Superman and Green Arrow find the Star-Tsar simultaneously, at a concert at the Star City Stadium. But Arrow's stealth plan is ruined when the entire JLA busts in, in the middle of the Tsar's attempted kidnapping of the singer.

While the concert crowd nearly riots from panic, Arrow shoots some sort of smog arrow over him, blocking the light from the stars that gives him his powers.

Arrow then wraps up his report, finally realizing what all this had led to, his resignation from the Justice League of America:

Roll Call: Superman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Arrow, Atom, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Hawkgirl

Notable Moments: A big, momentus issue--the League's oldest "new" member leaves. As a kid, I was blown away by this turn of events.

Looking back on it now, you can see that the Green Arrow had become a bit of a jerk over these past dozen issues or so--something he ramps up to "11" next issue--so Gerry Conway was definitely stacking the deck.


Tomorrow:

Justice League of America #177 - Apr. 1980

After the nifty, uber-exciting cover by Rich Buckler, is a story of the return of the JLA's oldest and most deadly foes!

The Story: "The Graveyard Gambit!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. This issue begins in a way very few issues of the book ever did--with Aquaman!

After many, many months of not being in on the fun, we have a perfect setting for the King of the Seven Seas: open with a group of fisherman who are gloating over their catch, a school of dolphins.

This does less than please the Aquatic Avenger, and I really enjoy the fury with which Gerry Conway has Aquaman express himself:

...even though he is enraged, his instructs his dolphin friends to save the fisherman that have fallen unconscious into the water. While there, he sees something bizarre--the fisherman begin to glow and change shape, and turn into giant, statue-looking beings!

Meanwhile, the same exact thing happens to the Atom, and then again with Green Arrow and Black Canary, and Superman and Batman. In the last case, the strange beings don't even look remotely human, instead taking the form of...castles?

They all share their info with Zatanna, who is on Monitor Duty. She calls an emergency JLA meeting.

Meanwhile, we see who is behind this strange plot, as well as an old friend...

To be continued!

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Atom, Black Canary, Zatanna

Notable Moments: Nice to see Aquaman back after being absent from so many issues (how many times have I written that over the course of this blog?), and gets such a nice shot at the action.

This issue features another JLA subscription ad, tying the book in with three of its members' solo titles:

Those Neal Adams heads never get old!

As of this issue, classic JLA writer Len Wein returns to the book, this time as Editor (having replaced Ross Andru, who replaced the legendary Julie Schwartz). Under Wein's tenure, the book would see (IMO) some of its finest moments...as we'll see!

Justice League of America #175 - Feb. 1980

The return of the villainous Dr. Destiny!

The Story: "But Can An Android Dream?" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. We open with a bunch of JLAers begging someone not to resign from the JLA. But its no use...Red Tornado is leaving the JLA!

He tells his friends that he finds himself to be the least reliable member of the JLA, and he can risk his friends' lives no more. So matter how much they try to talk him out of it, he feels he has no choice to leave.

He beams himself back to Earth, landing in Central Park. Here he transforms himself back into his civilian identity of John Smith, where the male half of a couple on a picnic can't believe his eyes when he sees Reddy. The girl he's making out with thinks she's the cause of his hallucinations, so she takes it upon herself to ramp the picnic up a notch:

...now that's a fun date!

Anyway, Reddy goes to visit his orphan charge, Traya. Meanwhile, Dr. Destiny is safely tucked away in Arkham Asylum...or is he?

Turns out the Dr. Destiny the guards see is in fact a hallucination, and its actually his Arkham psychiatrist in there, but the guards think its Destiny in there. He is, of course, planning a scheme that involves a machine he's created that turns people's dreams into living nightmares.

Meanwhile, we find Red Tornado, as John Smith, revealing to his love Kathy Sutton that he is, in fact, the android The Red Tornado! Traya tells Kathy she loves him, flesh or no, and after a few moments, Kathy says she loves him, too.

They then attend Halloween Parade, where suddenly people are attacked by giant, nightmarish(!) monsters! He tries to stop them but is fought off by a dream-like duplicate of himself!

But Reddy finds the machine that these visions seem to be coming from, and destroys it, just as some of the JLA arrive to help. Red Tornado, now filled with confidence and love and support, is ready to come back to the JLA.

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Zatanna

Notable Moments: The opening splash page is filled with the JLA begging an as-yet-unknown person not to leave the team. Each member gets to say something, except for Batman, who remains stone-faced. Batman doesn't have time for this crap.

Red Tornado gets a nice chance to shine here, and Kathy deciding she loves this "man" is genuinely touching.

Even though the story seems to end here, it is in fact continued, as we'll see tomorrow:

Justice League of America #165 - April 1979

A great cover by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (is there any other kind?)

The Story: "A Mother of Magic!" by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin, and Frank McLaughlin. Continued from last issue, a group of magicians, led by a man named The Highlord, claims that Zatanna's mother Sindella will die in a few hours.

When she does, Zatanna will take her place as the Highlord's slave in this dimension!

As you can imagine, the JLA doesn't take too well to this, and they engage in a battle against the Highlord and his magical minions.

But with their most powerful member, Superman, being vulnerable to magic, the fight is stacked against them, and they are quickly picked off one by one.

At one point only Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl are left, but when Hawkgirl is a victim of a sneak attack, it enrages the Amazing Amazon:

Meanwhile, we find Red Tornado tending to a recuperating Green Arrow(who was hurt fighting Allegro), and Reddy does some research to find evidence to suggest that at some point humanity split into two separate species, Homo Sapien, and Homo Magus!

Reddy and Green Arrow follow the JLA to this other dimension, where they let the others know that Homo Magus have an ingrained attraction for Homo Sapiens, which explains why the hordes the JLA has been fighting are not real people! Sindella uses her remaining life energies to help the JLA defeat the hordes, but it drains her energies so much that she dies in the attempt.

Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl, Zatanna

Notable Moments: There's a lot of magical gobbledy-gook in this issue, forgive me if my synopsis doesn't quite make a lot of sense. Though the whole "ingrained attraction" earns some laughs, as a comely wench drapes herself all over Green Arrow, much to Black Canary's annoyance.

When I was a kid, I went to a mall with my Dad and they were having one of those "sidewalk sales", and one of the dealers was selling boxes and boxes of comics. My Dad told me I could get two or three books, so I feverishly went through nearly all of them to find what I thought would be the best ones.

I remember pulling this book out of the box, and the cover looked sooo cool, it almost made the final cut. This was before I discovered comics stores, so any issue of JLA(or any comic, for that matter) I missed on the newsstand seemed like a rare artifact on par with the Lost Ark.

The issue didn't hold up once I did read it, but what could?

Anyway, tomorrow: