Justice League of America #200 has one of the most amazing artistic line-ups of any single issue that I have ever read. I remember loving seeing so many of my favorite artists - Jim Aparo, Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, George Perez, Dick Giordano, and so on together in one big story... and then there was the amazing chapter featuring Green Arrow and Black Canary versus Batman by an artist that was completely new to me at the time. I'm sure I had seen some Brian Bolland covers at that point, but this was the first time I had seen his interiors, and they blew me away. His characters maintained realistic proportions but were still larger than life and his detailed artwork was done with a meticulous precision unlike any I had seen before. I had a similar experience with Art Adams - as great as his covers were, I really began to appreciate him when I saw his interiors on Longshot and his various Marvel Annuals, where he really got to show off his storytelling abilities in addition to his character design.
I remember reading JLA #200, it was great. I remember a Bolland Superman cover where he was a vampire. Scariest comic cover ever!
ReplyDeleteThat JLA issue must have been before CAMELOT 3000 (I could look it up, but I'd estimate #200 was circa 1981) and before any of Bolland's UK work was reprinted in the US. I wonder if that was his first American work.
ReplyDeleteIt would be cool to see some all-Bolland covers (along the lines of the Kirby covers) but it would tricky since most of his covers have been for DC and Fleetway, much of which appears to have been acquired by DC. In other words, a Wonder Woman/Judge Dredd team-up would be cool, but now, thirty years later, it could actually happen.
But is it a Giant-Size Man-Thing?
ReplyDeleteOoh-I got it: Camelot 3000 v. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!
ReplyDeleteJLA #200 is one of my all-time faves, too! Gerry Conway pulled out all the stops, and made the guest art chapters a part of the full-length story, not just random pinups. And such perfect pairings, too: Kubert on Hawkman, Aparo on Aquaman (with Phantom Stranger, to boot!), Kane on GL/Atom, Infantino on Flash/Elongated Man, and Pat Broderick (then drawing Firestorm) doing the Firestorm chapter! I'm going to have to dig it out for another read...
ReplyDeleteGerry Conway, right after Mike W. Barr and Marv Wolfman, was my all time favorite writer of team books. Anything written by these three guys (and Jerry Ordway) I brought back then, whether I followed the series or not. Now what ever happened to the writer BRUCE JONES? He wrote a lot of backup features (Catwoman, Nemisis, etc.)in the 1980s, but then he disappeared!
ReplyDeleteNice---their 70s incarnations could actually make a perfect story fit, as is often the case with this blog1!
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: Bruce Jones was given the rebooted Hulk series after Peter David's monster run ended in the late 1990's. Shortly after that he did a Captain America mini-series with Steranko. He also did something with DC recently. I think that the reason he doesn't work on anything for very long is that all of his stories end with a woman being something other than what she appeared, usually betraying the male hero. He made it work in "Ka-Zar The Savage" and "Somerset Holmes" in the 1980's but his unwillingness to use any other plotline for 30 years takes on a creepy feeling after a while.
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention how nice the lettering for this story blurb was - both the body copy part and the "burn in the bayou!" display lettering. Often times that's been the weakest part of past covers, but here it looks totally natural and professional. Kudos!
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