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Saturday, November 3, 2012

Adventure Comics # 343, April, 1966


We forgot to note the coming of the Go-Go Checks two issue ago! Reviled by some, they are, for others, the ultimate comics nostalgia. To me, for example, the mere sight of them in a back issue box promises joys from my youth! By this point, I had started buying comics but it would still be a few months before I noticed the Legion on the racks.

Space opera pulp author Edmond Hamilton has been arguably the Legion's best writer up to this point and he goes out with a bang with only three issues to go, this classic one and a great two-parter coming up next issue.

Below the debut of DC's DIRECT CURRENTS, a Marvel style "what's coming" feature that would appear regularly for a few years.



A favorite house ad from the day promoting three of what would be my favorite series when I started reading comics! (I wouldn't appreciate Joe Kubert for a few years.)


Friday, November 2, 2012

Adventure Comics # 342, March, 1966


The hits just keep on coming with yet another major story in Legion lore this ish. Star Boy gets expelled from the Legion proper but ends up, along with a returning Dream Girl, in the Substitutes, to return later at a most unexpected time. Some lovely Swan/Klein art but they weren't responsible for the unfortunate placement of the stamp on Dream Girl's clothing.


LSH member Supergirl really hadn't appeared much by this point but her introduction--rewritten--is reprinted in this first Giant reprint collection. 





Thursday, November 1, 2012

Adventure Comics # 341, February, 1966



Although it doesn't really have much to do with the actual story, here's a classic Legion cover. The plot, meanwhile, finishes off the story from the previous issue and introduces yet another one-off Legionnaire, this one a real Weirdo...literally.







Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Adventure Comics # 340, January, 1966



Yet another seminal issue in LSH history, here we meet Brainiac 5's Computo who, in one form or another, influences the Legion continuity from here on out. Yes, in retrospect he looks kind of stupid but forget the visual if you have to--it's still a powerful story. Perhaps the most important part of the story is the death--in a way--of Triplicate Girl, cleverly done but not really given as much detail as it would seem to have called for.


Longtime cover artists Curt Swan and George Klein take over the interior art starting with this issue. Superboy creator Jerry Siegel scripts. 




Chic Stone art on this ad. The artist, best known for inking Kirby in early Marvels, popped up in quite  a few DC-only ads around this time as well as drawing the CAPTAIN ACTION mini-comic featuring both Marvel and DC heroes. 


A "marvel"ous ad, here, featuring Metamorpho, one of the characters DC felt was created in the lower-class style Marvel was somehow becoming so successful with--Note the unhip "hip" writing style.



Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Adventure Comics # 339, December, 1965


December of '65 (on sale in October that year). Artist John Forte's final work appears in this issue, inled by Shelly Moldoff who drew many features for ADVENTURE's early issues. We're getting closer and closer to two very important events for the LSH: The arrival of teenage Jim Shooter and seven year old me picking up my first issue of ADVENTURE!






This was a memorable SUPERMAN story--Note: NOT SuperBOY for a change! Even though it had been published just 4 years earlier, here it was again in all its April Fool's glory...at Halloween. On the last page, note "The Spectre is coming!" These ads--aping Marvel's cruder "The Hulk is coming!" promotion of a couple years earlier, generated much interest in the latest Silver Age revival of a Golden Age character...and yet this one didn't quite take.








Monday, October 29, 2012

Adventure Comics # 338, November, 1965


Not the babies again!!!

This issue's villain is the Legion's little-seen arch foe, The Time Trapper, much later revealed to be (SPOILER ALERT) Cosmic Boy himself! At least in that day's LSH continuity.


Note the ad for this month's issue ofSUPERBOY featuring THE SACRIFICE OF KID PSYCHO. Although not technically a Legion story, it is not only important in the group's history but also one of the best-remembered Superboy tales of the sixties. For those reasons, we present the story below in its entirety. 










Oddly, these were the first (and only) two GI JOE outfits my parents ever bought me. I remember being really disappointed that the deep sea diver outfit wasn't really waterproof.


And now--The Sacrifice of Kid Psycho.