Howdy, fellow QUESTERS!!
It's me, the one and only T to tha E to tha X, back again to make your head spin with more comic book knowledge that you can't get in college! I hope your day is sauntering along nicely. Mine is fine, just rainy as all get out around these here parts, which gets me to snackin' and a-snoozin', two things that can only lead to weight gain and joint pain, if you smell what I'm cooking. So, I figure, what better thing to do than to hop on this here mean machine and hang out with all of you?
So here I am. Let's smack this horse's heinie and get to gallopin'!
Back in 2011, DC Comics began to publish a pretty awesome limited series called DC Universe: Legacies.
Written by comics legend, Len Wein, This limited series tells the story of the DCU, partially focusing on the life of a man named Paul Jones. The series begins with Paul's early life in the 1940s, as he collects protection money for a local gangster in Metropolis' Suicide Slum. It is then that the Golden Age of Superheroes begins with the appearance of masked vigilantes and Paul's eventual witnessing of The Golden Age Sandman and Atom in action. This inspires Paul to get his act together; in a few years he has worked his way through college and through a chance encounter with The Guardian and The Newsboy Legion, he decides to help fight crime as a police officer.
The re-written story of the DCU unfolds before us, partially through Paul's eyes as he lives and fights through the 1940s until the Modern Age of Superheroes. With Paul, we experience the emergence of masked vigilantes, and super-powered heroes (and villains), The House Un-American Activities Committee's attack on the JSA and their subsequent disappearance, the reemergence of superheroes in The Silver Age, and nearly every major DC Crossover event (Crisis On Infinite Earths, The Death of Superman, Knightfall, The Final Night, Identity Crisis, etc). Paul Jones carries his badge proudly and helps society through all this as much as he can throughout his life, even once becoming the partner of Officer John Jones who is secretly the alien crimefighter known as The Martian Manhunter. It is a triumphant, but bittersweet story of an unsung hero of the DCU, an everyday hero living in the shadow of gods and monsters while dealing with everyday problems like family drama and illness.
This story does re-write DCU history quite a bit. It has to. Of course, Superman and Batman can't appear in the 1940s; however, be that as it may, Wein does an amazing job weaving the comic book ages together and connecting the DCU's major events in a sweeping epic story that is both fun and mesmerizing. If that weren't enough, Wein gathered some of the best living artists in comic book history to work on this series, artists like Bill Sienkiewicz, Joe Kubert, Brian Bolland, George Pérez, Dave Gibbons, Dan Jurgens, and J.G. Jones, to name a few. I was excited to get my hands on one of these:
Above, you see my copy of DC Universe: Legacies #1, but my copy is the rare Special Ashcan Edition done for Diamond Comic Distributors, INC. This is a sketch variant done by Joe Kubert that was given ONLY to retailers at the 2011 Diamond Retailer Summit held in Chicago, IL. Luckily, I had a friend that hooked me up (YES!). I loved this series so much, I didn't stop there:
Feast your eyes! That's right, above is my published art page found in DC Universe: Legacies #9, page 20. Check out the finished, published page below:
(courtesy of ReadComicOnline.to)
The page was penciled by Jesus Saiz, and inked by Karl Story who also signed it at the bottom. Way cool! I am proud to have it as a part of my humble collection.
If you're looking for a great way to spend a couple of hours, read DC Universe: Legacies. You can thank me later. :-)
Happy trails, pardners!! And remember, reading comics online might be nice, but supporting your local comic shop is even better!! I support mine! See ya!
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