Commissions: Element Lad
Yeah, baby, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.
As many of you know, Element Lad is my favorite Legionnaire.
I swear it about broke my heart when I was talking to the gang up at DC Comics last week and almost no one could even remember I had ever done superhero comics, much less The Legion of Superheroes. My glorious Legion!
How could anyone forget my devotion!
The march of time…it is so cruel.
I am going to track down whoever the hell is the editor of the Legion these days and camp out on his doorstep until they let me draw it again.
In the meantime, I am still sick as a dog, and it is another day in bed for me.
And I don’t know what is in these meds…but DAYUM.
I can’t quite recall who this commission was for because I am medicated, but I know the recipient was happy to get it.
I did another large Element Lad/Shvaughn Erin piece which is really nice, but when I got home from the show, I realized I had not followed the instructions of the person who ordered it, and did the wrong size and medium. Oops. Guess I will have to sell it to someone else. I will post that art later, and I know someone will find it adorable enough to buy it.
Have you seen the Legion Omnicom? Great Legion fan website.
c
February 16th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
That costume design, with the arrow…very interesting.
February 16th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
My sympathies on not feeling well. I’m commiserating, because I’ve had a cold with fever this weekend. First of those in a long time (usually, it’s just nasal drip and coughing). I’m so tired and dehydrated.
On the other hand, seeing lovely artwork is a big “cheerer-upper”.
February 16th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
I love this costume. It’s filthy.
Maybe someone more familiar with Legion legend can confirm if this was one of those Dave Cockrum designs. For awhile, the Legion had some of the most unusual costumes in comics. Cosmic Boy beat ‘em all, IMHO.
February 16th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Get well soon, scribbler! It’s another day in bed for me, too.
February 16th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Yes, it was a Cockrum design. Cockrum is credited with reviving the fortunes of the Legion after the feature was relegated to mere back-up status in the early-70s. He did a dozen or so issues before leaving, and taking his unused Legion designs to Marvel to co-create the New X-Men. Had things gone to plan, Nightcrawler would’ve been a Legionnaire — or one of the related hero teams, at any rate.
Cosmic Boy’s “basque” costume — who says only females show a lot of skin in comics? — was designed by Cockrum’s successor, Mike Grell.
February 16th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
I knew Allan would remember the details!
I hear the Legion may be a back up series for awhile. Wouldn’t I be swell on that? How about a Christmas special?
February 16th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
I just wanted to register my SIGHHHH for Element Lad. If ever DC does a Legion Special — ANY Legion Special — I hereby officially declare my interest in writing an Element Lad story.
February 17th, 2009 at 1:05 am
I guess none of the folks who had forgotten you did the Legion were at the Legion panel last year in San Diego, IN WHICH YOU WERE ON THE PANEL.
Not really sure 100% what’s going on with the Legion these days. They give the book to Jim Shooter to write for 16 issues, then they tell him they’re cutting it short by 4 issues so they can cancel it, coinciding with the end of “Legion of Three Worlds” and the beginning of Geoff Johns writing a new book. Then L3W is late – Final Crisis is already over, and George Perez is still pencilling issue 4 while #5 was supposed to come out last December (but it looks gorgeous). Johns can’t start the new series until L3W is over. And Shooter would have had enough time to complete his 16-issue story as he wanted, but he got disgusted and/or pissed off and walked (allegedly) off of Legion #50, the final issue, so they got “Justin Thyme” to write the last issue pseudonymously.
That’s what’s going on with the Legion these days. Sheesh. I remember back in the day when every other month we’d see some sort of Element Lad pinup by Colleen…
February 17th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hey wizard, sorry it took me so long to approve your posts. I am spending most of the day in bed trying to beat this bug.
Believe it or not, an editor who had worked with me on Wonder Woman had no memory of ever working with me on Wonder Woman.
I think that there is such a flood of material and editors work with so many people, that if you weren’t a complete psycho, they just forget about you!
I would definitely love another try at the Legion and haven’t been reading the latter work, thinking I’d just pick up the trades when they came out.
February 17th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I doubt there’ll be trades now, considering what’s happened. The destined return to greatness under Shooter, has, sadly, turned into one big “if only”…
It would seem that the future of the Legion — if it has one — is an amalgam of several different versions. Probably with a bias towards the “classic” characters, which would suit your style better than what we’ve had for the last decade or so. A Legion mini, written by Paul Levitz, drawn by you, with covers by Adam Hughes, would seem to be a dream project.
Have as much Element Lad as you like, just make sure there also a lot of Dawnstar…
February 18th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Dang, I posted my last comment before I changed my posting name to be my real name.
Any idea why the pictures here don’t show up in Firefox, only in IE (or Firefox with IE Tab)? Instead of seeing the picture, I only see the name of the file.
And assuming that’s the same Laurie Sutton above who briefly edited the Legion in the early 80s (issues 288-296), what did you do during your tenure – which produced the Great Darkness Saga, arguably the best Legion story ever – that got Giffen and Levitz clicking so well together? First you and then Karen Berger oversee the team that gets the book up to being DC’s second-best selling book at the time (behind New Teen Titans), then sales plummet after she left. Maybe the gender had something to do with it.
February 18th, 2009 at 10:08 am
I can’t tell you why the different browsers behave the way they do.
Yes, that’s the real Laurie Sutton!
February 18th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Yes, it’s the real Laurie Sutton and not the Robot Laurie that I send out on dangerous missions.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:39 am
I’ve already managed to capture Paul and Keith robots, and once I find the hollow tree where the Laurie robot stays hidden, my plans for world domination will quickly fall into place. First step will be to create another few dozen issues of “classic” Legion stories, and then the enthralled world population will be at my mercy.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
@ Craigopher: Being in possession of our robot counterparts will avail you nothing. As long as the REAL Paul and Keith and Laurie are free, the world is safe. (Am I right in assuming that Robot Keith is a handful and a half? Now imagine the real deal!)
April 4th, 2009 at 4:23 am
Love this commission and this costume…have you seen the latest Element Lad? He looks like a blonde, young, hotter Dr. Strange….
April 4th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Nope, haven’t seen it. I thought the book was on hiatus?
Are you talking about the E-Lad with the little beard from about a year or so ago?
December 19th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Alas, that Element Lad with the soul patch is dead…and the reboot one is a confusing mix of Lightning Lad in Element Lad’s body (don’t ask)…so the one running around now in the DC universe, is the one and only Jan Arrah that you know and love…He is stuck in the 20th century and teaches chemistry in Smallville….Here’s hoping for a new Element Lad story drawn by you Colleen !!!
December 19th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Jan Arrah teaches chemistry? Maybe he’s got the classroom next to Aeren’s… XD Now there’s a “Seasons of Spring” issue waiting to be written…
December 19th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
This is very funny, because Jason/Aeren basically started out as Element Lad fanfic. Early sketches even show Jason with that odd split curl E-Lad used to have when drawn by Cockrum. Originally, Jason had E-Lad’s power, too.
And now E-Lad is living on Earth teaching science! that’s pretty darned funny!
March 9th, 2010 at 10:26 am
[...] segue contiene materiale tratto, oltre che da questo sito amatoriale edicato a Saturn Girl e dal blog della stessa autrice, dall’intera bibliografia legionaria di Colleen. Che, per la precisione, [...]