Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Oh Yeah, That Forum: The Titans The Official Titans Companion Thread!

I loved the BOL Oupost collection myself (as well as the Companion), but surely it wasn't expected to sell as well as the Companion? This was reprint material from an amateur fanzine from 25-30 years ago*.


*NOT a criticism of the Legion Outpost, I think it was awesome stuff.

Gary, if the 'toon is a hit, I'm pretty sure you can expect more Legion collectibles in some form or other.

re: the Titans companion, I'll likely get it for the Silver Age & 70s content, when funds allow.

Not as well, but the drop-off was substantial. And to be honest, TLO had been out for a year by that point, so even if only a certain percentage of its customers bought the follow-up book, there was a greater number to cull a percentage from, so similar initial orders wouldn't have been unreasonable. And TBOTLO did cover the period when the Legion was DC's best-selling title, so there were plenty of 30-ish comic book fans who liked the Legion from back then who had the wherewithal to buy it and didn't. Part of the problem is the way that stores order, namely a lot didn't even bother to stock TBOTLO at all and those that did only carried a store copy and thanked their lucky stars when someone bought it instead of ordering another copy to replace the first one on their shelves.

Let's face it: the book did have a lot of artwork by Dave Cockrum and Mike Grell in it, and an unpublished Giffen interview conducted while he was working on the Great Darkness Saga, so there was stuff there to get people's attention. Unfortunately, the "fan" stigma was attached to it and it stuck. Ironically, the "fan" (read: "inferior") label was attached to it by modern-day fans who also attached great importance to their own words while disregarding those of their Legion forebears, but in the end, stores just didn't carry it. That's why it's so important to reserve a copy of the Titans Companion instead of just counting on a store to stock it. With the glut of extraneous Marvel and DC material on the market today the average comic book store's non-Big Two budget keeps getting chipped away and they're less likely to take a chance on a twenty-five dollar book then they are on the equivalent value in Big Two products. It ain't fair and it ain't right, but that's the way it is.

but, Glen, if the Legion fans have been aware of Dave Cockrum's unpublished 2-page Timber Wolf story - oh my....Dave could have the potential of becoming a writer for the Legion if his Timber Wolf story saw the light. I could not believe when I saw that beautiful two page spotlight on Timber Wolf, I was in shock. Once the fans find out about this, they will want to buy this book, especially for both Timber Wolf fans and anal retentative,

What unpublished Timber Wolf story is this, Superboy?

The one in the Legion Companion.

What I would really like is that special Legion issue of the Amazing World of DC - special Cockrum cover of several Legionnaires battling some gigantic humanoid space dragon...

I am actually the Time Trapper and slowed your computer.... oh behave...blush

That Superboy is really quite shy, isnt he, Dave?

*ahem* anyway, back to the subject, when will the Titans Companion be released? in Nov or in Dec?

Sorry, dude, that was before i had a chance to talk with you - you arent that bad

LOL! okay...allright..then anyone knows when the Titans Companion coming out?

Same date as always: Nov. 23.

Good news/bad news update: the good news is the book just got approved this week by DC. The bad news is that means that the shipping date has been pushed back to December 14. It's regretable, but that's all that we can do. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at the book's other cover, the back one! Enjoy!

Cool! Thanks for the update Glen. I'm looking forward to this one a lot.

I think the artwork depicting the original five is super-groovy! Is this a Nick Cardy rarity? His designs still rock after all these years!

Doesn't have to be a rarity - I saw Cardy sketch at a con a few months back and he doesn't seem to have lost anything.

I think i mentioned this already, but my ultimate Cardy fave was the transformed monster that Sharon Tracy witnessed in "Blindspot" (TT 28 circa 1970(?) That issue had a cover with Aqualad punching out Robin as the other Titans look on...

The picture is a Cardy commission from a few years back, and the jpg doesn't do it justice. Wonder Girl looks like a photograph in the real file.

A lot of artists from Cardy's generation still have it. Al Plastino, Jim Mooney, Russ Heath, Cardy himself... they all draw as well as they ever did. I chalk it up to a generational thing. Those guys had to draw to make a living, and saw themselves as draftsmen who had to do a job well in order to get paid. They had no illusions of ego or entitlement, and gave it their best every time out. A lot of artists from subsequent generations who seem to only get worse with age could learn a thing or three from their forebears.

Were some of these artists victims from the cutback in staff circa 1968?

Not sure about Heath, but Plastino and Mooney definitely suffered from the change in artistic direction at DC around that time. None of them were on staff - they were all freelancers - and Cardy went on to be DC's main cover artist in the Seventies, so he did just fine with Carmine Infantino in charge.

When did Julius Schwartz take over from Infantino as editor - or were they sharing the editorial mantle?

You're confused - Julie Schwartz was never editor in chief of DC Comics. DC didn't have an editor in chief until Carmine got the newly-created position in the late Sixties, and when he was fired he was replaced with Jenette Kahn. Julie was always just an editor, never an executive editor. He answered to Carmine while he was there.

Preview pages!

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a391/titanscompanion/titanscompanion01.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a391/titanscompanion/titanscompanion02.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a391/titanscompanion/titanscompanion03.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a391/titanscompanion/titanscompanion04.jpg

Looking good!

Looks great Glen!