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Just out of curiousity Steve, which is your least favouite character design, looking back, that you've come up with/had to work with?

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Thanks for clarifying that! Another question that pops up from time to time. There was a villain in LSH-LSV war called Terrus, who had never appeared before that issue. Can you give us any info on this guy? This was his only appearance, and he seems to play an incredibly small role in the story (unlike Zymyr, who I believe is the other LSVer created specifically for this story). Were there further plans for him? It seems odd that this one guy was created just to fill out the ranks of the LSV just a bit, but nothing was ever done with him.

Legion artist Jeff Moy just congratulated me on my return to the book. Unfortunately, when I asked him to confirm the rumor that he too was scheduled to do another issue of the Legion, he said that he hadn't heard anything like that.

Jeff seems to be happy and busy in a new game designing job.

My apologies for getting the hopes up for Moy fans, by reporting the rumor that he and Dan Jurgens were both scheduled to return to the Legion. The info seemed credible at the time, but I really should have confirmed it by talking to the artists directly.

Jeff tells me that he's still working on a comic project of his own creation, called Video Game Girls. Watch for it.

Steve

dude, Jeff Moy should stay away!! I know this sounds mean, but he draws the teen girls of the Legion like skanky pin up girls from T & A magazines. The Game girl project sounds right up his alley. I talked to him at the San Diego Con one year and looked at his art...I was embarrassed to have little kids looking at it. He was scary gross when he talked about his drawings of girls.

Jeff Moy -- just in case you read these -- a comic shop guy who knew how much I liked you and the Legion brought a B+W Legionnaires poster-sized drawing (by you) to the San Diago con.

You signed it, to me, and I got it. It was when you were on the Legion. I was surprised (I didn't ask him to do it).

I don't remember your art as "skanky." Your art and the poster were very nice! Thank You. Now if only I can find Tom M to color it...

WesConnors

Eryk Davis Ester
asks:
<< There was a villain in LSH-LSV war called Terrus, who had never appeared before that issue. Can you give us any info on this guy? This was his only appearance, and he seems to play an incredibly small role in the story (unlike Zymyr, who I believe is the other LSVer created specifically for this story). Were there further plans for him? >>

The honest answer is, I really don't know. At the time, and this is going back almost twenty years, I asked the same questions. I don't recall either Paul Levitz or Keith Giffen having much of an answer. Maybe he had super landscaping abilities that he used for evil?
SL

Somebody
asked:
<< Steve, which is your least favorite character design, looking back, that you've come up with/had to work with? >>

I hated Polar Boy's fur gloves and fur lined headgear, and later, I hated Giffen's ice spike hair for the same character.

Polar Boy represented the most selfless aspects of the super-hero. He, and the other substitute heroes, were willing to put their lives on the line for mankind, even without the prestige of Legion membership. They were especially admirable in light of the shoddy representation they got in DC Comics Presents and the Legion of Substitute Heroes Special. I'm not saying that those issues weren't amusing examples of slapstick comedy in comic form ... but the cost to the characters was too great. At the time I remember thinking that this style of comedy violated the readers suspension of disbelief for the sake of a laugh. It was similar to the nonsensical and unbelievable humor that crept into the Salkind's Superman movie sequels. If you erode respect for a fictional world's "reality"you can expect your audience to begin to question the entirety of it. Ultimately, it reduces your imaginary world to a two dimensional one.

I tried on two separate occasions to redesign Polar Boy's costume. I felt that he had the power and the strength of character to be a Legionnaire. I certainly didn't want the poor fellow being held back by a crummy fashion sense. I sort of like the costume that he wore in LSH #14 (his induction into the Legion), although I wonder if it might have looked better if the purple areas were cooler ... maybe a paler bluer shade ... or maybe even a darker shade, but definitely more on the blue end of the spectrum.

There are lots of costumes that I'd have wanted to fine tune if I had stayed on the book longer. I was always wanting to change Phantom Girl's look, but didn't get the chance. Invisible Kid and Colossal Boy both had embarrassingly simple costumes. I was finally allowed to return Colossal Boy to the costume that Cockrum had designed, which took care of his problem ... but poor Invisible Kid ... One of the problems that I faced was that concurrent stories were being done in Tales of the Legion during most of my tenure on the Legion. So they discouraged me from making any design changes in that first year, for fear that it might cause continuity problems between the two books.

I occasionally see a costume that I've created and wish that I could tweak the design a bit. As for my worst costume designs ... I'm pretty sure I've blocked them from my memory. : )

Steve Lightle


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I LOVED your take on Violet,Mr. Lightle.Thanks for sharing your talents with us.

Steve, what do you think are the chances of Polar Boy joining up with the Legion?

Steve, what do you think are the chances of Polar Boy joining up with the Legion?

Thank you very much, Oracle. Sometimes it isn't so much about costume designs as it is about attitude, and Violet's was very interesting. If anything inspired my interpritation of the character, it was her spirit.

Craig, I'm not sure if Polar Boy will be rejoining the Legion any time soon, but I think the odds of him eventually being restored to some version of the Legion is good. You just can't keep a good character down. Just as I think that eventually Dawnstar will be brought back. I love her name, and her potential has never been fully explored. I keep thinking that she has the potential to be one of the great women characters ... a strong and beautiful image of ethnic womanhood.

Oops! My apologies to both JaFabian and OmniCraig for getting their names confused. I'll try to see that it doesn't happen again. : )

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Steve

I always had trouble with Polar Boy becoming Legion leader. He was small and his power was considered ordinary. He was rejected.

Then, he formed a Legion of "rejects." They worshiped the more perfect Legion and sought no personal reward or glory for their work. Thus, they defined heroic. How the groups interacted was human and they teach us how to act.

When the subs all joined the Legion, we lost a major part of Polar Boy et al's characterization.

The first Legionnaires of color were green, orange, blue -- Though they looked human, I think the ethnic diversity was still there. At the time, no comic characters really were colored like humans.

Later Tyroc, Dawnstar were kinda thrown in as token ethnic characters, when comics became more realistic. Now that they are history, I miss them. Tyroc was not done well. Dawnstar was.

Dawnstar had a unique personality/character. I enjoyed her love for Wildfire... Remember, he didn't have a body. Their relationship was very nice to follow because physical sex was not going to be a priority.

The return of these concepts/stories would be welcomed!

Steve,

Don't worry about using my name in error. It's always a bit of a fanboyish thrill to see one of your comic "heroes" calling you by name!! :):):)Happy holidays!!!

I am assuming you mean Jacques and not Lyle. Although Lyle had a pretty boring costume too. I like Jacques even though it was a simple costume because of how it was shown to work with his powers.

Another Legionnaire who had/has a boring costume is Chameleon Boy

I liked Polar boys spikey hair...or Icicle hair if you will. I also loved the Subs in the DC Present issues with Ambush Bug. Hilarious...and to point out, any hero's that should appear with the Ambush Bug would have been treated in the same humorous vain. It what made the story and what was intended. The stories there after touched on the humorous aspect of the Subs...especially considering how many times they were shown in the long run of the series always waiting around for "the Call to arms." Plus they WERE all rejected from the Legion, so making them humorous seemed natural. Yet I do have to admit, when the Legion came back after the 5 year gap and the Subs showed up, seasoned and organized. Working for or with Jaques...it was like "wow, check out the Subs." Then again through out the beginning of Griffens launch the build up to all the old favorites were great. Everytime someone else showed up we were like "wow, check them out..is that...cool take on the character". oh I miss those days..)<:

I liked Polar boys spikey hair too -- way before his time... a real trend setter...

I didn't like the Subs as comic relief. I thought those comics were silly & were more "laugh at them" than "with them." Ambush Bug was good on his own, however.

The Subs would come in and "save the day" when the Legion was failing to save the universe. At least that's the way I remember them as being used, like a reserve group. When they proved themselves, they decided not to join the Legion.

Later, they began to join & it was "established" somewhere that they all would join the group. I think that they all had joined by the 5 year gap. I didn't like the 5 year gap Legion. The "comic" Subs or the 5 year gap -- didn't like either.

I'm another one who didn't like the Subs Special or DCCP. It's all very well to use established characters in "comedy" stories - but Giffen's comedy comics (these, AMbuish Bug and his JLI) aren't funny. At all! They're just not.

I liked the Giffen Subs stories, but I was always able to sort of think of them as outside continuity or just funny little stories meant to entertain, and I don't think they diminished my appreciation of the characters. I was really happy when Polar Boy joined the Legion because I thought he was an interesting character with a lot of potential, and always wished we'd seen more of him.

I thought his icicle hair was kind of interesting and cool, too.

Am I the only fan who realizes Cham is NAKED and what we consider his "costume" is just his malleable epidermis?

By the way, Steve, there's a post in the GoogleFight! thread you might be interested in, pertaining to total hits for your name versus Dave Cockrum's.

Googlefight? What's a googlefight?

We don't have to wrestle in mud or chocolate syrup, do we? I don't know about Dave, but I've decided not to do that anymore. : )

Steve

Polar Boy having "cool" hair. Heheheheh...

I'm sorry. I just thought that was funny.

I had a <chuckle> over the alternate spelling of Giffen. Keith would probably like the literary reference!

"Cool up with that hair, Polar Boy!"

Yeah, I noticed that after I wrote it but before I hit the "submit reply" button, and thought about changing it, but then decided I would just go with it. Maybe PB has developed a bit of telepathy and beamed that choice of words into my head without my knowing it. ;-)

Steve, did you hear about the comments Quesada made about Dave on his website? There's quite a thread going on about this!

Dave Cockrum is a good artist who has served this industry incredibly well. Both Marvel and DC Comics owe him a great debt for his innovative work on Legion & X-Men.

But, saying that, I've only stated what every knowledgeable comic fan already knows.

As a comic fan and artist, all I can really say to Mr. Cockrum is a sincere ... thanks.

Steve Lightle