Happy 100th to "Waiting For Doom"!

If you haven't been listening, you should. The podcast "Waiting For Doom" has reached 100 episodes and they celebrate with an extra-long episode including special guest Richard Case, most frequent artist of the 1987-1995 version of DOOM PATROL and primary artist during the Morrison Period. All 100 episodes are available in their archive and highly recommended.

You can start with their 100th here: "Keeping the Love Alive"

Link Sausage 2016

With the new DOOM PATROL series and Young Animal imprint there's probably going to be more traffic here, so before I shake out the cobwebs I want to acknowledge some blogs who post more then once a year.

Today there was a DP appearance in the cover mash-up blog, Super-Team Family (whose previous incarnations were wish-list covers for Marvel Two-In-One and Brave And The Bold). You could spend days going through its enormous back catalog of posts featuring imagined meetings between characters often separated by publishers. A page with all the posts tagged for the Doom Patrol is here:

Super-Team Family

I've been enjoying the podcast Waiting for Doom, which had been created to have something extant while DP fans were waiting for a new series. Now that there is a new series, there was some anxiety that the podcast would founder without a purpose but it's been insightful and funny as always with the bonus of being situated better than anyone else to assess the new series. It's here (check out their archive):

Waiting For Doom

Providing graphic counterpart to Waiting For Doom is the simply called "Doom Patrol" but which is better known by its URL, "MyGreatestAdventure80":

My Greatest Adventure 80

Hosted by Doug, MGA80 was up and running before this blog started. It never really went away, but its posts became few and far between during the DP-deficient New52 period. There were some other fan sites still out there that have been inert even linger than this one. "Doompedia" hasn't posted since 2011 and the podcast "Doom Podtrol" hasn't posted since 2013. It's too early yet to know if the new series will renew the interests of their respective hosts, so I'm going to leave up any existing links on this blog to theirs but I'm unlikely to specifically refer to them in new posts.

Doom Podtrol M.I.A.?

Among the blog and website links in the left column of this blog you may have noticed the link to the podcast "The Doom Podtrol", which has offered fan commentary on DP stories for years now on an irregular schedule (not as bad as mine, but irregular). The last post was in November 2013 and I assumed it was just another lapse (the end of the year can get busy for all of us) but that link now leads to a page with their header, but no content. It can still be found through iTunes, but of course that's without the listener comments. I'm hoping that this is a temporary glitch and I won't have to modify the link to send readers to iTunes just yet. If the hosts are reading this, drop me a quick comment below. Thanks, I've always enjoyed the show.

DP09-AP(e) Retro Stories During The Giffen Period

.....Barring cameos I haven't yet discovered or which may yet surface before the Flashpoint to-do plays out (we'll see how long DC's readers can sustain nostalgia for The Age Of Apocalypse, if at all), this was the last of the Doom Patrol appearances during Giffen's run that take place in earlier periods. During the most recent Doom Patrol title there were three issues which each focused on the history of an individual member, giving a coherent account of their passage through all the prior periods. I haven't included those because they'll be reviewed here in the context of the rest of the series at some far future date after the preceding periods have been reviewed.

.....The topic of this post is DCU: Legacies, a ten-issue limited series that ran #1(07/10) to #10 (04/11). Each of the first five issues covered a period of roughly ten years from 1935 to 1985 and the last five issues each covered a period of roughly five years from 1985 to 2010. Each issue has a serialized main story in which a retired policeman named Paul Lincoln recalls the history of DC's super-heroes and his occasional brushes with them (not unlike the photographer in Marvels). The chapters are written by Len Wein with short framing sequences drawn by Scott Kolins, but a different art team for the main body every two issues who also provide the standard cover. Each issue also has a short back-up story featuring a different group of related characters by yet a third art team who provide the variant cover for that issue. I mention this because Cliff Steele appears on the cover of issue #4(10/10), but only on the standard cover.

.....The Doom Patrol don't appear in the back-up stories, but their brief significant inclusion in issue #4 shouldn't be discussed without first mentioning something about #3. DCU: Legacies #3(09/10) "Powers And Abilities!" is the first of two parts drawn by José Luis García-López and inked by Dave Gibbons. The cover blurb, "The Silver Age Is Here!" pretty much gets the main point across with the standard cover being a white background and the sedately posed seven founders of the pre-Crisis version of the Justice League of America. Although Superman and Batman almost never appeared on the covers of early JLA comics, they had made cameos in the stories since the three trial issues in The Brave And The Bold #28(02-03/60)- #30(06-07/60). I say "almost" because they appear as chess pieces on the cover of Justice League Of America #1(10-11/60), as miniature background figures on #5(06-07/61), as Felix Faust's fingers on #10(03/62), as smoke in bottles on #11(05/62) and finally fully visible on the cover of #19(05/63), long after they had become fully active in the stories. However, that lack of visual presence translated into a total absence when the JLA's origin was reformulated after Crisis On Infinite Earths. One of the major effects of the Crisis is that after the surviving worlds and their respective histories were combined into a single synthetic Earth, Wonder Woman passed into legend, a final gift of the Gods when it became clear to them that they couldn't prevent her from being wiped from physical existence (and subsequently people's memories). The original Golden Age Wonder Woman became fictional in the post-Crisis Earth and was remembered that way by everyone. A younger, otherwise identical Wonder Woman emerged at the end of the Legends mini-series who didn't recognize any of the characters who had been her predecessor's teammates in the JLA. In the new scheme of things, Black Canary took Wonder Woman's place in JLA history and Superman and Batman were eliminated from the origin completely, joining a short time later. Similarly, Supergirl never existed in post-Crisis history (until several variant versions were later introduced) and so the Doom Patrol adventures with her in Superman Family #191(09-10/78)- #193(01-02/79) and Daring New Adventures Of Supergirl #7(05/83)- #10(08/83) would thereafter be remembered as having happened, but with Power Girl in the role of Supergirl. For DCU: Legacies #3 to return Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman to the origin of the Justice League calls into question exactly to what extent these post-Crisis revisions are being dismantled. Did the story in Legends not happen? Did the Doom Patrol have adventures with Supergirl or Power Girl? Both? Neither?

.....DCU: Legacies #4(10/10) begins with the right half of an interlocking García-López/Gibbons cover, indicated only by the edge of Superman's cape and shadow. Even without the continuation of images, though, issues #'s 3 and 4 are clearly parts of a whole. The cover of #4 also has the white background, the parallel blurb "The Next Generation Has Arrived!" and seven heroes, in this case the five founders of the Teen Titans in c.1965 uniforms plus Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Robotman (Cliff Steele). Curiously, and I don't know if anyone else is disturbed by this and I don't know if it was intentional, but Aqualad's hair here is straight. Short, matted or tousled, but straight. It appears this way in the interior pages as well. In his earliest appearances in Adventure Comics beginning in 1960 his hair was not only straight but light brown. After Bruno Premiani drew the first teen sidekick team-up story in The Brave And The Bold #54(06-07/64), Garth's subsequent appearances with his peers were (a) drawn mainly by Nick Cardy, (b) under the name Teen Titans and (c) sporting black hair in thick curls. Actually, for much of the 1960's Cardy drew Garth in both Teen Titans and Aquaman. On Teen Titans he would even ink the pencillers who took over (Irv Novick and George Tuska) as well. When Jim Aparo took over the art on Aquaman's interiors, Cardy continued to draw or paint the covers. In the 1970's, Garth appeared less often in Teen Titans and Aparo continued Aquaman's feature in Adventure Comics (including covers) before following him back into his revived title which was closed out with Don Newton pencilling. I haven't seen Garth's back-up feature drawn by Carl Potts, which ran in Adventure Comics after the Aquaman feature vacated, but if it was anything like the various art teams that worked on Teen Titans when it returned in the late 1970's, it would have adhered to Cardy's thick, curly precedent. George Pérez certainly did for occasional New Teen Titans guest spots and the first Aqualad Who's Who page. In fact, Pérez added visual detail to individual curls and gave Garth's hair more of a perm or afro style. The thinking must have been that his origin (coming from an underwater civilization akin to Atlantis) would imply a look more common to Mediterranean cultures (Greece, Italy, Ethiopia) than the freckled Midwestern boy he resembled when Ramona Fradon drew him. As prolific as García-López was at DC since the mid-1970's, it isn't easy finding an example of him drawing Aqualad in a story. These two examples seem to have been prepared for promotional or merchandising purposes. They're both dated 1982. Note Garth's hair:

http://comicartcommunity.com/gallery/details.php?image_id=34464&mode=search&sessionid=3fafb5a444eb83579edde842da559c10

http://comicartcommunity.com/gallery/details.php?image_id=34463&mode=search

.....Garth's hair seems black and wavy. It's consistent with Cardy, if not Pérez. It's Aqua-Dondi. So why the change in the look for what is meant to be a period-specific portrait? I doubt that it's Gibbon's inks. Ten years earlier, during the "Silver Age" one-shot event, Gibbon inked Cardy himself on the cover of the Silver Age: Teen Titans #1(07/00). Garth's hair looks straighter than Cardy's ever drawn it, but still thick past the ears. But Pat Oliffe's interior pencils make him look more like his modern Tempest identity, short with small tight curls. Whatever the reasoning was for the look used on DCU: Legacies #4, it couldn't possibly have the same impact on Doom Patrol history as would restoring Wonder Woman to JLA history. By relaunching Wonder Woman in the 1980's, Donna Troy's already murky personal story became notoriously impossible to reconcile, impacting not only Beast Boy/Changeling from their time together in the New Teen Titans, but Robotman, Mento and both the new and old versions of the Brotherhood Of Evil, who returned to activity between 1981 and 1986 in New Teen Titans, Teen Titans Spotlight and other Titans related titles. Extraordinary hoops were jumped through to accommodate post-Crisis continuity without throwing out some of DC's best-selling work since the start of the Comics' Code Authority. By restoring Wonder Woman to the Silver Age it becomes necessary to sift through the dozen or so existing Donna Troy origins to find one or more that enable us to retain the 'Gar Logan on Paradise Island' subplot from 1981.

.....Before the DP actually show up there's a full-page illustration, page 6, with 37 villains representing the Silver Age and not one of them with a connection to the Doom Patrol (the giant gorilla in the back is Grodd, not Mallah). What's even weirder is that prominently in the foreground we see Mongul, who first appeared in 1980.

.....On page 11, panel 1, we see the Original Period Doom Patrol (Cliff, Rita and Larry) in their 1960's style uniforms battling the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. Cliff is tossing a lime green Volkswagon covered with a peace sign and numerous flower decals, for anyone who's been reading this far and is still not absolutely certain what decade this was paraphrasing. The accompanying narration tells us:

• "But the Metal Men weren't the only ones inspired by the example of the Justice League... In Midway City, a group of super-powered misfits calling themselves the Doom Patrol made their presence known."

.....In a previous post, DP05-AB "The Wilderness Years", I list Doom Patrol activity between the end of the series under the Vertigo imprint and their relaunch by John Arcudi. Part of that activity was tentative reintegration into DCU continuity and a significant part involved long overdue looks back into the group's history before Crisis as seen through a post-Crisis lens. JLA Year One placed their formation before the JLA's in a story originally published in 1998, only to have that order reversed just two years later in a lowly text piece in Secret Files & Origins Guide To The DC Universe 2000. It's hard to argue that this story is establishing anything other than consensus regarding who came first. And after this summer's Flashpoint reboot there's no telling what history will look like. And aside from tying into the Doom Patrol's guest spot on the animated television show, "Batman: The Brave And The Bold", I don't see the point of devoting two whole pages to reenacting the Original group's 1968 death scene. While pains are taken to get the name and population of the targeted fishing village correct-- Codsville, Maine and 14-- there are still goofs. Cliff is standing at the end, despite being depicted with the glowing halo of the magnetic charge that paralyzed the tiny servo motors in his legs. Madame Rouge is not mentioned and appears only as an indistinct figure in the background of one panel (page 21, panel 5), despite being instrumental to the original story. Finally, as seems to be the case increasingly, Zahl introduces himself as "General Zahl". He was actually Captain Zahl when he commanded the submarine that attacked the DP. He promoted himself to General Zahl while on land years later, some time between disappearing at the end of Doom Patrol #121(09-10/68) and reappearing in New Teen Titans #13(11/81)- #15(01/82). Even if someone didn't know that particular bit of trivia they ought to know that the title 'general' means nothing on a ship. Captains, admirals, ensigns (maybe) but not generals would be in charge of a ship. He might as well be calling himself 'pope' or 'your waiter for this evening'.

.....Closing out 2010 are DCU: Legacies #5(11/10) and #6(12/10). This time the interlocking standard covers are by George Pérez, depicting a chaotic moment during Crisis On Infinite Earths. Not that it's germane to the Doom Patrol, but I have to stop here to point out the cover to #5 is a scene that actually takes place in the comic book. On page 19 you'll see many of the same characters in the same poses and engaged in the same activities but seen from a different angle. Except for the two pages of framing sequence drawn by Scott Kolins in each issue, most of the serial chapter in #5 was pencilled by Pérez and inked by Scott Koblish. For #6, Pérez and Koblish split the inking chores on Jerry Ordway's pencils.

.....In the framing sequence of issue #5 narrator Paul Lincoln cites the death of the Doom Patrol as the catalyst that led to darker, grimmer moods in later metahuman adventures. On the splash page he holds up an old issue of Timeline Magazine with the DP on its cover. To bolster his point he cites the Joker's return to senseless murder, which was actually deemphasized while he had his own title in the mid 1970's. It was only after that title was cancelled that he became part of Englehart's and Rogers' return to classic villainy in Detective Comics. It's also worth finding his arc in the Huntress back-up feature in Wonder Woman a few years after that. It was in those appearances that the Joker was reestablished as a dangerous killer. More convincing is when Lincoln next refers to the Fleischer/Aparo Spectre stories from Adventure Comics. Those stories raised eyebrows and 'led to meetings', as they say. They are conveniently available as the trade Wrath Of The Spectre, which has been in and out of print but often offered both new and used. Lincoln is on to something; comics did get darker long before Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. Unfortunately, as a character within DCU super-hero continuity he is uniquely unqualified to present the evidence that falls outside of that continuity. The early 1970's in comic book publishing were notable for sword & sorcery fantasy, horror and supernatural anti-heroes, jaded cosmically aware demi-gods, dystopian futures and black and white magazines not subject to the Comics Code Authority. All true, but nothing of which he would be aware. The death of the DP was certainly an unusual way to end a comic book series, but 1968 was practically a bloodbath compared to the "Summer Of Love" the year before. In fact, that issue would have been released in late July and still on the stands when protesters outside the DNC were brutally murdered. This was after the assassinations of MLK and RFK, as well as Prague Spring and the Situationist riots in Paris. The next few years were drenched in Altamont, Kent State, the My Lai Massacre, slum riots, prison riots and well-connected persons rigging the military draft so that the poor would die in their place. It's hardly fair to say that the 1970's began with a dark mood because the Doom Patrol made the ultimate sacrifice. It wasn't just comic books that became grimmer. Books, movies and music did as well. There was an over whelming sense that persons in authority were not only failing to guide civilization into peace and prosperity but were actually committed to preventing them. If Spiro Agnew sneering that he didn't have to pay taxes because he was better you didn't convince people of that, Richard Nixon ordering burglaries of his political enemies certainly did.

.....Of course, the Doom Patrol's story didn't really end in 1968 and the nine-year gap until their return becomes a one-issue gap in DCU: Legacies. Gar shows up without comment with the New Teen Titans on page 7 of issue #5. On page 10, he's with the slightly revamped (1984+) NTT, which is portrayed as contemporary with the debut of the New Doom Patrol. It's clear this is meant to be the Showcase #94(08-09/77), from General Immortus attacking in a one-man flying saucer to Robotman's temporary ROG-2000-esque body. It's especially temporary here, since it's drawn correctly in panels 2,5 and 6, but then reverts to a conventional 1960's head for an inset panel portrait. Also, Lincoln's comment "Yes, the Chief's widow had found the remains of Robotman and rebuilt him-- even as she gathered together a brand-new team of misfits." makes one wonder how much of the Doom Patrol's adventures is known to the public and how much is presumed. Cliff was rebuilt by Doc Magnus, not Celsius, but that information might be classified. The general public might assume otherwise or might have been told otherwise.

.....A very public event, the COIE, fills the end of issue #5 and the start of issue #6. Negative Woman passes through page 20, panel 1, while Gar manages to finally get a line in on page 21, panel 1. Both make the cover of issue #6, although Gar has switch from an elephant carrying Nightwing to a pigeon carrying the Atom in his barbarian warrior phase. Tempest appears as well. Only Gar appears inside though, in a recreation of the conclusion to Legends on page 18.

.....The whole DCU: Legacies series will be available as a hardcover trade this fall. Barring delays, it is scheduled for release August 24th, 2011. I'm debating whether to look to other media to cover all the other retro period depictions during the Giffen Period, such as the animated Batman team-up mentioned earlier or even action figures. As it is I'm going to collect my thoughts, dive into my comics and look for a new thread. Here's hoping all the links work!

Retro Denouement Interlude

.....To paraphrase Oprah, "YOU get a link, and YOU get a link, and YOU get a..."

.....After the previous two posts I had to get some much needed sunlight. The timing was right; here in the northeast U.S. it's been a bright, humid, summery first week of June, during which I cleared out several barrels of yard clippings, filled several (non-DP) holes in my comics collection and took a belated look at the solicitations for August. I still don't see any indication of Doom Patrol's future. Flashpoint will apparently be carrying on into September, unless absolutely everything ships on time, with the last day for all titles being August 31. With next month's Comic-Con there will undoubtedly be tons of news available about DC's direction while Flashpoint is still on the stands. In the meantime, we mere mortals have the blog "Too Dangerous For A Girl", whose recent posts as of this writing have been sifting through what look like press releases. The home page should be here:

http://dangermart.blogspot.com/

.....I checked in earlier today to monitor any possible comments (none today) and post one last 'retro' entry before devoting the next few days to editing a massive music entry for my other blog. I checked the stats, mostly to see if publishing the previous post had gotten any better reaction than the first few days. When you publish infrequently as I have in the previous year, people just don't bother to check you out every day. A new post can result in a spike in activity, either several people looking for something new or else a few people flipping backwards. In the past month I've been getting closer to a weekly schedule and was curious to see if the rate of pageviews would continue to spike and drop or begin to level off. Wellll... neither. The total pageviews for Wednesday were more than ten times the average for LGC: Doom Patrol. All day. The lion's share of referring URL's (i.e., the last page someone was on before coming here) were from tamaraorbust's blog, "Histories Of Things To Come" with the rest coming from the Doom Patrol-related blogs to whom I always link on the left side of this page. I wasn't at all surprised to see the "Histories..." URL's, given that we are mutual followers and have on more than one occasion referred to and endorsed each other's blogs. The curious thing is that "Histories..." is dramatically more prolific than this blog and deals with every topic under the sun (and behind it and probably in it, too). Many of its posts are not about comics, let alone Doom Patrol specifically. Otherwise it would have a permanent link with the others instead the occasional one, like this:

http://historiesofthingstocome.blogspot.com/

.....The readers for all those (or these, as those numbers are still coming in) views come from several countries, so I can't just dismiss this as one guy on a meth binge going back and forth between the two blogs for 24 hours straight. (For the record, the management does not endorse nonprescription amphetamine use. Try it with a pot of coffee, though.) If there are new readers out there, be advised that after the next retro post I'll be picking another theme for Doom Patrol stories to examine. I'm leaning towards the post-Crisis appearances that led to the Kupperberg series in 1987 and then the mini-series that tied into it, mostly because they've not been compiled into trades to my knowledge. If there are any other pieces of Doom Patrol-related knowledge or insight which you're having trouble locating on the web I could probably give you an answer, a helpful link or possibly a post detailing my reasons for an educated guess on the matter. Just leave any questions in the comments area and I'll be notified of them.

.....One last item: they technically aren't whole stories, but I've been enjoying the mash-up covers of the blog "The Brave And The Bold: The Lost Issues" (currently retitled "Marvel Two-In-One: The Lost Issues") for a long time now. Check out Ben Grimm's imagined adventure with the Original Period DP here:

http://braveandboldlost.blogspot.com/2011/05/thing-and-doom-patrol.html

.....And this earlier Batman excursion into Gypsy Period 1 here:

http://braveandboldlost.blogspot.com/2010/08/this-is-one-of-very-first-covers-i-did.html

.....Or Ben with Danny's roommate:

http://braveandboldlost.blogspot.com/2010/11/thing-and-ambush-bug.html

.....In a few days I'll have the post intended for this slot and try the following week to maintain a weekly pace.

DP09-AP(d) Retro Stories During The Giffen Period

.....This is actually the second half of an analysis of the story "Out Of Time" from The Brave And The Bold #34 (07/10)- 35 (08/10). In the previous post I provided the details of the creator credits and the rosters for the four teams involved. There's also my reasons for placing the story in the period of comics published c.1964. Anyone who had difficulty using the links provided in the previous post should check them again. They've been embedded again in a different manner and seemed to be working better than they did initially. Sorry about that.

.....This is a time travel story, which is a common enough plot device in comics that it shouldn't ordinarily require an explanation or map to guide the reader. The complications, and subsequent confusion on the part of many readers, can follow when travelling into the past multiple times results in crossing your own path and impacting the chain of events that brought you back in the first place. Douglas Adams once famously said that the most difficult part of time travel isn't really the mechanics of moving through time, it's conjugating the verbs afterward to describe what you did. The longer the story and the more often the trips taken, the more common will be the complaints of confusion, generally. Take Avengers Forever as a textbook example. Now put the Legion Of Substitute Heroes in control of a time machine and watch them try to 'fix' things. Thus we come to the following dual attempt to disambiguate the order of events, once in the order they take place in the world and once in the order they are experienced by the cast. That cast is abbreviated here for convenience: [DP] is the Doom Patrol, [LSH] is the Legion of Super-Heroes, [Subs] is the Legion of Substitute Heroes and [I5] is the Inferior Five.

.....First, the 'real time' account of events. Although the Original Period Doom Patrol stories were first published in the 1960's, the time in which they took place changes. Following what I suspect was Roy Thomas' approach of time compression employed at Marvel in the 1970's to explain why Peter Parker was allowed to pursue an undergraduate degree for thirteen years without being called up for academic review, DC since at least as far back as Zero Hour has used a similar conceit in which three to five years of publishing translates to one year in the life of the characters, working backwards. As a rule of thumb, if the story you are reading today references a story from the past, take the number of years since it was published and divide by, say, four. Subtract the result from the year of the newer story. For instance, if a story is published in 1965, then in 1969 stories it would be treated as though it took place in 1968. In 1977, it would be treated as though it took place in 1974. In 2005, it would be treated as though it took place in 1995. Thus, Lian Harper did not look 24 years old when she died. The three-to-five year standard would make her anywhere from five to eight years old. The reason I mention this is because segments in which the LSH locate the DP will be described as c.1964 in this post with the understanding that this is the period which they are obviously intended to evoke aesthetically. It is not actually stated anywhere in the story in what year those scenes occur. However, it is explicitly stated that the [Subs] find the [I5] in 1972, which is why I've included that scene and other specified dates with scenes from the Time Stream. The story does nothing to indicate whether the [DP] was formed and/or active before, during or after 1972 in this continuity frame of reference. Since, for these purposes, any of those scenarios would work equally well, we're not going to fret over it right now. Likewise, although the modern [LSH] is set in the 31st century, I'm referring to their home as the 30th century to conform to the c.1964 motif. If you want to know why that distinction is important, the best possible explanations can be found with the [LSH]-related links in the previous post.

• {c.1964; #34/p.9} [LSH] arrive from the future (using Time Bubble 1) in [DP]'s headquarters and ask for their help.
• {c.1964; #35/p.17} While [LSH] and [DP] discuss the problem in a different room, [Subs] and [I5] arrive (using Time Bubble 2) and switch machines, taking off in the one in which [LSH] arrived (Time Bubble 1).
• {c.1964; #34/p.10} 7:15 minutes since page 9, [LSH] and [DP] return to the room where Time Bubble 1 was left and find Time Bubble 2 in a slightly different spot and speculate that it "shifted position". All but Caulder depart in Time Bubble 2.
• {c.1964; #35/p.18} The departure of the [LSH] and [DP] coincides with the Time Stream sequence {#34/pp.11-13}(see below).
• {c.1964; #35/pp.5-6} After [LSH] and [DP] leave, [Subs] arrive from 30th century (using Time Bubble 2) to find Caulder alone. Exercising characteristically poor judgement, their attempt to 'fix' their situation results in creating multiple anomalies of themselves.
• {c.1964; #34/p.22} [LSH] return [DP] to their proper time (using Time Bubble 2) and are greeted by Caulder shortly after he has spent an exhaustive afternoon (presumably figuring out how to collapse a telescoping time anomaly). [LSH] then return to the 30th century.
• {Time Stream; #35/pp.7-10} Having been set right by Caulder, [Subs] reach a timeline in which [I5] exist, in 1972 (using Time Bubble 2).
• {Time Stream; #35/p.11} [Subs] and [I5] realize that none of them can remember the Hawking Theorem, key to solving their problem. (In Time Bubble 2.)
• {Time Stream; #35/p.12-13} [Subs] and [I5] locate Dr. Stephen Bawking (probably in the 1990's), who explains the theorem to everyone. (In Time Bubble 2.)
• {Time Stream; #35/p.22} [Subs] strand [I5] 30 years in their future, on July 14, 2010 (using Time Bubble 1).
• {Time Stream; #35/pp.14-16} Dumb Bunny's pink fluffy tail gets stuck in the tachyon collector of Time Bubble 2, causing it to stop moving forward at 2193. Knowing that [LSH] beat them to finding [DP] (they found Caulder alone), [Subs] and [I5] return to {c.1964; #35/p.17} (see above) in order to switch time machines.
• {Time Stream; #35/p.18} occurs simultaneously with...
• {Time Stream; #34/pp.11-13}. After the time machines have been switched, [LSH] and [DP] travel forward in Time Bubble 2, which stalls at 2193. When they investigate, Lightning Lad finds and removes Dumb Bunny's pink fluff. He speculates that it belongs to Cosmic Boy because it matches his costume's color scheme. With the Time Bubble 2 working again, they continue on into the 30th century.
• (Both teams travelling forward can now reach the30th century. [Subs] and [I5] arrive after [LSH] and [DP]. See #35/p.19 below.)
• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.2-3 in flashback} Lightning Lad returns to Earth after a patrol in a conventional space vehicle and witnesses a Black Hole event en route towards Earth. He races ahead of it to warn the Legion.
• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.14-19} [LSH] and [DP] try unsuccessfully to drain the Black Hole (using Time Bubble 2).
• {30th Cen.; #35/p.19-20} [Subs] and [I5] arrive (in Time Bubble 1) before [Subs] initial disastrous attempt to view the Black Hole (see #35/p.3, below). This appearance also causes a 'time surge', with the difference being the presence of [LSH] and [DP].
• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.20-21} The 'time surge' causes the efforts of [LSH] and [DP] to drain the Black Hole to have the same effect as though they had been working at it continuously for days (still with Time Bubble 2).
• {30th Cen.; #35/pp.20-21} [Subs] and [I5] witness the Black Hole being drained (in Time Bubble 1) and [Subs] decide to abandon their plans to try taking credit for [LSH]'s plan before anything else goes wrong.

....At this point the story diverges to two possible outcomes: one in which the Earth is destroyed and one in which it is saved. Because some of these scenes play out in concurrent parallel time lines, pinning down when something would have occurred relative to events that happened instead becomes understandably tricky.

• {30th Cen.; #35/p.3} Having just acquired Time Bubble 2, [Subs] materialize within viewing distance of the Black Hole event between the time Lightning Lad witnesses it and the time he reaches Earth to warn them. Somehow, their sudden emergence from the near future accelerates the Black Hole's approach towards Earth.
• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.1-4} On Earth, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy are both awoken by Lightning Lad's arrival. He explains what he witnessed in space and that they must prepare a defense in the few days remaining. They then notice that the Black Hole's arrival is imminent and must resort to time travel to stop it at an earlier stage.
• {30th Cen.; #35/p.1} [Subs] watch a television report praising [LSH] for averting the Black Hole event with the help of [DP] by traveling into the past. Jealous, [Subs] decide to use the same method of time travel to replicate the feat and reap the glory.
• {30th Cen.; #35/p.2} This remains the most confusing sequence in the story. [Subs] enter [LSH] clubhouse to steal the Time Bubble. Their plan is NOT to: (a) take the bubble, use it and then return it at that moment in time so that no one will notice that it is missing; nor (b) take the bubble, travel backwards just one hour to where they know it was sitting before and get into the earlier version so that it never appears to have left (then make sure they get it back an hour later in time to return it right after their earlier incarnations took it). Instead they (c) take the bubble, travel forward one hour to where they find the bubble still there, take that bubble and continue on their adventure. Now, obviously (a) is the simplest approach, but nothing is simple where [Subs] are concerned. The (b) scenario, while reasonable on the surface, would require a time paradox of a time machine traveling backwards one hour, then sitting unoccupied for an hour (effectively traveling forward in time, albeit at 'normal' speed) until it is then used to travel backwards an hour again, in an infinite loop. This would mean that a time travel machine existed that was never manufactured and runs infinitely without ever being refueled. It would also mean that the time machine used in the adventure was picked up at the beginning of that hour and deposited at the end, with a separate existence from the one in the infinite loop. The (c) scenario only means that at some point between stealing the bubble and finding it again one hour in the future, the bubble had been returned after the adventure at some point during that hour. [Subs] then get out of the first bubble, get into the returned one, have the adventure and return during the hour and leave it for them to find again. All this just means that there is a different infinite loop, just a much, much longer one. The explanation for what's going on here, if there is one, is that [Subs] departing doesn't change the fact that [LSH] departed, too. Each took and returned Time Bubbles, but from and for each other, not themselves. What we have here is not a loop so much as a figure eight. If [Subs] took Time Bubble 1 one hour into the future to switch with Time Bubble 2, it could only be after [LSH] returned from the successful version of the mission, otherwise they wouldn't have a reason to set out and upstage them. Therefore, from the perspective of the machine itself, the [LSH] adventure concluded before the [Subs] adventure began. Yet, [LSH] concluded their adventure in Time Bubble 2 and presumably parked it in the clubhouse, then informed the media, who in turn broadcast the story, inflaming [Subs] who took the Time Bubble left by [LSH], moved it forward an hour and took it again at another point in its time, damaged it with Dumb Bunny's tail, went back to 1964 to switch it with itself at another point in time yet again, meaning that the Time Bubble used by [LSH] for the remainder of their adventure and parked where [Subs] found it and subsequently switched with itself an hour in its future has a separate timeline (and existence) from the Time Bubble [LSH] started with and [Subs] ended with, when they dropped off [I5] in 2010. But there's only ever been one Time Bubble. I've only been designating them '1' and '2' in order to keep straight when, in the bubble's history, it was being used. Eventually, either Time Bubble 1 becomes Time Bubble 2 or vice versa. What I've just described is instead two parallel continuities. Unless...

• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.5-6} [LSH] rush to the room where the Time Bubble is housed. Before they reach it, it appears to shift to the side. With no time to truly figure out why that happened, they dismiss it as a side effect of the extreme magnetic forces present due to the Black Hole. They board the Time Bubble in its new position and begin the successful version of the adventure. Had they reached the Time Bubble while it was still in it's original position they would have traveled to [DP]'s Original Period, brought them back to the 30th century to drain power from the Black Hole... and failed, resulting in the destruction of the Earth. The plan was good in theory, but the scale of the problem would simply be too overwhelming for it to have worked. Besides, they were running from the Black Hole in a timeline where it had already advanced too rapidly for them to confront. They knew their only hope was to intervene hours earlier, just after Lightning Lad became aware of it, creating a new timeline. So what really happened to the Time Bubble? The initial image of the bubble belonged in a timeline where [LSH] failed, a failure that was caused by the acceleration of the Black Hole's advancement, an acceleration caused by [Subs] (see #35/p.3, above). Therefore, the Time Bubble didn't go anywhere. It was still in the room, but part of a separate timeline in which [Subs] screwed things up. After [LSH] and [DP] succeeded and [LSH] returned the Time Bubble, [Subs] take it and go an hour forward, illogically expecting the bubble to still be there for them to find. The Time Bubble they find an hour in the future is the one that disappeared in front of [LSH]. Think about it; it's a time bubble that belongs to a timeline where [LSH] fail because of an effect caused by [Subs]. It has to be the second bubble [Subs] take, because it's the Time Bubble they were in when they caused it. The Time Bubble that takes them to it, an hour into the future, is the one that already succeeded in averting the disaster, creating a separate timeline, and was left there by [LSH]. Therefore, the Time Bubble that appears in front of [LSH] to replace it, the one that [LSH] assume is the same bubble shifted to the side by magnetic forces is the one [Subs] moved forward one hour. It, too, was in the room the whole time, but did not become visible to [LSH] until the timelines shifted. They take it, meet [DP] for the first time and, while they're out of the room, [Subs] and [I5] switch it for the earlier damaged incarnation, which [LSH] and [DP] use for the remainder of the adventure. Eventually [Subs] return it after stranding [I5] in 2010.
• {30th Cen.; #35/p.4} [Subs] discover that they inadvertently caused the Black Hole to accelerate it's path to Earth, destroying it. Now they have no choice but to duplicate [LSH]'s feat by retrieving [DP] from the past.
• {30th Cen.; #34/pp.7-8} [LSH] witness the destruction of Earth one day after Lightning Lad's warning. They must travel backwards to a point before this timeline formed and somehow avert it.

.....Which they did.

╠═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╬═╣

.....And now, as promised, an account of events from the perspective of the only one, true witness to all of the events in this story: The Time Bubble.

• The Time Bubble sits, ready and waiting in the [LSH] clubhouse.
• {#34/pp.1-4} Lightning Lad witnesses the Black Hole event in space en route to Earth. When he arrives to warn the others, the Black Hole is suddenly almost upon them.
• {#34/p.5} [LSH] attempt to use the Time Bubble to avert disaster, causing an alternate timeline. They disappear.
• {#35/p.2} [Subs] arrive from an hour in the past in my future self. They board me. I am now referred to as Time Bubble 2.
• {#35/p.3} [Subs] try to witness the Black Hole event sometime after Lightning Lad discovers it, accidently causing its acceleration.
• {#35/p.4} [Subs] witness the destruction of the Earth.
• {#35/pp.5-6} [Subs] take me backwards to find [DP], but we arrive shortly after my future self has departed with [LSH] and [DP] on board. They briefly create multiples of ourselves before the clever monkey with the broken legs sorts them out.
• {#35/pp.7-10} [Subs] take me to 1972 and add five more monkeys to the crew, called [I5]. Their legs work... but they're not clever.
• {#35/pp.11-13} [Subs] and [I5] don't understand the Hawking Theorem and make another stop to have someone explain it to them.
• {#35/pp.14-16} Part of Dumb Bunny's costume gets stuck in my tachyon collector while we're traveling in the Time Stream. Because of this, I can't get past 2193.
• {#35/p.17} We travel back to a point between [LSH] meeting [DP] and the two groups departing. [Subs] and [I5] disembark from me and board my future self. So, there's that to look forward to.
• {#34/p.10 and #35/p.18} [LSH] and [DP] return from a briefing session believing that I am the craft they arrived in, when I am in fact the craft they will arrive in. Both groups board me and enter the time stream.
• {#34/pp.11-13} Inevitably, [LSH] discover that they can't get past 2193. They find and remove the pink fluff ball and soon we're back on course.
• {#34/pp.14-19} We stop in the 30th century right after Lightning Lad witnessed the Black Hole's approach but before [Subs] caused the time surge that pushed it towards Earth. [LSH] and [DP] make a valiant effort to drain the Black Hole, but the sheer size of it is too much for them.
• {#34/pp.20-21} The sudden, heroic appearance of my future self causes a time surge, but instead of accelerating the Black Hole's travel by several days, it accelerates the drainage by several days. [LSH] and [DP] are able to accomplish in accelerated time something that would have killed them in natural time. This must be the event that caused me to jump timelines when [LSH] tried to board me at the beginning of this mess.
• {#34/p.22} Back to the 20th century to bring [DP] home. This must be after my first arrival with [Subs] because the monkey looks exhausted.
• Home again, home again, jiggity jig. Whoever said working with teenagers will keep you young can go fry their-- ooh, wait, [LSH] are on the video news. They're getting credit for stopping a threat that nobody remembers happening. Good for them. Even if it didn't happen, who could get mad at that?
• {#35/p.1} Ooooooh, right.
• {#35/p.2} [Subs] enter my docking room to try and duplicate what [LSH] have just done in order to get the credit. At this point I'm referred to as Time Bubble 1. They think that they can take me without anyone noticing if they go forward in time one hour and take my future self. Well, that's just plain foolish; if you take me forward one hour, the room will just be empty for an hour until I get back. Oh, no, now I remember. I've already been through this. This is when the timelines shifted. Yes, there I am. There they go.
• {#34/pp.5-6} I've seen [Subs] dematerialize in my past self, but I'm still there. Now [LSH] are rushing in. They're looking panicky, they see my past self dematerializing. Now they notice me. They board me.
• {#34/pp.7-8} [LSH] take me one day forward and see the Earth destroyed by the Black Hole. They'll have to take me back through this timeline before it branched off into disaster, then go forward again into the one I've just been to.
• {#34/p.9} [LSH] take me into the past to fetch [DP]. They all go into another room to confer.
• {#35/p.17} Ah, yes, right on cue. [Subs] and [I5] arrive in my past self and leave it, er, me, in order to board my present self.
• {#35/pp.18-21} Back in the Time Stream and headed for the 30th century. We arrive shortly after I was previously here with [LSH] and [DP], but before [Subs] caused all that grief by accelerating the Black Hole. My only consolation is that I know what's going to happen. Sure enough, our appearance has caused the temporal wave that turned the efforts of [LSH] and [DP] into several days' worth of work.
• {#35/p.22} [Subs] seem eager to get [I5] back home. July 14, 2010... I thought we picked them up in 1972? Well, not my problem.
• I'm back in my dock, taking a breather. Too many alternate timelines just aren't good for you. I'll have to ask Brainiac 5 to replace my Claremont filter.

.....So that's it for now. In 1965, Lightning Lad lost an arm fighting "the Super-Moby Dick of Space". «sigh» I am so glad Mort Weisinger didn't edit Doom Patrol. That story was in Adventure Comics #332 (05/65). He and Saturn Girl would eventually become an item (I'm guessing after they found a pink puff ball in Cosmic Boy's colors in the Time Bubble's tachyon collector). Twenty years on, about the time COIE was published, Cosmic Boy and Night Girl became an item. Hopefully that did something to cool down the rivalry between the Legion and the Substitutes. By the way, the disambiguation above is my own personal attempt and not necessarily official DC continuity. I'd be extremely curious if anyone on the Legion blogs knows of an established timeline that's been leaked. Comments, criticisms, additions and detractions are all welcome in the comments section below.

DP09-AP(c) Retro Stories During The Giffen Period

.....There are several kinds of period pieces in comics. Some are written to offer explanations for glitches in continuity or unresolved questions about a character's background. Some are pastiches or satires that are more about the period itself than the characters. In DC, where the Silver Age stories occur in an entirely different timeline from the post-Crisis stories, a period piece might be a way to operate outside the constraints of modern continuity, such as the Silver Age one-shots from about a decade ago. Last year we got a period piece that seemed to hope that we would become nostalgic for the future.

.....The Brave And The Bold #34(07/10)- #35(08/10) The story "Out Of Time" brings together four teams from the 1960's in what could only be a post-Crisis account of pre-Crisis events. This two-issue story arc is part of a larger thematic arc called "Lost Stories Of Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow" on the covers. The previous Straczynski issues (#'s 27-33) in this arc have been solicited as a trade paperback Team-Ups Of The Brave And The Bold to be released on August 24, 2011. These two issues were the last in the series; coincidentally (?) the last issue of the most recent Doom Patrol series was also omitted from the solicitation for the trade Fire Away, also scheduled for August 24. Of course, that's a bit more bizarre than the case of "Out Of Time" because the last issue of Doom Patrol was the conclusion of a story, not self contained. First, the credits:

• Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
• Artist: Jesus Saiz (including covers)
• Letterer: Rob Leigh
• Colorist: Tom Chu
• Assistant Editor: Chris Conroy
• Editor: Joey Cavalieri

.....The four teams make up nearly the entire cast. Except for two pages, there are no 'innocent bystanders' anywhere in the 44 page story. The selection of team members doesn't necessarily fix each team in a particular time, but strongly implies a certain era. First, the three founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes [LSH]:

• Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn)
• Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen)
• Lightning Lad (Garth Ranzz)

.....Their contemporaries in the 30th century are the Legion of Substitute Heroes [Subs]:

• Chlorophyll Kid (Ral Benem)
• Fire Lad (Staq Mavlen)
• Night Girl (Lydda Jath)
• Polar Boy (Brek Bannin)
• Stone Boy (Dag Wentim)

.....The LSH first appeared in comics in 1958 and were introduced as coming from the 30th century. From the beginning it was always implied that these three weren't the only members and subsequent appearances would add new members, so many in fact that early on it became impractical to include them all on each mission. Ergo, this line-up could have been active throughout most of the feature's history with a few glaring exceptions. For a long time Lightning Lad was missing an arm and appeared with or without a metal prosthetic. Also, each of the three have worn a variety of costumes, including Cosmic Boy's very daring 1970's mostly-skin outfit. If pressed, I'm guessing most fans would place these uniforms in the early to mid 1960's. The Subs, on the other hand, were a smaller, closer-knit organization whose line-up stayed close to the list above from their 1963 debut until the introduction of Color Kid in 1966. The incarnation of the Doom Patrol also seems to come from a 1963-1965 time frame, since Caulder is not using his "Action Chair", introduced in Doom Patrol #94(03/65). Their line-up [DP] is:

• The Chief (Niles Caulder)
• Robotman (Cliff Steele)
• Elasti-Girl (Rita Farr)
• Negative Man (Larry Trainor)

.....Last (and it could be argued, least) is The Inferior Five [I5]:

• Merry Man (Myron Victor)
• Awkwardman (Leander Brent)
• The Blimp (Herman Cramer)
• Dumb Bunny (Athena Tremor)
• White Feather (William King)

.....The I5 were introduced in Show case #62 (05-06/66)- #63 (07-08/66) and 65 (11-12/66). The other three issues with 1966 cover dates featured The Spectre and both features moved on to their own titles in 1967. Both titles lasted ten issues, as well. The Spectre, of course, continued to find a variety of outlets for years after that. Not so, the I5. After two reprint issues in 1972, their only appearances tended to be 'summary' or 'taking inventory' type stories:

1. Showcase #100 (05/78)- A single story incorporating as many characters as possible from the first 93 issues of the series.
2. Ambush Bug #3 (08/85)- While COIE and Who's Who were being published, Irwin naturally provided his own guide to the DCU.
3. Who's Who...#11 (01/86)- Speaking of which...; they're on page 3.
4. Crisis on Infinite Earths #12(03/86)- Yes, incredibly they survived the 'event' in issue #10. They can be seen running behind Lois Lane while she makes a television news report from New York City (on page 15).
5. Oz-Wonderland War #3 (03/86)- I'll have to reread this carefully, but this might be an alternate Earth version of the group.
6. Animal Man #25 (07/90)- In the final Grant Morrison arc, Animal Man finds that the characters killed in COIE are materializing from Psycho Pirate's memory. I don't want to give away too much more, but I would highly recommend that any comics fan (well, mid-teens and older) read the three trade paperbacks compiling #'s 1-26 (plus the Secret Origins story). This story obviously implies that the I5 didn't make it, but since this issue and COIE #12 are both canon, let's just assume that this I5 is the one from Oz-Wonderland War.
7. Angel And The Ape #1(03/91)- #4 (06/91)- We learn Angel and Dumb Bunny are sisters. We also learn Sam Simeon is related to Gorilla Grodd. This Phil Foglio story (and his other from two years later, Stanley And His Monster), are long overdue for compilation.

.....Since then it's been Elseworlds cameos and Crisis event crowd scenes and other appearances that can be argued as taking place outside regular continuity, such as Dumb Bunny and Ambush Bug waking up after their Las Vegas wedding in Ambush Bug: Year None in 2008.

.....For DP fans not familiar with the abundant continuity issues plaguing the Legion Of Super-Heroes, there's good news. By using a c.1964-ish version of the team many of those problems become irrelevant. However, since this is unlikely the only place you'll be reading about/discussing this story, I should mention that the basic problem was that the LSH were created pre-Crisis and said to be inspired by Superboy, who traveled through time to join them. After COIE, DC went back to the basics of the Golden Age when constructing a new origin and history for Superman; i.e., he started his costumed career as an adult when he left the family farm and there never was a Superboy. Rather than cancel the immensely popular LSH title(s) or pretend their Gordian Knot of a history just didn't happen, a succession of mutually contradicting explications mounted until Zero Hour in 1994 and around the time of their Fiftieth Anniversary in 2008 it started getting unnecessarily freaky all over again. When this story gets discussed elsewhere any number of contentious plot points from the last three decades may surface in the conversation. To better grasp what these problems are and how to comprehend how Legion chronology works I'll have to refer you to Get-A-Life Boy's LSH Blog, specifically the following page:

http://sakerslsh.blogspot.com/2009/09/fixing-legion-chronology-for-last-time.html

.....I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention the excellent blog The Legion Omnicom at

http://adventure247.blogspot.com/

.....and the LSH area of Cosmic Teams at http://www.cosmicteams.com/legion/index.html

.....In the next post I'll take you through the two parallel time travel stories page by page and event by event, both in real time and as they are experienced by the cast.

Petition For Grievance... and Grieving

.....I've been catching up on reading other blogs and in my absence here I've forgotten to note that the current series of Doom Patrol is scheduled for cancellation after the publication of issue #22 this spring. It is one of several titles selling below expectations that will be cancelled before a far-reaching summer 'event' storyline. It's true that shortly after this series started it was drawn into the Blackest Night storyline and that it had two noticeable effects: an enormous jump in sales for those two issues (#'s 4 and 5) and the derailment of the planned storyline, requiring a few months to get back on track, during which the sales slid below where they had been before hand. That's bad news for any title, but critical to this one because it was widely promoted as being an attempt to reconcile conflicting histories and failed attempts over the past seven years to radically rewrite continuity. While the group's history has always been strange, with some periods seeming irrelevant to the events of others, for nearly forty years it was never technically in gross contradiction as it has been this past decade. In interviews, Keith Giffen seemed to view it as a professional challenge and personal mission to be able to relate the group's history both accurately and coherently while somehow also telling an interesting story in the present time. Putting all that aside to participate in a thousand-character crossover, as he was required to do, has chased short-term sales at the expense of the brand itself. The book has been back on track for almost a year now, but since few people have been reading it, they don't know that. Hopefully, once the summer event is over, the team will appear in some other vehicle, with the best-case scenario being an opportunity for Giffen to return with them in their own feature. When he started, the Doom Patrol had disambiguation problems that were probably only second to the Legion Of Super-heroes in the DC Universe. In just a year and a half he has already made enormous progress.

.....Of course, since the purpose of this blog has always been to recount that history and add the reader's perspective, the blog will continue, however far apart I have allowed the posts to come. I would also recommend that you add your voice to an existing petition at:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savethedp/

and follow the petition's progress at Doompedia (the link is on the left).

Stalling for Time, But

.....I noticed that I recently had an increase in pageviews. Because I hadn't realized until a few months ago that Google gave me the means to eliminate myself from the counts, I hadn't placed too much significance on the numbers. Still, almost a third of the views are from other countries, and I know I can't possibly be re-reading myself that much, even for editing purposes. I should acknowledge that there's been an enormous influx of views from Poland, Denmark and Europe generally. Maybe they're just now getting the "Batman:Brave and the Bold" animated episodes and want a crash course in chronology. Or maybe they've enjoyed the paperbacks and have just caught on that there are hu-u-uge gaps between the Drake and Morrison, or Morrison and Giffen periods. In any event, I've just finished the Gar-continuity post (previous post), so I need to offer an incentive to wait for the list of all Mal's appearances. I found this today:

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=654371&gsub=88312

.....Hope you like it as much as I did. Hell, I just hope the link works. Do zobaczenia.

The Lost July Post Surfaces

.....The post reviewing Showcase #96(12/77-01/78) underwent re-editing (believe it or not, it's the shortened version; sections that strayed off topic were surgically excised to make separate posts). You can find it quickly by clicking on the July, 2010 link on the left side of this page.

Link maintenance and you

.....At the risk of sounding like a military training film about hygiene, I've decided that before I return to regular posting that I take a serious look at the few regular features of the blog. The template is fine, and in fact I am reluctant to fiddle with it because my absences here that have resulted in long gaps during the summer have been enough of an interruption to continuity. So, the template stays.
.....My icon stays as well. I spent a great deal of time here as well as commenting on other blogs and sites using generic blank icons before adding the Sandman illustration by P. Craig Russell. If I could figure out how to make a more DP-specific icon for this blog alone and use the Sandman elsewhere I would. The DP's connection to the Sandman is tenuous at best (it would be easier to connect them to Kevin Bacon) and I am reasonably certain Russell has never drawn any of the Patrol characters, even as a pin-up or trading card, ever. (My Russell collection is about as extensive and complete as my DP collection and almost as well documented. I'm pretty confident that he never drew them.) My reason for using this is because the art comes from a commission by the American Library Association for a poster to promote reading in schools and is not generally available commercially. It's one of a handful of Russell works I haven't managed to acquire. Having found a virtual copy online and pasted it here, I can look at it everyday. I am able to use a different icon on npr.org and may rotate through other things in the future, but for now the picture stays in the kid.
.....I have just finished checking all of the links on the left under the heading "If You Don't Follow History..." and as of today they all successfully lead to pages that are up and running. Some may not have been updated in a while but that's a glass house at which I'm not prepared to throw stones. This blog should have marked its first birthday earlier this month with something more festive than silence but it seemed a little hypocritical given its (my) recent inactivity. If you're feeling nostalgic/masochistic you can click on the first link to read this blog's Mission Statement. After that you can wake yourself up by clicking on the link to D-D-D-D-Doom Podtrol!, the audio blog (podcasts) of fans' direct reactions to reading Doom Patrol stories. Unlike here, they jump around in chronology, reviewing both current and original series. In one podcast they eschew the format to do an overview of Cliff's career. They also offer a choice of formats for listening. Along with mygreatestadventure80 (aka Doom Patrol), Doompedia and this LGC: Doom Patrol blog, there is now a pretty well founded community for DP fans that didn't exist just two years ago. As long as we don't all get blown up simultaneously, things ought to be pretty good for the foreseeable future.