Andrew Cookston
Generations of Justice: The 1960s
The Silver Age... The 1960's... The modern, sleek, and form-fitting Super-Hero was born!
A little continuity before I dive in... The Justice League was not an original idea! In fact this was the second attempt at a Superhero Team-Up series in DC's Publication history. The first of course being The Justice Society of America, penned by none other than Gardner Fox.
The Justice League of America came together for the first time in The Brave and The Bold No. 28. in March of 1960 (also written by Gardner Fox)! Fun fact: the name change from “Society” to “League” was a reflection on the popularity of Baseball among kids at the time (ie. Major League/Minor League Teams)
Anyway, this new colorful super-powered baseball team came together to stop hundreds of giant telekinetic space starfish rampaging across Mid-Western America! And what was the only way to stop them?! Teamwork of course!
...What a way to start a generation of Superhero alliance's! :P
The first seven members (which also established the number) were Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, and Superman (who is only in three panels of the entire first book! He was too busy punching asteroids to help apparently...)
The Justice League was a smash hit from the day it landed on shelves! They eventually held their own solo series, just short of two years after Brave and The Bold brought the team together.
Justice League of America No.9 presented the team's first “Origin story”, where the power of friendship and working together helped defeat an invading alien force (already retconning the Starfish stuff from BaTB No.28 but whatever it was The Silver Age)!
As corny as all this sounds though, it's a cool sentiment to think about if you put this book in context to the time I was released (1962). We were amongst the peak of The Space Race! We're in a Post-WWII, Pre Cold War atmosphere. It's the first time in nearly 70 years where there wasn't an impending threat looming over everyone's heads, so with technology advancing for human betterment, the idea that a nation could come together and accomplish anything and literally go to the freaking Moon was astounding!
(PS The Moon is still to this day (2017) the farthest a human has ever traveled away from earth! Crazy!)
So having these Super-Human characters come together to stop the forces of evil was almost inevitable! (also they get turned into trees in the same issue, so that's pretty cool) :P
Speaking of which, around this time Comic Book Publishers were in the heat of The Comic's Code Authority requiring “Child Appropriate” stories with books branded with the CCA seal. This of course lead the writers to come up with some incredibly independent stories, which amazingly still hold up as entertaining media (not always “good” but certainly entertaining! :P)
Gardner Fox came to be one of the more prominent writers of this era. If you can think of a popular JL story or DC concept, Gardner Fox probably created it!
The JSA, Barry Allan, Wally West, (pretty much any Flash supporting character), Doctor Fate, The Crime Syndicate, Adam Strange, Kanjar Ro, Amazo/Dr Ivo... You Betcha! Hell, the whole concept of DC's Multiverse was created by the guy! He also (inadvertently) started that weird trend where every time DC wants to reboot something they use the word “Crisis” (“Crisis on Earth Three!” Justice League of America No.29).
Mr Fox is a topic all his own though, so I'll just leave it here for now, but trust me that guy was everywhere!
He's the one that united the seven, and kicked it off (for the second time) the worlds most popular Super-Team!
The Justice League of America!
:)
___________________________________________
The history of DC Comics has always astounded me. The mere idea that these characters have out lived their creators is fascinating and something I've wanted to talk about for a while.
With Darwyn Cooke's passing in May of 2016, a project dawned in my head. To take a retrospective look through time, and remember the highlights of DC's comic/media history over the last Seventy-Five-odd years.
As I consulted with the idea of creating a New Frontier type photoshoot, the concept came to me to take a look at DC ten years at a time. To see what changes (for good or bad) that came with the eras. So here we are. The beginnings of a very large project that started almost a year ago that I've been photographing in secret for nearly eight months!
Over the following weeks, I'm gonna take you through the decades and talk about some of my favorite aspects of The Justice League in their publication/media history leading up to the 2017 film!
Maybe you'll learn a thing or two? :)
PS. Wonder Woman's torso is from Poppunkmunky's site. It wasn't my original content, and the original designer did a wonderful job recreating the classic design! All the other Torso reconstructions were done by me :)
And remember, Patreon has an exclusive Comic Cover recreation of Brave and The Bold No.28, plus a handful of other really cool stuff! So go check that out too!
Next: The 1970s! (You can see it early on Patreon) ;)
___________________________________________
www.patreon.com/andrewcookston
Generations of Justice: The 1960s
The Silver Age... The 1960's... The modern, sleek, and form-fitting Super-Hero was born!
A little continuity before I dive in... The Justice League was not an original idea! In fact this was the second attempt at a Superhero Team-Up series in DC's Publication history. The first of course being The Justice Society of America, penned by none other than Gardner Fox.
The Justice League of America came together for the first time in The Brave and The Bold No. 28. in March of 1960 (also written by Gardner Fox)! Fun fact: the name change from “Society” to “League” was a reflection on the popularity of Baseball among kids at the time (ie. Major League/Minor League Teams)
Anyway, this new colorful super-powered baseball team came together to stop hundreds of giant telekinetic space starfish rampaging across Mid-Western America! And what was the only way to stop them?! Teamwork of course!
...What a way to start a generation of Superhero alliance's! :P
The first seven members (which also established the number) were Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, and Superman (who is only in three panels of the entire first book! He was too busy punching asteroids to help apparently...)
The Justice League was a smash hit from the day it landed on shelves! They eventually held their own solo series, just short of two years after Brave and The Bold brought the team together.
Justice League of America No.9 presented the team's first “Origin story”, where the power of friendship and working together helped defeat an invading alien force (already retconning the Starfish stuff from BaTB No.28 but whatever it was The Silver Age)!
As corny as all this sounds though, it's a cool sentiment to think about if you put this book in context to the time I was released (1962). We were amongst the peak of The Space Race! We're in a Post-WWII, Pre Cold War atmosphere. It's the first time in nearly 70 years where there wasn't an impending threat looming over everyone's heads, so with technology advancing for human betterment, the idea that a nation could come together and accomplish anything and literally go to the freaking Moon was astounding!
(PS The Moon is still to this day (2017) the farthest a human has ever traveled away from earth! Crazy!)
So having these Super-Human characters come together to stop the forces of evil was almost inevitable! (also they get turned into trees in the same issue, so that's pretty cool) :P
Speaking of which, around this time Comic Book Publishers were in the heat of The Comic's Code Authority requiring “Child Appropriate” stories with books branded with the CCA seal. This of course lead the writers to come up with some incredibly independent stories, which amazingly still hold up as entertaining media (not always “good” but certainly entertaining! :P)
Gardner Fox came to be one of the more prominent writers of this era. If you can think of a popular JL story or DC concept, Gardner Fox probably created it!
The JSA, Barry Allan, Wally West, (pretty much any Flash supporting character), Doctor Fate, The Crime Syndicate, Adam Strange, Kanjar Ro, Amazo/Dr Ivo... You Betcha! Hell, the whole concept of DC's Multiverse was created by the guy! He also (inadvertently) started that weird trend where every time DC wants to reboot something they use the word “Crisis” (“Crisis on Earth Three!” Justice League of America No.29).
Mr Fox is a topic all his own though, so I'll just leave it here for now, but trust me that guy was everywhere!
He's the one that united the seven, and kicked it off (for the second time) the worlds most popular Super-Team!
The Justice League of America!
:)
___________________________________________
The history of DC Comics has always astounded me. The mere idea that these characters have out lived their creators is fascinating and something I've wanted to talk about for a while.
With Darwyn Cooke's passing in May of 2016, a project dawned in my head. To take a retrospective look through time, and remember the highlights of DC's comic/media history over the last Seventy-Five-odd years.
As I consulted with the idea of creating a New Frontier type photoshoot, the concept came to me to take a look at DC ten years at a time. To see what changes (for good or bad) that came with the eras. So here we are. The beginnings of a very large project that started almost a year ago that I've been photographing in secret for nearly eight months!
Over the following weeks, I'm gonna take you through the decades and talk about some of my favorite aspects of The Justice League in their publication/media history leading up to the 2017 film!
Maybe you'll learn a thing or two? :)
PS. Wonder Woman's torso is from Poppunkmunky's site. It wasn't my original content, and the original designer did a wonderful job recreating the classic design! All the other Torso reconstructions were done by me :)
And remember, Patreon has an exclusive Comic Cover recreation of Brave and The Bold No.28, plus a handful of other really cool stuff! So go check that out too!
Next: The 1970s! (You can see it early on Patreon) ;)
___________________________________________
www.patreon.com/andrewcookston