Restoring Dave Cockrum's Legion of
Super-Heroes
EVERY IMAGE YOU'VE SEEN ON METROPOLISPLUS.COM HAS EITHER BEEN RESTORED IN WHOLE OR IN PART OR HAS BEEN CREATED FROM WHOLE CLOTH BY WEBMASTER BRIAN G. PHILBIN.
In all of Legion history - outside of their creators, Otto Binder and Al Plastino - one name will come up repeatedly among fans. The name of the artist that finally boosted the team into their own title (eventually). Dave Cockrum. Dave was new to DC and made a tremendous impact to the team's profile in a scant few issues as a backup feature of Superboy's regular title.
His work on the Legion first appeared in Superboy #184, inked by Murphy Anderson. Even under his mentor's brush, Dave Cockrum's Legion was different. His sense of design outstripped every artist prior and his vision of the future made a tremendous mark on the group for decades to come.
Dave Cockrum did quite a bit to ensure that the Legion succeeded where it had previously slipped in readership. Most of this was by redesigning the Legion costumes and the world they existed in. Prior to Cockrum, the Legion had lost its prime spot in Adventure Comics and had been relegated to a backup feature in Action Comics before coming over to Superboy's title. Once Cockrum appeared, the Legion not only rose in importance, but went from backup - alternating with "Superbaby" backup stories, mind you - to sharing the masthead with Superboy.
Some quick notes on redesigns. There were several attempts at redesigning Legionnaires' costumes before Cockrum, but few of them stuck. For instance, several costumes got their debut in Adventure Comics #403 but never appeared in any stories (Phantom Girl, Light Lass, Shrinking Violet, Cosmic Boy, Ultra Boy, Lightning Lad, as well as Night Girl and Chlorophyll Kid from the Substitutes), and those who did (Karate Kid by Charles Tyson, Shadow Lass by C. Howard Elba & Princess Projectra by Paula Markham) only appeared once (Superboy #183) and never again. The obvious exceptions being fan designs of Saturn Girl's (red/pink/fuchsia) peek-a-boo one-piece bathing suit style costume designed by K. Haven Metzger first appearing in Action Comics #392 and Duo Damsel's purple-and-orange split costume designed by Nick Pascale which first appeared in Adventure Comics #403.
The first Dave Cockrum redesign our Webmaster noticed was on Dr. Regulus in Superboy #191 - not a tremendoush shift, but far more sleek than his previous appearance. Superboy #193 was new for Karate Kid (which Cockrum quickly abandoned for his traditional gi, feeling the new one was too "flashy"), Shrinking Violet, Duo Damsel (designed by a reader, Adventure #403, but depicted for the first time in a story, and for a plot-related reason in this issue) and a refresh for Chameleon Boy (color changes and a skull-cap added). Matter Eater Lad's was not new, but an accidental re-color. In that same issue, we saw an original design for the leaders of Pasnic - King Lillt and King Jonn. Superboy #195 featured new designs for Phantom Girl and Colossal Boy, plus a new character design - the introduction of Wildfire (as ERG-1). Superboy #197 was character redesign (plus modified costume) for Timber Wolf and a new costume for Lightning Lad. Superboy #197 was also the introduction of Tyr, another new character design. Superboy #198 was new for Element Lad and Princess Projectra, as well as a new color scheme for Colossal Boy. Superboy #199 featured new costumes for Dream Girl and Star Boy, as well as a sort-of redesign with Adam Orion (Otto Orion's son). Superboy #200 was new for Shadow Lass and a redesign for Light Lass - as well as a stellar imagining of what 30th century wedding formal wear might look like for the wedding of Louno Durgo and Chuck Taine. we should also mention the designs for new heroes. In Superboy #201, we were introduced to Porcupine Pete, Infectious Lass and Molecular Master (this issue also contains the only rendering by Dave Cockrum of Ferro Lad, whose statue appears in the Hall of Heroes). Last designs introduced by Cockrum were for Devil-Fish and the unnamed "invaders" (who our Webmaster thought were a pretty cool design) in Superboy #202.
Other innovations by Cockrum featured in Legion stories were things like the "starfield" effect, which he used before any other comic artist - and to greater effect than anyone else for years to come. His sense of design also provided a tapestry for flashbacks (both of these can be seen in Superboy #197 when Timber Wolf is struck by the brainwashing that erased part of his memory).
Cockrum was also the first to draw Val Armorr as Asian, which later factored into revealing more of his origin after Cockrum had left the book. This was the earliest step toward giving the Legion diversity, which - considering its position in the United Planets - should have been evident far earlier.
And one must also acknowledge the sense of design for the entire 30th century "world" of the Legion that Cockrum provided us as a backdrop. Cockrum transformed this future into a far more science-fiction-esque place to live. More believable than had existed previously. So many gorgeous buildings (Metropolis in the background, Olympus Mons at the wedding, etc.), internal archetecture for Legion Headquarters, quarters, gardens, plants, chairs, benches, gadgets (Medical Lab, Visi-Tape Library, Tyr's gun-hand, Orion's mini-flyer, the Legion arsenal, headsets, screens, scanners and monitors, etc.), other craft (like the "invaders'" ocean-faring ship and the "devourer" that "ended" Wildfire, cruiser tugs/loaders, Legion mini-cruiser, etc.), exotic creatures (mostly ones that fly in this series) and anything else that can populate the Legion's time period.
Now, all of this is to say nothing of his redesign of the Legion Cruiser. Not only was his the most beautiful cruiser of all time, but the sheer size of the cruiser was made massive - close to Enterprise level. People were ant-sized in comparison to the cruisers. And while they scaled it down and changed its myriad shapes in following years, the Cockrum cruiser was quite beautiful (see below). The upcoming double-page splash scene gives credence to his claim as the most influential of all Legion artists.Dave's work was gobbled up by readers. The popularity of the Legion of Super-Heroes grew so much so that - by the time he had turned in a scant 6 stories, the group had been promoted to sharing the masthead of Superboy's own title. Something that was unprecedented in its 24-year history. The book's title would shift to become "Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes" with issue Eventually, they would take over the numbering of that title when Superboy left the Legion within a few years and Superboy would leave the title another 3 years after that, becoming "The Legion of Super-Heroes" with issue #259 in 1982.
At any rate - our efforts with this page will be to bring Dave Cockrum's work on the Legion back to it's former glory, as it is rarely seen in reprints and has only been completely re-presented in the Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volumes 10 and 11, which are long out-of-print and expensive to procure. Enough waxing nostalgic - on to our favorite scene in his body of work on the Legion of Super-Heroes.
It's difficult to find a good copy of this scene. First, we looked at the original scene from Superboy (and The Legion of Super-Heroes) #200 - but it was only printed on a SINGLE PAGE! This page - and his treatment surrounding it - was the source of Dave Cockrum leaving DC and moving to Marvel, but that's a story for another time.
Here's a decent scan of how it appeared originally:
Not so hot, right? With the printing limitations of the time, this gorgeous scene being relegated to a single page, rather than a center spread was practically criminal. So much detail is lost.
THEN, after Dave Cockrum's departure, DC reprinted it. Much like their printing of character sheets as "Lore of the Legion" in Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes #202 and #204, National Periodical Publications (DC) worked to get the most out of Dave Cockrum's beloved work on this team. This time, it was printed in DC Limited Collectors Edition C-49, a tabloid-sized edition of Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes, which re-colored and featured this beautiful rendering of the piece as a center spread:
Quite a bit better but, unfortunately, even at a high resolution, the scan turned out pretty grainy, and the coloring suffered due to aging newsprint.
Fortunately, our Webmaster remembered that there was a reprint in Amazing World of DC Comics #9. Printed on higher quality paper and in black & white. While not as large as the above printing, it was still magazine size (much larger than a regular comic book). So after careful scanning and re-stitching of the pieces, our Webmaster had a great starting point:
It required minor removal of creasing and the staples, as well, but it provided a lovely piece of black & white art.
Sharp-eyed viewers will notice that the first 2 originally published pieces were truncated versions of the original art. About 5% of the image, immediately to our left of Saturn Girl, was trimmed in order to make the whole image fit, edge-to-edge.
Trouble is, even with the nice image from AWODCC #9, our Webmaster recognized that the entire image had still not actually made it into AWODCC #9. There was a sliver missing from the right side which featured Evolvo Lad. Slight as his appearance was, we didn't want to leave him out - so our Webmaster took that sliver from C-49, leached the color out digitally, enhanced the blacks and stitched the sliver in to the black & white piece in order to create a master for my starting point.
After having scanned the black & white image at high resolution, our Webmaster re-colored it using PaintShop Pro 7.04 (JASC Software, 2001) practically pixel-by-pixel. This was difficult, as well, due to the limitations of the software memory settings.
I also liked the Key to the Wedding Scene on the back cover of C-49, so our Webmaster scanned it, enhanced it, and included it below.
There were a couple of problems. First, we're on the "red planet" and there's a lot of red in the scene. Not just the planet & sky, or the volcano, but the costumes! So, our Webmaster pulled some photos of an actual volcano, as well as digital representations of the Martian sky to provide a color palate for those, then used my own interpretation of colors used in characters' costumes (based on those which found their way into print).
Speaking of colors, the plants in the image were colored blue by Liz Berube (also a DC artist in her own right). Reportedly, the idea of possible plants native to Mars being a different color than those on Earth was posited, although whether it was Berube herself who decided on this course, Cockrum (who had substantial investment in the presentation of the image, since he was intent on keeping the original art) or a suggestion by Bates is unknown.
Purples, reds, greens, blues, oranges and even browns, golds & yellows were given some variance to both appropriately represent the characters & the original, as well as correcting errors in coloring from the first & second printings (e.g., Quantum Queen's costume was, and always has been, red, not pink).
So, using the more vivid color palate we have available to us now, and per a great suggestion from Smitty on PencilJack.com, I've colored the caldera to represent distance. Here's the Wedding of Lourno Durgo to Chuck Taine as it should be remembered:
Also, after another great suggestion from ReneA on PencilJack.com - here's the image with the whites adjusted a bit closer to newsprint and represented as if you could actually print high quality repros on that pulpy stock (i.e., tone is dulled just a bit):
AND the Key for your amusement:
Here's another small treat. One of the earliest Dave Cockrum drawings of Superboy was from this Aurora Model scene. Dave drew the accompanying comic - this is the cover, which our Webmaster restored from a damaged piece of art:
Here are a couple more, which address small concerns our Webmaster had. First up is Cockrum's version of the character he created: ERG-1 (Energy Release Generator - a name that Dave said he reeeeeally hated) as he was initially known or Wildfire, as he's been known in the 45-or-so years since. We used the image of him from the splash panel of Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes #202, where he was re-named, and combined another panel Cockrum drew of his cool visor with that telltale Cockrum sunburst and lens reflections. No one since Cockrum ever drew him with a curved visor. Usually, there've just been straight lines used to depict it, which our Webmaster always felt was either weird and inconsistent or not terribly considerate of the character's design.
Also - the only rendition of Ferro Lad by Dave Cockrum (at least, of which our Webmaster is aware). It was as a statue in the Hall of Heroes in the background in Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes #201 (also featuring the return of ERG-1/Wildfire), so we restored it from a high resolution scan of that page, plus a scan of another, later rendering of the statue gave us the pedestal by Mike Grell & we cleaned up the lettering to make it more legible:
Supergirl was always a favorite character of our Webmaster's growing up. But, unfortunately, Cockrum only drew her once. In the background. In the wedding image shown above. So - again, our Webmaster does not claim to be an artist - but he felt that there were enough elements around to cobble together what his version might have looked like. So, using a favorite costume of ours from the period (and opening our Webmaster up to ridicule) here's our hopeful "recreation" from five of Cockrum's drawings showing how she may have appeared during that age if under his pencil and pen, along with a colored version of Cockrum's design for Lightning Lad from the cover of Legion Outpost #3:
For years, our Webmaster has been working on obtaining the best possible versions of Dave Cockrum's character reference sheets, later used in "Lore of the Legion" in Superboy #202 and #205 (each Giant issues). One by one in the coming months, we'll be bringing you those images. Dave Cockrum scribe Glen Cadigan once posted the sheets, along with Dave's handwritten notes, in the Facebook Legion of Super-Heroes group. On our first image Dave had written the note "Tall, massive. One of the two or three tallest guys." Here's Timber Wolf (one of our Webmaster's favorites):
Lastly, as promised, here is the Dave Cockrum Legion Cruiser - complete with the tallest Legionnaire, Timber Wolf. Also a top-down view made to match.
We do so hope this was useful or enjoyable for you in some fashion!
Pax, harmonia,
Brian G. Philbin
WebmasterPlease take a moment to check out the other sites on metropolisplus.com:
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