Legion of SuperHeroes

One of my fondest memories from growing up was reading the digest-sized collections of Legion of Superheroes tales. My brother would bring me digest-sized collections to introduce me to the world of comics (a lot of these still sit on my book-shelf in the living room).

To me the Legion always has been Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl. Everyone else was filler. These three characters played off each other perfectly. The original stories I read left a definite mark on me growing up. In fact one of the very first times I was exposed to death was in the pages of Legion when Ferro Lad died. Poor Ferro Lad, it doesn't matter how often the story of the Legion gets told... he always dies. Still to this day one of the most impactful comic stories I've ever read.

I've thought the latest Legion relaunch has been great. It will only get a higher profile when Francis J Manapul takes over. With all that said, I wanted to take a crack at comic versions (I've done animated styles) of the lead characters I grew up with and loved. The pencils on this piece took about an hour and a half. The inks took a little over two hours. There was a lot of intricate detail in the costumes of the two boys. So much so, that by the time I got to Saturn Girl I was tired and cranky... so her face and hair doesn't look so great. Even though I wasn't thrilled with Saturn's face, I really dug this piece as a whole. I think the characters look strong and confident, but like the teenagers they are.