The Justice Guild of America Returns!

The Strangest Adventures has featured the meta-fictional Justice Guild of America before. 

This fictional team was a homage to the Justice Society of America and was featured on the Justice League Unlimited episode of “Legends”. At the Strangest Adventures we wondered what issues of the JGA  published in the 1970s would look like.  Behold the glorious return of of Black Siren, Catman, The Green Guardsman, The Streak and Tom Turbine of the Justice Guild of America!

The Justice Guild of America!

We’ve already featured individual issues of Black Siren, Catman, The Green Guardsman, The Streak and Tom Turbine of the Justice Guild of America, which was featured on the Justice League episode “Legends”.  If you ever get a chance to watch it, I highly recommend it.

I thought it would be fun to have a group shot of the entire team in action. The JGA paid homage to The Justice Society of America so I did likewise and was inspired by All-Star Comics #10 from 1942, where the JSA go "500 Years Into the Future"! The background is Silver Age Krypton. Also I based the All-Team logo on the All-Star logo, meanwhile I recreated the Justice Guild of America shield from “Legends” using Illustrator for both.

Justice Guild of America- Black Siren!

Donna Vance was The Black Siren, the only female member of The Justice Guild of America, and only the second one we know the civilian identity of, the other one being The Green Guardsman. Being a woman in the stereotypical 1950’s world of "Legends", she was the one that was always getting kidnapped and needing to be rescued by the male members of the team. The JGA more often relied on her cookie making skills than her fighting prowess. Bear in mind though, this is often how female characters were treated in The Golden Age; The Justice Society of America gave Wonder Woman the job of secretary, despite the fact that she was, arguably, their strongest member!

She is a doppelganger of Black Canary so I based her logo on Black Canary’s. Here, she’s using a portable camera to get evidence on the bad guys. I based this cover on a Phantom Lady comic so I based the comic book title on Phantom Lady’s logo. The original scan of the cover was so low resolution that I ended up redrawing everything, almost pixel by pixel in many cases!

Justice Guild of America-Catman!

He is equal parts Wildcat and Batman, but specifically the campy Adam West Batman. Catman had no powers but often used gadgets such as a grappling hook, and he drove a custom motorcycle; riding in his sidecar was Ray, the team’s mascot.

He was Ray Thompson, the JGA's biggest fan, who had recreated the Justice Guild of America using his mutant mental powers that had developed after the nuclear war. Ray Thompson was a tribute to Roy Thomas, one of the first fanboys to work in the comic book industry and a fan of all things Golden Age. At Marvel, he created, among other things, The Invaders, a comic featuring Marvel’s WW II era heroes and when he was later hired by DC Comics he got work with their Golden Age heroes when he created All Star Squadron.

This cover was based on an early Batman cover, but the logo is all original; I purposely made it lively and a bit cartoony, to reflect the character. 

Justice Guild of America- Green Guardsman!

On Legends, Scott Mason, the Green Guardsman, is the JGA’s counterpart to Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern. Both had power rings that created constructs of green energy, but while the Green Lantern’s ring had no affect on wood, the Green Guardsman’s ring was worthless against aluminum! 

I really enjoyed making this one, which I based on the first appearance of The Green Lantern in

All-American Comics #16, July 1940. 

Justice Guild of America-Tom Turbine!

 Tom Turbine is the resident scientist of the Justice Guild of America. Not only did he create a belt that gave him superpowers such as flying and super-strength, but he also was able to build an interdimensional portal! He was unable to find a suitable power source for it but nonetheless the portal DID work, when powered by the energy from Green Lantern’s ring, so the science behind it was valid. One has to wonder why he didn’t try the ring energy of his JGA colleague Green Guardsman, unless the portal was made of aluminum, which his ring has no effect on!

He is not an exact doppelganger of any given hero but in appearance he seems to combine elements of the Golden Age Atom and the Golden Age Superman. So, I did the same thing. I was quite excited to use the very Golden Age concept of the hero beating up robots!

Justice Guild of America-The Streak!

I’m a huge fan of DC Comics’ superhero groups, like, The Justice League of America and The Justice Society of America. The JSA were the heroes of the Golden Age and of Earth-2, as explained in Flash #123 “Flash of Two Worlds” (written by Gardner Fox). I’ve always been drawn towards tales of the early superheroes, and became quite excited in 2002 when the Justice League Animated Series was going to do a JSA episode but when the episode (Legends) aired it featured a homage to the JSA, The Justice Guild of America. The JGA were thinly disguised versions of some of my favorite heroes, such as The Streak was obviously based on the Golden Age Flash. At the end of the 2-part episode, on the screen flashed “Respectfully dedicated to the memory of Gardner F. Fox”.

Eventually I decided a tribute to the JGA was in order, so I created a series of covers; these are the ones that got me started making faux comic book covers in the first place!

First one up is my favorite, The Streak. He has super-speed as well as fighting skills and is the leader of the JGA. I spent weeks making these early covers, often drawing 1 or 2 pixels at a time, before I developed some time saving techniques, still, I’m pleased with the results and hope you’ll enjoy them.