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-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.