Remembering (the still very much alive) Mike Grell

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I well remember seeing the work of Mike Grell for the first time, when he INKED Dave Cockrum on issue 202 of SUPERBOY [and the Legion of Super-Heroes]. In hindsight, it was probably a shameless scheme by Murray Boltinoff to test Grell as the replacement for Cockrum. And the next issue Mike Grell was the new artist--who had the unenviable task of killing off Invisible Kid, my favourite Legionnaire. So really the debut of Grell on the Legion was very bittersweet. It's too bad that we couldn't have had both artists on the team--and that Lyle Norg got killed off. What was Cary Bates thinking--Invisible Kid was not one of the characters we saw as having died in the future, in ADVENTURE COMICS 354.

The third work by Grell that I saw was an Aquaman back-up feature in ADVENTURE COMICS 435. Thankfully, there was nothing bittersweet about that.

As for Bates' motivation for killing I-Kid, Cary Bates and, I guess, Murray Boltinoff who edited Superboy/Legion did seem to want to do a housecleaning of relatively useless Legionnaires once the Legion took over Superboy's comic with #197. Between 197 and 212, Bouncing Boy, Duo Damsel, Supergirl, Invisible Kid, and Matter-Eater Lad were shown the door and the powerful and popular Wildfire was added.

[mrbrklyn]

7. Between 197 and 212, Bouncing Boy, Duo Damsel, Supergirl, Invisible Kid, and Matter-Eater Lad were shown the door and the powerful and popular Wildfire was added.

Grell was on the book from 202 to 224 and the covers until 232, and then did issues in and out. I'm not sure what the instability in the books creative team was after that. 258 was his last work on the title and he didn't follow it to the plain legion book without superboy.

[mrbrklyn]

actually, I am looking at this years price guild and Mike Grell is in their Hall of Fame feature with a listing of his entire body of work and lots of covers.

[The Darknight Detective]

I suppose his Laurel Kent story would take that prize. Grell liked drawing as little clothing as possible on women (and men, as Cosmic Boy and Warlord will attest).

Regarding the LoSH characters, I believe many were fan submissions.

[Jim Kelly]

The early 1970s changes were indeed mostly fan submissions. Significantly, the pink showgirl outfit for Saturn Girl was a fan submission. Which means fans--or one fan in particular--wanted the Legion to look like they were in a Las Vegas Revue.

And taking the cue from Imra, other Legionnaires start to strip off, as well. Yet other redesigns were the work of Cockrum or Grell. I think the Lightning Lad redesign--which might be favourite of all the 1970 costumes--was Cockrum's idea. And by the time Mike Grell comes along, he's the one who is mainly designing the new outfits.

The best of these is Mike's Karate Kid (at least, I think it's his redesign) and shows no extra skin, either. But there were Grell redesigns--the most infamous being Cosmic Boy (which I always hated, but I now feel it's hilarious)--where he seemed determined to reduce their clothing as much as possible, yet still give them gloves and boots. But maybe this is what the fans wanted.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

The early 1970s changes were indeed mostly fan submissions. Significantly, the pink showgirl outfit for Saturn Girl was a fan submission. Which means fans--or one fan in particular--wanted the Legion to look like they were in a Las Vegas Revue.

And taking the cue from Imra, other Legionnaires start to strip off, as well. Yet other redesigns were the work of Cockrum or Grell. I think the Lightning Lad redesign--which might be favourite of all the 1970 costumes--was Cockrum's idea. And by the time Mike Grell comes along, he's the one who is mainly designing the new outfits.

The best of these is Mike's Karate Kid (at least, I think it's his redesign) and shows no extra skin, either. But there were Grell redesigns--the most infamous being Cosmic Boy (which I always hated, but I now feel it's hilarious)--where he seemed determined to reduce their clothing as much as possible, yet still give them gloves and boots. But maybe this is what the fans wanted.

Actually, the Karate Kid redesign with the white tunic and black leggings was done by Cockrum and I believe it debuted in the same Superboy backup story that introduced the new costumes for Shrinking Violet, Chameleon Boy, and Duo Damsel. However, after that story, KK reverted to his brown costume until Superboy 209 when it was destroyed by Timber Wolf and KK changed into the Cockrum one for good.

[Jim Kelly]

Yeah, you're right. It was Cockrum that did the KK outfit. I couldn't remember, that's why I said in parentheses "at least, I think..." I knew there had been an earlier white redesign, first shown in ADVENTURE COMICS 403--along with several others, but that was a terrible design, so I couldn't remember. But I should've checked my books first, before posting that misinformation. Some of these aborted designs were used in SUPERBOY 183.

The Saturn Girl outfit shown in ADVENTURE (from Barbara Jean Scott) is far better in my opinion than the pink bathing suit from K. Haven Metzger, giving Imra full coverage (more suited to her personality). But the females got skin bearing outfits from other fans--Projectra, Phantom Girl, Shadow Lass and Night Girl. These were different from what they got when Dave was drawing them. Yet I think I hated Cockrum's Projectra the most of any costume design; however, I really loved his Phantom Girl.

Still, it's nice to remember when fandom was so invested in the Legion that readers were giving input on designs and plots. Would that there was so much involvement these days.

[DrNewGod]

If you want a great laugh, read his forward to the Jon Sable Freelance collection about the gulf between his expectations and the reality of comics pay and free time.

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