Saturday, January 31, 2009

Old School Art Attack: The Legion of Warriors

Back 'round 1996 or so (whenever DC vs Marvel was), Wizard ran a contest for folks to design and draw their own Amalgam characters (combinations of DC and Marvel characters). Given the way my tastes tended back then (not that much has changed), 14-year old Ben combined the Legion of Super-Heroes and New Warriors to create this rendition of the Legion of Warriors...

Not only did I draw it up modeled after an old DC house ad for Legion, I also named each character and wrote up little bios about them, complete with how their powers worked. Not sure if I actually sent those in to Wizard with my entry or if I just did them for my own enjoyment. At any rate, I can't remember many of them now, aside from Night Wire (Night Thrasher + Live Wire), Kid Nova (Nova + Cosmic Boy), Andromenita (Namorita + Andromeda), Marvel Boy (Justice + Invisible Kid) and my personal favorite, Ultrapax (Powerpax + Ultra Boy). Night Wire has electronically powered armor and the Rage/Leviathan dude got bigger as he got angrier (ala Maul from WildC.A.T.S.). I recall next to nothing about Saturn Girl/Firestar, Apparition/Turbo or Chameleon/Speedball (the last one must have been pretty f'in awesome though).

Anyhow, I sent it in and did not win or get published in the mag, but then-editor Jim McLaughlin did send me a nice form letter about how I was runner-up, complete with a copy of JLX signed by writer Mark Waid. Of course I had no idea at the time I'd end up working for Wizard someday or become friends with Jim and Mark, but that's the kinda cool serendipity you just gotta love (I haven't told either of them this story).

I have no idea how that sucker got so smudged, but I found it in my room over Christmas. I still think they could carry at least a mini.

2 comments:

  1. Whoa, that's awesome.

    I might also combine Elastic Lad and Slapstick to make a character called "Elastick" (eh? eh?), but my artwork skills are for more fubar than yours. Did Andy see this?

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  2. In my day, Slapstick was not considered a New Warrior, friend.

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