THE LEGION COMPANION (Nov 2003)

Well, with the retail price of $24.95, I definitely would only recommend this book to hardcore George Pérez fans only. Although there are a lot of great Steve Lightle and Dave Cockrum's artwork, if you're only picking up for Pérez it might be a tough sell.

DREAMER (2002) art by Pérez printed in LEGION COMPANION (Nov 2003)

I have not had the chance to read through it yet - but there are 222 pages and is very text-heavy. If you like the Legion of Super-Heroes, this is the book for you. There are lots of interviews with various Legion-related writers and artists, as well as a lot of unpublished artwork featuring the Legion.

Here are some of the Pérez art that you'll find in the book: SUN BOY (2001), LIGHTNING LAD/SATURN GIRL (1978), STARBOY (2002), LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #278, Ladies of the Legion (early 80s), LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #280, SUPERBOY/REFLECTO/ULTRABOY (1982), LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #279, ULTRABOY (2002), ATMOS (2001), DAWNSTAR (2001), SUPERGIRL (1999), and DREAMER (2002). More Legionnaires artwork can be found on www.legionnaires.com.

I have never seen the 80's convention sketches.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Jim Shooter (who also wrote the introduction to the book):

JIM SHOOTER PART TWO
interview 25 Jan 2003
conducted by Glen Cadigan

(excerpt)

So the book was terrible. The thing is, George Pérez, with the art… [it] looked great. [laughs] it was fine. But the plot was all screwed up. So I rejected it. So they get into just a hissy fit, and they're writing fanzine articles, and they're doing interviews, and they're writing in their Bullpen Bulletins page what assholes we are and stuff like that.

I finally had to reply. I wrote one column, saying, "This is what happened," 'cause that was the only question I ever got asked at conventions. And they were all up in arms. They kept saying, "It's fait accompli."

Dick [Giordano] took me to lunch, and he said, "What's the difference? Who gives a shit? Just put a bunch of characters in it, they fight, it'll sell like crazy. We'll all make money." He said, "None of these books are any good."

I said, "excuse me, I wrote one, and it's not bad and it could be good, and at least it should be faifthful to the characters. "