Mountain Comics #40 – Justice League of America Annual #1

In this special bonus episode of MOUNTAIN COMICS, Rob welcomes Bradley Austin Null to the cabin to talk about one of HIS mountain comics, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANNUAL #1!

Check out images from this comic by clicking here!

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13 responses to “Mountain Comics #40 – Justice League of America Annual #1

  1. Am in the UK but this show reminds me of when I used to go to my gran’s to stay as a kid in the late seventies/early eighties and I would go to the local newsagent where there would be a few comics from the States. I would get The Defenders or Captain Carrot and sit in my room transfixed by these artefacts that seemed to have been beamed in from another planet. I can’t remember them being available anywhere else…It felt like a gateway to another world…

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  2. You NEVER need an excuse to open up the cabin post-season with me! I don’t care if you’re only going back because you forgot your favorite hat.
    You can also spend as much time as you like talking about the past. Where you bought comics, how you bought comics, what characters you were introduced to where! I absolutely love it! It’s why I’m here! In fact, several of the topics you discussed are also discussed in the recent DC hardcover, The End of Eras. (Which I actually bought because it was one of Rob’s In Stock Trades picks!” A wonderful collection of all the various types of comics DC was publishing in the 80s as they began to disappear from the corner stores and newsstands.
    My local comic shop, The Comic Book Palace in Haverhill Massachusetts (pronounced Hayvrill) is owned and operated by a longtime comic book fan. But he has oftener mentioned that if it weren’t for the collectible card games he sells (Magic, Pokémon, etc) he wouldn’t be able to keep the doors open. As much as he would love to focus entirely on comics, they’re just not profitable enough.
    Bradley, it was wonderful to hear a guest so excited and animated to talk about one of their favorite comics, and this is indeed a gem. A good standard JLA adventure that hits the bullseye. When I think of my beloved JLA of the Bronze Age, this is how they look and feel. The great heroes, fighting the biggest threats and winning the day. Yes, I love a happy ending as well. It’s what I love about comic books. The thrill, the escapism and the warm happy feeling that comes from reading them.
    I raise my bottle if Yoo-Hoo to you both! And a cheers to your recent nuptials as well Mr Kelly. Congratulations once again.

    1. PS. Due to He-Man and The Masters of The Universe appearing in DC Comics Presents a few months earlier, I thought it was Skeletor menacing our heroes when I 1st saw this cover.

  3. Fun discussion! I picked this up at one of my first visits to to a comic shop, a few years later, after the classic JLA was no more, and the JLI era was in full swing. Even as a teen, Hoberg’s swiping of JLGL (PBHN) and Dick Giordano poses from their 1982 Style Guide stuck out to me. This isn’t neccesarily meant to be a criticism. Hoberg was an animation guy, and used to working faithfully off of model sheets. He did the same thing during his All-Star Squadron run. Other artists, even Gil Kane no less, repurposed some of JLGL’s character poses as well on covers of the time. And you had Giordano himself inking this, and Dick G was known to swipe a bit here and there too (especially from artists he often inked, like Neal Adams). Having said all that, this book just LOOKS like a late Bronze Age, Pre-Crisis DC book should look.

    I had already met this iteration of Sandman in that “Christmas with the Super-Heroes” Best of DC Digest from a few years prior, that reprinted the “lost” issue with Sandman encountering Santa Claus. I always thought he had a lot of potential…but JLA membership? If Adam Strange couldn’t join because of the whole Zeta Beam thing…

    On my bucket list is a drive out west, so maybe I’ll stop by this little shop sometime, and buy an overpriced sweatshirt!

  4. Oh, yeah: I’m always up for an off-season visit to the mtn comics cabin.
    Otherwise, this is a case where I was much more interested in all of the stuff you talked about around the actual comic book at hand, since for some reason I never had this one, even though I was very fond of the DC annuals being published at the time.
    Anyway, much of what Bradley said really struck a nerve with me. As a fellow West Coast kid, I could relate to his point about things being *really* far away, even if you’re traveling to someplace in the same state. And for some reason, it also made me think of my own version of mountain comics, which could perhaps best be called ‘Oregon coast’ comics, because they were either purchased somewhere on the coast during a family trip, or maybe the day before said trip, and then read in the back seat of the car during the rather long drives.
    And yes, I am so familiar with the experience of collecting cans and bottles to gather up funds to buy comics. In Oregon, though, we had 5 cent return deposit on aluminum cans and 10 cents for glass bottles. That added up pretty quick. My parents let me keep the money from any cans and bottles from home (provided that I loaded them up into the car and then took them to the recycling station at the grocery store). And like many other kids my age, I spent a good deal of time on weekends riding my bike down the country roads, keeping an eye peeled for discarded cans and bottles in roadside ditches. So thanks, Bradley, for prompting some pleasant memories…

  5. Such a great bonus episode, especially is this issue was ‘new to me’.

    I didn’t ‘go goth’ but I did lean into the more mature stuff for a time in the late 80s/early 90s. I was all Doom Patrol/Shade the Changing Man/5YL Legion then, with just the occasional standard super-hero fare. As adult life has slowly destroyed me, I have gone back to wanting pure escapism, hoping to feel like young Anj again.

    As a New Englander, if I drive 4 hours north I cross 4 state borders and I’m in another country. If I drive 4 hours south, I cross 5 state borders. And since geography is my worst subject, the concept of an in-state 4 hour drive continues to blow my mind.

    Lastly, the Kirby Sandman!!! Insanity!

  6. I think I’ve worked out how to appear on an episode of Mountain Comics. All I’ve got to do is convince Kelly to take Rob for a romantic holiday in Great Yarmouth and I’ll have an in.

    Great episode as ever.

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  7. What a total treat, a bonus episode of this always wonderful show. It was splendid to hear Bradley on the ppdcast, I love the enthusiasm and rabbit holes. And I love this comic, it really is peak Bronze Age Justice League of America. It’s amazing how many variations of JLA vs nightmares the writers gave us. I remember being very intrigued when Dr Destiny was repurposed by Neil Gaiman as Dr Dee – powerful stuff, but it pretty much ruined him as a JLA baddie.

    As regards leaving the superheroes behind for the gothy stuff, Younger Bradley, it didn’t have to be either/or. I enjoyed both, it’s all just different flavours of the DCU.

    Who’s Rev Null? And nice Null & Void reference, Rob, I loved that later period of World’s Finest.

    As a person living on a small island, the chat about the size of states in the US just blows my mind. And I remember being very confused when Flash suddenly had a big brute of a foe named Big Sur. Big WHAT?

    1. Martin is right. I also find it impossible to conceptualize the vastness of the USA. To me the UK seems almost too big. I’ve never even got to Scotland.

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      1. Damien and Matt, we don’t always fully grasp it ourselves. I’m in Central Florida now, and people think of Florida as a smaller state than it actually is. When I tell people from the northeast how far south I have to drive to get to the Keys or how far north I have to drive to get to the Panhandle, they are often quite surprised. And of course, there are three countries even bigger than the U. S., one of which is well-represented on this network.

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  8. Hey, a bonus Mountain Comics! Great to see. This JLA annual brings me back as well. This issue is still in my collection. Dr. Destiny always had a unique look. When a villain is rocking buccaneer boots with the hooded cape and ties it together with a nice ruby broach, you know he means business. Of course fainting when the JLA shows up doesn’t help his rep. Can’t sport a scary skull for a face if you’re going to faint, Doc. Turn in your evil doctor’s license.

    Quite the deep dive into general stores. You can wear your new $75 sweatshirt while you play some Flash Gordon pinball. Unfortunately, you’re right about the lack of comics in any non-comic stores. I wish they’d at least go back to the random 3-packs at drug stores, Targets, and places like that.

    Well, it’s time to throw the sheets over the furniture, lock up, and ride my Huffy down the hill. I’ll look forward to more Mountain Comics next year.

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