Simply the Best: Around the Round Table

Normally, a cover's artistic merit alone earns it a place in my Simply the Best gallery, but sometimes even a sub-par cover design can make the cut on sheer historical importance alone. One of these major milestones was All Star Comics #3 (1940), which featured the first official meeting of the Justice Society of America. 

Prior to this issue, All Star #1 and #2 featured stories of the individual heroes, but no sign of them interacting with or even being aware of each other. This changed in the third issue, as all of these individual superheroes met as The Justice Society of America for fellowship and to recount their recent adventures. Later issues would feature them heading out on missions and solving crimes as a team, but for now, the fact that they were all in the same room together was the big news. In other words, what we had here was the world's first comic book superteam.

In fact, the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide has long considered the JSA as "a breakthrough concept, second in importance only to the creation of the superhero".  Adding to the JSA's stature is the mystery of what could have inspired such a gathering.  Some believe it could have been an entirely original idea by writer Gardner Fox, while others point to the old myths as possible inspirations..such as the Ancient Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts, a team of famous adventurers (most notably Heracles), each with their own special power or skill to contribute to the quest for the Golden Fleece.

Based on the distinctive circular table pictured on All Star #3, others believe the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table is the most likely precedent for the JSA:

Another possible influence (also featuring a round table) was a 1938 cover of The Shadow magazine, which pictured the mysterious pulp hero and his gang of loyal operatives gathered 'round a meeting table.

However, despite all of these plausible influences, the Justice Society of America seemed like something new. Instead of warriors, knights, or operatives following a single leader, the members of the JSA were considered equals with no single superhero as the group's primary leader or raison d'être. Considering "America" was part of the team's name, I guess their more democratic approach shouldn't come as much of a surprise, but at the same time, the importance of this new group dynamic should be recognized as something special...and the template for all the super teams that followed.

Is it a simple (bordering on crude) cover design? It certainly is, but despite the stiff, endearingly mundane staging, there's an undeniable and surreal power to the scene that's hard to describe. Is it the somewhat eerie appearance of fully-masked (thereby emotionless) characters like the Atom (far left), Sandman (next to the Atom), and Dr. Fate (with the gold helmet) at odds with their grinning teammates? Could it be the presense of the Spectre (wearing the green hood), a nearly-omnipotent living corpse sitting there as casually as a customer at Denny's? Or is it just the moon-bat crazy spectacle of all those colorful, whimsical and occasionally spooky costumes in a single setting?

Well, whatever it is, it's working for me. Oh, and to get past some of the Golden Age drawing limitations of the original, how about a recreation of the All Star Comics #3 cover by Jerry Ordway, which appeared in All-Star Squadron Annual #2 (1982):

Now, I'm not sure getting rid of the original's Big Box O' Words was a completely good thing (did we really need to see the Atom's bare legs?), but its absense does cut down on the visual clutter and crowding. The best part of it? The surreal vibe of the original scene is still very much intact.

How about you? Are there certain covers that remain your favorites despite crude or "past its prime" artwork? If so, what are they?

Comments

[MMFK]

It'd have to be Detective Comics #27. Not the best drawn cover, but it's a favorite anyway.

http://thebatman.bravepages.com/comics/dc027.jpg

A lot of golden age books have a place in my heart often BECAUSE of the crude art. Maybe I'm in the minority on this but I can't get very into the really slick art of many of today's comics, with their glossy pages and heavy use of gradients (with some exception).

[Mark Engblom]

That's a fantastic example, MMFK. What I often try to do with covers like this (and All Star #3) is to imagine what it might have looked like to someone in the original audience, who (having virtually no previous context to compare it with) was most likely dumbfounded by the cover scene. Imagine just how STRANGE this stuff looked to a late 1930's, early 1940's audience...especially since they didn't have a lifetime of experience with whimsical, outlandish imagery like later generations would (with the advent of TV and an all-encompassing pop culture).

The shot of Batman on Detective #27 is incredibly eerie, even by today's standards...looking more like a vampire dragging off a victime than a crusading superhero (which is exactly the effect Bruce Wayne was going for, actually).

Good one!

[Pat Curley]

More than just the super-team concept, I think the signature significance of All-Star #3 was the idea that these characters shared the same universe.

The cover that still does it for me is Batman #31. Batman and Robin chasing some thug with a gun sounds pretty pedestrian, but the Batman logo cascades down the page, so that the impression is "Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman!"

And then Batman #47, with young Bruce Wayne crying as he reads a newspaper account of his parents' deaths, while the cowl looms behind him. It's quite extraordinary.