Tom Peyer, Tom McCraw, Roger Stern, and Jeff Moy were the guests on America
Online's Legion of Super-Heroes Chat Hour on Tuesday, August 15, 1995. John
Byrne hung around and threw out insults, but he was hardly a guest--more
like a squatter. LSH Chat Hour is held every Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. EDT in
the DC Comics Online Chat Room on AOL. Previous guests have included Mark
Waid, Tom Peyer, Tom McCraw, Roger Stern, Jeff Moy, Ron Boyd, KC Carlson,
and Mike McAvennie.
DISCLAIMERS - This report constitutes the author's interpretation of what
was said during the chat hour. The viewpoint of a reasonable person might
produce a highly different report.
SPOILERS - The information is presented so that the spoilers are located at
the end of the material. The most spoiling material is presented at the end
of the report.
SPECIAL THANKS - To Lev Kalman who has stepped up to the plate to provide
the LSH transcript this week. Both he and Edward Douglas have generously
offered to attempt to "cover" the LSH Chats and provide a log so that this
report can be generated. This report exists because of their generousity.
=================================================================
Roger will be starting work on the Legion titles after he's finished
"Superman: Man of Tomorrow" #3, and swept up some odds and ends. He
estimates that his first issue will appear sometime after the first of the year.
Peyer had a string of calamities that kept him away from the chats for a
while. The hurricane bypassed him, fortunately.
McCraw confesses: Fractals are beyond him.
Jeff estimates that over 400 copies of Legionnaires #26 were given away at
GenCon.
Byrne speculates that the Hobgoblin is really Bouncing Boy.
Peyer knew nothing of the rumored DC/Marvel company-wide crossover. He's
heard the rumors, but hasn't asked anyone.
Peyer and Roger may be having a mini-summit so that Peyer can bring Roger up
to speed on the titles. McCraw noted that his head always hurt after the
LSH summits.
Jeff claimed that he couldn't fight the guy that brought him back into
comics (Byrne). But when told that Byrne wanted to fight him, Jeff
indicated that he'd "have to beat him to a pulp. :)"
Peyer likes the three founders.
McCraw suggested that we shouldn't hold our breath on an appearance of
Captain Carrot or Angel Love in the LSH. Peyer offered that Winema Wazzo
was a postbooted "Angel Hate".
Roger gloated that he gets to see Jeff's and Lee's pencils before the rest
of us.
Jeff notes that comics would be much easier to draw without pesky editors.
Roger thinks a comic about him would be easy to draw. It would be nine
panels per page of him staring at a monitor.
Byrne has hated the Legion from day one.
Jeff didn't design Mekt's postboot hairstyle. Peyer asked the inquiring fan
if the fan really liked Mekt's old look better.
Jeff goes back a year or two on the Legion. Peyer has been writing Legion
stuff since June of 1994, and reading it since the early 1960s.
Roger first wrote the Legion back in 1976. He assisted Jim Shooter with
Shooter's last two Legion stories. (S/LSH #223-24.) The title, "We Can't
Escape the Trap In Time" was his. The second part of the story introduced
Pulsar Stargrave, who was originally supposed to be "Brainiac 4."
Roger helped Peyer get his start in comics writing. At a point when Roger
was buried, Peyer stepped in and gave him a hand with writing. Roger
subsequently helped Peyer find a writing job. Roger asserts that Peyer bent
Roger's arm to get Roger to join the writing team.
There are no plans for a 3rd title yet. They're trying to get some
mini-series in the works which would focus more on an individual or smaller
team. McCraw (jokingly?) suggested bugging KC if we wanted a 3rd title.
McCraw is all for a 3rd title, but has no control in making it a reality.
Roger noted that if we want more Legion titles, we need to get people to buy
the ones that they're publishing now. Peyer noted that the LSH titles could
creatively stand a 3rd book. He notes that they ran 30+ years preboot.
McCraw indicated that they have plenty of stories to tell.
Jeff noted that a 3rd title would give them a chance to flesh out more
characters. Roger followed that he'd like to see a Legion Spotlight title
where they could focus on one or two of them.
Roger would be happy if the LSH titles sold well enough that they received
the "funky" paper that the Superman books get. He wants to see them on the
newstands for $1.95. He didn't like the shiny paper at first, but it's
grown on him.
Roger would like to use the old "Adventure Comics" title. Peyer didn't
think that DC owned the trademark to that title anymore, and that another
company had co-opted the title. McCraw thought that DC had regained the
rights to the name. But the status was uncertain because of the "Silver Age
Classics" reprint of a few years ago.
Jeff is shooting to complete L* #33 by the end of the month. Jeff noted
that his being behind gave the Toms more time to write.
Peyer is really interested in Saturn Girl's backstory.
When asked by McCraw, Jeff noted that he hadn't done the new sketches for
Kenetix. Of course, he didn't know that he was supposed to. He noted that
he was working on some "Lori" stuff.
Jeff had done a new Vi sketch.
There are no plans for Nemesis Kid or Ferro Lad.
The creative team likes Supergirl (Matrix), but there are no concrete plans
to use her at present.
Peyer responded to a request to slow down the killings by pointing out that
there had only been two killings so far. McCraw joked that Kenetix was the
next Legionnaire to get the axe.
McCraw noted that there wouldn't be a clone of Apparition because clones in
the 30th century tend to explode. (ED - Insert your own Spider-man joke here.)
McCraw joked that the idea of the Proty that was killed in the L* Annual was
"brilliant."
McCraw did note that he understood that it was hard to lose a character that
you've bonded with.
The Superboy/LSH crossover might become an annual event.
XS will meet Impulse.
Lightning Lord and Live Wire now bleed lightning when they bleed.
There's more stuff coming up about Ayla's secret admirer.
Lee Moder is currently pencilling the Brainiac 5 spotlight in LSH #77. When
disappointment was expressed that Moy wouldn't be pencilling it, McCraw
noted that Jeff got to pencil "something better." Something better than
that "Startoe" guy. It's a secret for now, but McCraw promised that we'd be
talking about it for a long time.
