1997 JLA Gallery: Daniel Zezlj

I knew I was going to be in Mexico for a while, and I figured I'd have to get started on school stuff as soon as I got back, so I tried to load up a respectable showing across all my blogs. If you check my promotional post Mars Needs Plugs, you can see that. Unfortunately, the Idol-Head got shortchanged by a scheduling snafu and some coding issues, leaving me to post entries written literally years ago and held in queue until I could update them (soon enough, now.) They were meaty though, and I figured I'd pick up the slack when I got home.

Well-- school stuff has been an endurance test of bureaucracy, youthful indiscretions nipping at my heels, and the hemorrhaging of money my newly unemployed full-time student ass can't afford. Slack remains, and I'm trying not to become an online merchandise shill or push the old CAF button again. Inspired by Aaron at Continued On 2^nd Page Following's recent postings of his favorite pin-ups from the JLA Gallery, I decided to offer the images I enjoyed the least. That way, I can double post without feeling I've shortchanged anyone that matters to me.

Danijel Žeželj is a Croatian artist whose work I loathe. I could tolerate him on Vertigo fare like El Diablo and Loveless, but on super-hero books like Captain America: Dead Men Running, it feels like he's punching me in the aesthetics. Here, the JLA are battling some mythological beast in broad daylight against some distant and likely unrelated background, yet they still manage to be cloaked in shadow. Martian Manhunter is smooshed in the bottom right corner, looking like the artist's reference was the 1985 Grenadier Models Pewter Miniature. In a rushed special to cash-in on the surprise success of JLA, this piece looks like the editor's standards were especially low. The guilty party (Dan Raspler?) who couldn't get the artist's name spelled right is hidden amongst a list of editors with various corporate titles.