Justice League 1 cover tribute featuring the Ostrander era Suicide Squad by Leandro Raimundo

Behold my friends, some good and clever fan art for the real Suicide Squad. Probably the last time you'll see any for quite a while so enjoy. Ya know come to think of it, you could probably spend half a life time trying to track down every fan art tribute that's ever been done of the iconic Keith Giffen Justice League cover. 

Speaking of cover art, have you ever had one of those moments where you're browsing online at comic book related stuff and you stumble across some kind of sketch cover that's similar to a published issue you have or are otherwise familiar with? That's always cool when you find and compare cover concepts that the creators came up with but ultimately decided to go with the version that ended up going to press.

That's not exactly what this is. This is a panel by Gus Vazquez (nicely done) from issue 23 of the Justice League vs Suicide Squad (). It really reminded me of the cover art for Suicide Squad 10 by John Byrne which I recently posted about actually. Anyways, I put the usual cover elements on the un inked and un colored panel by Vazquez to get any idea of what it would have looked like as an actual cover.

https://dccomicsnews.com/2017/08/10/review-suicide-squad-23/

DC Direct Currents issue 14 and how it brought me back to The Suicide Squad and introduced me to Checkmate

https://www.comicbookdaily.com/collecting-community/bound-together/time-capsule-dc-direct-currents-14-february-1989/

I guess you could say DC Direct Currents was DC's version of Marvel Age Magazine except it was more in a brochure format and it was free. Anyways, I had started picking up what was at the time the new Suicide Squad series starting with issue 1. Even though I enjoyed the series I dropped it around issue 8 or 9 for reasons. I can't recall today why but I was at the tail end of my teens at the time after all.

Almost a year later I happened to see this issue of DC Direct Currents and ofcourse I took notice of the Suicide Squad clip art on the front page. I was really intrigued with those 3 panels, enough to want to check out this Janus Directive story line and that's what got me back into The Suicide Squad. It's also what got me interested in Checkmate. Eventually I managed to also pick up all the back issues I needed to complete the entire run along with most of the tie-ins which included several issues of Checkmate. That collection is one of my most prized posessions to this day.

https://www.zipcomic.com/kobra-issue-6

Needless to say putting together this posting together got me feeling pretty sentimental so that got me in the mood for some new fan art of the arch villian of The Janus Directive. One of DC's most underated villians I'vs always felt that KOBRA was basically a composite of Cobra Commander and Destro. Like Cobra Commander, he was a master manipulator and schemer who was prone to temper tantrums. But at the same time like Destro he was a savvy tactition who had no problem with throwing fists when he needed to. 

Sometimes, I also like to do art that doesn't just speak to despots and religious lunatics bent on global domination in the fictional world of the DC universe. By the way, have you ever read the one Suicide Squad issue that took place in Iran? If not it’s a good time to check it out or even re-read for that matter 

https://www.zipcomic.com/suicide-squad-1987-issue-32