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

Suicide Squad 10 cover tribute for Back Issue Magazine

 Looks like BACK ISSUE MAGAZINE will have a little something for fans of the real Suicide Squad but unfortunately it won't be published until August . . .of next friggin year! However, a digital sneak peak preview of the inside should be available a couple months or so before that, stay tuned. See you next year . . . . hopefully. 

https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=1886

December 15th Update: Looks like Christmas came early this year for those of us who love well done Ostrander era squad fan art by AKA Chime. Or in my case some nice fan art to kick off Hanukkah with. I really dig this concept of Amanda Waller in the Oval Office with members of Task Force X (Rick Flag, Bronze Tiger, Nemesis, Nightshade, Enchantress, Deadshot, Boomerang and Duchess a.k.a Lashina) at her side.

December 27th Update: This is from 2017, it's worth a look for fans of the real Suicide Squad . . .

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Batman-and-Harley-Quinn/Issue-6?id=125817 

 https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Batman-and-Harley-Quinn/Issue-7?id=126225

February 18 Update: I did this sketch card yesterday as a thank you for a good friend of mine who did me a serious solid last year. Like me he's a Gen X comic book sci fi pop culture and classic rock fan. When it comes to DC vs Marvel he's always leaned more DC and it so happens that Nightwing is his favorite DC character. I enjoyed doing this although I was torn between doing a Nightwing version from the awesome Young Justice animation series or go with the classic George Perez Teen Titans era.

New Ostrander era commission art by Luke McDonnell

 

Based on the date by the artist signature I guess this isn't really new. But I literally just discovered it on social media where it had been posted only early last month. Makes me wonder what other Ostrander era Squad fan art has been out there for years now that I don't know about? Anyways, always good to see something "new" from the true Suicide Squad. And yes, I still hate the New DC 52 version as well as those shit movies. If you're also a fan of the late 80s to early 90s Suicide Squad series be sure to at least check out the most recent blog postings I only ever post anything once or twice a year these days.

John Ostrander era Suicide Squad sketch card

After years now of just having done fan art sketch cards for only the Marvel and Star Wars franchises I finally decided to do something different and get at least one for DC into my body of work. So ofcourse it had to be The Suicide Squad. The the late 80s to early 90s John Ostrander Suicide Squad, accept no substitute. 

I was looking at some early issues recently and something occurred to me while going over this one. It's too bad there isn't a Task Force X in the real world. That could have been one way to bring putin's barbaric war on Ukraine to an end sooner then later.

August 16th Update: Just found this Luke McDonell art work of a Suicide Squad height chart. It was a random post on twitter and unfortunately there was no supporting information on where it came from. Was it some kind of promotional material or just some unpublished art? Well, whatever and wherever it's the Suicide Squad I love and miss so i'm delighted to have found it all the same.

Well said anonymous owner of this white Mercedes.

November 17th Update: I stand with Israel. No ceasefire with out the return of all the hostages. Period end of story! Fuck hamas and their idiotic "progressive" cheerleaders like the congressional Jihad Squad. 

Suicide Squad fan art from 2010

I dug this up last night and even though I supposedly stopped posting on this blog site back in September of 2018 I'm gonna post this anyway just because. The original art actually included Rick Flag, Amanda Waller, Captain Boomerang and Night Shade in what was group portrait. But I was never happy with the way the rest of the team came out so I cropped it to the portion that only has Deadshot, Count Vertigo and Bronze Tiger.

Just for the record I still hate DC's reboot of Task Force X as I do both live action films. For me The Suicide Squad will be forever be The John Ostrander series of the late 80s to early 90s. Speaking of which, I recently re-read the 1st Deadshot mini-series. If you never read it before or only read it back in the late 80s it's definitely worth another read. It's a very sophisticated deep dive into Floyd's background that I think you will appreciate even more in the later years of your life.

 

https://www.zipcomic.com/deadshot-1988-issue-1

The Suicide Squad goes nuclear

Ya know with all this shit going on with north korea and their nuclear program not to mention renewed tensions with russia and the threat of islamic terrorists trying to get their filthy hands on that shit for years now it got me thinking about Firestorm 64 written by John Ostrander. The issue came out in 1987 in which the Cold War was still going on here in the real world even though it would be only a few years later that the soviet union would collapse. For about the next two decades or so we really didn't think about nuclear war as something that we had to worry about any more.
So this issue was part of a story arc in which Ronald and professor Stein (who was dying of a brain tumor at the time) as Firestorm attempted to coerce the nuclear armed nations of the world into dismantling their nuclear arsenals under the threat of doing it for them if they didn't comply. A some what similar premise to the awful Superman 4 film which ironically also came out in 1987. Yeah that didn't go over to well and as a result Firestorm was declared an outlaw and become subject to arrest. As a result Captain Atom (prior to this issue), Task Force X, The Justice League mixed it up with Firestorm in an attempt to end his crusade.
The story line continues and comes to a head in Firestorm annual 2 in which The Squad and The League start to fight each other. Adding to the mayhem The Parasite who at the time was in The Squad goes rogue. Firestorm manages to deal with The Parasite and make his escape only to be confronted in the Nevada desert by a russian super powered agent named Pozhar. The show down happens shortly before professor Stein's tumor finally kills him and disrupts the Firestorm bond in the process which happens only seconds before both the U.S. and Soviet governments try to nuke both combatants. Good stuff, makes me miss the 80s all that much more.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/marvelmasterworksfansite/suicide-squad-the-complete-ostrander-run-1st-time--t24588.html

Well it had it's moments at least

Did you know that out of the entire Ostrander run for The Suicide Squad there was only one annual? And admittedly despite having been written by John Ostrander it wasn't a very good read in what was other wise an awesome series. But it did have it's moments like the exchange between Rick Flag and Boomerang as well as between Shade and Manhunter. In case you didn't know during his time with Task Force X Shade was known for having something of a condescending attitude toward Earth technology which other Squad members found to be annoying at times. So it was kinda funny seeing someone talk down to him for a change when it comes to the comprehension.

Stop, Waller Time!

Apparently all this old school Amanda Waller fan art has been up for a little while on deviant art I just happened to have discovered it today. It's nice to have something to post about here for a change I realize it's been a while. Just in time it would seem for our new commentator to this blog welcome Jeson Holder now the number of people following this site might be up to 3 now how exciting. The fan art on the bottom is fairly self explanatory but the top side fan art leaves a bit more to the imagination. I like how it shows that Waller isn't just some pencil pushing bureaucrat despite being a plus size middle age woman she's willing to get into the fight when she has to http://biram-ba.deviantart.com/art/Amanda-Waller-486215893

http://bielero.deviantart.com/art/286-Amanda-Waller-497984946

Well the Suicide Squad movie isn't quite so much off in the distance any more. No way of knowing for sure if it'll be any good but I know I'll see it at some point no matter what I hear about it although I'll most certainly be catching a matinee. But good or bad or some thing in between I'll certainly be doing a review of it here so all 3 or 4 of you who follow this blog still can see what I thought of the movie.

Ragman and The Hayoth team up fan art

I've always been a fan of the Israeli meta human team know as The Hayoth who first appeared in the pages of The Suicide Squad and would later be seen in The Specter and Checkmate in the old DCU. But more recently I've been getting into the Ragman character since having read some stuff with him (Ragman Suite of Souls one shot and Day of Vengeance #1)  I've found in back issue discount boxes. DC has other Jewish superheros like Atom Smasher and Batgirl but what I liked about these particular characters is that their powers and identity as heroes centers around Jewish lore and mysticism.

Oct. 3rd Update: 
I decided to add this clip art of Ragman in action from Day of Vengeance #1 (2006). Something interesting I learned about Ragman's suit in this issue is that the new souls that are collected often try to resist helping Ragman when called upon. Kinda think of it as a new prison inmate who hasn't learned the rules yet and think they can act like they're still on the outside. Well we know how that eventually plays out.

Finally some new fan art from The Squad of the old DCU

Awesome sketch art by guinnessyde

I dunno about the rest of you but it's just fucken Harley Quinn over kill for the past couple of years now. So sick and tired of seeing nothing but "Suicide Squad" cosplay or fan art piece with Harley and a giant mallet or baseball bat. This is aside from my over all disdain for the false DCU it makes me not want to bother with looking for cool Suicide Squad related stuff to post any more. And lately all this shit from the upcoming movie has been saturating the net. I know I'll see the movie at some point but like with the new Star Wars movie I refuse to get caught up in all the hype. Any ways, this morning I just gave it a shot and looked for some stuff and as luck would have it I found this. A damn good sketch from The Ostrander era Squad, that's a potent combo.
http://www.deviantart.com/art/01292015-Suicide-Squad-510509352

Suicide Squad article from 2008 BACK ISSUE magazine

BACK ISSUE magazine from TwoMorrows Publishing is a fairly recent discovery I've made only as of late last year. I love how they have old copies of their magazines easily available for free to read online. The commentary on the second page of the article was pretty funny but you can read this entire Suicide Squad article at this link  . . .
http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_54&products_id=619

New fan art of the Amanda Waller that we used to know

Just found this awesome piece by chance from an artist who also hates the skinny Waller and has stated that she refuses to ever draw her that way  . . .
http://the-unbrilliant.deviantart.com/gallery/
Also, you can see more fan art that's popped up this year for The Wall by doing an Amanda Waller key word search on deviant art. It's kinda funny you can always get an idea about how old someone is by finding out what turned em on to this character I've been coming across more and more people who discovered Waller from the Justice League Unlimited cartoon or from some kind of DC online gaming media. Suffice it to say those fans are usually much younger then the old school Waller fans who discovered her back during the Legends mini-series and the Ostrander Squad era.

Finally, John Ostrander speaks up about the rebooted Waller

This is Amanda Waller, accept no substitute!

"I don’t control what happens with Waller or where she goes or how she looks; she is owned by DC Entertainment and Warners. I knew that going in. She is their property. That said, I think the changes made in her appearance are misguided. There were and are reasons why she looked the way she did. I wanted her to seem formidable and visually unlike anyone else out there. Making her young and svelte and sexy loses that. She becomes more like everyone else. She lost part of what made her unique."

John Ostrander (March 16, 2014)

Special thanks to K.oT. for bringing this to my attention. For the the entire article
http://www.comicmix.com/columns/2014/03/16/john-ostrander-waller/#comment-180650

FINALY! some new group shot art of the REAL Suicide Squad

What a breath of fresh air this is! Some brand new Suicide Squad fan art that has nothing to do with the WW II version, or Harley Quinn or any other aspect of the New DCU. I just found this only a few hours ago on comicartfans.com apparently it's a commission piece done by Steve Erwin. This guy is good I've featured his stuff here at least once before.
On a separate matter here I found this over at the Firestorm blog yesterday. I think it's much to do about nothing but still worth having a look at if your a Suicide Squad fan http://firestormfan.com/2014/01/16/suicide-squad-film/

1987 A Special Year

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The DC Comics Year by Year A Visual Chronicle is an over sized hardbound (352 pg) book that's pretty much what you would expect based on the title. I recently got this thing as a gift. Each year is it's own chapter that consists of several pages highlighting the notable issues and mini-series of each year. Also pretty cool is that each page along the bottom has a foot note of the big world wide and or national news story of that particular month for each year/chapter.
As you can see Suicide Squad #1 gets a shout out for the months  March - December for the1987 chapter. But you can see some other milestone issues on these two pages which I actually used to have except for that Batman issue. The other Squad issue that shows up in the book is Suicide Squad #23 (1989 chapter) because it was the first time Oracle (Barbara Gordon) initiated contact with Belle Reve effectively making that issue Oracle's first appearance in the DC Universe. A Google search (images tab) with key words DC Comics Year by Year A Visual Chronicle will show you more of the book and you can also find reviews on Youtube for it as well.

Let's do it Tiger style

If this fan art from Mexican artist Tuli19mx http://tulio19mx.deviantart.com/gallery/ looks familiar to you it's because it's been around for a while as line art but just recently the artist got around to coloring it. What I like about it is that it kinda gives me a sense of what Bronze Tiger might have looked like had he ever made an appearance on Justice League Unlimited. Instead we only ever got to see him on that shitty cartoon Batman: Brave and The Bold or whatever it was called. By the way welcome back from the dead Tiger OA1.

I just want to make this quick update here. I came across an exceptionally good artist from India on deviant art who did a fan art piece of the DC52 Squad. From a strictly illustration stand point this guy hits it out of the park. I couldn't help but mention how much I hated the whole reboot and that I'd love to see this guy's skill applied to doing some fan art of the 80s Squad. He turned out to be really cool and he also likes the John Ostrander Squad. He says he'll let me know as soon as he gets to doing another piece that has the real Suicide Squad but in the mean time check this out be sure to magnify it the details are great http://devmalya.deviantart.com/art/Suicide-Squad-415821635

Duchess vs Lashina

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Well it's about time! Never thought I'd ever come across any Suicide Squad specific fan art from the John Ostrander era. Not to mention it's good too, I rather like the . . .details. This one comes to us from a U.K. artist that goes by the deviant art handle adamantis.

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Here's something else I found on deviant art by an artist who goes by the handle SketchMcDrawpants. First off it's an excellent drawing. But I would imagine most of you don't know or remember much the Karen Grace character who died early on in the series during the whole Millennium Manhunter DC story line in the late 80s. We meet her in the first issue and right away we learn she and Rick Flag have some past history as both team mates and lovers that left her bitter and resentful with him. Just what the Squad needs right? Later in the series we learn she had a child that Rick only later finds out he fathered. We later see in the 2008 Suicide Squad mini-series Rick struggling with the question of his responsibilities for a son he didn't even know about. He however opted to leave "his son" in the care of others who could care for him better.

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Comic characters you got into from the animated movies & TV shows

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Lately I've been really enjoying watching Owlman video clips from Crisis On Two Earths movie. As far as I can tell he's nothing like the rather offish and generally uninteresting Owlman (lame costume too) from what I remember of DC in the 80s. I like his sense of cynicism, his fatalistic attitude while always maintaining a calm  demeanor.
Then you've got Roy Harper from Young Justice and you all know how much I like him. Prior to Young Justice I knew very little about the Roy Harper character. I had only read a couple of early Suicide Squad issues he guest starred along with a Teen Titans one shot anti-drug issue that was given out as freebees at my elementary school back in the day when we still had dinosaurs. My knowledge of Cheshire was even more scant for that matter.
As for the Red Hood I had heard that name here and there with the travesty known as the New DC 52 never payed it any mind. That is until I happened upon some clips of Batman: Under The Red Hood on Youtube. Instantly I felt like I stumbled across a character I really felt like I could relate to. And that's not to say that there have not been other characters from animated films and TV shows that didn't strike a cord with me or that I otherwise really enjoy but the ones I mentioned here I just identify with on a more personable level.

Hey Dale sorry I didn't really get back to you when you first posted this clip art on my face book page. But yes you were correct there is something very very Duchess like about her. Although I think the likeness is almost certainly coincidental, where is this from again? Some kind of Suicide Squad from the new 52 tie-in?
In the mean time let's take a trip down memory lane of one of those moments in awesome as Duchess a.k.a Lashina deliver some impromptu disciplinary measures in the field to Count Vertigo and Captain Boomerang who were attempting to carry out a little mutiny during a mission. Although we find out later she had ulterior motives.

Now that's a splash page x 2

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I just saw Superman yesterday. I thought it was cast really well especially in the case of Superman, Gen. Zod, Jor-El and the Kents. And I gotta say I loved all the flash back scenes to Clark's child hood in some ways that was my favorite aspect of the movie. I'm still "digesting" everything else from the movie but over all I liked it for the most part.

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Anyways, seeing the movie yesterday got me thinking about Superman's appearances in the Suicide Squad. As far as I know it was in issues 59-62 that featured a storyline involving Batman, Aquaman, The Squad, The Hayoth, several metahuman mercenaries, a high value arab terrorist and some rogue elements in the U.S. military. Plus on top of that it was all connected to the faked death of the original Atom Ray Palmer.
I guess this might be a good time to throw this clip art into the mix too. I'm not really familiar with the Seraph character actually. But I like how his powers are derived from ancient Jewish lore. Ok I don't think I need to explain to you about Moses (pronounced Moishe in Hebrew) and his divine rod right? : )  King Solomon "The Wise" was actually the son of King David (as in David and Goliath) and you may find it interesting to know that Captain Marvel (Shazam) derives his wisdom from Solomon just as he gets his strength from Hercules. And by Samson he is referring to the story of Samson & Delilah which you all know something about yes? Well just so you know Samson was Jewish and Delilah was a Philistine.

Suicide Squad #32 (1989) and contemporary Middle East politics

Although I pride this blog on featuring a multitude of new stuff instead of reused clip art I once in a while like to feature something from the original that I'm sure most out there don't remember or never knew about in the first place. I've used stuff for postings before from Suicide Squad 32. This was really a great issue for so many reasons. First off it's the Ostrander series and second of all the issue was so true to life in terms of contemporary politics and cultural trends in the Middle East which I consider myself something of an expert in. You can almost tell what's going on by just looking at the faces of the characters from one panel to another. GREAT STUFF!

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 I'm posting this as an after thought to the Suicide Squad clip art I started this posting with. This powerful scene comes from Checkmate #1 (Volume#1). I seem to remember a certain commentator here saying "Checkmate was nuthin". I think maybe that certain someone just didn't read enough Checkmate.