The Cranboyz have covered a lot of themes the last few years and we thought we were pretty much done. Then one day Eric and Shane were talking about the "glory days" of the Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Kevin Maguire Justice League! When the League was in her glory with Blue Beetle, Booster Gold and Guy Gardner leading the charge! When "Bwahahaha!" was in every story and the Martian Manhunter was sneaking off to eat Oreos!
Ok, maybe there are a few versions of the League more popular out there but at a time when "Dark and Gritty" was all the rage in comics, a little "Bwahaha!" really hit the spot!
So why "Club JLI?" Well, there's a story arc where Blue Beetle and Booster Gold decided to start a casino, on a living island, open a resort there and call it, CLUB JLI! Hijinks and hysteria were out of control! The story has always been considered an instant classic, at least by us!
Now you might think there aren't that many characters in this stellar era of the Justice League and you'd be wrong! There were guest appearances, cross overs and membership drives! They even expanded to a second team!
Since Eric and Shane were spearheading this thing they decided to try something different. They got together and had a character draft! They made a list of some of the more likely characters to get sketches of and took turns picking! The rest of the group was free to get anyone they liked and Eric and Shane agreed that the draft was flexible, just for fun.
As soon as the draft was completed they got online and started looking for artwork! The convention season was months away and these boys wanted some sketches! This took them to the Fraimworks, online home of Brian and Brendon Fraim! There they found a couple of sketches that worked for both of them, Shane got a Wally West Flash and Eric got Wonder Woman, both founding members of Justice League Europe! Not how they expected to start off but that's how the JLI works!
Moving on to the self proclaimed stars of the Justice League, Eric had Blue Beetle and Booster Gold drawn by Phil and Jeff Moy!
Shane picked up some Blue Beelte and Booster sketches that Chris Kasmar had available at his table!
Shane then collected sketches of the the League's leading ladies! Fire by Tressa Bowling and Ice by Nate Lovett!
Eric then commissioned this unbelievable Mister Miracle by Tressa Bowling and Shane added Big Barda by James Giar to the collection!
You can't have any Justice League team without the Martian Manhunter! Eric had the Mahnunter drawn by the legendary Arvell Jones! Shane got the Mahnhunter by superstar Darryl Banks!
If the Justice League had a black eye (was that a "One Punch" Joke??) it was Guy Gardner! The JL's resident Green Lantern and pain in the ass! Being a Guy Gardner fan Shane got sketches of him from Martin Egeland and Ron Frenz!
Kurt didn't mess around with his Justice League sketch! He got founding member Doctor Fate by Arvell Jones! Shane got his Doctor Fate by Aaron Archer!
"The Big Red Cheese" "Captain Whitebread" "Shazam" "Captain Marvel" His innocent nature played well against Guy Gardner and the others but made the JL a tough fit for Captain Marvel. Eric got his sketch by Tim Switalski at Free Comic Book Day! Shane picked up a Captain Marvel sketch that Nate Lovett had for sale!
Two more founding members of this team, Eric got Black Canary by the Fraim brothers and Shane picked up this Batman from Martin Egeland at Free Comic Book Day!
When the Justice League upgraded to Justice League International, the first two members they added were Captain Atom and Rocket Red! Shane got his Captain Atom sketch from Craig Rousseau and Eric got his Rocket Red from Andy Bennett!
Justice League International led the way to Justice League Europe (which later became Justice League International but that's another story!), which featured these two guys! Shane got another sketch of Wally West as Flash (this time in his shiny costume) and Eric had Scoot McMahon draw Elongated Man!
Brandon Franklin drew JLE member Animal Man for Eric and Lobo for Shane! Lobo wasn't really a member of the League but they let him join because they thought he was a friend of Big Barda's. He was actually hired to kill her but that's how things worked with the league!
Kilowog was a long time friend and member of the team! Eric got his Kilowog sketch from Darryl Banks! Shane also picked up a Kilowog from Nate Lovett!
Hawkman and Hawkwoman teamed up with the team before briefly joining their ranks. Hawkwoman fit right in! Hawkman spent all of his time complaining about the teams antics while reminding them they would never find Hal Jordan or Barry Allen acting like that! Shane got his Hawkman sketch from Landon Franklin and his Hawkman sketch is from Chuck Patton! Chuck Patton drew some JLA comics but he worked on JL Detroit, which is a whole nother story!
The final Justice League art comes again from Chris Kasmar. When Shane met him at a con, he had these little colored sketches already done. they were fun and of some key JL characters so Shane couldn't pass them up! Martian Manhunter, Captain Atom, Kilowog and G'Nort all by Chris Kasmar!
And if you don't know who G'Nort is, that's reason enough to check out these stories.
But if you're looking for G'Nort, he's probably in the can!
