Justice Machine Featuring the Elementals (1986) #1-4 by Mike Gustovich, Bill Willingham et al
Justice Machine had previously had a very short run at a different publisher, but (as would become a theme with Comico), it then moved to Comico and stayed there for quite a while.
Bill Willingham is credited as the writer, but it’s not clear whether that means that he wrote the plot or not — based on some other Comico comics, it could mean that he wrote the words after Gustovich plotted and drew the issues…
Anway, this mini-series starts off in a (literally) punchy way…
… but then we get Foreshadowing. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of this stuff, so these pages rather stick out, making them more “eh?” than “ah”.
“Machiners”? I guess they were thinking “Avengers”, from a plural of the noun form of “avenge”, but… er… that’s not how… OK, is this book one of those funny comical books?
Well, it’s not very serious, anyway — but we get an Elementals crossover, because the Machiners’ enemies need somebody to fight for them, and then… lies to them about this world? Or is it a lie? Complexity!
The second issue’s editorial has the background on the super-hero characters, and it makes me wonder: Did Gustovich come up with these characters while he was in high school? Hm… Oh, he was born in 1953, so he was 33 when he did this? I guess not!?
It’s a classic team up/battle book, though, and Gustovich’s artwork looks very appropriate. I like the sheen his inking has. Very dramatic.
I’m leaning towards Bill Willingham being a co-plotter on this, because this scene is just the kind of icky thing he’d think about putting in. (Speaking only as one who has the experience of reading his Elementals comics, of course.)
Heh, the planet here is called “Georwell”. Georwell… George Orwell… GET IT!??! So clever, because the society here (there can only be one society per planet, as per the SciFi Accords Of 1973) is very authoritarian and controlled and stuff, apparently.
Gustovich announces that there’ll be a monthly, regular Justice Machine series, but Willingham is out.
I think this is an iteration of the popular “attack/run away” gag, but it’s not very well done, is it?
I like Gustovich’s line and his storytelling, but his faces sometimes leave something to be desired — especially when he does women and children. Perhaps because he has fewer lines to add to the faces, so they end up looking like features floating in a sea of nothing?
Now that’s a twist ending — it turns out that the big bad guy was really the quite young daughter of the elf!? What?! Does that make sense? Is this supposed to be a very funny punchline? It just reads very confused to me.
I quite enjoyed reading this series — it’s short and snappy. It was muddled in parts, but eh, whatever.
Back Issue #94, page #24:
The Justice Machine arrived at Comico in 1986. By
then, their protégés, the Elementals, were on their eighth
issue at Comico. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #24 for
our look at Comico’s Elementals series.] Fans remembering
where that group had received their start were responsible
for convincing Comico to restart the Machine, as they
constantly asked Comico co-publisher Phil Lasorda when
the company was going to begin publishing the title
where the Elementals debuted. The latter team’s success
probably had a lot to do with The Justice Machine returning
to print in a four-issue miniseries that was subtitled
“featuring The Elementals.” The four-issue series also
featured the writer of Elementals, Bill Willingham. He was
the first to suggest having the group guest-star in the
series, wanting to pay back Gustovich for the favor he
had done of giving Willingham his first break.
Comico’s Justice Machine featuring the Elementals #1’s
(May 1986) editorial states that its tale takes place
before the Noble issues, so at this point the Machine are
still installed in the position of government enforcers.
This would allow those who had read the Noble series
to enjoy it as well as the hoped-for newcomers.
The story, both penciled and inked by Mike Gustovich,
details the Machine’s battle with an armored villain named
the Dark Force. Like Maxinor before (or chronologically
after, as the case may be), this adversary is intent on freeing
Georwell from its totalitarian government. The Elementals
are initially recruited by the Dark Force to aid him but
switch sides when they discover his methodology.
Amazing Heroes #113, page #27:
In July of 1985 Justice Machine was
a book looking for a publisher. At
the same time Comico was a pub-
lisher looking for a book. While
some of its earlier efforts were less
than successful, Comico was pre-
sently on a roll. Mage by Matt
Wagner was a popular title. Com-
ico was also publishing Bill Will-
ingham’s Elementals with great suc-
cess. In addition, the Robotech
trilogy, a series for which Comico
had high hopes, was about to debut.
Comico wanted to take advantage of
its successes and add another fan
favorite to its roster.
That the two should get together
was inevitable. In the first place,
Phil Lasorda, the publisher of Com-
ico, knew Mike from the old Texas
Comics days. He remembered the
Justice Machine and believed they
were well conceived, strong charac-
ters who could still carry their own
title. He thought it would be a fun
project with which to be involved,
and that was exactly the type of pro-
ject that Comico wanted.
In the second place, the fans all
seemed to believe that Comico was
going to publish Justice Machine.
“They’d come up to us at conven-
tions,” said Lasorda, “and ask, ‘You
got The Elementals [which debuted]
in the old Justice Machine comic];
when are you going to publish Jus-
tice Machine?”
Justice Machine was a book with
both a large fan following and a
strong, well executed story line. It
was exactly the type of book Com-
ico wanted. Thus, during a Comico
panel at the 1985 ChicagoCon,
when Comico was asked, when are
you going to publish Justice
Machine, they answered that they
were looking for Mike Gustovich to
discuss that very subject.
The fans applauded. One fan,
however, did better than applaud.
Dave Gifford, a former student of
Mike’s continuing education art
class, was in the audience. He knew
that Mike was at the convention. He
told Mike to talk to the people from
Comico, because they were inter-
ested in doing Justice Machine.
Mike did, and they reached an
agreement to do a Justice Machine
mini-series.
Bill Willingham suggested that the
mini-series guest star the Elemen-
tals. Mike and Noble Comics had-
given Bill a break when they origin-
ally published The Elementals. Now
that Elementals was a hit, Bill
wanted to return the favor. In order
to get the Justice Machine off to a
strong start, Comico would do a
four-issue series featuring the
Elementals written by Bill and illus-
trated by Mike.
The book sold.
While Jonny Quest #1 was the best
selling single issue Comico put out
in 1986, the Justice Machine mini-
series was the best selling title. Its
four issues sold better than any four
issues of any other book Comico
published, including Jonny Quest #’s
1-4. Comico had a solid hit on its
hands.
But Comico didn’t wait until the
sales reports came in to sign up for
a Justice Machine continuing series.
Comico had commissioned Mike to
do a Justice Machine cover for the
Comico Checklist, Comico’s
publicity newsletter. Mike ex-
plained, “When they saw the Check-
list cover, they knew [Justice
Machine] would be hot, so they ap-
proached me about doing it as a
regular series even before I started
drawing the first issue of the mini-
series.”
I’m unable to find any contemporary reviews of this book, which is kinda surprising since it sold so well… And this is the only review I could find on the intertubes:
A fairly generic start to an indie superhero crossover from 1986. I mainly picked this up to finally own a comic by the well-respected but short lived publisher Comico, which originally published the debut of The Maxx.
These issues have apparently never been reprinted.