TP Comics

  The Hawk and The Dove were a DC Comics super-hero team that debuted in Showcase #75 (June 1968).  Ad copy tells their story:  "In 1968 a mysterious voice gifted two teenage brothers, Hank and Don Hall, with superpowers that transformed them into the Hawk and the Dove! The superhero duo embodied the clashing political ideologies of the era, with the Hawk, ever militant, ready to jump into battling evil, and the Dove, a pacifist, refusing to raise a fist.    Fighting for what’s right on different sides of the ideological spectrum, the two clean up crime on the streets of their hometown, face the threat of the Drop Outs gang, take down a group of dangerous escaped convicts, team up with the Teen Titans and attempt to save their father from the wrath of a man he once sent to prison." Two years ago, I put my own spin on the idea with characters that became The Elephant and The Donkey.  Just as their heroic names have evolved a bit, so has their back stor...

  Dr. Eggslap is a scientist (both mad and evil) in the Justice Allies universe.  He is not, in fact, a doctor.         Behind the Scenes: When Billy Batson speaks the name of the  ancient wizard Shazam, he transformed into Captain Marvel, who is gifted with the wisdom of S olomon, the strength of H ercules, the stamina of A tlas, the power of Z eus, the courage of A chilles, and the speed of M ercury.  This idea became a motif in the Captain Marvel comic books.  For example, Billy's sister becomes Mary Marvel when she speaks the name of Shazam and is endowed with the grace of Selene, the strength of Hippolyta, the skill of Artemis, the fleetness of Zephyrus, the beauty of Aphrodite, and the wisdom of Minerva.  The villains IBAC and Sabbac have similar names and powers.  In the DC Comics movie Shazam, the villain Dr. Sivana controls the Seven Deadly Sins: Envy, Greed, Gluttony, etc. etc.  I think logically, he should then...

  Catamount is a villain in the Justice Allies universe.  He enjoys scratching deep claw marks into the super villain headquarters conference table.  His greatest weakness is a bowl full of warm milk.         Behind the Scenes:  All of the good cat names have already been used: DC has the generic Catwoman and Catman as well as the Cheetah, Marvel has Black Panther, Archie Comics has the Jaguar... I have no doubt that someone has previously Catamount for a super hero or villain.      

  Another villain in the yet-to-be-named villain group that squares off against the Justice Allies is Kudzu.  She is an homage to Poison Ivy.  I could see her facing off against the Green Man.      Behind the Scenes:  When I was a child, my family traveled to North Carolina twice a year to visit my grandparents.  I was fascinated by the kudzu plant that seemed to take over every available inch of ground.  It is said that kudzu vines can grow one foot in 24 hours!

The Justice Allies need some villains to contend with, whether they appear as individuals or as a "Legion of Doom"-type group.  The Card is the first of the villains we present to you.    Behind the Scenes:  While I changed the color scheme of the costume, I don't claim any credit for the look of The Card.  His likeness is taken from a vintage Joker playing card that I always thought was cool. 

Since November 2020, TP Comics has been introducing you to The Justice Allies.  Now that the team is complete (with new guest stars still a possibility), here is the team assembled.   Next, we'll turn our attention to the villains they face....  

  Given Green Arrow's long history with the Justice League, it is somewhat surprising that he made only one appearance on the Super Friends  cartoon, as a guest star in the first season.  Since Marvel's Avengers have had an archer on their roster too, it seemed only fitting that the Justice Allies have one as well.   "Sherwood" appears here in his fall costume, made of various shades of brown.  His summer costume would be shades of green and a winter costume might be white to blend in with snow.

  The first season of the Super Friends cartoon included Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Batman & Robin as well as the "Junior Super Friends" Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog.  With the exception of Robin, the senior Super Friends were all founding members of the Justice League of America.  The cartoon often referred to various pieces of equipment as the Justice League such-and-such.  Founding JLA members Green Lantern and the Flash would appear as guest stars on the cartoon before becoming core members of the team during the so-called "Challenge of the Super Friends."   Interestingly, J'onn J'onzz, the seventh founding member of the JLA was never featured on any season of the Super Friends.  What makes this even more ironic is that J'onn, the Manhunter from Mars or the Martian Manhunter, has been a part of nearly every incarnation of the JLA, from the Justice League of America to "Justice League Detroit" to Justice League International.  A ...

Super-hero groups sometimes include a person who was very small or who could shrink down to a very small, even microscopic size.   The Avengers have included both the Ant-Man and the Wasp.  The Justice League of America had the Atom (Ray Palmer); the Freedom Fighters had Doll Man.  Lilliputian is a German hero with dwarfism.  He stands 3 feet and 11 inches tall.  He can shrink down to a height of 6 inches, but no smaller.       Behind the Scenes: To ensure a degree of accuracy, Lilliputian is closely modeled on bodybuilder and actor Lee Liston.  His costume combines elements of the costumes of the Golden Age Atom (Al Pratt), T-N-T and Dan the Dyna-Mite, and Gary Concord, the Ultra Man.   

  The "speedster" of the Justice Allies is Acceleratrix.  A heroine from Brazil, Acceleratrix represents the continent of South America.      Behind the Scenes: As we mentioned with Renaissance Man, many of the names for speedsters have already been used--the Flash, Quicksilver, Max Mercury, Johnny Quick, XS, Impulse, evil Johnny Quick, Jesse Quick, Godspeed, Speed Demon, Whizzer, the Blur, etc.  Acceleratrix was one of the names I came up with while reading the dictionary (yes, the dictionary).  I haven't finished reading the dictionary, but it has been a worthwhile endeavor, as it has yielded a number of names for characters, places, organization, technology, and the like. The costume Acceleratrix wears was created for a different speedster I created pre-2007.  That project didn't reach fruition, so it is nice to be able to pull the outfit out of the mothballs and get some use from it.        

The Apprentice is the kid sidekick of Th e   Renaissance Man.  He is aided in his work for justice by his kid sidekick Apprentice.  Like his mentor, he represents the geographical area of Western Europe.   Behind the Scenes: Growing up with The New Adventures of Batman  and the Super Friends cartoons,  Robin the Boy Wonder (aka Dick Grayson) was my favorite super hero when I was a child.  I began reading comic books at the tail end of Jason Todd's tenure as Robin.  After Jason's murder by the Joker, Tim Drake became the third Robin.  I was roughly the same age as the character when he was introduced.  If Tim aged in real time, he would be approaching 50 years old.  The Apprentice's costume is based on the one worn by Dick and Jason.  The costume's colors are similar to the coloring of a male American Robin bird.            

  The Batman of the  Justice Allies universe is   the   Renaissance Man.  He is aided in his work for justice by his kid sidekick Apprentice.  He represents the geographical area of Western Europe.   Behind the Scenes:  One of the challenges of a project of this type is coming up with unique homages to characters with 80 years of publishing history.  For eight decades, The Batman has been re-interpreted, re-invented, re-designed, parodied, and "Bizarro-ed."  Marvel's version of Batman--Nighthawk--was a member of the Squadron Sinister and the Squadron Supreme.  In Kurt Busiek's Astro City , there is a Batman-like character named the Confessor.  In the DC Universe, there are Batman of other nations and other worlds.  The evil Batman of Earth 3 is Owlman of the Crime Syndicate of America.  On other parallel worlds, there is a vampire Batman, a Nazi Batman named Leatherwing, a First Nations Batman named Flying Fox, a...

  Representing the African continent in  Justice Allies is Horus.  Horus' powers are related to the sky.  He can fly with or without his armored wings.  He can control the weather, bringing winds and lightning, thunder and hail.   Behind the Scenes:  Horus is the "Hawkman" of the Justice Allies.  Alex Ross did something similar in Kingdom Come, drawing on the Golden Age Hawkman's Egyptian roots.  However, his Hawkman is a man with a hawk head, hawk wings, and hawk feet.  Horus is a man-god in a falcon costume.  

  The water-themed hero of the  Justice Allies  cartoon is Oceanus.  While he has excellent swimming, diving, and breath-holding skills, he is not an amphibian or mermaid-type character.  This should expand the number of stories he can be featured in, in contrast to characters like Aquaman or Namor the Sub-Mariner.      Behind the Scenes:  When I was a kid, I learned about the continents-- the Americas, Asia, Africa, Antarctica, Australia... Instead of Australia as a continent, my children were taught about "Oceania," which includes Australia as well as a variety of island nations depending on the definition.  It seemed ideal to include a character named Oceania as the Aquaman analog.  Eventually I settled on the name Oceanus .  Both names are derived from the Ancient Greek word for ocean,  ὠκεανός or  ōkeanós .   An Ancient Greek word for sky is similar--in English it would transliterated as uranus, the na...

  One of other heroines on the  Justice Allies  cartoon is Woman Wisdom, which is sometimes shortened to "Wisdom."  She is the Hebrew personification of Wisdom.  Her base of operations is the House of the Seven Pillars.  Folly is her arch enemy.  Her powers are voice-based.  For example, she can make light appear in darkness simply by speaking or singing.      Behind the Scenes:  Woman Wisdom is the Wonder Woman of the Justice Allies, however, her appearance is based on another heroine who appeared in three episodes of  Super Friends, Rima the Jungle Girl.  Rima is an interesting character, in that she appeared in a 1904 novel long before she appeared in DC Comics or on the Super Friends television show .    

  Introducing another character on the  Justice Allies  cartoon: Howlette!  Howlette was formed when a witch magically merged with her owl familiar.  Her powers are based in magic and she has the ability to fly as well as enhanced vision powers.     Behind the Scenes:  The Super Friends cartoon of which Justice Allies is an homage was a little light on heroines.  Wonder Woman was in all incarnations of the show.  The first-season character Wendy was replaced with Jayna of the Wonder Twins.  Rima the Jungle Girl made an appearance or two.  Keeping with the theme of diversity, Justice Allies will include more female characters.  A "howlet" is an owl.  Howlet's wing is an ingredient in the "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble" recipe brewed by the three witches in Macbeth.     

One of my longer, on-going projects is MissionTrek 2820, conceived around 2002 or 2003.  It is a futuristic, space fantasy retelling of the biblical Acts of the Apostles.   From the very first sketches, the over-arching story has been about the transition of ministry from the Paul character to the Timothy character.   The Timothy character is named T'm, who looks like a mythological centaur.  His mother is U'ns and his grandmother is L's, based on the names of Timothy's mother Eunice and grandmother Lois, as mentioned in 2 Timothy 1:5.   Timothy's father is mentioned in the Bible, but not named, so for the longest time, T'm's father did not have a name either.   In 2019, I participated in the festival gathering of the Network of Biblical Storytellers, International.  The highlight of the event for many is the "Epic Telling," in which storytellers take turns telling a large portion of biblical story.  The second half of the book...

I decided I needed to add some robots to my inventory of characters.  I always liked the names of the Droids in the Star Wars universe: R2-D2 (aka Artoo-Deetoo), C-3PO (aka See-Threepio), R5-D4 (aka "Red").   So here is N.N.I.S 2.L.B. (aka Ananias Toolbee).  His right arm appendage can be fitted with a variety of tools.  

Another character on the  Justice Allies  cartoon is The Green Man.    The character adds to the diversity of the team by representing the British Isles.  Is an extremely powerful, extremely mysterious, and extremely quiet of the team.   Behind the Scenes:  The Green Man is a mash up of sorts between the Green Lantern from the Super Friends cartoons and the Swamp Thing, who had his own cartoon series in the early 1990s.  While the Swamp Thing cartoon lasted only five episodes, it did spawn some action figures, including a Swampy that is in scale with the awesomely perfect Super Powers Green Lantern action figure.     

Another character on the  Justice Allies cartoon is Champion.   The character was created to headline his own Saturday morning cartoon, but due to various licensing agreements, he was added to the Justice Allies cast instead.   Behind the Scenes: In the first newsstand comic book featuring the one, true Captain Marvel, Billy Batson walks down an ancient underground hall, carved out of solid rock, with cartoonish statues lining the left side.  These, a sign says, are the Seven Deadly enemies of Man--Pride, Envy, Greed, Hatred, Selfishness, Laziness, and Injustice.  At the end of the hallway sits an old, old man, the wizard named SHAZAM!  When Billy speaks the wizard's name, he is endowed with gifts and powers of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury (names which form the acronym SHAZAM!).  In designing my Captain Marvel analog, I wanted to play with the same concepts, so I chose Seven Virtues which the mysterious Spirit uses to emp...