Geoff Johns Leaves ‘JSA’ After #26
Geoff Johns announced his departure from Justice Society of America, after issue #26, at his forum at Comic Bloc.
He wrote:
There will always be a Justice Society of America book in the DC Universe.
I take a lot of pride in that fact because it wasn’t always true.
It’s hard to say this but officially, I will be leaving the title after Justice Society of America #26, which is a single-issue story entitled “Black Adam Ruined my Birthday.” Following the Black Adam arc with Jerry and I, #26 will be my last issue, Dale [Eaglesham]’s last and our fantastic editor Michael Siglain’s last. I think we’re going out on one of my favorite stories to date and I’m glad we are all going out on this together.
I’ve been writing JSA nearly my entire career. The book has steadily gained new and old fans and, with the re-launch two years ago, fixed itself as one of the staples of the DC Universe. Since then we’ve remained one of the top monthly books at DC alongside Justice League of America and Batman. A book starring characters like Jay Garrick, Stargirl, Mr. Terrific and Citizen Steel. Heroes that, I think, most people had written off. But not all of them did.
We got Dr. Mid-Nite from the talented Matt Wagner. And the new Mr. Terrific first appeared in The Spectre under the pen of one of my favorite writers John Ostrander. I brought in Stargirl, who will always be a character I write in one form or another – no matter if I’m on JSA or not. And, above all, I think James Robinson’s run on Starman opened the door for the JSA on a different level.
How’d I get involved in this? Peter Tomasi and David Goyer.
I was asked by them to come on and co-write JSA back in 1999 right when I got into comics. James had left the book after issue #2. David wrote #3 himself and I came in and wrote #4 with him, but without a credit. I got a special thanks to, but that was enough for me. David then wrote #5 and I came on officially with #6, which featured Black Adam way back when. Over the next two years, I worked with David on the book steadily until he left with #25 and returned later through #51.
The JSA to me represents everything good about life, work and superheroes. In life, generations past, present and future all provide different viewpoints. There can be something magical when it’s past from grandfather to father to son or from mother to daughter or son to grandfather. There’s nothing more important than family – and family means a lot more than just blood relatives. That’s what my very first book, Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E., was about and that’s what JSA, and life, is about.
So why am I leaving?
I have more stories to tell, and the characters are endless, but that’s also true for the DC Universe. I’m ready to move on to some other challenges like returning to The Flash and Superman: Secret Origin. And I am also obsessed with making sure that Green Lantern, Blackest Night and everything around it is the absolute best it can possibly be. …and that’s only part of 2009. There are some new projects on the horizon.
I have to thank Dale Eaglesham, Fernando Parasin, Alex Ross, Steve Sadowski, Leonard Kirk, Don Kramer, Jerry Ordway, Michael Bair, Alex Sinclair, Jon Kalisz, Michael Siglain, Steve Wacker, Harvey Richards, Eddie Berganza, Adam Schlagman, Peter Tomasi, David Goyer, James Robinson, Carlos Pacheco and the creators that inspired me – Paul Levitz, Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman.
And although he’s never read the book, Roy Thomas. He held the torch for a long time and did a wonderful job. I wish we could’ve done a project together.
I’m sure I’ll return to the Justice Society in some form or another some day, but for now I’m passing them off a new creative team – one who is already working on the book (job’s taken, sorry guys – and it’s someone who’s never worked with these characters before). I really look forward to reading it.
Thanks for all your support and I’ll see you all soon!
2009’s Free Comic Book Day will be Saturday, May 2 and the Gold Sponsor titles have been announced.
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