The Legion in Australia

Have you ever wondered what Legion comics look like in other countries? Let's look at how the Legion has appeared in Australia.....

by Siskoid

So I'm rummaging through the Grand Comics Database, and I look up K. G. Murray, a publishing empire that, under one imprint (and one owner) or another, reprinted many American comics from the '30s into the early '80s. Mostly DC Comics, but also the likes of Charlton and Warren, and of every genre. It's fun to look at different countries' repackaging of comics, which would have been predicated on both what was available and,  one imagines, what the companies thought would sell. For example, KGM put out a lot of one-shots pulled from team-up books (which means Superman or Batman always co-star in, say, "Firestorm" and "Nemesis"), or collecting strips that never otherwise had their own series (the early '80s were very keen on western stars like Pow-Wow Smith, Matt Savage, and Scalphunter.) They also stripped down Teen Titans Spotlight to give each hero their own one-shot.

One of the most baffling publishing moves, however, is how they published certain Legion, Superboy, and Supergirl stories (which is why this interests us). Now, KGM obviously had the rights to Superman Family comics, and reprinted from Adventure, Action, World's Finest, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, Superboy and Supergirl. But did they lose the rights to certain logos in the early 80s? That's when THIS came out, for example:

The Adventures of Kal-El features the Superman logo, but not Superboy's. Did they just not have The Adventures of Superboy logo and couldn't put the old one on there? From the same era, The Orphan from Krypton!

The Krypton brand seems to prove useful for Supergirl, too:

Having to create a cover for an interior story in Superman Family might have been at fault... just what are the rules?! KGM has plenty of pasted-up covers with the actual logos (Aquaman and Captain Comet, for example, that most natural of combos), but then they create a whole different Green Lantern logo for Hal Jordan. It's weird. But sticking to the Superboy family, here's how they sold the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Yes, simply, "Super-Heroes." How specific!

I am not Australian, but French-Canada certainly had some reprinting schemes that might look strange from the outside. I kind of wish someone would write a book about this. And if somehow already has, please let us know!