2010 Justice League of America #217 Twin Pocket Folder and Notebook Style #3009DC

I grew up watching the Superfriends cartoon, but it was this 1983 George Pérez comic book cover that made me realize that the Justice League of America was an entirely different beast. This remains one of my favorite covers of all time, so when Rob Kelly blogged about a stretchable fabric book cover, I pricked up my ears, even though I had no use for such a thing. Then The Irredeemable Shag posted about a notebook with the art at Firestorm Fan, and I figured I could always use a writing tablet. In fact, my girlfriend was pushing for me to buy a bunch of school supplies, since she's a student and Office Depot junkie, and I'm just getting started with my full time continuing education. I showed her the blog post, and the very next day, she gave me the 2010 Wonder Woman #302 Notebook and Twin Pocket Folder, the JLofA ones, and another besides. Woo-hoo!



The simple twin pocket folder has a consistent color scheme from front to back and on into the interior pockets. The inside wall is white, though, and the actual art stops on the front cover. The back cover has a nice big DC 75th anniversary logo with art by Ed Benes and Jim Lee, plus a smaller version in the bottom left corner.



Now, here's the original cover from '83, and this clearly is not a Detroit era job, with Superman hogging up so much of the space. Unusually, our girl Zatanna manages a prominent center position, slightly overshadowed by Wonder Woman, but the white of her costume really draws your eye. In fact, whenever I think of this cover, it's Zatanna, Superman and Wonder Woman I most easily recall, in that order. Typically, finding more of our guys takes some scanning around. Unfortunately, that only amounts to the men Elongated and Aquatic, and both suffer the indignity of having their legs chopped off thanks to the funky cropping job done on these school supplies. Ralph comes out the best of the two, since he's got the neck stretch thing, making his the biggest head shot around. The only thing fish out of Waterman had going for him was a dramatic sprint, which is totally negated here. If you can't find Batman or Martian Manhunter, it's because they're not there. J'Onn J'Onzz was a year out from returning top Earth, while the Dark Knight had quit the group with Green Arrow/Green Lantern flair to form the Outsiders.

I like to treat Firestorm as an associate of the team, and he looks nice there at the lower left, but I think he deserved Red Tornado's spot. Then again, Red Tornado never deserves a spot, so Metamorpho would be an improvement. Come to think of it, notice the absence of the Flash and Green Lantern? I didn't, which is a testament to the grandeur George Pérez lends and the undervalued quality of later Satellite Era additions!



Moving on to the notebook, you can see that judicious photoshopping was applied to the original cover price and UPC code, which I think turned out okay. The art dimensions on the folder and notebook worked out so that they're nearly identical, which puts aside the disparities in art reproduction found on other covers in this line.



Innovative Designs, LLC puts these out under the DC Comics Originals branding. The notebook itself is great, with sturdy but flexible rubber binding that won't warp like my old aluminum ones did back in grade school. The covers are cardboard, and a tad then, but a quality glossy stock. The inside covers are black, with eighty wide ruled lined pages in between. I have to say again that I'm not only very happy to have such swell looking supplies, but that they offer the rare inclusion of non-headliner Motor City Leaguers, especially Zatanna!