I loved the flashback story-telling you used, JB (forgive me if this isn't the proper terminology).  At first I thought Robotman was really taking a beating from you, always in some degree of disrepair, until I read a Showcase collection of their first tales - you could practically tell where you were in the story by how much of Cliff was still around to participate!

"At the very end of the last issue, when Cliff gets his updated robot body, the slight change in his costume tells us something without having to hit us over the head with that information in a way that wouldn't be appropriate for younger readers."

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I was in my thirties when that came out and it went right over my head until reading your post this morning.  I just assumed JB was restoring Robotman to his more familiar appearance so as to put the toys back in the box the way he found them.  I'm going to have to go back and reread that (I loved JB's DOOM PATROL).

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That was my sole intent!

The guy in the wheelchair being leader is just one of those coincidences that turn up from time to time.

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I sort of do, too! There was still a lot to be done with those two, with or without the Doom Patrol.

JB, thanks for letting me know that nothing went over my head after all.

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Certainly worked out that way! Funny thing was, when I started work on the series, I had no clear idea of who Nudge and Grunt were, beyond the fact that she was Asian under all that grunge, and that they were "linked" in some way. It's been a curious aspect of my career that some of my best creations have started like this. Alpha Flight, for instance, were virtual cyphers when I introduced them in UNCANNY X-MEN.

JB's was the first DP that I really checked out.  It created enough of an interest that I followed up with the other Doom Patrols. I am pretty glad I those experiences.