July 23, 2008
The Flash Companion debuts at Comic-Con International in San Diego this week. Also, the trade for Countdown to Adventure is out with a couple of alternate-reality Flashes.
The Flash Companion
The Flash Companion details the publication histories of the four heroes who have individually earned the right to be declared DC Comics’ “Fastest Man Alive”: Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, and Bart Allen.
With articles about legendary creators Shelly Mayer, Gardner Fox, E.E. Hibbard, Julius Schwartz, Robert Kanigher, John Broome, Ross Andru, Irv Novick and all new interviews of Harry Lampert, Carmine Infantino, Cary Bates, Alex Saviuk, Mike W. Barr, Marv Wolfman, Mike Baron, Jackson Guice, Mark Waid, Kolins, among others, The Flash Companion recounts the scarlet speedster’s evolution from the Golden Age to the 21st century.
Also featured are “lost covers,” never before published commission pieces by Flash artists throughout the decades, a Rogues Gallery detailing The Flash’s most famous foes, a tribute to late artist Mike Wieringo by Mark Waid, a look at the speedster’s 1990s TV show, and “Flash facts” detailing pivotal moments in Flash history.
[Note: check out this blog's Flash Companion coverage for previews, podcasts and more.]
Written by Keith Dallas, with a cover by Don Kramer (Detective Comics, JSA) with colors by Moose Baumann (Green Lantern).
Countdown to Adventure TPB
Collecting the 8-issue miniseries spinning out of 52, featuring the adventures of Animal Man, Starfire, Adam Strange, the mysterious new character Forerunner and more! Can they prevent San Diego from being wiped out by the enigmatic Healers?
[Note: This book features several alternate-reality Flashes, including Lady Flash of the Conjurers of Earth-33, and the Nazi speedster of Earth-10.]
Written by Adam Beechen; Art by Eddy Barrows and Julio Ferreiro and others; Cover by Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert
Justice League of America #23
It’s all-out Amazon fury against Amazo! Wonder Woman is the last Leaguer standing against the souped-up android — and the prize is Red Tornado’s body!
Written by Dwayne McDuffie; Art and cover by Ed Benes
July 22, 2008
DC’s Direct Channel newsletter reports that Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge #1 and Final Crisis: Requiem have sold out at the publisher. Both will be going back for second printings to be released on August 13 — a week before issue Rogues’ Revenge #2 arrives.
According to the release, the reprint will have “a recolored version of the issue’s cover by Scott Kolins.” Since the same artist did both covers (warning to low-bandwidth users: image-intensive page), it’s not clear which cover will be used for the reprint.
Update (Wednesday): ComicNewsi has the cover designs. They’re using the Captain Cold art with the sliver design.
1. Lying in the Gutters comments on Rogues’ Revenge:
If “Captain Britain” is the “Secret Invasion” spinoff that’s more entertaining than the series it spins off from, then “Rogue’s Revenge” is the “Final Crisis” spinoff that you can actually understand and enjoy, even if you have no idea of the continuity and characters it refers to?
2. CBR has an article on True Believers, the Marvel mini-series by 1970s Flash writer Cary Bates, including 6 pages of preview art. The first issue comes out next week.
3. Flash Companion author Keith Dallas has posted his San Diego schedule:
On Thursday from 3-4PM I’ll be a panelist on “TwoMorrows Publishing Today” in Room 10.
I’ll also be at the TwoMorrows booth (#1215) autographing The Flash Companion during these dates and times:
Thursday, 4-5pm
Friday, 3-4pm
Saturday, 11-12pm
Musician Tom Smith (author of the Talk Like a Pirate Day theme song and Girl Genius’ Transylvania Polygnostic University Fight Song, and a.k.a. filkertom on LiveJournal) is in the hospital after a nasty injury, facing expensive surgery and months of hospital bills…without insurance. And of course he can’t work while he’s in the hospital.
A bunch of other musicians in the filk community have put together a benefit album, “Mr. Smith Goes to the Hospital,” and are providing it as a download for people who donate to help him cover the bills.
What is filk music? There’s no solid consensus, but I think the simplest answer is: music about other media, by its fans. Songs about Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings, for instance. Arguably “The Ballad of Barry Allen” could be considered a filk. Sometimes with original music, often setting new lyrics to other people’s songs (“piggyback filk”). Most filkers just do it as a hobby (I’ve written a few filksongs myself, mostly back in high school and college), but some manage to eke out a living — or supplement one — by performing and selling recordings.
My wife and I have picked up a couple of his albums since we heard “Five Years” — a Babylon 5 filk to the tune of Barenaked Ladies’ “One Week” — at a Loscon a few years ago (back when we still went to Loscon).
(News found via Girl Genius. Cross-posted at K-Squared Ramblings.)
July 21, 2008
DC has posted its solicitations for October 2008.
The Flash #245
Flash learns that nothing is safe anymore as Queen Bee causes an attack on his house and Linda. Guest-starring Black Lightning!
October 15, 2008. Written by Alan Burnett. Art by Paco Diaz and Drew Geraci. Cover by Brian Stelfreeze.
Team books and more after the cut: Read the rest of this entry »
Newsarama has an interview with Grant Morrison dealing with Final Crisis #2. At one point they ask about the Flashes’ role, and that final page. “Run!”
Newsarama: And towards the end of the issue – given their experiences, Flashes have an almost inherent higher understanding of time and dimensions as well as frequencies and vibrations…but we, as readers, don’t. So where is Barry running in from at the end?
Grant Morrison: Barry has been in the Speed Force, beyond life and death. Keep reading for the answers to these and other mysteries.
Two more weeks…
Newsarama: Grant Morrison: Final Crisis #2
When Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins took over The Flash in 2001, they set about redefining two things: Keystone City, and the Flash’s Rogues. Johns has a talent for taking a concept, finding the core of what makes it work, and refocusing on that without throwing everything else away. Suddenly, a guy who wears a parka and carries a cold gun, another who dresses in orange and green and carries trick mirrors, and another who wears bright green and controls the weather became credible threats and interesting characters — all without a world-shattering retcon*. Sadly, that aspect has been missing in the treatment of the characters for the last few years.
Johns and Kollins have reunited for Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge, and the book feels like they never left. Originally designed as a stand-alone miniseries that would resolve lingering plot threads from Full Throttle and Salvation Run, it’s been tied into Final Crisis.
The setup is simple: The Rogues are tired. They’ve been through hell, and they’re ready to get out of the game. But there’s one thing they have to do first: Get back at the kid they feel is responsible for their current state: Inertia, who talked them into the caper on which they killed a Flash.
First-time Flash readers should have an easy time getting into the world. The book establishes who the Rogues are, what motivates them, and what their powers are right in the first few pages. Long-time readers will enjoy seeing characters like Iris Allen, or Keystone City’s Department of Metahuman Hostilities (basically, the cops’ Rogue specialists).
The book is dark. (Often literally, since most of it seems to take place either at night or in the rain.) It’s about villains. The only heroes who appear are in flashbacks, except for the Pied Piper, who’s ridden the line between hero and villain for years, and the police. There’s a truly chilling scene when the book picks up Inertia’s story. But it’s different from Secret Six or Villains United in that those were primarily action pieces. This reads more like a crime drama with costumes — say, an episode of The Sopranos with freeze guns instead of swearing.
In some ways this book seems like a course correction. Sort of a “I handed over these characters and you did what with them? Here, let me fix it.” But while most of the first issue is setup, it’s working as a story.
The only drawback is that it’s hard to tell when this takes place. It’s firmly fixed in terms of Final Crisis, with references galore to the events in that series, but it’s less clear how it fits into the monthly Flash book. Presumably the editors have been coordinating, and this simply takes place after the current storyline, though DC hasn’t had a great track record over the last year. It’s only a minor irritant, though, unless you consider continuity to be more important than any other aspect of comic-book storytelling.
*I’m using “retcon” here in the sense of replacing a character’s history, not in the sense of filling it in. Because filling it in is exactly what Johns did on his Flash run.
July 19, 2008
Flash Companion author Keith Dallas has appeared on several podcasts in the last few months.
May 1: TwoMorrows Tune-In #8
May 14: Views from the Longbox Episode #39: The Keith Dallas Conversation Part 1
May 28: Views from the Longbox Episode #40: The Keith Dallas Conversation Part 2
July 9: Alter Ego Comic Cast #107 with Keith Dallas and Jim Beard
Also, it turns out that while TwoMorrows will have copies to sell next week at Comic-Con International in San Diego, it probably won’t hit stores until July 30.
July 18, 2008
A few months ago, artist Cliff Chiang (Green Arrow/Black Canary) posted some old sketches he did of an anime-inspired Justice League. He describes them as “basically a mix of DC, old school anime and kaiju.”
This version of the Flash is clearly based on Speed Racer (especially with the car and the “Go Go Go!” caption), with the visor reminiscent of Racer X.
(via scans_daily)
July 17, 2008
Various news bits today:
Newsarama interviews Joe Casey on his upcoming Velocity series starring the speedster from Cyberforce
Justice League: The New Frontier has been nominated for an Emmy award (via Blog@Newsarama)
Mike Schramm of Joystiq got to play a demo of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe at E3 last weekend. (via Blog@Newsarama)
For their part, [senior designer Brian] Lebaron did say that Midway is trying to push the line as much as possible, both with DC and with the ESRB (the game is set to be rated T): he showed us a Scorpion fatality against the Flash where Bart Allen (at least we saw him as Bart Allen — when we asked Lebaron which Flash he was, Midway said they weren’t choosing a certain one) fell to the ground, his costume and skin charred and burned.
