June 4, 2010
What is it with speedsters and delays?
Top Cow has sent out a press release announcing the June 30 launch of Velocity #1. On a whim, I re-checked DC’s website, and found that Flash #3, previously scheduled for June 23, had been quietly rescheduled for the same day.
The delays on the second half of Flash: Rebirth are the stuff of legend. I know I’m not the only one who hoped that the new series might be able to stay on top of the schedule a bit better, and the first two issues did arrive right on time, but this is the second delay for issue #3. On the plus side, DC hasn’t rescheduled issues #4 and #5…at least not yet.
More on Velocity
Velocity has had a long, slow road to release, so a couple of extra weeks won’t make much difference. The short version: The 2007 Pilot Season issue won the fan vote for which comic should get picked up for an ongoing series, but delays and creative differences eventually scuttled the book.
The book is finally seeing print as a 4-issue miniseries by Ron Marz and Kenneth Rocafort. Carin Taylor, the fastest woman alive in the Top Cow universe, must beat the clock to save her own life and the lives of her Cyberforce teammates from a deadly techno-virus.
June 3, 2010
Bleeding Cool reports on the results of French fashion designers taking inspiration from DC Comics characters. Among the results: €175.59 Flash Ballerina Shoes.
The imperfectly-translated writeup on the listing:
Why “Flash”? We liked the idea to create a ballerina inspired by “Flash”, to keep only the flash of lighting of his great male powers and to put it in women feet!” — Repetto.
More images of this odd fusion at the listing, plus more examples of comics couture at the Bleeding Cool article. The shoes are on the cheap side of a collection that includes €1663.88 Catwoman boots.
Over at The Source, DC has unveiled several variant covers for upcoming books, including Greg Horn’s cover for The Flash #3 .
The Flash #3 is scheduled to arrive in stores on June 23 June 30.
June 2, 2010
Remember, comics arrive on Thursday this week due to Memorial Day!
This week, DC reprints the first issue of Flash: Rebirth as part of its “What’s Next? Graphic Novels You Should Be Reading” series.
Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, the team behind GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH and THE SINESTRO CORPS WAR, create this jaw-dropping issue that reintroduced Barry Allen as The Flash, now reprinted for just $1.00! But how will this greatest of all Flashes find his place in the twenty-first century? This issue is featured in THE FLASH: REBIRTH HC (DEC090206)
I believe this marks the fifth printing the issue. Check out the covers for the first four.
Also Flash-related:
- Final Crisis Trade Paperback (featuring Wally West, Jay Garrick, and the return of Barry Allen)
- Justice Society of America #39 (featuring Jay Garrick and Liberty Belle)
- JSA All-Stars #7 (featuring Liberty Belle)
June 1, 2010
Today’s Shirt Woot features yet another visual pun linking Apple’s war on the Flash animation format to the super-hero.
The T-shirts, designed by Lim Heng Swee, are already sold out at the $10 debut price, but they’ll be back tomorrow at $15.
As always, the write-up is worth checking out for gems like this:
Listen, Adobe. I come to you under a white flag to try and warn you: a little collateral damage like a dead JLA member isn’t going to stop this guy. He’s put out an iFatwa on all things Flash, and he doesn’t let a failed launch set him back.
(Tip of the hat to @ElfGrove for the news, and @ryanoneil for pointing out that they’ll be back tomorrow!)
The Grand Comics Database needs better scans of the original Flash Comics. In particular, the following two covers are marked as needing replacement:
That said, there are quite a few others that are either low-quality scans or scans of badly deteriorated comics. If you have any copies of Flash Comics or All-Flash in decent condition, I’m sure they’d appreciate it if you’d help them out by improving their cover database!
Most of my own Golden Age collection is coverless, or in poor enough condition that it wouldn’t be worth contributing, though I was able to submit a few of the later All-Flash covers.
I actually have a copy of that Flash Comics Miniature Edition, and considered sending a scan, until I pulled it out of the box and saw what condition it was in:
As you can see, it’s in worse shape than the one they’ve got! This isn’t terribly surprising. One of the previous owners of this copy wrote a note on the back of the board:
Wheaties giveaway, 1946. All known copies were taped to Wheaties boxes and are never found in mint condition.
Yeah, that might cause a problem…
It makes me wonder what the print run was on books like this. How many copies were taped to cereal boxes and shipped to markets nationwide? How many were removed carefully, and how many were summarily ripped from the packaging? How many were treasured, and how many discarded?
Oh, yeah, you’re probably wondering: Who’s that pointy-headed guy on the cover? That’s Dmane, a one-shot villain (as so many of them were those days) billed as “The Criminal From Tomorrow,” who used futuristic technology to perform miraculous feats in the present day. (Sound familiar?) It’s also an early case in which Jay Garrick travels through time under his own power with perfect accuracy.
