September 14, 2010
Starting in November, Image Comics will publish Halcyon, a five-issue miniseries by Marc Guggenheim (Flash, JSA) and his wife, screenwriter Tara Butters (Dollhouse, Reaper), about what happens to super-heroes when they win the never-ending battle against crime. In an interview with Newsarama, Guggenheim describes several of the major characters, including…
There’s another character named Transom, who’s a speedster. And what’s cool about him is the fact that, once you remove war and crime and any sort of man-made aggression, the only thing left for superheroes to deal with are natural disasters, like plane crashes and earthquakes. The problem is that Transom is the only superhero on the planet who is fast enough to get to these disasters as they’re happening. So he’s the one superhero who’s being run completely ragged, because he’s the only one who’s able to still be a hero.
The “what now?” question has been raised before, even in the DC Universe. Countdown to Final Crisis featured Earth-51, a world in which the heroes managed to eliminate super-crime and retired to pursue civilian careers. Of course, since this was Countdown, the world was created as cannon fodder, so it wasn’t explored much.
Between this book, Justice Society of America, No Ordinary Family, and (if Warner Bros. approves the treatment) the Flash screenplay, Guggenheim is going to be busy with speedsters this fall.
September 13, 2010
Influence Films debuted last year with the fan film Flash: Crossover. For their eighth project, they’re returned to the scarlet speedster with Flash: The Brave and the Bold
When the father of Wally West’s friend is found dead, The Flash races into action. He soon discovers that to solve the case he might need some help and guidance from his friends: Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl.
You can watch the eight-minute video on YouTube.
September 12, 2010
Art & Costumes
News & Interviews
Commentary
September 9, 2010
Jesse Richards sent in these photos of some bizarre Flash merchandise he found:
One is a knockoff of not one, but two, franchises as it’s Homer in a Flash costume. It’s a pretty well-sculpted plastic piece with a surprising amount of articulation but some sloppy painting in places. I got it in a street fair in Brooklyn – no packaging or anything. They had other superheroes, too. I don’t know why he’s angry.
The other one is possibly even weirder … my parents found it at the gift shop at Great Adventure (Six Flags in NJ). There has always been a lot of DC superhero stuff there, but this one is freaky – I thought it was a rat in a Flash costume but now I think it’s a bear in a Flash costume. The hat is the most interesting part, a baseball cap with lightning bolts.
September 8, 2010
In just a few weeks, TwoMorrows Publishing (the company that brought you The Flash Companion
) is releasing Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur, a profile and extensive interview with the legendary artist by Jim Amash and Eric Nolen-Weathington.
The book arrives September 22 in two editions: a 224-page softcover and a 240-page hardcover with an additional 16-page color section not found in the paperback edition.
Even better: They’re offering a free 25-page preview [5.4MB PDF] online, pulled from an extensive interview on launching the Silver Age Flash and the artist’s approach to design, all heavily illustrated.
Carmine Infantino is the artistic and publishing visionary whose mark on the comic book industry pushed conventional boundaries. As a penciler and cover artist, he was a major force in defining the Silver Age of comics, co-creating the modern Flash and resuscitating the Batman franchise in the 1960s. As art director and publisher, he steered DC Comics through the late 1960s and 1970s, one of the most creative and fertile periods in their long history.
Join historian and inker Jim Amash (Alter Ego magazine, Archie Comics) and Eric Nolen-Weathington (Modern Masters book series) as they document the life and career of Carmine Infantino, in the most candid and thorough interview this controversial living legend has ever given, lavishly illustrated with the incredible images that made him a star. Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur shines a light on the artist’s life, career, and contemporaries, and uncovers details about the comics industry never made public until now.
Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur will be available on September 22.
September 7, 2010
Well, sort of.
Next year’s Flash-centered event is still shrouded in secrecy, so when CBR interviewed Andy Kubert at FanExpo, the artist couldn’t say much about Geoff Johns’ story — or even which characters are involved! He did talk about the Flash’s appeal, and his approach to portraying super-speed, but
Comic Vine interviews Francis Manapul about his work on The Flash and his role on the TV series Beast Legends.
Key Flash items:
- The two Rogue Profile issues with art by Scott Kolins were planned to help get the book back on schedule, as well as to add depth to the villains. (No big surprise, here.)
- The second story arc will be even “crazier” than the first. On a scale of 1–10, “we’re gonna aim for 15!”
- Flashpoint will run concurrently with the third story arc in The Flash.
- He can’t say anything about Wally West, but we “may have an answer in a few months.”
The rest of the article focuses on Beast Legends, which is all about tracing the origins of mythological creatures and using modern science to figure out what they would be like if they were real.
He touches briefly on the delays that have plagued The Flash from #4 onward. While working on the show, he’d come back to the hotel from a shoot, sleep, then wake up at 1am to draw through the night and send scans on to DC. “We were able to minimize any major delays to the book, ironically enough it was SDCC that wreaked havoc to the schedule.”
Head over to Comic Vine to read the whole interview!
Beast Legends premieres in the US on SyFy this Thursday, and has been running in Canada on History Television.
Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers interviews Marc Guggenheim about the Green Lantern and Flash movies. Readers of this blog will no doubt appreciate his first quote:
“We’ve turned in the treatment for Flash.”
Next up: the script. “It’s very much one step at a time for The Flash.”
Since Guggenheim, Greg Berlanti and Michael Green are also working on the story for Green Lantern 2, Rogers asked him about possible Flash sequels. They’re not planning one at this stage, but they are open to it.
Guggenheim will be covering two other speedsters while The Flash is in development. He takes over Justice Society of America with issue #44 (scheduled for October), where he’ll write the original Flash, Jay Garrick. He’s also a consulting producer on Berlanti’s TV show No Ordinary Family, which features a speedster played by Julie Benz (Dexter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and premieres on September 28.
I’ve updated two entries over at my Flash reference site, Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning.
First, I’ve posted an updated image of Captain Boomerang. After updating his biography last month, I realized I needed to add an image of his new costume. While I was at it, I also added images of him as a Black Lantern and White Lantern.
Something I’ve been thinking about off and on has been how best to present the Blackest Night Lantern Corps costumes. I finally decided the best choice was to just post them in each character’s profile, though I may do a round-up at some point.
Then I decided that if I was posting Digger’s Black and White Lantern looks, I’d take care of the Reverse-Flash as well. That was when I realized that I hadn’t updated his entry since before Flash: Rebirth. Oops!
So I filled in some more detail on what I had already, then wrote up the key elements that have changed: His resurrection in Blackest Night, his transformation in Flash: Rebirth, and his time-travel campaign against Barry Allen.
Both articles are up to date with the Brightest Day status quo…though I’m sure there will be some new wrinkles coming up in their Rogue Profile issues this fall.
September 6, 2010
That’s some impressive depth of field Wonder Woman is setting up in that shot. No wonder she needs a tripod! (Actually, that would be a seriously old camera for 1947, wouldn’t it?)
Instead of crime-fighting action, Comic Cavalcade‘s covers in the 1940s featured Wonder Woman, the Flash and Green Lantern hanging out together and having fun. Or occasionally doing something more serious, like collecting papers for a wartime recycling drive.
(Comic Cavalcade #21 cover from the Grand Comics Database.)
Starting in November, Image Comics will publish Halcyon, a five-issue miniseries by Marc Guggenheim (Flash, JSA) and his wife, screenwriter Tara Butters (Dollhouse, Reaper), about what happens to super-heroes when they win the never-ending battle against crime. In an interview with Newsarama, Guggenheim describes several of the major characters, including…
