Speed Force

The Source has a new article on T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, focusing on the team’s speedster Lightning. Joining regular artist Cafu, ChrisCross steps in to illustrate Lightning’s backstory…and the “crazy-scary toll his new power takes on him.”

ChrisCross is no stranger to speedsters. Two years ago, he was all set to draw the scrapped Velocity series that would have spun out of Top Cow’s first Pilot Season. He completed at least one issue and several covers. The interior art hasn’t seen the light of day, but Top Cow has been using the covers as variants on the current Ron Marz/Kenneth Rocafort Velocity miniseries.

THUNDER Agents #2 goes on sale December 8.

Everything seems to be up on the new server. I’m blogging from the train, so there’s only so much I can test, but with luck this will not only fix the problems the site has been having for the last few days, but also the behind-the-scenes flakiness of the previous few weeks.

There’s been a delay in the server move, and I’m kind of reluctant to add anything substantial until that’s resolved. Soon, I hope.

Meanwhile, my commute is such that I can’t get to the comic store until the weekend, so it’ll be a couple of days (at least) before I can pick up The Flash #6. It’s weird: I mostly don’t mind not being part of the Wednesday crowd anymore, but this is one case where it is kind of frustrating.

I guess at some point I’m going to have to find a new store and move my pull list.

It’s become clear in the last few weeks that two blogs and a couple of static sites at this level of traffic are a bit much for a single shared hosting account. I’ve done my best to configure things so that what you see is affected as little as possible, but there have been ongoing problems with the admin/authoring side exceeding resources. I’m trying out a virtual private server, but that’s run into some problems of its own. Dreamhost is going to try moving the sites to another server to see if that resolves the issue.

Yeah, the timing is lousy with the new Flash issue coming out the same day, but sometimes you just have to bit the bullet.

If the site ends up down for an extended period, you can follow updates on Facebook, Buzz or Twitter.

This week sees the long-awaited release of The Flash #6.

Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:10 Variant cover by ALE GARZA & SANDRA HOPE

BRIGHTEST DAY dashes on with the stunning conclusion of “The Dastardly Deaths of the Rogues!” With Barry caught between the Rogues and the Renegades, the resurrected Captain Boomerang’s role in the adventure is revealed! You won’t believe how this leads to the upcoming FLASHPOINT…

Update (Wednesday): DC has released a 5-page preview which you can read at the Source or at Newsarama.

I’ve posted three Flash T-shirts, one No Ordinary Family T-shirt from Comic-Con International, and the 2009 Long Beach Comic-Con T-shirt on eBay. Two of the shirts — the orange Flash shirt and the first-year Long Beach shirt — feature Michael Turner artwork, the Flash shirt from his cover for The Flash v.2 #207. The No Ordinary Family shirt was given to San Diego Comic-Con attendees who went to the screening and panel.

Please take a look at my listings if you’re interested! All auctions end Sunday, November 21.

Newsarama has a preview of DC’s February solicitations, including…

THE FLASH #11
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:10 Variant cover by SCOTT KOLINS

The road to FLASHPOINT is paved with good intentions, but the Flash is about to learn the truth behind those good intentions — and the secret of Hot Pursuit!

On sale FEBRUARY 23 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Notes: This probably isn’t actually coming out on February 23, since DC just rescheduled Flash #10 for that date. But I’ve got to say, @SpeedsterSite is right: that’s a damn good cover by Francis Manapul!

I guess I’d better update my gallery of Dead Flash Covers.

With less than a week to The Flash #6, and four issues in a row scheduled only two weeks apart, DC has stretched the schedule a bit. Here’s where we’re at now:

Flash #6 on November 17 (two months after #5).
Flash #7 on December 8 (three weeks after #6).
Flash #8 on December 29 (three weeks after #7).
Flash #9 on January 26 (one month after #8).
Flash #10 on February 23 (one month after #9).

Could a normal monthly schedule be in the Flash’s future?

I’ve finished my Long Beach Comic Con write-up! It was a fun convention, very artist– and writer-focused, and definitely worth visiting annually for Southern California comic book fans. Head over to K-Squared Ramblings to read the whole review!

DC’s blog, The Source, has revealed Darwyn Cooke’s variant cover for The Flash #7. It’s an homage to the classic first appearance of the Reverse-Flash in the 1963 Flash #139 (cover via GCD).

It’s a fantastic cover, both in its own right and as an homage…but I think it would be a better fit for the following issue, which actually focuses on Professor Zoom, rather than this one, which is a spotlight on Captain Boomerang.

(Thanks to Wayne Lippa for spotting this one!)

Update: Converted to RGB so those of you on Internet Explorer can actually see it, since it’s the only web browser in major use that can’t display CMYK-based JPEGs.