Speed Force

Salutations Speed Readers,

For those that haven’t heard yet there were some pics shown off at New York Comic Con this past weekend of the “New 52″ action figures coming up from DC Direct next year. As expected there were a few pictures shown of the new Flash action figure; TNI and Toy Ark have the goods:

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Over the NYCC weekend, DC unveiled the Teen Titans #5 cover. Artist Brett Booth points out that it’s not Kid Flash’s final costume.

@SpeedsterSite Haha! Barts second ‘costume’ relieved at last;) One more to go!

October 16, 2011 12:22 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@Demonpuppy

Brett Booth

In addition to Bart Allen, Brett Booth has also been drawing Wally West a lot lately (for fun, not for any official comics), and spoke with Speed Force last week. Update: And now he’s posted a Max Mercury sketch.

DC’s Justice League Group for January is up on The Source, including The Flash #5.

THE FLASH #5
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
Variant cover by GARY FRANK
1:200 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale JANUARY 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Central City in chaos! Iris West captive in Iron Heights prison! And as Flash tries to deal with all of it, he must also try to save the life of his old friend Manuel Lago from Mob Rule, DC Comics’ hottest new Super Villain!

“It’s a reboot” explains the existence of continuity changes. It doesn’t justify them. Good or bad, those new or altered characters, settings and concepts have to be judged on their own merits, not on whether there was an editor’s note explaining why it doesn’t line up with older stories.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my fundraising efforts to raise money for research and education in the FAAN Walk for Food Allergy. The walk is coming up next weekend in Santa Monica, California.

I’d like to thank Damon, Devin, Greg, and Jesse for sponsoring me. Your donations will make a huge difference, maybe not in my life, but certainly in the lives of people like me who have to deal with potentially lethal reactions to ordinary food day in and day out.

You can help with any amount down to US $10. If you’d like to contribute, please donate at my fundraising page.

And if you’d like to spread the word, that helps too. Please use this link: http://bit.ly/allergywalk

Thank you!

Flash #1 Sells Estimated 129K in US, Over 150K Worldwide

ICv2′s September sales estimates are out, and The Flash #1 is ranked #4 on the charts with 129,260 units sold. Those are US-only numbers, based on sales through Diamond, and DC states that the book has sold over 150,000 copies worldwide. Let’s stick with the ICv2 numbers for now, though, because they’re the ones I’ve been tracking over the last few years, which means we can compare trends over time.

The new Flash #1 does in fact beat the previous record-holder, Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1 (2006, starring Bart Allen), which sold an estimated 126,741 copies after reorders.

I’m only listing the launches here, since none of the series lasted long enough to find its level and start building back up. Flash: TFMA (Bart) dropped to around 46K before experiencing a Countdown-powered uptick. The relaunched Flash vol.2 (Wally) dropped into the 20s, about half the numbers it was pulling in before Infinite Crisis, when it peaked at 50K for the final issue of Geoff Johns’ first run. Flash: vol.3 (Barry) seemed to level out around 54K over its last few issues.

It’s obvious that a lot of the success of this issue is due to the massive relaunch. But at the same time, while DC’s 52 #1s sold phenomenally well overall, they didn’t all sell over 100,000 copies. This has driven home the fact that the Flash really is one of DC’s top-tier characters. Even if half the general public thinks his name is Gordon, they at least know he’s the guy in red who runs fast. He really is cancellation-proof.

The real question now, of course, is how many of those readers who picked it up to try it out will stick around. Based on the last six years, I think if the book is still selling well over 55K a year from now, DC can count this Flash relaunch a success. If not, well…fifth time’s the charm, right?

A few key articles covering past sales (with lots of numbers):

• Flash Sales 1996-2002
• Flash Sales 2001-2008
• Flash: Rebirth & Blackest Night Sales
• Flash vol.3 Sales

As an artist working on DC Comics’ New 52, Brett Booth regularly deals with speed in the form of Kid Flash in Teen Titans.  Written by Scott Lobdell, Titans features Booth on both covers and interiors. as well as character designs.  The veteran artist is next featured in issue #2, due October 26th.

Booth has also received attention recently for his unofficial portrayals of Wally West, the third and now erstwhile Flash, as posted on his blog.  Starting with a post on August 24th, Booth has given his fans a couple of different looks at his redesign of West as Flash, including finished versions with colors by Andrew Dalhouse.

We caught up with Booth via email and talked about what makes a Flash costume, his take on Wally West and his favorite Flash stories.

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The new Flash writer/artist team, Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato, are both scheduled to be at New York Comic Con this weekend. You can also catch the Flashpoint team of Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert.

In addition to signings, Johns will be on Friday’s DC All Access: Green Lantern panel, and Johns, Manapul and Buccellato will all be on DC All Access: Justice League panel on Saturday.

This is Buccellato’s only east-coast appearance on his fall signing schedule, and the only event this fall where you can meet both halves of the current Flash creative team.

Update: Brian Buccellato has posted his schedule for the convention, including three signings:

FRIDAY October 14th
4-5 PM @ THE DC BOOTH (with Francis Manapul)

SATURDAY October 15th
3-4 PM @ THE DC BOOTH

SUNDAY October 16th
3-4 PM @ THE DC BOOTH (with Francis Manapul)

eBay user sneeze58 is selling a piece of Scott Kolins art which would have been the cover of Flash #13, which was canceled for Flashpoint. The seller explains:

I bought this piece at the 2011 Heroes Con directly from the artist, Scott Kolins. This issue was to have the origin of Reverse Flash by Geoff Johns and Kolins, but was canceled due to the schedule of DC’s Flashpoint. I believe this is the cover rough, I’m not sure if a final cover was done however.The art is on 11×17 bristol, and a larger image is shown below.

It’s still not clear whether the Professor Zoom-focused issue was scrapped completely or repurposed as the Flashpoint: Reverse-Flash one-shot.

A female Blue Lantern Flash costume variation at Baltimore Comicon. Photo by Joey K.