Speed Force

• The Law of Traffic Congestion, according to “The Flash!” (Planetizen)
• On the Hunt: Finding Back Issues, Then and Now (this week’s Wayback Wednesday here at Speed Force)
• Our Valued Customers: While his friend was about to buy a Flash shirt…
• Our Valued Customers: As his dad picked him up and carried him out of the store…
• This Flash vs. Superman race is so fast, it’s over between two panels. (Single Synapse Theory on JLA #59)
• DC December Sales Analysis at The Beat
• K is for Kid Flash by Mista M (via FFA)
• White Lantern Flash will never defeat the ultimate source of the colour spectrum. (The Rogues Kick Ass)
• Actually, there’s a ton of new stuff at Lia’s The Rogues Kick Ass and at Devin’s Fastest Fan Alive this week.

Some weekend linkblogging…

• The Adventures of Flash and Treebeard at Titanzer. Now, Flash, don’t be hasty.
• The DC Universe Calendar listed Wally West’s birthday as January 16. Update As Lia points out below, today is the Top’s birthday, and Grodd’s birthday was on the 13th.
• HEROES!: FLASHFACTS! #4
• The Flash Noir – 1940s airman-style Flash costume by ChrisBrand (via Geek Tyrant)
• Who is Speed Gordon? (CSBG/Comic Legends Revealed)
• Fusion of physics, comics gives speaker great power, responsibility (appropriately enough, at Cary Bates’ alma mater)
• Celtic Supergirl, Puritan Green Lantern, Cavegirl Squirrel Girl and more (CSBG/The Line, It Is Drawn)
• Update: That F’ing Monkey has started up Flash Friday again, featuring a 70s Flash station wagon and Impulse in Takes from the Brain Jar (Humberto Ramos convention sketch.) Update: Fixed the broken HTML

Weekend linkblogging. First the Flashy stuff…

• How I would plot a Flash movie trilogy arc thing (Mightygodking)
• All Flash has to do is act naturally (Robot6 / Grumpy Old Fan)
• Two more Wally West redesigns by Brett Booth from a rejected series proposal. Update: his blog post about the pitch and the designs.

More comics stuff…

• Why DC’s New 52 cancellations might be a bit early at CSBG
• This article is on selecting a WorldCon bid, but the section on how people rank bids seems to apply to how people choose conventions.
• I don’t know what’s weirder: that Hostess is filing for bankruptcy
• More animated classic covers by Kerry Callen (via Robot6
• Geoff Johns on re-thinking comics for tablets (Variety)
• New DC Comics flash drives from Mimobot…and yes still no Flash flash drive.
• Inside Pulse’s Skitch asks: Was DC Comics Wrong to Relaunch?
• Be Careful What You Wish For – ComicBook.com on bringing comic books back from the dead.

Now that the site’s up and I have a little time to collect these, here’s your regularly-scheduled weekend linkblogging!

Flash-specific

• Tyranny of the Ochlocracy: Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato’s ‘Flash’ (Comics Alliance)
• Name That Flash Artist! (CSBG)
• The M0vie Blog reviews Geoff Johns’ Run on The Flash – The Dastardly Death of the Rogues & The Road to Flashpoint

Fred Hembeck redoes the Flash/Robin deathtrap cover (TRKA)

• A look behind the scenes at Flash #4 – art by Francis Manapul

More DC

• The Greatest Super-Villian Weapon Ever? Hal Jordan vs. an angry-looking bird (Kerry Callen)
• Agent of S.T.Y.L.E. – Simplifying the DC NEW 52 (Newsarama)
• Starman Week at That F’ing Monkey
• Cliff Chiang’s classic-anime-style Justice League of Japan designs are spotlighted at at Project Rooftop. (Previously covered here.)
• Collected Editions reviews Chase, the long-awaited (and complete) collection of one of my favorite comics from the late 1990s

More Comics

• DC Fifty-TOO! has relaunched as…RELAUNCHED!
• A real martial artist who is also a contortionist tackles the most common female superhero pose, and posts a follow-up. (via The Beat)
• Convention photos from the 1980s at The Mary Sue
• Who Killed the Newsstand Market? (The Beat). Be sure to read the comments or more info.
• The 50 Best Covers of 2011 (Robot 6)
• Talking Comic Books reviews Foster #1 by Brian Buccellato
• Comic Book Fans, Where’s the Intelligent Discussion? (League of Comic Geeks)

A little linkblogging for the new year…

• Kadabra and Inertia talk temporal mechanics in “Full Throttle.” While I had problems with the way Kadabra (and the rest of the Rogues) were portrayed in this story, this page stands out. Don’t try to bamboozle a time traveling geek from the future from the future with your own tech.
• George Kambadais Cuts Loose With Redesigned Superhero Costumes (ComicsAlliance)
• UGO’s Top 10 Comic Book Characters That Should Have Stayed Dead
• LA Weekly rates the Top Southern California conventions of 2011. Long Beach Comic Con is rated best for aspiring artists, while Comikaze Expo takes best new convention.
• Lots of new stuff at The Rogues Kick Ass
• The New 52 Flash makes CNN Geek Out’s best comics of 2011 list.
• Comicly is a new comic news directory.
• CHASE Writer Looks Back on the Now-Collected series (Newsarama). Great book, highly recommended. Get the TPB. Seriously, it’s always at the top of my list when asked about favorite canceled comics.
• Greg Elias’ favorite comics of 2011
• Why GoDaddy was targeted for a successful boycott over their SOPA support, as opposed to, say, Marvel or DC. (Speaking of domain registrars/web hosts, my host, DreamHost, has a discount code for those who still want to switch or want new hosting. If you decide to go with them, please mention kelson at pobox dot com as the person who referred you – I’ll get some credit off my next bill!)
• DC November sales analysis at The Beat
• Brian Buccellato talks about his upcoming creator-owned comic, Foster at Newsarama and at Comic Vine.

Steven Ogden asks:

I’m a huge Flash fan. He’s without a doubt my favorite superhero. Unfortunately, there’s only one thing I don’t understand: the Speed Force. I don’t understand how Barry Allen created the Speed Force. Is it some kind of magical force? Hope not, not a big magic fan. If anyone can take the time to help a Flash fan out I’d appreciate it.

Well, Steve, there are a couple of ways to look at the speed force, from simple to complicated. Let’s start with simple.

The name is a little misleading. The speed force is basically a field of energy which exists just outside reality. Speedsters like the Flash can tap into this energy, which makes it possible for them to perform feats of amazing speed. With practice, they can learn to manipulate this energy as well, stealing and lending speed from other objects (or people). It also produces an aura that protects them from friction, so they don’t burn up running through the air at a zillion miles an hour.

If the Flash draws too much energy (basically, by running past the speed of light, the cosmic speed limit), he risks losing himself in the field. In the pre-Flashpoint universe, this has happened to Max Mercury, Johnny Quick, Barry Allen, Wally West and Savitar, among others. Wally was the first to return from this fate, but not the last.

Then things get complicated. Read the rest of this entry »

Weekend linkblogging!

Flashy links

• Super Adventures in Gaming: The Flash (GB).
• Eyz reviews the same game, and adds fan art.
• Flash shot glasses spotted by @TheFlashReborn (twitter.com) & (twitter.com)
• How a Flash vs. Batman fight would end – Conventionless Convention Sketch by Gene Gonzales

Captain Cold vs. the Mole Man by Mark Engblom, from the Profiles in Villainy series at Comic Coverage

• Custom Mini-mates Rogues by Boyd at TRKA
• There’s a ton of new Rogues stuff at The Rogues Kick Ass, including a series of comic panels converted to look like the style of that old 1990 video game.

More comics

• Doctor Doom vs. Santa Claus by Ty Templeton
• Recommended webcomic: Real Life by Greg Dean. A mix of observational humor, geek humor, and the occasional scifi adventure
• Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether by Rucka & Burchett – Steampunk/Western/Pirates adventure
• How Soon is Too Soon to Judge a Serialized Story? – This week’s Wayback Wednesday feature here at Speed Force
• If Hollywood controlled the web
• Justice League of the Internet – major websites as super-heroes (Caldwell Tanner at CollegeHumor)

More stuff.

• The 20 Unhappiest People You Meet In The Comments Sections Of Year-End Lists. If you’ve ever read the comments on best-of lists, you’ve seen these. (via @Ragnell)

Your regularly scheduled weekend linkblogging…

First the Flash & Speedster stuff

• Manapul and Buccellato talk Captain Cold Redesign at CBR
• How Captain Cold got his powers, as speculated by /co/
• Flash onesies at That F’ing Monkey. I’m sure no one will be surprised that J has two of these.
• Silver Age Comics on The Flash’s Final Fling–Twice
• Flash Companion Preview: Lost Gold – Unpublished Flash Stories from the Golden Age (this week’s Wayback Wednesday)
• The Full Run: Mark Waid’s Flash (Part 2) – Comics Bulletin
• Touch of Grey’s Flash Collection
• Art Deco/Miminalist Flash & Zoom by Omnibit Designs
• A Flash bow tie – seems appropriae.
• Some blond guy cameos in The Thessaliad, a Sandman spinoff by Bill Willingham
• DCUO: Lightning Strikes trailer. I’ve lost track of whether we’ve already linked to this one from here or not.
• Character designs: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents: Lightning (the team’s resident speedster)
• Flash by Yildiray Cinar (via SpeedsterSite)
• They found Wally.
• There’s a ton of new stuff at The Rogues Kick Ass this week.

More comics-related stuff

• The Shade con sketch by Cully Hamner
• Art: 30 DC characters in a marching line by Ilias Kyriazis (via Robot 6)
• Top 10 Comic Book TV Shows at ComicBook.com. The Flash makes the list. Click through to see what else does.
• Top Ten Ways to Improve The Comic Book Retail Experience – Comics Bulletin
• With all the New 52 creative team changes, Grumpy Old Fan looks back at some notable changings of the guard at DC from the past 20 years.
• Ask Chris is Talking About Azrael, the 1990s and You at ComicsAlliance
• Comics Should Be Good celebrates 7 years! Congratulations!
• The Line It Is Drawn: Team-ups and Farewells at CSBG
• DC VP John Rood Discusses Nov. Sales Win & Future Plans at Newsarama
• Long Beach Comic Con is on Google+.

And beyond comics.

• Yes, I actually found one: Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart (Photo) – Check the sporting goods department and ask for Ash. See if they have any specials on boom sticks.
• Lunar Eclipse photos – I woke up early Saturday morning to watch the eclipse, then stayed out to watch the sunrise.

Weekend linkblogging…

• Predicting the next wave of the New 52 – Grumpy Old Fan at Robot 6
• Boilerplate for All Future Comics Articles (via @RedditComicBook)
• Celebrate Stan Lee’s 89th birthday with Shift My Gift and the Hero Initiative
• Something I found while unpacking.
• The Fearsome Powers of the Shade! Fortunately The Shade was a catchier name than The Air Purifier, and he got better powers in the Silver Age. (This was the Wayback Wednesday post for the week)
• I’m not sure who would want their underwear to say “the fastest man alive,” but hey, whatever floats your boat. ‘Heroes will rise’ in Diesel’s new DC Comics underwear – Robot 6
• Francis Manapul’s final Movember report (not a typo)
• The Terrific Whatzit returns as That F’ing Monkey reports on Salamander Smackdown from the DC-Super-Pets series.
• James Robinson is concerned about low orders on The Shade. The Beat and Grumpy Old Fan respond.
• Added: Eleflash on Threadless
• Updated: The Gutters on Gareb Shamus/Wizard World, redrawn after (apparently) Shamus threatened the original artist’s job, leading to the artist asking the site to take down his version of the strip. Relevant.

TwoMorrows is going beyond Cyber Monday to hold a full “Cyber Week” sale, putting their entire back-stock of books on sale for 50% off. That includes the Companion books focusing on characters, teams and series, the Modern masters books focusing on artists, and more.

If you’ve been eyeing that Flash Companion cover in the sidebar for a while and haven’t picked it up, now’s your chance. I’m planning to pick up the hardcover edition of Carmine Infantino: Penciler Publisher Provocateur. Fans of the Flash in the 1990s may also be interested in the Modern Masters: Mike Wieringo book.

The sale on Twomorrows’ website runs through December 5.