June 16, 2011
DC has started running a series of ads for Converse shoes featuring different versions of their characters from the Golden Age through the upcoming September relaunch, under the slogan, “Classic Heroes. Classic Shoes.” The Flash ad, seen in pictures at Bleeding Cool, gives us another look at the new Flash costume, and our first view of his boots. [UPDATE: Here's a better scan that I made from Flashpoint: Legion of Doom]
Personally, I think the new boot design (like all the seams on the costume) is a bit busy, but I’ve seen far worse.
The poses are so similar that I’m pretty sure they’re all new art, but whoever did these drawings did a great job mimicking the styles of particular artists over the decades.
Update: We have an explanation for the boots! (Sort of.)
April 20, 2011
Following up on the retailer perspective, here’s what DC wants the reader perspective to be:
I’ve always been kind of ambivalent about this sort of thing. On one hand, it’s nice to have a complete list. On the other, calling it a checklist does sort of imply that you should be getting everything. And while I’m sure the publishers would be thrilled if we all did that, it’s just not feasible for most of us. And I’m sure most DC Comics fans don’t want to read all of these books, just like they don’t want to read every comic that DC publishes.
I’ll give Geoff Johns props for stating up front that it’s a central story with a lot of side stories, and that you only need to read the main miniseries to get a complete story. That’s much better than, for instance, The OMAC Project, where the most important event in the book — the one that continues to have repercussions to this day — happened between two issues of the miniseries, in another comic book.
But it’s still a struggle between the creative team saying, “Read what you want, and I hope you’ll want to read a lot of it,” and the marketing department saying, “Read it all!”
At least it’s not presented as an actual checklist (as these often are), or worse: an ordered list that implies that you have to read the books –all of them — in a particular order to understand what’s going on.
January 7, 2011
Speedster? Check.
“World’s fastest man?” Check.
Skin-tight costume? Check.
Wings on head? Check.
Lightning motif? Check.
Round insignia on chest? Check.
Yellow boots? Check.
I first saw this ad for movietickets.com with 3:10 To Yuma a few years back. You may have seen it. He’s trying to impress his date by running and buying the tickets for their movie while they’re still at dinner. The show’s sold out, but it turns out she’s already bought the tickets online. Amazingly, they’ve got the video clip online…
I haven’t been quite sure what to do with it, since I’m not ready to start in on listing every parody of the Flash to ever appear in media.
Hmm, now that I think about it, the Blur in that Baby Ruth commercial back in the 90s was blue, too.
Originally posted at K-Squared Ramblings in 2007
November 22, 2009
Comics Alliance has a couple of Flashy items: First, a page from the Shortpacked! coloring book: Batman Can Breathe In Space, But Not The Flash.
Second: they look back at a pair of Baby Ruth commercials from the 1990s, featuring Hawkman and an obvious Flash stand-in called the Blur. They have a video clip of the Blur commercial. Fun fact: The Blur was played by Tim Thomerson, who played Barry Allen’s brother Jay in the pilot episode of the 1990 Flash TV show.
Speaking of the Flash TV series, it makes Comic Book Movie’s list of Top Ten Most Accurate Live Action Superhero Costumes
The Secret of Wednesday’s Haul contrasts Ethan Van Sciver and Carmine Infantino in their approaches to conveying speed.
noscans_daily has a Flash Appreciation Post focusing on the character from the animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited TV series.
A Trout in the Milk reviews Wednesday Comics and asks the question: “What have we learned?”
InTylerWeTrust82 casts Superman and the Flash, with some interesting choices for the heroes, their supporting casts, and selected villains.
What Were They Thinking? has an example of Golden Age Flashdickery. Jay Garrick was a bit of a prankster in those days…
October 18, 2009
Some linkblogging for the week…
Flashy
What Were They Thinking?! approves of Joan Garrick, even in her original Golden Age appearances.
High Five! Comics looks at Flash #206: 24 Hours of Immortality and Nurse Barry.
The Idol-Head of Diabolu has located a 1967 board game featuring the Flash (via Crimson Lightning).
The Flash-Back podcast reviews “Blitz.”
Wednesday Comics artist and co-writer Karl Kerschl announces a European tour along with Ramón Pérez and Cameron Stewart over the next month.
Artist Evan “Doc” Shaner presents his 5-member Justice League (well, 7). It’s rather unconventional, featuring the Viking Prince, Jonah Hex and Sergeant Rock…but he puts the Flash front and center (via @FrancisManapul).
Screen Rant casts the Flash, both Barry Allen and Wally West, with some…Horribly familiar choices.
I finally updated the profile of Bart Allen on Smallville.
Wide View
Indy Comic Book Week encourages writers and artists to self-publish books for the week of December 30, when Diamond won’t be shipping any comics, and offer them through their local comic stores.
My Modern Metropolis collects 25 re-imagined movie posters. They’re all great, but Flash fans should pay particular attention to the Incredibles poster.
Today’s flashback post at K-Squared Ramblings covers MovieTickets.com’s “World’s Fastest Man” ad campaign from a couple of years ago. A bit more current: I write about rereading Flashforward.
Speaking of other Flashes, Sociological Images wonders: Can Ming the Merciless be redeemed?
August 2, 2009
Geoff Johns reassures fans of Wally West that “Wally’s not only going to be fine, he’s going to kick ass.”
The third installment of Views from the Speed Force is up. The spinoff from the Views from the Longbox podcast has been focusing on each issue of Flash: Rebirth, and this one tackles issue #3.
Fanboy Wife contemplates the Flash, alternate meanings of the name, the value of hard water and just what super-speed is good for.
Blog@Newsarama considers what might go into a second volume of Wednesday Comics.
Tomheroes has a collection of super-hero Hostess ads from the 1970s. I’ve mentioned these before, and profiled the lame villains who appeared in the Flash installments. This page doesn’t have the snarky commentary of Seanbaby’s Hostess Page, but some of the scans are somewhat higher quality.
The Weekly Crisis is giving away 4 trade paperbacks and hardcovers in a contest to celebrate two years online.
Over at K-Squared Ramblings I’ve written up the Flash Forward panel at Comic-Con. This show looks like it’s going to be awesome! Also: the Lost panel was full of win. I missed it, but my wife posted a detailed write-up.
March 28, 2009
Crimson Lightning has posted the best of live-action Flash, featuring his favorite 3 episodes (and an honorable mention) from the 1990 Flash TV series.
The Aquaman Shrine has Flash vs. the Hostess Ads by Fred Hembeck. (There were, to the best of my knowledge, four Hostess ads with the Flash during the late 1970s/early 1980s.)
IO9 wonders, with the Flash reborn, who’s next?
The Heritage Auctions blog talks about Showcase #4 (Barry Allen’s first appearance) and its significance as the start of the Silver Age. The highest-grade copy known to exist (CGC 9.6) is going on auction in May.
Samurai Noir’s Toy Box 2 has pictures of vintage Flash and Aquaman board games.
PrettyFakes contrasts creator-driven vs. crossover-driven storytelling in the context of Iron Man, with references to the Messner-Loebs and Waid runs on Wally West’s Flash series.
The Worlogog talks about weekly comics in general and Wednesday Comics in particular.
The comic strip Epic Tales of the Mundane tackles a trade-waiter’s dilemma when faced with Flash: Rebirth.
Silver Age Comics has a run-down of DC Annuals in the Silver Age.
Blam talks about comics in the 1990s, including Mark Waid’s runs on Flash and Impulse.
The Pulse interviews former Flash artist Freddie Williams II on Final Crisis Aftermath: Run (which, for the record, is not about a speedster, but about the Human Flame).
November 8, 2008
Found in a movie theater lobby this weekend:
I’m pretty sure it’s a subtle (in the sense of not having any words on it that I could see, not in the sense of being difficult to miss) ad for the upcoming Disney CGI cartoon, Bolt, but I couldn’t pass up a picture of a giant golden lightning bolt frozen in the lobby. My wife joked that it needed the caption, “Zeus was here.”
August 22, 2008
I found this bizarre ad in a copy of Flash #291 (November 1980)
If this isn’t crack, I don’t know what is.
Of course, with the Internet, nothing really disappears, and in a search for Znutar, I found the web page of the actual author of… The Awful Green Things From Outer Space.
Originally posted at scans_daily with a private post here to host the scan. Opened up after the S*D meltdown.
August 19, 2008
If you read DC or Marvel comics during the late 1970s or early 1980s, or if you’ve read back issues from that era, chances are that you’ve seen the super-hero ads for Hostess cupcakes, Twinkies, etc. These were done as 1-page stories in which a low-rent villain would appear as a menace. Then a super-hero would arrive, and somehow use snack cakes to defeat the villain.
Yep.
There were at least four ads featuring the Flash:
These are all scanned and hosted by Seanbaby, who has a full set of these Hostess ads. (Watch out for NSFW language in the commentary.)
You know, now that I think about it, the subtext of the Flash helping The Destroyer fight off his depression by eating junk food is disturbingly reminiscent of the Golden Age Flash providing “happiness pills” to the Worry Wart.
Sadly, the Destroyer didn’t share the Flash’s hyper-accelerated metabolism.
Speaking of NSFW commentary and disturbing implications, there’s also Super Stupor’s take on the campaign.
(Inspired by a recent post at Mike’s Progressive Ruin.)
