This Steampunk Flash costume was designed and built by Dustin Fletcher of Penny Dreadful and Cathy Jones of God Save The Queen Fashions.
Fletcher and Jones each write about their parts of the costume after the jump.
Photo by Nathan Rupert.
August 15, 2011
San Diego Steampunk Flash Costume
August 12, 2011
Flash Costumes at Comic-Con (2011)
As fandom moves onto the next big convention of the season, I hope you’ll take a few moments to look back at San Diego and the people who dressed as the Flash (and related speedsters) at Comic-Con International.
United Underworld’s incredible gender-swapped Justice League, featuring Psykitten Pow’s Flash. Photo by John Austin.
It turns out that the Flash was the inspiration for the group theme:
“A couple of us like to do female versions of preexisting male characters. One of our friends, Psykitten Pow, she had a female Flash,” says Tallest Silver, who organized the group and who dresses as Batma’am. “One night, we were all hanging out and I said how funny it would be if we had a whole Justice League with swapped sexes.”
Photograph by Chuck Cook Photography.
The group previously appeared at WonderCon, and Psykitten appeared as the Flash last year. Read the rest of this entry »
August 1, 2011
A Day at Comic-Con (2011)
I’ve completed my full convention write-up for this year’s Comic-Con International. Here’s hoping I’ll be spending a few more days in San Diego next summer!
July 27, 2011
San Diego Sighting: Steampunk Speedster
One of the booths I stumbled across at Comic-Con was selling trading cards and books featuring the Union of Superlative Heroes and Order of Nefarious Villains: steampunk characters inspired by certain well-known super-heroes and villains.
I had to pick up a set just for this one:
Phineas Fleetfoot, able to run at more than 800mph, phase into the fifth and sixth dimensions, and protect the world from the likes of King Congo, Frankenfahrenheit, Professor Perpetual Motion, Abra Le Clobber, and Dr. Didgeridoo.
The heroes set includes Marquis Le Bat and Duchesse Le Bat, Flatiron Knight, Arachno Kid, the Magic Lantern, Baron von Ocular, and more.
I was sorely tempted by the hand-bound flip book featuring both heroes and villains with additional stories, but couldn’t quite bring myself to spend $45 on it. Then I got home, really looked through the cards I’d bought, and regretted missing my chance.
Huzzah for the internet. When the artists got back from the con, they made the remaining stock available through Etsy.
Image c/o Chet Phillips Illustration.
July 25, 2011
DC’s New 52: Escape Hatches Don’t Matter
DC editorial insisted repeatedly over the weekend that there’s no escape hatch, no trap door, no possible way for the old DC Universe to return after the New 52 establishes itself post-Flashpoint.
This is, to put it mildly, an exaggeration.
If the last decade at DC comics has shown us anything, it’s that a determined writer with a supportive editor (or a determined editor with a willing writer) can undo any change he wants, no matter how set in stone it was before.
There was no back door put in place during Crisis on Infinite Earths to bring back Kara Zor-El as Supergirl, or Krypto, or any of the Silver-Age elements of the Superman mythos that were removed by the “Man of Steel” reboot, but they came back anyway. Emerald Twilight was deliberately written to make it impossible to bring back Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, but we not only got Hal back, we got the Guardians and the entire Corps. Neither the reboot nor threeboot Legion of Super-Heroes set up a way to go back to the previous version, and yet the pre-Zero Hour Legion is back in action.
Marv Wolfman actually did write a trap door into Barry Allen’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The idea was that, since he was running through time at the time he died, he could be plucked out of that run at any point for more adventures, but would live always knowing that he would eventually have to go back and sacrifice himself. It sat there, unused, for over 20 years, and when DC eventually brought Barry back to life, they did it another way, without using the trap door.
Trap doors don’t matter.
What matters is editorial direction.
When Dan Didio, or Eddie Berganza, or Jim Lee stands up there on stage at Comic-Con and says, “There’s no escape hatch,” they don’t mean they’ve set up the premise so that no one can go back. If they really want to, they’ll find a way.
It’s just an “in-story” way of saying that they’re committed to the new direction and determined to see it through.
Index of Comic-Con 2011 Coverage
The frenzy of Comic-Con International is over, and San Diego returns to normal…until next year. I was only there one day this year, but Devin and I both followed the event online to collect all the Flash news we could find.
Here’s a quick round-up of Speed Force’s convention coverage.
Flash Comics News
A special thanks to @SpeedsterSite, @BitterWallyWest and @TheFlashReborn for asking questions in DC’s panels and around the floor, and posting about their experiences on Twitter. It was also great to meet all three of you finally.
Flash Collectibles News
Photos
Around the Con
Analysis and Commentary
-
Didio’s Digital Designs: Connecting the Reboot Dots from Infinite Crisis to Flashpoint
- DC’s New 52: Escape Hatches Don’t Matter
I should have my convention write-up finished tonight or tomorrow soon. [Update: It's up!] In a week or so, after everyone has had a chance to post their convention photos, I’ll publish a full round-up of costume sightings.
Didio’s Digital Designs: Connecting the Reboot Dots from Infinite Crisis to Flashpoint
At Comic-Con’s Sunday “The New 52″ panel, Dan Didio stated that he’d wanted to reboot the DC Universe for five years, since Infinite Crisis*, but that the time didn’t seem right. Why not? And why is it happening now?
It makes more sense to tie it to Infinite Crisis: follow up a classic universe-changing event with a new universe-changing event 20 years later and usher in a new “age” of DC comics.
It seems clear that his plans morphed into One Year Later. Like the New 52, it was an attempt to establish a new status quo and provide a new jumping-on point for the entire line.
Something else Didio wanted to do with Infinite Crisis was bring back Barry Allen. He was coy about it for several years, but in the DC Nation column that ran the week of the last issue of Wally West’s Flash series, he explained that he’d wanted to bring Barry back with Infinite Crisis, but things didn’t work out, so they set up Bart instead. Then he’d wanted to bring Barry back in The Lightning Saga, but again, things didn’t work out, so they brought Wally back instead.
So what does it mean that things didn’t work out? Read the rest of this entry »
July 24, 2011
Flash news from Comic-Con
DC released a lot of information over the weekend in San Diego, which I’ve pieced together from CBR, Newsarama, and reports from fans’ conversations with Dan Didio, Francis Manapul and others.
Read the rest of this entry »
Flash/Flashpoint Bits from Comic-Con
I missed the Flashpoint panel at Comic-Con, but Flash-related news can be pieced together from CBR’s report, Newsarama’s liveblog (which, due to technical difficulties, was only visible after the panel ended), and @SpeedsterSite was there live-tweeting the panel.
Kid Flash Lost
Newsarama quotes Sterling Gates: “Issue #3 is sort of a love letter to the Flash family. It’s very much about Bart and his relationship with the Flash family.” CBR continues, “Bart Allen is my favorite character so it was a pleasure to write this story.”
Scott Kolins is coming in to do a few pages of Kid Flash.
Gates via CBR: “The end of issue #3 dovetails into ‘Flashpoint’ #5 in a way that I don’t think a lot of people are expecting, and we do something with the Speed Force that’s never been done before”
On the Unexpected: CBR: “Gates said he was excited for the unexpected matchups possible in Flashpoint.‘”Where else do you get to see Kid Flash fight Brainiac?’” Newsarama: “Nome says that Gates threw a lot of ‘crazy stuff’ at him in the scripting of the Kid Flash miniseries.”
Other Flashes
Geoff convinced Sterling not to use John Fox in Kid Flash: Lost but Hot Pursuit instead
@SpeedsterSite
Brandan
So there was a reason to include John Fox in that Flash Secret Files book last year.
“You’ll see the fate…or possible fate of Jay Garrick” – @sterlinggates in kid flash lost 3 of course
@SpeedsterSite
Brandan
Newsarama says a question about Wally West “got a lot of applause,” and noted that he would appear in Kid Flash #3. According to CBR, Gates stated that “Wally will show up in ‘Kid Flash’ #3, and not in the way you expect.”
Citizen Cold
A fan asked: why Captain Cold? Newsarama: “Berganza noted Geoff Johns’ fondness for Captain Cold as motivation.”
July 23, 2011
Flash Action Figure Photos from Comic-Con: Flashpoint, The New 52 and…Mad Magazine?
Whenever I first arrive on the exhibit hall at a new Comic-Con, I find myself at the DC Comics booth. Whether it’s to check out the signing schedule, or the demonstrations, or the displays, or even just see what this year’s decoration theme is. (It’s the New 52 first-issue covers, blown up to about 8 feet tall.) Read the rest of this entry »
