December 12, 2011
THE FLASH #7
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Variant cover by DALE KEOWN
1:200 B&W Variant cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
On sale MARCH 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Captain Cold is back – and he’s more dangerous than ever! Seeking revenge on The Flash, he must convince the rest of the Rogues to reunite one last time. But what tore them apart before? And what did The Flash do to earn their deadly scorn? Find out here!
DC released their March Justice League group solicits today. Check them out over at The Source!
June 1, 2010
The Grand Comics Database needs better scans of the original Flash Comics. In particular, the following two covers are marked as needing replacement:
That said, there are quite a few others that are either low-quality scans or scans of badly deteriorated comics. If you have any copies of Flash Comics or All-Flash in decent condition, I’m sure they’d appreciate it if you’d help them out by improving their cover database!
Most of my own Golden Age collection is coverless, or in poor enough condition that it wouldn’t be worth contributing, though I was able to submit a few of the later All-Flash covers.
I actually have a copy of that Flash Comics Miniature Edition, and considered sending a scan, until I pulled it out of the box and saw what condition it was in:
As you can see, it’s in worse shape than the one they’ve got! This isn’t terribly surprising. One of the previous owners of this copy wrote a note on the back of the board:
Wheaties giveaway, 1946. All known copies were taped to Wheaties boxes and are never found in mint condition.
Yeah, that might cause a problem…
It makes me wonder what the print run was on books like this. How many copies were taped to cereal boxes and shipped to markets nationwide? How many were removed carefully, and how many were summarily ripped from the packaging? How many were treasured, and how many discarded?
Oh, yeah, you’re probably wondering: Who’s that pointy-headed guy on the cover? That’s Dmane, a one-shot villain (as so many of them were those days) billed as “The Criminal From Tomorrow,” who used futuristic technology to perform miraculous feats in the present day. (Sound familiar?) It’s also an early case in which Jay Garrick travels through time under his own power with perfect accuracy.
May 23, 2010
One of the things I wanted to do this weekend was finish going through the brief Adventure Comics run of The Flash (more about that tomorrow). In the process I decided I just had to write up the sheer weirdness that is Urtumi the Image Eater.
I also started tracking the variant covers from the new ongoing Flash series.
Well, I’d hoped to get more done this weekend, but other stuff has kept me busy…and now the Lost finale awaits!
May 12, 2010
Speed Force has reached three milestones over the last few weeks:
Wow!
It seems like just a few months since I hit the 500th post, but it really was almost a year ago. For this post, I figured Ken Lashley’s cover to Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #5 would be appropriate, because documenting the Flash is what this site is all about. (Thanks, GCD!)
The 1,000th blog post was last week’s post on action figure updates by Devin “The Flash” Johnson. The 500th Twitter follower was @ImpulseDesigner, though I seem to have lost a few since then — it’s down to 498 now. I’m not sure who the 300th Facebook fan was, though.
Thanks to all the readers, and thanks especially to Devin for stepping in as Speed Force’s second major contributor!
Oh, and there are two more milestones coming up soon: We’re closing in on 4,000 comments sometime in the next few weeks…and two full years online in mid-June!
March 7, 2010
This weekend I updated a few pages on Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning:
The Shade gets some notes about his early appearances, plus images from the Golden Age and Silver Age. (This is, of course, because I finally tracked down his first appearance!)
I’ve broken up the variant covers into three pages, soon to be four once DC releases the variants for Flash vol.3 #1 & #2:
I’ve also updated some minor items around the site, including the TPB list and Silver Age Reprints.
My next goal is to get all of the major changes from Flash: Rebirth — Barry Allen’s current status and a new picture, Iris “Irey” West’s new identity, Jesse Quick’s new costume, Eobard Thawne’s resurrection — before the new series starts. And update appearance lists.
January 22, 2010
DC has posted three variant covers at The Source, for upcoming issues of Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, and Blackest Night: The Flash. Francis Manapul’s cover for Blackest Night: The Flash #3 features the Rogues.
Oddly enough, we still haven’t seen the standard cover for the issue (scheduled for February 17). It was originally solicited using the variant cover for #1, and that cover still appears on DC’s website. I briefly wondered whether they might be hiding a giant picture of Blue Lantern Barry Allen for spoiler reasons (the solicitations went up in November), but the costume is similar enough that they could easily redraw the symbol and color his costume red for the preview, like they disguised Professor Zoom as the Black Flash on the preview image for Flash: Rebirth #5.
Update: Francis Manapul has posted the inks and watercolor version of this cover.
January 11, 2010
DC has announced over at The Source that DC will be following Blackest Night with Brightest Day, a yearlong, 26-issue biweekly series by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi that’s being described as “DCU: Rebirth.” Like Blackest Night, it will tie into just about everything, with some series (including the two Green Lantern books) getting a “Brightest Day” Banner…including The Flash.
I think it’s safe to say this is the cover for The Flash #1.
Dan Didio explains:
We’ll be launching the new FLASH ongoing series, by Geoff and Francis Manapul in April with a BRIGHTEST DAY banner, and there will be several more titles utilizing it come May and June.
With this book, Geoff and Francis are really bringing Barry Allen back into the spotlight and cementing him as the premiere Flash in the DCU in his own monthly. It’s no secret that I’ve been waiting a long time to see this. I’ve always been a huge Barry fan, and I can say that Geoff and Francis are reinvigorating him as a character in much the same way Geoff did with Hal Jordan. Should be fun.
Well, you can’t say they aren’t giving the new series a major push. (Now I’d really like to see numbers on Blackest Night: The Flash.)
I’d like to believe that Brightest Day represents the long-promised, well, brightening of the DC Universe we were told would happen after Infinite Crisis, but if Flash is a major component, and it’s going to be all about murder mysteries, I’m a little concerned. On the other hand, Pushing Daisies had a new murder mystery each week, and still managed to be a light-hearted comedy, so who knows?
Here’s hoping Brightest Day will live up to its name!
Update: The news on Brightest Day: Titans seems to suggest that Brightest Day will be continuing the grim-n-gritty approach that DC has taken from Identity Crisis onward.
Update 2: IGN interviews Geoff Johns about the project.
January 8, 2010
The Flash picked up several mentions in Newsarama’s 10 for 2010 series including the character in 10 Characters to Watch, the series in 10 Comics to Watch, and artist Francis Manapul in 10 Creators to Watch.
The Flash Family also makes Grumpy Old Fan’s list of Ten from the old, ten for the new.
The standard cover of Flash: Rebirth #1 and the Flash-themed cover for DC: The New Frontier #2 are among IO9′s 100 Amazing Comic Covers from the last ten years.
The Perhapablog posts a Craig Rousseau sketch of Impulse reacting to cancellation, along with the Thing drawn by Mike Wieringo.
Remember that Breakfast Club/Teen Titans mashup last summer? Artist Cliff Chiang has recreated more 80s album covers with characters such as Batgirl, Elektra and Vampirella.
Crimson Lightning brings us a “Hi and Lois” strip portraying the Greek gods as super-heroes.
The Rogues’ tailor, Paul Gambi, is named after Paul Gambaccini, a UK-based DJ and long-time comic fan. Bleeding Cool spotted him on a celebrity game show demonstrating his impressive knowledge of DC Comics trivia.
Update: One more item – the New York Times has named Geoff Johns in their “Nifty Fifty” list of up-and-coming talent. (via The Source)
December 24, 2009
What Were They Thinking?! has found a…novel way to see at super-speed.
recommends Geoff Johns’ original Flash run.
Grumpy Old Fan considers the likely structure of Legacies and its implications.
IGN’s top 100 covers of 2009 gives Flash: Rebirth #1 the #3 spot.
Toycutter has a Steampunk Legion of Doom set of custom action figures, featuring Sinestro, Black Manta, Joker, Gorilla Grodd, Captain Cold, and Bizarro. (via Great White Snark)
Flash fans will probably get a kick out of this Shortpacked! strip. (via @batmansgirl)
November 16, 2009
Yes, according to Diamond, Flash: Rebirth #5 is actually shipping this week! As if that weren’t enough, there’s the JSA 80-Page Giant, new issues of Tiny Titans and Super Friends, the trade paperback of JSA: Thy Kingdom Come vol.2, and a Showcase volume featuring Superman Team-Ups from DC Comics Presents…opening with a Superman/Flash race.
No sign yet of the final cover for Flash: Rebirth #5, or the variant cover, or a preview. UPDATE! While I was at lunch, DC posted a 5-page preview with the covers. I’d like to say two things: First, that alternate cover with Max and Bart is seriously making me cnosider picking up the variant again. Second…I called the coloring change on the main cover back in July!
The Flash: Rebirth #5
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and covers by Ethan Van Sciver
The greatest threat to face the Flash Family in decades stands revealed! A new hero will step into an old speedster’s boots! And Barry Allen will make the ultimate sacrifice: his life! Oh yeah, you read that right, but you’ll never believe just what it means! They always say nothing will ever be the same, but trust us, this one will rewrite the history books!
This issue will ship with two covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Ethan Van Sciver), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Ethan Van Sciver).
5 of 6 · 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Other books shipping this week behind the cut: Read the rest of this entry »
