Speed Force

An employee at my local comic shop spotted these homemade super-hero plushies by showboatontheroad on Etsy, including Flash, Captain America and Aquaman. Head over to the listing for more photos.

Some weekend linkblogging…

• An upcoming two-parter in Superman/Batman will revisit DC One Million. This was one of my favorite DC crossovers because so much of it was about exploring possibilities.
• 4thletter! considers: How will digital comics change the Wednesday crowd?
• CSBG features some comics genre-bending: NYPD Green, Thor Noir, and more.
• Steve Thomas presents 80s Cartoons as Concert Posters. Thundercats, Voltron, Silverhawks, Masters of the Universe, MASK and more. (I think I found this link via ComicsAlliance, but I was too rushed to write it down.)
• A Dispensible list of Comics Lists brings together 15+ Musical Super-Villains, including Flash villains the Fiddler and Pied Piper.
• So, DC is cutting story pages in order to keep comics’ price down. Is it worth it? I’m not so sure. For the opposing view, The Beat says: “Honestly, given today’s storytelling, the same stories can be told in 20 pages as 22.”

Some Flash art found this past week…

Zoom Zoom cover design by scottygod and skutterfly. (via GoRogues)

The webcomic Gutters satirizes the comics industry. It recently took on the Speed Force.

Project Rooftop’s invitational features a redesign of The Flash by Joel Carroll. (via Michael Kaiser)

Philip Tan draws Wally West. (via @Speedstersite)

I don’t know how I missed this one the first time around, but Comics Alliance has posted a round-up of Chris Sims and Rusty Shackles’ Great Comics That Never Happened series – covers featuring bizarre team-ups like the Justice League and the Wu-Tang Clan, or the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen featuring 1980s icons like Mr. T, Doc Brown and MacGuyver, or Hannah Zatanna, torn between the worlds of superheroes and magic…or this one:

When Boss Hogg sets up a phony charity designed to funnel contributions from well-meaning citizens into his own pockets, Superman and the Flash are roped into holding a charity race across Hazzard County–without super-powers! But when Bo and Luke Duke, a couple of good ol’ boys who never mean no harm crash the race, can the two Fastest Men Alive outrun a souped-up Dodge Charger before it hits the county line? Find out in this exciting issue! Also featured: Lois Lane discovers a Hazzard County fashion statement sure to catch Clark Kent’s eye and a two-page backup story where Jimmy Olsen and Kid Flash meet Coy and Vance!”

Click through to the original article for a full-sized cover, as well as a dozen more team-ups that never were!

Some Flashy linkblogging for the weekend…

Fanboy Scouts has launched a series of Merit Badges for Geeks including a Speedster badge, awarded for “the display of any of the following speed-related attributes: Super Speed, Speed Control, Kinetic Energy Manipulation, Infinite Mass Punch, Time Travel or Hyper-Vibration.”

Check out Mark Grambau’s super-hero/super-villain posters.

The Hooded Utilitarian continues reading the Silver Age Flash, this time moving on to the few solo issues.

Sideshow Collectibles has the Flash “As you’ve never seen him before” — as a plush toy! (OK, I have seen Flash plush toys before, but not quite like this one.)

The 1992 Elongated Man miniseries makes CSBG’s Year of Cool Comics.

In other speedster news, First Comics News is making August Sonic the Hedgehog Month.

Some weekend linkblogging…

That F’ing Monkey continues its Friday Flash focus with a Flash Sackboy and a piece of original art from Flash: TFMA, the series following Bart Allen’s brief career as the Flash. Let’s just say it’s from the storyline that had Marc Guggenheim as writer and Ethan Van Sciver on covers.

Robot 6′s regular feature on collections spotlights Hugues Charron, headlining the profile with a Todd Lauzon painting of a Zombie Flash.

Heroes’ speedster Brea Grant is this past week’s Geek a Week. (via Bad Astronomy)

DC is finally reprinting Young Justice!…sort of. They’re releasing a set of eight DC Comics Presents one-shots reprinting various hard-to-find stories, including JLA: World Without Grown-Ups as DC Presents: Young Justice.

Collected Editions reviews Justice League: Cry for Justice, concluding it’s both better and worse than advertised. Of course, when the introduction to the book is essentially an apology by the writer, you have to wonder…

Comic-Con

Warner Bros. promotes this year’s giant bags for Comic-Con…and their wardrobe possibilities.

Dark Horse sponsors events at more than 50 comic stores for fans who are #NotAtComicCon.

Ethan Van Sciver has posted promotional art for Montreal Comic-Con featuring a Superman/Flash race and Green Lantern with the starting pistol.

Update: Here’s one more. Kerry Callen (of the excellent Halo and Sprocket) redraws Flash v.1 #133 for Covered. That’s the classic Abra Kadabra story in which the Flash thinks to himself, “I’ve got the strangest feeling I’m being turned into a puppet.”

“You’re Goin’ Down!” by tubes.

I’m not sure how I missed this one when it came out, but Francis Manapul and Walyou pointed me to yet another great parody of Apple’s efforts to keep Flash (as in the animation program) off of the iPhone and iPad.

Some more weekend linkblogging…

Philip Tan posts an image of Flash and Batman, saying, “What’s This? What’s THIS?! All will be made known soon… Very soon…” (via @SpeedsterSite).

Animation Designer Phillip Bourassa describes JL: Crisis on Two Earths models (via @SpeedsterSite)

That F’ing Monkey shows off a custom Captain Cold Munny figure.

Comics Cosplay Brasil: So that’s where the Flash gets his energy!

The Nerdy Bird shows us some super-hero watercolors.

Two weeks’ worth of linkblogging, so you’ll probably have seen a lot of these by now…

Commentary

Multiversity Comics presents A Crisis of Chronology: The Flash, as well as thoughts on early solicitations in a digital age.

Silver Age Gold presents: I Hate the Flash’s Girlfriend, all about Iris West! Silver Age Comics responds: Ending with Iris.

Art

slaterman23 has a Flickr set featuring vintage-style DC Comics posters (via The Nerdy Bird).

Paxton Holley has found a comic in which Superman Becomes the Flash (Action Comics #314, 1964)

Chris Samnee sketches Flash vs. Captain Cold at C2E2.

Mr. Maczaps presents Death in the form of the Black Flash.

Bobby Timony draws Jay Garrick (also at C2E2).

By now you’ve probably all seen this visual pun on Flash and the iPad using Alex Ross’ art.

The Top Cow Panel at C2E2 has some incredible samples of Kenneth Rocafort’s art from the upcoming Velocity miniseries.

seanicus found a Japanese Flash T-Shirt.

Karl Kerschl’s webcomic, The Abominable Charles Christopher, is coming to print.

The webcomic Comic Critics tackles Greg Rucka leaving DC.

Other

Comic Book Resources has put together a Comics Twitter Directory

Cinema Spy considers how the new status quo seen in Flash #1 might influence the Flash movie.

Some weekend linkblogging.

Art

Comics Alliance presents (in comic book form): Blackest Night in 60 Seconds….and on a more serious note, spotlights Comic Book Cartography — maps of various fictional worlds, buildings, and more. Edit: Here’s a direct link to the Comic Book Cartography blog.

Frank Ziegler draws a Cartoony Jay Garrick.

Commentary

Multiversity Comics looks at The DCU According to Geoff Johns, covering the entirety of the writer’s DC work to date.

Grumpy Old Fan considers The Gospel According to Geoff, looking at what made Blackest Night work as more than merely a “process story.”

It’s Just Movies’ Ben Fowler discusses, If I Was Making … ‘The Flash’.

Cool-Mo-De starts a Goofy villains series with the Rainbow Raider and Flash vol.2 Annual #10 (Pulp Heroes), with art by the late Dick Giordano.

Comics Daily asks, How do you solve a problem like Wally West?

Interview

A Comic Book Blog interviews Ethan Van Sciver.