Speed Force

Sorry I missed the usual weekend linkblogging post. The time I would have spent on it, I used to build a pinhole camera to watch Sunday’s solar eclipse. In case you’re interested, I’ve put together a photo essay of the eclipse and the impromptu viewing party that sprung up when dozens of people went to the same park with everything from holes punched in cards to welding masks and telescopes.

Flashy Links

• Fastest Fan Alive: Contest Results
• Random Flash round-up from That F'ing Monkey Random Flash Round Up and Flash Cereal from That F’ing Monkey
• Superhero Origins: The Flash at WatchMojo
• Q&A: What do The Flash’s earpiece emblems do? – StackExchange
• Be sure to check out Fastest Fan Alive and The Rogues Kick Ass for collectibles & Rogues posts.

Writer/Artist Catch-Up

• Mark Waid’s free digital comic “Insufferable” is up to three installments at Thrillbent.
• Bleeding Cool interviews Brian Augustyn, Mark Waid’s editor and later co-writer on The Flash.
• CBR TV: Jay Faerber On "Near Death," Creator-Owned Comics plus Ringer and that infamous Titans run.
• The Very End of Empire – PopMatters interviews “The Shade’s” James Robinson
• Geoff Johns & Jim Lee spotlight guests at NYCC
• Brian Buccellato’s Foster Anthology, a one-shot collection of short stories set in the same world as his creator-owned horror/crime comic, met its funding goal and then some.

More comics

• Marvel’s “Avengers” Success: What Can DC Comics Learn From It? – MTV
• Five Years Later: The Oral History of Countdown to Final Crisis – Funnybook Babylon pieces together the background of the series from old interviews. (via The Beat)
• Hotels for San Diego / Comic-Con have opened up again now that the deadline has passed for cancellation with full refund. (via The Beat)

Weekend linkblogging…

Flashy links

• Francis Manapul’s Flash Annual cover process
• IGN reviews The Flash #8
• Comics And Movie Reviews: Flash #8
• Truxillogical rants about the current state of the Flash
• Origin of the Flash’s earpieces at StackExchange
• Francis Manapul shares a Mother’s Day story

Digital Comics

• A new chapter of long-term Flash writer Mark Waid’s digital comic “Insufferable” is up at Thrillbent.
• Indie creators to launch digital comics imprint at Heroes Con: Artist Alley Comics features Michael May, Jason Copland, Rich Woodall, Craig Rousseau (Impulse), and Kelly Yates.

Creators’ Rights

• Stan Lee on comic creators’ rights. The Beat excerpts the relevant quotes, but if you have time, the full interview and article at Grantland is fascinating.
• Interesting: an episode of the TV show Fairly Legal tackles comic creator’s rights – Comics Worth Reading

More comics links

• CSBG considers: What should we call this age of comics?
• The Beat reviews (almost) all of Free Comic Book Day 2012
• Robot 6 rounds up New 52 Wave 2 reviews
• March 2012 DC Comics sales analysis at The Beat
• Fan art mash-up: Super-powers switcheroo at CSBG

• Reddit has a new new subreddit dedicated to the Scarlet Speedster at r/theflash.
• Geeky Home Decor You WISH Was on Etsy at Comediva. @luisn1 says: “I wish Sears sold Cosmic Treadmills! Too much time-space liability, I guess.”
• Stack Exchange considers what the Flash’s tracks look like in damp sand
• Mark Waid’s new webcomic initiative, Thrillbent, is live with the first installment of “Insufferable.” He posts what they learned from the first 24 hours.
• Flash writer Brian Buccellato has upped the page count for his Kickstarter-funded FOSTER ANTHOLOGY and raised the goal.
• Star Wars Speedster: That F’ing Monkey manages to combine Flash Friday & May the Fourth, and not with “force speed.” Beware: He had to go to Ewoks: The Battle for Endor to do it.
• Collected Editions reviews Justice League: Origin.

And of course be sure to check in with The Fastest Fan Alive for Flash collectibles and The Rogues Kick Ass for the Rogues.

The Collected Editions blog has been reviewing the Flashpoint trades over the past week. The tie-ins were collected in five trade paperbacks, grouped around one of DC’s big five characters, titled The World of Flashpoint Featuring…

• Wonder Woman
• Superman
• Batman
• Green Lantern
• The Flash

The miniseries less directly related to the major characters were spread around the other books, some thematically and some apparently at random, but the Flash collection is actually filled with stories focusing on Flash characters: Citizen Cold, Kid Flash Lost, Reverse-Flash, Legion of Doom (starring Heat Wave) and Grodd of War.

The site has also put together a Flashpoint trade reading order.

Two weeks’ worth of linkblogging.

First, the Flashy links

• Boston Comic Con DC panel report from dcwomenkickingass: Francis Manapul talks about trying to sneak in a Wally West cameo, why the Rogues have powers now, other supporting cast members for Flash who didn’t make the cut, and more.
• Flash is faster than Writing and Art – The Absorbascon on why the Flash concept works.
• Interview with Francis Manapul at Boston Comic Con by Retcon Punch

Flash writers’ other work

• Mike Baron’s “Nexus” returns at Dark Horse
• CBR reviews Brian Buccellato’s Foster #3
• Update: Mark Waid’s webcomic initiative Thrillbent launches May 1

More comics links

• Food for thought: Why do people like comics? Progressive Ruin
• Art mashup: comics & classic paintings (CSBG/The Line It Is Drawn). Black Canary in The Scream, Flash in Eight Elvises, etc.
• WTF moment of the day. These people need to get off the internet. Imagine what they’d have said if she’d written negative review, rather than one that was merely lukewarm? (Progressive Ruin)
• Is there anyone left who hasn’t seen these photos of the DC Comics offices at BuzzFeed?
• Should Superheroes Ever Quit? – Comic Vine
• Empirical Reasons Why The Silver Age Was Better – Mightygodking

Creators’ Rights. This is an ongoing discussion, but here are a few key posts.

• David Brothers’ article on Before Watchmen & the Avengers movie at ComicsAlliance
• Chris Robeson leaves DC now that iZombie is done, feeling he can no longer trust/support the company’s SOP toward creators, and will stop working for them after his Fairest arc is complete.
• Not surprisingly, DC canceled his Fairest arc. The Beat comments on Didio & Lee’s response
• The Comics Journal interviews Roberson
• The Beat on Alan Moore & creators’ rights in general

Some weekend linkblogging.

Flash Art

• Flash Collage by ComicCollageArt on Etsy
• Flash & Green Lantern Hero Squares by TheDrewBlank (via Retcon Punch)
• Doug Hazlewood recreates a splash page from Flash #193. to celebrate the release of the new Flash by Geoff Johns Omnibus.
• Crocheted Flash hat by Great Long Gone
• Model Legion has been expanding its paper models to include other characters, with a whole bunch of Flashes
• Flash teaser from Francis Manapul

Flash Commentary

• Shirts from the Future (That F’ing Monkey)
• Before Harley Quinn There Was Prank – Comic Book Bin looks back at the Trickster’s sidekick from the Flash TV show.
• CSBG examines the first page of Flash v.2 #96 by Mark Waid and Salvador Larroca, the second chapter of Terminal Velocity
• Humor: Imagined Interviews with Dan Didio at Barry Allen’s Comics
• Important Dates – The Encyclopedia DC_Nation – I missed Jay Garrick’s birthday.

More Comics

• February DC sales analysis
• Convention tips from The Beat
• CSBG collects some Simpsons easter eggs in comics
• A bombshell in this story about DC’s new digital-first comics based on the Arkham games and Smallville TV series: “some of those new fans didn’t know Batman originated first as a comic-book character.”
• Who is Free Comic Book Day for? – Comics Worth Reading
• C2E2: DC All-Access – Newsarama and CBR write-up
• C2E2: DC New 52 – CBR and Newsarama liveblog
• Mark Waid is launching Thrillbent Digital Comics on May 1

Linkblogging catch-up continues!

Art and comic strips

• Flash cake
• Rogues in art for a canceled Justice League game (via @Speedstersite)
• Comic Book Hollywood Casting
• You should really check out this XKCD comic in a couple of different web browsers to experience the full effect. Some of them change when you resize the window, too.
• Schrödinger’s comic by Comic Critics

Comics industry

• Origins of the Speech Balloon – Lew Stringer via The Beat
• End of the Thought Balloon – Joe Hill (Robot6)
• Mark Waid on print vs. digital (Robot6), and the cold math about print comics (MarkWaid.com)
• Reading Comics and the Stickiness Factor (Westfield Comics, via Comics Worth Reading)
• When comic shops don’t carry non-superhero books that their customers want. (Every Day is Like Wednesday, via Comics Worth Reading)
• Paul Duffield tries to put numbers to gender imbalance in the comics industry.
• March comics sales ranks. Looks like AvX finally pushed Flash out of the top 10

Other Stuff

• For the Doctor Who fans: The Hipster Companion by The Nerdy Bird
• Do dead links matter? (me at Hyperborea)
• DC/Marvel Characters Tournament Winner at CSBG
• Need Coffee writes about Animated Anthem Day, the crossover we participated in on Tuesday.
• Digital comic: Division 18: The Union of Novelty Costumed Performers
• The Juggernaut almost flattens Harry Potter and other comic book Easter eggs at CSBG

Still catching up on linkblogging.

Flash-focused:

• Comic Book Movie fan casts the New 52 Flash
• Jay Garrick by Philip Tan ECCC commission
• Flash Mob at Superheroes Memebase
• TFAW interviews Manapul & Buccellato on the Flash
• Update: Francis Manapul spotlight at Emerald City Comicon

More DC Comics links:

• James Robinson reveals more on Earth-2, plus the cover for issue #3 starring Alan Scott. Apparently people on Earth-2 scream a lot. He continues to talk about world building and the Earth-2 trinity
• Dan Didio’s favorite comics listed at CBR. More commentary at the Beat.
• Our Valued Customers comments on the new DC Comics logo 
• DC’s Jason James talks about the New DC Comics Website
• Talking about the DC Trade Paperback Timeline ebook (Collected Editions)
• Comicmix asks: Which is the REAL DC Earth?
• Earth-53 and the Disconnect between Comics and TV (The ComiQuad)
• Update: DC’s New 52 Action Figures have changed a bit

• Teen Titans redesign by Charles Rouse-Rodriguez (Project Rooftop)
• Hunter Zolomon Zoom Redesign by justm3h (via TRKA)
• The Line it is Drawn: Comics/Star Wars mashups (CSBG) – where else can you see Deadpool and Boba Fett team up?
• The Line It Is Drawn – What If…? on.cbr.cc/Hjc7eM includes What if the Flash was not the Fastest Man on Earth by Yukinori Xum (CSBG)
• Photographer Philip Bonneau re-imagines heroes & villains in Atlanta exhibit (Robot 6)

And be sure to keep up with The Rogues Kick Ass and The Fastest Fan Alive!

Links to items from or about WonderCon, Comic-Con International, Boston Comic-Con, and Emerald City Con

• David Glanzer on what’s up with WonderCon and Comic-Con (The Beat)
• Thoughts on SDCC ticket snafu from The Nerdy Bird. On a related note, I dissect the technical problem she mentions at K2R.
• Comikaze Expo is now Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo. Somehow I missed the announcement last month.
• What WonderCon can tell us about Anaheim’s ability to handle Comic-Con.
• Boston Comic Con holding auction for Mike Wieringo Scholarship

WonderCon Panel Write-ups

• DC: The New 52 CBR, Newsarama
• DC All Access at Newsarama
• Mark Waid on Webcomics (CBR)
• Digital Comics Price Fight! at (The Beat)

Emerald City Comicon Panel Write-ups

• DC All Access panel: Bleeding Cool and CBR
• Update: DC New 52 at CBR and at Bleeding Cool