June 22, 2010
The Hero Initiative has announced that long-time Flash Writer Mark Waid has joined its Board of Directors. Waid will take the place of director Guillermo del Toro on the Executive/Fundraising Board.
Among Flash fans, Waid is best known for writing the Wally West series through most of the 1990s. Some of his more notable contributions to the mythos include the speed force, centering the book on the Wally/Linda relationship, co-creating Impulse, more-or-less creating Max Mercury based on the golden-age Quicksilver, and generally building up the Flash Family of characters.
The Hero Initiative is dedicated to helping comics creators in need. You can read more about their mission at www.heroinitiative.org.
June 9, 2010
Sorry I haven’t been updating much this week. I’ve been busy, and there hasn’t been much Flash news. So, to tide things over a bit, here’s some linkblogging.
The Comic Book Letterheads Museum has been posting headers from The Flash letter columns, including 1988′s Fleet Sheet and 1989′s Speed Reading (where I got the title for this feature). Further back in the archives you can find Flash-Grams from 1970 and 1976.
Multiversity Comics casts a Flash movie. Has anyone else noticed how often Neil Patrick Harris shows up in these lists? (Also: Linda Park as…Linda Park.)
When Words Collide reviews Wednesday Comics in its new hardcover form, concluding that “The Flash is still, by far, the best thing in Wednesday Comics.
Following up on the reader-chosen Greatest Mark Waid Stories Ever Told, Comics Should Be Good got Mark Waid to pick his own list of favorite stories from his work. A lot of the usual suspects still appear, but one of the surprises was Impulse #3, Bart Allen’s first day at school.
Newsarama interviews Geoff Johns and asks him about Flashpoint. As usual, he can’t say more than we already know.
Judging by this cover for Guardians of the Globe #1 (not the joke one with Barack Obama and Harry Potter, the serious one further down), the design has been tweaked a bit for the Invincible spin-off’s resident speedster, Outrun. [Edit: I forgot to include the link when I posted this!]
May 31, 2010
The linkblogging catchup continues!
Comics Should Be Good features Flash #54: “Nobody Dies” (William Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRocque) in their Year of Cool Comics. It’s one of my favorite one-issue stories from Wally West’s run, and not surprisingly it made the reader-selected list of top 10 Wally West stories a few weeks later.
A bit off topic, CSBG also reviews Mysterius the Unfathomable. It was a fun fantasy/horror/comedy miniseries last year, and is now available as a trade paperback.
Multiversity Comics recommends the new Flash series. Among other reasons: “he has a secret identity which actually gets used, instead of being forgotten for more exciting superhero stories.” And of course, “Flash has some of the best and most fleshed out rogues in the business.”
Update: One more! Several Flash storylines appear in CSBG’s Greatest Mark Waid Stories Ever Told list: Dead Heat, Terminal Velocity and The Return of Barry Allen.
May 23, 2010
Comics Should Be Good has posted the results of their reader poll for the Greatest Wally West stories ever told. It’s technically a top ten list, but they included eleven stories because the #10 winner was essentially a prologue for one of the other winners.
It’s interesting to break down the results by writer:
- 7 by Mark Waid (including the top three)
- 2 by Geoff Johns
- 2 by William Messner-Loebs
In a way it’s surprising that Geoff Johns, DC’s current superstar writer, isn’t more heavily represented, but it also makes sense. Mark Waid’s run on The Flash was very much about Wally West and his journey through young adulthood (Messner-Loebs’ run even more so!), while Geoff Johns’ run tilted a bit more toward the Rogues.
Head over to Comics Should Be Good for the full list!
April 8, 2010
The 2010 Eisner Award nominees have been announced. One Flash story has been nominated, as have two of the Flash’s long-term writers.
Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
- Brave & the Bold #28: “Blackhawk and the Flash: Firing Line,” by J. Michael Straczynski and Jesus Saiz (DC) (reviewed here)
Best Writer
- Geoff Johns — Adventure Comics, Blackest Night, The Flash: Rebirth, Superman: Secret Origin (DC)
- Mark Waid — Irredeemable, The Incredibles (BOOM!)
Waid’s Irredeemable is also up for Best Continuing Series and Best New Series, and cover artist John Cassaday is up for Best Cover Artist.
February 20, 2010
Strangely enough, a lot of the sites I’ve linked to on Twitter or Facebook over the last few weeks were looking back at the 1990s and Mark Waid’s run on The Flash
High Five! Comics profiles Max Mercury: The Speedster Time Forgot (for a while). Of course, Max goes back farther than — he started as Quality Comics’ Golden Age hero, Quicksilver — but the version of the character known today was established in “The Return of Barry Allen,” “Terminal Velocity,” “Dead Heat” and Impulse.
For Valentine’s Day, Comics Should be Good’s Year of Cool Comics spotlights Flash: Terminal Velocity and a key event in the relationship between Wally West and Linda Park.
Westfield Comics’ Josh Crawley looks back at Mark Waid’s first run on The Flash, picking up with Flash #0 and running through “Terminal Velocity,” “Dead Heat” and “Race Against Time.”
Mania spotlights the 1990s Flash TV series in 15 more shows that were canceled before their time over the last 25 years. It’s an interesting mix of shows I remember fondly (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), shows I remember hearing about but never watched (Murder One), and shows I’ve completely forgotten (Street Hawk?). It also reminds me that I never got around to watching the last few episodes of Journeyman.
January 15, 2010
So as I am the new kid around here I wanted to name my posts something that can identify them different to our glorious leader and I feel that right now being the new kid on the block sidekick is a good way to identify myself. Kelson is the guy that channels the speed force. I am impulse to his wally at the moment. I might change the name later but for now I think it is a nice way to let you know when I am speaking.
So this is the place that I will be looking at The Flash and his universe at the characters and events that have shaped each person that has worn the lightning.
Ignition: the end of one age, the birth of a new one.
So today I wanted to look at the Ignition storyline that begins with Issue 201 and what the story meant to the character of the Flash and the Flash universe in general.
Ignition is an interesting issue from the perspective of serialised super hero story telling. It is a great example of how you can make large scale changes to the status quo and still maintain the integrity of the character and honour the audiences expectations.
This is the reboot that I feel the people involved with “One More Day,” the Spider-Man story that was intended to create a new paradigm for the character. But where they failed with “One More Day,” Geoff Johns succeeded: execution. Geoff Johns took the subplot that ran through the Flash starting in the last half of Mark Waid’s run (the fear of loss) and used that theme as the reason for the changes made in this story.
Read the rest of this entry »
November 22, 2009
Geoff Johns is among the first guests announcd for next year’s Baltimore Comic-Con. The show will run August 28-29, 2010. (For fun: Say that out loud and pronounce 2010 as “twenty-ten!”)
Mark Waid talks to CBR about Incorruptible, his Irredeemable spinoff that looks at the question from the opposite side: What happens when a villain decides to become a hero?
October 11, 2009
CBR Live found themselves “Flashed” by Warner Bros. — or rather, by an advertisement for The Big Bang Theory at their studios in Burbank, California.
What Were They Thinking? uncovers the amazing science behind Jay Garrick’s origin and more Golden Age “science.”
High Five! Comics notes a pair of Flash cover homages: the latest Irredeemable’s homage to “Flash of Two Worlds” and a tale of two Flash #105s.
Mark Waid has found the Flash’s ultimate adversary: the atomic banana peel. No, I am not making this up. And neither is he.
Matthew Cody looks back at the (not so) final fate of the Flash.
Breaking off-topic a bit, here’s the *ahem* cerealized Blackest Night that’s been making the rounds the last few days.
October 4, 2009
My full write-up of Long Beach Comic Con is done! I looked at lots of art, caught some panels, got stuff signed by both Mark Waid and Geoff Johns, bought some books and prints, saw people in costumes, and did some sightseeing.
Here’s the coverage breakdown:
I had a great time at the con on Saturday, and will definitely go next year if they hold it again.
