Artists and a Publisher

Karl Kerschl shares a sketch of Iris West he did while in Italy.

Francis Manapul shares a black and white version of his variant cover for Blackest Night: The Flash #3.

Dan Didio talks to CBR about a number of things including Flash. He reiterates some of the reasons they let the book fall behind rather than put a new team on it to bring it out quickly, like they did with Final Crisis:

That ran with some delays, but at the end of the day we looked at the full package of how that will look as a book, and we wanted to maintain consistency all the way through. The events of that book weren’t essential to what happens with the Flash in “Blackest Night.”

Nothing new. In fact he said more or less the same thing a couple of days earlier to Newsarama. Interestingly, he describes the new Flash series book as spinning out of Blackest Night. Whether that’s simply in publishing terms, or in story terms as well, is not clear.

Fan Commentary

The Flash makes IO9′s 10 Favorite Faux Deaths In Science Fiction. If you want to get technical, it’s really their 12 favorite fake/reversed deaths, because the Flash entry includes Barry Allen (Crisis on Infinite Earths), Wally West (Infinite Crisis) and Bart Allen (Flash: The Fastest Man Alive). Or maybe 13, since it’s got both Phoenix and Jean Grey.

Collected Editions compares the Final Crisis and Blackest Night collections.

The Flash in New Frontier makes Comics Should Be Good’s 313th cool comic book moment. They’re also accepting nominations for a top 100 comic storylines poll.

Other Stuff

Comic Wallet is selling wallets made from pages of Flash: Rebirth.

A bit off-topic, I’ve been running a photo blog, updating three times a week, mostly with shots from around the Orange County, California area. I’ve also reviewed The Gathering Storm, the new Wheel of Time novel that kept me away from the computer for a week.

Speed Reading: Sketches, Schedules, Collections and More is a post from Speed Force.

Wednesday Comics #4

This week features the fourth issue of the 12-part weekly Wednesday Comics, including a new Flash/Iris West segment by Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher

7” x 10”, 16 pg, FC, $3.99 US

The Last Days of Animal Man #3

Written by Gerry Conway
Art by Chris Batista & Dave Meikis
Cover by Brian Bolland

Enter the League of Titans! Buddy Baker is cracking up, but can he rely on a little help from his friends? Or should a wounded animal just slink away to die? Starfire has an opinion on the subject, and she’s never been one to keep her feelings to herself…

3 of 6 · 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Note: The Source has a preview of the issue. It takes place 10-15 years in the future, with a possible future Flash.

Justice Society of America #29

Written by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges
Art and cover by Jesus Merino

A new era begins for the Justice Society of America as writers Bill Willingham (Fables) and Matthew Sturges (Blue Beetle) take over the series with new artist Jesus Merino (Superman Annual) just as two new recruits make their debut with the team! Strange happenings at the JSA Mansion are weird precursors to an all-out attack on all members of the team — all but one! And what is the strange connection that new members King Chimera and All-American Kid might have with the turmoil?

32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Absolute New Frontier HC (New Printing)

Written by Darwyn Cooke
Art and cover by Darwyn Cooke

Writer/illustrator Darwyn Cooke’s award-winning, critically acclaimed masterpiece DC: The New Frontier is back in a new printing of the Absolute edition, featuring new story pages, detailed annotations, alternate sequences and an extensive gallery of sketches, pinups, action figure art and more!

In the 1950s, Cold War paranoia outlawed the Mystery Men of the Golden Age. Stalwarts such as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman continued to fight for truth and justice, but as the world hurtled toward an uncertain future, it would take a new breed of hero to define the American Way. DC: The New Frontier takes readers on an epic journey from the end of the Golden Age of heroes to the beginnings of the legendary Justice League of America.

Darwyn Cooke’s most ambitious project yet features the stunning color art of Dave Stewart, an introduction by DC’s President and Publisher Paul Levitz, and an afterword by Cooke.

8.25” x 12.5”, 464 pg, FC, $75.00 US

This Week (July 29): Wednesday, Animal Man, JSA and New Frontier is a post from Speed Force.

The post says that there are two actors under consideration at this point, but doesn’t speculate as to the second actor.

Update: Screen Rant is calling Neil Patrick Harris as the other actor under consideration. Harris has experience with the super-hero genre, starring not only as the titular villain in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, but as the voice of Barry Allen himself in last year’s animated Justice League: New Frontier (reviewed here). (via Fused Film)

Since DC has been busy re-positioning Barry Allen as the main Flash, it’s a safe bet at this point that the movie will star Barry.

Rumor: Scott Porter as The Flash? How about Neil Patrick Harris? is a post from Speed Force.

The Main Series

As 2008 opened, the Flash was just wrapping up the six-part story “The Wild Wests,” the relaunch featuring Wally West as head of the Flash family and introducing his super-powered twins, Iris and Jai. To put it mildly, it was not received well by fans, and former fan favorite writer Mark Waid quickly left the book.

After a one-shot by Keith Champagne, Tom Peyer picked up the regular writing chores and Freddie Williams II stayed on for the 6-part “Fast Money,” which resolved the twins’ super-speed aging problem and gave us a glimpse of an adult Iris West II.

The series wrapped up with the year, as Alan Burnett, Paco Diaz, and Carlo Barberi brought us “This Was Your Life, Wally West.” The four-part story arc looked back at Wally West’s career as Kid Flash, then the Flash, and his relationship with his wife Linda and their children.

Rogues’ Revenge

The Rogues’ Gallery were off-limits to start with, as they were off-planet for Salvation Run. Early in the year, DC released the news of Flash: Rogues’ Revenge, a miniseries that would spotlight them after they returned to Earth, going after Inertia for tricking them into killing the Flash. Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins would return to the speedster mythos for six issues.

By the time the series was launched, it had become Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge, and instead of six regular-sized issues it was three oversized issues.

Barry Allen Returns

In April 2008, DC Universe #0 hit the stands. The book, which set up plot threads for a number of upcoming storylines, strongly implied the return of Barry Allen to life. Articles in the mainstream press made it explicit: Barry Allen was back, and he was back for good. (Actually, they tended to just call him “The Flash,” and made it sound like DC hadn’t been printing a Flash series for the last 23 years.)

Barry made his official return in Final Crisis #2 in June, in a final splash page showing him in motion, shouting to his fellow Flashes the single word: “Run!”

Just one month later, at Comic-Con International in San Diego, DC announced the upcoming miniseries, Flash: Rebirth, by the Green Lantern: Rebirth team of Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. The series is currently scheduled to start in April 2009. See also: what we know so far about Flash: Rebirth.

Around the DCU

Jay Garrick continued to appear regularly in Justice Society of America. He also teamed up with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #13, as they battled a nearly-forgotten villain from the late Silver Age: the Samuroids.

Wally West started appearing in the newly-launched Titans series. After a conspicuous absence in Justice League of America, he shared the spotlight with Wonder Woman for issue #20, as they went up against Queen Bee — the same villain who would headline the final story arc in this volume of The Flash.

Wally also made several appearances in Brave and the Bold. While his spotlight issue was released in 2007, he appeared as one of the original Teen Titans in a flashback story in issue #10, and in the present day in #12. Speaking of flashbacks, Teen Titans: Year One looked back at the formation and early days of DC’s main teen super-team.

And then there’s the 12-part Tangent: Superman’s Reign, which started in March. Wally West shared the first cover with the Tangent Universe’s Flash, Lia Nelson, and both Flashes have continued to play a role in the story.

Just about everyone has shown up in Trinity at one point or another, and of course in Final Crisis. Outside the DCU, the Flash has appeared in Super Friends and Kid Flash in Tiny Titans.

Collections

2008 started with a second edition of Blood Will Run, the first story arc Geoff Johns wrote as the regular Flash writer (with Wonderland he’d been hired just for the one arc), which added the graphic novel, Iron Heights.

The second volume of Showcase Presents:The Flash arrived in June, reprinting more of Barry Allen’s Silver-Age adventures in a cheap, black-and-white collection.

August saw the release of The Wild Wests, the first monthly Flash story arc to be collected in hardcover. (Previously, The Life Story of the Flash and Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told had been printed in hardcover, and aside from that only the Flash Archives series had received that treatment.)

TV/Animation

In February, Barry Allen appeared in the direct-to-DVD animated film, Justice League: The New Frontier (reviewed on my other blog), based on Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier. The movie debuted at WonderCon in San Francisco the weekend before its release.

In March, the Flash appeared in the two-part series finale of The Batman, “Lost Heroes,” alongside the Justice League. Season 5 was released on DVD in July, and reviewed here earlier this week.

Teen Titans Season 5, which featured Kid Flash in several episodes, was also released on DVD in July.

The DVD set DC Superheroes: The Filmation Adventures was released in August, featuring (among others) the Flash and Teen Titans segments from the 1967 Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure. They’re certainly a different take on the heroes.

Meanwhile, a number of DC-based cartoons and TV series including Superfriends, the live-action Flash TV series the Filmation cartoons and others have been made available as digital downloads from such services as iTunes, Amazon Video on Demand, and XBox Live.

Video Games

This summer, word came out that the Flash would appear in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The game was released to mixed reviews in November.

Back at Comic-Con in July, Sony previewed the upcoming massively-multiplayer online game, DC Universe Online. At least two Flashes (Jay Garrick and either Wally West or Barry Allen) appear in the game, which is being scripted by Geoff Johns and will likely ship in late 2009 or early 2010.

Flash Companion

In July, just in time for Comic-Con, TwoMorrows released The Flash Companion. The 224-page book covers the full behind-the-scenes history of the Scarlet Speedster, from his origins in the 1940s to the present day. The biggest part of the book is dedicated to interviews with and articles about the writers, artists and editors who have brought the character to life for the past seven decades.

In addition to the interviews, there’s previously unpublished artwork, articles about unusual facts — like the time one editor ordered two covers for the same issue, or the unused Flash — and of course, Rogue Profiles.

I’m still excited about this one because I contributed several of the character profiles — specifically, the ones for Abra Kadabra, Professor Zoom, and Zoom.

So what’s coming up for the Flash in 2009? That’s the subject for another post, and I’ll have it ready for you…next year!

Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for several of the covers.

Looking Back: The Flash in 2008 is a post from Speed Force.

Silver Age Comics looks at the second issue of DC: The New Frontier, which spotlights Barry Allen as the Flash.

Now Read This! reviews Flash: The Greatest Stories Ever Told.

The Daily P.O.P. talks about the state of the Flash over the last few years.

Finally, Comic Bloc’s Pureclint links to three video clips of fan-made fighting games featuring Captain Cold vs. Superman (with cameos by Inertia and the Rogues), multi-colored Flashes battling each other, and Bizarro vs. Superman (with a cameo by Zoom).

Speed Reading: L3W Hardcover, New Frontier, Pocket Flash is a post from Speed Force.