Speed Force

It’s not listed on DC’s website, but Diamond Comics reports that this week it will ship the The Flash #1 second printing announced last month. Curious readers who missed the start of the relaunch can pick it up, along with those who collect alternate covers — since it’s almost certain to have a different cover than the original printing, even if it’s a banner or frame like the What’s Next? series.

Also this week

The Hourman & Liberty Belle backup feature continues in JSA All-Stars #9.

Fans of the Bronze Age Flash may be interested in the first issue of Cary Bates’ alternate reality story, Superman: The Last Family of Krypton.

As for other speedsters, there’s a new Sonic the Hedgehog issue. At #215, it’s fast-approaching a tie with either Barry Allen’s or Wally West’s series for longevity.

Francis Manapul reported on Twitter, and then The Source confirmed that The Flash #1 and 10 other recent launches are getting second printings.

No word yet on when it will ship, or what cover DC will use. They already used an uncolored sketch version of the original cover as a 1:100 variant, but with the number of random Flash covers they seem to have stocked up by various artists, I’m sure they could simply reassign the variant for, say, The Flash #7, or another issue that hasn’t been solicited yet. They could also put out a variation on Tony Harris’ variant cover for the first printing, or use an interior splash page, or take the black-and-white with spot color approach to either of the original covers.

Remember, comics arrive on Thursday this week due to Memorial Day!

This week, DC reprints the first issue of Flash: Rebirth as part of its “What’s Next? Graphic Novels You Should Be Reading” series.

Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, the team behind GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH and THE SINESTRO CORPS WAR, create this jaw-dropping issue that reintroduced Barry Allen as The Flash, now reprinted for just $1.00! But how will this greatest of all Flashes find his place in the twenty-first century? This issue is featured in THE FLASH: REBIRTH HC (DEC090206)

I believe this marks the fifth printing the issue. Check out the covers for the first four.

Also Flash-related:

• Final Crisis Trade Paperback (featuring Wally West, Jay Garrick, and the return of Barry Allen)
• Justice Society of America #39 (featuring Jay Garrick and Liberty Belle)
• JSA All-Stars #7 (featuring Liberty Belle)

ComicList reports that Flash: Rebirth #2 will get a second printing, arriving in stores on September 30.

Two of the three reprints of issue #1 have taken an existing cover and removed most of the color. (The second printing brought in an alternate cover that had been used for solicitations, but not the actual printed comic book.) Here are the original covers for Flash: Rebirth #2, the standard on the left and the variant on the right:

So what do you think: will it be a black and white standard cover (with the filmstrip) with only Barry Allen in color, or black and white variant cover (Barry with his costume coming out of the ring) with only the costume in color?

Some links and observations for the day.

Links

Comics Should Be Good looks at DC Super-Stars reprints from the 1970s — including a Flash book which re-drew a Golden Age story. Hmm, I have a new blog post idea: comparing the original and redrawn versions of “Deal Me From the Bottom” and “City of Shifting Sand” from All-Flash #22 (yes, they did this twice!)

If you dare, read TV Tropes on Super Speed. (Beware, this is TV Tropes, so you run the risk of a tab explosion if you read it!)

San Diego Thoughts

Twitter has been full of people talking about flying to San Diego today, or starting long drives. Living 2-3 hours away, it’s easy for me to forget that a lot of people need a full day of travel before and after the con. I mean, I’m planning to drive down after lunch. I could do the entire con taking only 2½ days off work, but for many people, it’s a full week.

I find it highly amusing that @WizardWorld has been heavily pushing Chicago Comic-Con on Twitter today…the day before Comic-Con International. Certainly it makes perfect sense to capitalize on people thinking about cons who might not be going to this one, but might go to yours. And heck, I started getting excited about the build-up to CCI during the week before Wizard World Philadelphia and HeroesCon. It just seems funny for some reason.

Expanded from some of my Twitter posts today.

I decided to switch the Twitter digests from weekly to daily for the week of Comic-Con International. This is a bit cleaned up and reorganized.

Observations

• This is going to be one of those many-blog-posts-a-day weeks, isn’t it? I may push some of my scheduled posts to after #sdcc #
• Diamond says Flash: Rebirth #1 FOURTH PRINTING ships next week. #
• Need to decide whether to keep going with Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance by Wednesday. Dropped Escape last week, not reading Ink or Run. #
• Misread “Council of Spiders” (upcoming Red Robin arc) as “Council of Spoilers.” #

Comic-Con

• RT @SD_Comic_Con: Very Funny: Five questions not to ask at the con (Via @genjadeshade) #
• Another good list: RT @SD_Comic_Con Hey: 20 Tips for every Con Attendee! #

Other Links

• RT @matt_sturges: Hey, look! Preview pages from JSA 29, our first issue. #
• Preview of Last Days of Animal Man #3 w/a future Flash #
• What links Geoff Johns, Marv Wolfman and Grant Morrison, the 3 writers WB has hired as superhero consultants? CRISIS! #
• Worth remembering: You don’t HAVE to argue every silly point out there (via CSBG) #
• 21 artists who changed mainstream comics, incl. Carmine Infantino, George Perez, Alex Ross via @Robot6 #
• *sigh* Perhapanauts switches to “miniseries scheduling” right when I switched from trades to individual issues. #

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DC’s new blog, the Source, is reporting that Flash: Rebirth #1 has sold out at the distributor. Local comic stores may or may not still have copies.

A second printing will follow on April 29, featuring the “missing” variant cover by Ethan Van Sciver — the front view of Barry putting on his boots, rather than the side view from the initial promo image and the first printing — that appeared on DC’s solicitations for the issue.

This week’s DC Direct Channel newsletter has an incredibly long list of books that have been delayed for various reasons. Most of the list is made up of trades and hardcovers, which are all being pushed back one week “due to adjustments being made in DC’s manufacturing and production schedules.” It also includes most of the Final Crisis line-up.

Flash-related titles that have been postponed include:

Most of the delays in monthly titles are are offered with no explanation, though the reprints of Final Crisis: Requiem and Rogues’ Revenge #1 are blamed on “an error.” The books were supposed to ship last week, but instead they’re arriving in stores today.

In better news, the trade paperback Flash: Rogue War is going back to press for a second printing.

DC’s Direct Channel newsletter reports that Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge #1 and Final Crisis: Requiem have sold out at the publisher. Both will be going back for second printings to be released on August 13 — a week before issue Rogues’ Revenge #2 arrives.

According to the release, the reprint will have “a recolored version of the issue’s cover by Scott Kolins.” Since the same artist did both covers (warning to low-bandwidth users: image-intensive page), it’s not clear which cover will be used for the reprint.

Update (Wednesday): ComicNewsi has the cover designs. They’re using the Captain Cold art with the sliver design.