December 14, 2011
The Flash Archives vol.6, announced last month, is now available for pre-order on Amazon. $45 is still a bit steep compared to a trade paperback (funny thing, hardcovers and high-quality paper cost extra), but it’s a hefty discount off the list price.
Written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME • Art by CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA and FRANK GIACOIA Cover by CARMINE INFANTINO and MURPHY ANDERSON Advance solicited • On sale JULY 25 • 240 pg, FC, $59.99 US
It’s a Rogues Gallery parade in these tales from THE FLASH #142-150, as the Scarlet Speedster battles The Trickster, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, Mr. Element, The Reverse Flash, Captain Boomerang and Captain Cold! Plus, a tale guest-starring Green Lantern!
» Pre-order at Amazon
November 15, 2011
DC announced a new volume of the hardcover Flash Archives reprint series in their February 2012 solicitations yesterday. These high-quality books reprint the Silver Age run of The Flash that introduced Barry Allen as the Flash, Wally West as Kid Flash, and most of the Flash’s well-known Rogues.
The Flash Archive Vol.6 HC
Written by GARDNER FOX and JOHN BROOME • Art by CARMINE INFANTINO, JOE GIELLA and FRANK GIACOIA Cover by CARMINE INFANTINO and MURPHY ANDERSON Advance solicited • On sale JULY 25 • 240 pg, FC, $59.99 US
It’s a Rogues Gallery parade in these tales from THE FLASH #142-150, as the Scarlet Speedster battles The Trickster, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master, Mr. Element, The Reverse Flash, Captain Boomerang and Captain Cold! Plus, a tale guest-starring Green Lantern!
I’d been worried that the focus on the newer reprint lines, the large black and white Showcase Presents: The Flash series and the smaller color paperback Flash Chronicles series, had derailed the archives, so I’m very glad to see that they’re continuing. I’ll definitely be pre-ordering this as soon as I can. (More on DC’s reprint lines at Flash series, books & specials.)
DC started this series in 1996, and seems to have settled into releasing one volume every three years. Sixteen years in, we’re just getting to 1964. (Also: inflation seems to have finally hit it. The last five volumes were $49.99 each.) It’s going to take a long time even to finish the Silver Age, never mind completing the series!
Now if we can just get a third volume of the Golden Age Flash Archives…
Update (December): It’s available for pre-order on Amazon.
August 30, 2011
Today’s guest post is by Shaun Rosado of Shauncastic!
A Sound of Thunder
The sound of thunder, a crack of lightning and in a flash everything is different. No, I’m not talking about Flashpoint; DC Comics’ current take on a “Flash-centric” Event. I’m talking about the Flash as a character and the profound difference he’s made in comics. Ever since I was a child, I always felt a deep connection to the Flash. Perhaps it was the sense of the character’s long history, reaching all the way back to World War 2 with Jay Garrick as the original Flash. Perhaps it was the idea that when I was at my most impressionable the Flash TV show had just begun and would capture my imagination. Or perhaps it’s because the Flash is the most important character of the DC Universe.
Yeah. You read that right. I typed it. The Flash is the THE most important character of the DC Universe.
Of course, I don’t expect to get away with saying something like this without a little backup.
So let’s take a moment and just go over the finer points of my argument. When the Flash began way back in the 40s, he was a character that was given his own book nearly as soon as he was established. In January 1940, Flash Comics began as a variety comic that would feature new characters and give them a chance to flourish. Some of the most famous of these characters would be Johnny Thunder, Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Black Canary. This began an eerie precedence of the Flash establishing ideas and characters that would last and break out of his book time and time again. The book ran nearly the entire span of the Golden age, ending just a few months shy of the “official” end date.
But this is not a sprint and the above argument certainly does not win the Flash the title of Greatest Character Ever. This is a marathon…and as we all know, the Flash is the Fastest Man Alive. Read the rest of this entry »
August 11, 2011
DC Comics has announced a “Flash 101″ sale on digital comics. All listed Flash titles will be only 99 cents for 48 hours starting August 13. They don’t say where, but I think it’s safe to assume it’s at ComiXology, because they’re DC’s exclusive online vendor at this point.
And they’ve added a lot more issues.
Up to this point, ComiXology has had everything from Flash: Rebirth onward. Over the last few days, readers have spotted early issues from Wally West’s series, the beginning of Impulse, and a few scattered issues from the Bronze Age. Check out the full list of titles on sale after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »
December 14, 2010
Please drop by Nerdage today and check out a guest post I wrote:
» Six Things You Might Not Know About the Flash.
November 30, 2010
This essay was originally posted on K-Squared Ramblings in 2008.
When the New York Daily News broke the news about Barry Allen’s return, they brought up the hero’s key role in launching the Silver Age of Comics. Superheroes had fallen out of favor in the early 1950s, and comics were exploring genres like westerns, horror, romance, etc. When DC successfully relaunched the Flash in 1956, there was an explosion of new super-hero titles.
The Daily News quotes former Flash scribe Geoff Johns as saying, “Without Barry Allen, we’d still be reading comic books about cowboys.”
I don’t think that’s precisely true. Not to discount Barry’s contribution—it’s entirely possible, even likely, that super-heroes would have remained a background genre. But for one thing, we’re looking at half a century of ephemeral pop culture. For another thing, let’s consider: why were comics going after the western, crime and horror genres when super-heroes failed? Because that’s what was popular in movies and television at the time.
I’d guess that, without the Flash revitalizing super-heroes, we would have seen more science-fiction comics in the 1960s, more police comics in the 1970s, sitcom comics in the 1980s, and so on. Comics genres would probably have followed along with trends in pop culture instead of becoming heavily focused on a single genre.
We wouldn’t be reading cowboy comics today; we’d be reading reality comics.
Perhaps the presence of multiple genres would have eventually gotten rid of the “but, you know, comics are just for kids” mentality. (Not that it’s worked for cartoons or video games yet, but video games are still relatively new, and cartoons have similarly been dominated by the musical fairy tale and slapstick comedy short.)
Eh, who knows? Maybe they’d be all about pirates.
September 8, 2010
In just a few weeks, TwoMorrows Publishing (the company that brought you The Flash Companion
) is releasing Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur, a profile and extensive interview with the legendary artist by Jim Amash and Eric Nolen-Weathington.
The book arrives September 22 in two editions: a 224-page softcover and a 240-page hardcover with an additional 16-page color section not found in the paperback edition.
Even better: They’re offering a free 25-page preview [5.4MB PDF] online, pulled from an extensive interview on launching the Silver Age Flash and the artist’s approach to design, all heavily illustrated.
Carmine Infantino is the artistic and publishing visionary whose mark on the comic book industry pushed conventional boundaries. As a penciler and cover artist, he was a major force in defining the Silver Age of comics, co-creating the modern Flash and resuscitating the Batman franchise in the 1960s. As art director and publisher, he steered DC Comics through the late 1960s and 1970s, one of the most creative and fertile periods in their long history.
Join historian and inker Jim Amash (Alter Ego magazine, Archie Comics) and Eric Nolen-Weathington (Modern Masters book series) as they document the life and career of Carmine Infantino, in the most candid and thorough interview this controversial living legend has ever given, lavishly illustrated with the incredible images that made him a star. Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur shines a light on the artist’s life, career, and contemporaries, and uncovers details about the comics industry never made public until now.
Carmine Infantino: Penciler, Publisher, Provocateur will be available on September 22.
August 7, 2010
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.
July 31, 2010
Some recent sightings of Flash history around the web.
4thletter!’s 4×4 Elements series looks at what made “Blitz” work.
Two more Flash moments appear in Comics Should Be Good’s list of 75 Memorable Moments in DC History: Barry Allen’s sacrifice in Crisis on Infinite Earths and the first Superman/Flash race.
Bleeding Cool noticed a similarity between the universe-changing conclusion of Spider-Man’s “One More Day” and a story point in Flash’s “Hell to Pay,” and asked, “Where was the outrage when Wally West did the same thing?” Hmm, on one hand you have someone who makes a deal with the devil to retcon away 15 20 years of stories and create a new status quo that has lasted three years so far. On the other hand, you have someone who makes a deal with the devil for the sake of a story, and he finds a way to beat the Devil at his own game the next issue. Yeah, they’re totally the same.
Random Happenstance’s series on 1999′s JLApe event continues with a summary of the Flash installment, featuring Max Monkey and Chimpulse.
The Hooded Utilitarian, after reading Flash: Rebirth, decides to go back and read some Silver-Age Flash starting with Showcase #4.
July 22, 2010
Some mid-week linkblogging as Comic-Con gets going…
Less than a week in, CSBG’s 75 Most Memorable Moments in DC History has already cited two Flash moments: The discovery of Earth-2 (“Flash of Two Worlds”) made day four, and Barry Allen’s lab-accident origin made day five.
Once Upon a Geek has been featuring DC Comics ads from shortly after Crisis on Infinite Earths. Today’s spotlight includes a 1987 ad for the then-new Flash series.
The Hooded Utilitarian really disliked Flash: Rebirth. (To be honest, I pretty much agree with this review — and yet I’m really enjoying the ongoing Flash series. It’s as if the two stories are being written by two different writers, both of them named Geoff Johns.)
Yesterday, artist Greg LaRocque dropped by to shed some light on the Flash Jam Sketch posted last month.
Adidas has winged shoes going on sale August 10.
Yahoo News posts a photo of three JSA cosplayers from last year’s Comic-Con International, dressed as the Golden Age Hourman, Atom and Flash (with Dr. Mid-Nite barely visible behind them). I think this is the group I ran into on the day that I was dressed as Jay Garrick, and one of them said, “I was you yesterday!”
Comics Alliance presents today’s comic book covers reimagined in the Silver Age
Firestorm Fan spotlights an Old West Firestorm and Sillof’s Gaslight Justice League.
The Weekly Crisis has analyzed the Brightest Day teaser image.
Marc Guggenheim talks to Newsarama about his upcoming TV series No Ordinary Family, about a family who gains super-powers but aren’t super-heroes. Early reports had the mother (Julie Benz) gaining super-speed, but this interview makes no mention of what anyone’s powers are.
