May 22, 2012
Speed Force has gotten a little more Social. So to speak. We’ve been sending new posts to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Tumblr for a while, but until now the conversations out on those social networks have been completely separate.
Now, you can comment here using your Facebook or Twitter ID, and have the option of sharing your comments there as well.
Better yet, if you reply to a story on our Facebook page, your comment will appear here too…and replies to your comment here will get copied over to Facebook.
One big conversation instead of three separate ones. (Tumblr’s a different sort of beast, and Google+ is on the radar, but not supported yet.)
Think of it as the worlds of Facebook, Twitter and Speed Force comments merging together, only without Pandora or the Anti-Monitor!
As with any big change, there’s the chance that something could go wrong. If you run into something that isn’t working, please let me know, either by commenting here, mentioning @SpeedForceOrg in a tweet, or emailing speedforce - at - pobox - dot - com
July 29, 2011
Wednesday, on discovering that his flight home from San Diego offered free Wifi, incoming Flash writer/current artist Francis Manapul decided to answer reader questions on Twitter. I’m sure I’ve missed some, but here you go.
I’ve reformatted these for easier reading. In many cases, the question and answer appeared in the same post, as a retweet with a comment (ex: “Answer. RT @asker question”), so they’re really terse. Read the rest of this entry »
June 24, 2011
Speed Force is currently on Facebook, Twitter, and Buzz, and by that I mean that updates are pushed to those sites, and I try to post links and respond to comments on those sites. (Well, Facebook and Twitter, anyway. Buzz has kind of fallen by the wayside, but with roughly 750 followers on Twitter, 600 on Facebook, and 22 on Buzz, it doesn’t seem like there’s much demand. Updates are automatic, though.)
In the interest of making it easy for you to keep up with the site, so I wonder what else is out there that might be worth connecting to the blog. Obviously, there are a lot of sites out there, but one key piece of social media advice has stuck in my head: “What’s the best social network to use? The one you’ll actually keep up with.”
So here’s my question:
If I were to add Speed Force to one more social network, what would you want it to be?
October 12, 2010
Way back in April, DC ran a Flash trivia contest on Twitter for a signed copy of The Flash #1. A new question each day for a week, with winners chosen from the first few correct responses. I won one of the days with the answer to a question about “Flash of Two Worlds,” and immediately sent in my mailing address.
And waited.
And waited.
After about a month, one of the other winners contacted me through Comic Bloc trying to get us all together to write to DC and ask what was going on. DC wrote back, assuring us that the signed books would be out within a few weeks.
Eventually, September rolled around, along with a second or third round of, “Hey, what happened?” This time, they assured us all that the books would be sent out by the end of the month.
Guess what?
Last Friday (October 8), I came home and found an envelope from DC Comics! In it was not only a copy of The Flash #1, but a copy of the Blackest Night hardcover to make up for the long wait time!
When I checked in on Comic Bloc, it turned out that they’d sent Blackest Night to some of us, and Flash Rebirth to others.
I remember last year telling someone that I wasn’t planning to read Blackest Night because I had no interest in it, but I’d read it if someone else bought it for me. It’s weird that not only did someone end up buying it for me, but it was DC themselves! I guess they really want me to read this book! 
Another funny thing: Back in July, I got Francis Manapul to sign my copy of The Flash #1 at Comic-Con International. So now I have two signed copies: one signed by the writer, and one signed by the artist!
April 25, 2010
Two weeks’ worth of linkblogging, so you’ll probably have seen a lot of these by now…
Commentary
Multiversity Comics presents A Crisis of Chronology: The Flash, as well as thoughts on early solicitations in a digital age.
Silver Age Gold presents: I Hate the Flash’s Girlfriend, all about Iris West! Silver Age Comics responds: Ending with Iris.
Art
slaterman23 has a Flickr set featuring vintage-style DC Comics posters (via The Nerdy Bird).
Paxton Holley has found a comic in which Superman Becomes the Flash (Action Comics #314, 1964)
Chris Samnee sketches Flash vs. Captain Cold at C2E2.
Mr. Maczaps presents Death in the form of the Black Flash.
Bobby Timony draws Jay Garrick (also at C2E2).
By now you’ve probably all seen this visual pun on Flash and the iPad using Alex Ross’ art.
The Top Cow Panel at C2E2 has some incredible samples of Kenneth Rocafort’s art from the upcoming Velocity miniseries.
seanicus found a Japanese Flash T-Shirt.
Karl Kerschl’s webcomic, The Abominable Charles Christopher, is coming to print.
The webcomic Comic Critics tackles Greg Rucka leaving DC.
Other
Comic Book Resources has put together a Comics Twitter Directory
Cinema Spy considers how the new status quo seen in Flash #1 might influence the Flash movie.
January 8, 2010
It’s been about a year since I last posted one of these things. Speed Force has grown a lot in that time. I’ve tried to have something new on a daily basis, and over a year and a half the site has grown to a total of 824 posts. It’s also expanded past the blog itself, with nearly 3,000 tweets on Twitter @SpeedForceOrg and with a fan page on Facebook.
Speed Force’s audience has grown a lot too, with an average of 989 views per day (up from 469 a year earlier), 220 fans on Facebook, over 400 followers on Twitter…and almost 3,000 comments! Thank you, everyone!
On the downside: I’m kind of stressed out. The Flash is still in limbo after all this time, and while we have an unofficial launch date, DC has continued to change their plans for the character. I’ve also been finding DC’s output more frustrating and less interesting over the past few years, and I don’t want this to turn into a 24/7 rant station.
So here’s what I’m doing to avoid burning out. Read the rest of this entry »
July 3, 2009
Some linkblogging related to Flash writers and artists:
Long Beach Comic-Con announces the full guest list for their first convention, and Geoff Johns is on it.
Comic Book Resources has some video from the Earth-2 Comics grand opening a few weeks ago with Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, and others.
Ethan Van Sciver will be signing at Comic Book Etc. in Woodstock, Georgia on July 18.
Newsarama interviews Mark Waid on Irredeemable.
Speaking of Mark Waid, he and Gail Simone got into a “Twitter War” yesterday, slinging silly accusations at each other and insisting that others choose sides. It’s a funny read, and you can catch up at @GailSimone and @MarkWaid.
Update: And one more Mark Waid story that I somehow missed: in Wednesday’s Cup o’ Joe column, he tells the story of a time when he was invited out to a signing at a comic store in a Vermont town, only to arrive and discover that there was no store…just “two comics fans who had pooled their lawnmowing money to pay for a LaGuardia-to-Vermont plane ticket for their very-soon-not-to-be-favorite writer so they could meet him and own him for a day.” It’s a really surreal story, and worth the read.
January 7, 2009
Last month, Secret Six and Wonder Woman writer Gail Simone posted a few fiction challenges on Twitter. I responded with some Flash-related micro-stories:
Condense the plot of a comic, six words or less. .
Barry’s back! Wait, it’s not him. (This being the plot to The Flash: The Return of Barry Allen
)
Seven word story, describing the the last minute of a comic character’s life
Slipped on banana peel at Mach 23.
How are comics characters spending the holidays?
Christmas. Wish I could slow down.
December 5, 2008
A couple of notes on recent changes here at Speed Force:
1. You may have noticed a welcome banner appearing from time to time on the site. That’s something I’ve been trying out here and at K-Squared Ramblings, and presents an appropriate message to viewers coming from various search sites and social networks. In theory you should only see it once, or at most once a week, if you allow cookies. It’s powered by the Wp Greet Box plugin, and I go into more detail at K²R.
2. I’ve been trying to balance software speed with download speed, especially for visitors on mobile handsets. I used to run WordPress Mobile Edition, which tries to detect most phones and other small-screen, low-bandwidth devices, but it doesn’t work well with server caching. Since I upgraded to a G1 phone, I’ve been trying out WPTouch, which presents a clean interface on the iPhone and on phones that run the Android browser. If you read this site with a mobile device, please let me know how well it works. I’ll probably be tweaking this some more.
3. I’ve updated to a new version of WordPress. Actually, I’ve jumped the gun a bit by installing the WP 2.7 release candidate. (I’ve also dropped the WP_Identicons plugin in favor of the built-in Identicon support, but it generates different avatars than the plugin did. Sorry if you liked your old one better!)
The new version supports threaded comments, but the theme I’m using isn’t compatible with them. I’ll take a stab at updating it manually this weekend.
Anyway, there may be some wonkiness with the upgrade. If you stumble on something odd, please let me know.
4. Holding steady at #8 on Comic Blog Elite. Or at least I was until today.
5. Can’t believe I missed the six-month mark. Half a year! The downside is that I’ve been somewhat neglecting updates at Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning in order to keep this going.
6. More social networking coming up. I’ve added the Twitter account SpeedForceOrg, and I’m working on something to tie this into Facebook. (And yeah, I’ve got a backlog of friend requests. Sorry about that.)
October 8, 2008
You can now follow Speed Force on Twitter at SpeedForceOrg! In addition to announcing new blog entries, I’ll be posting updates and the occasional random bits and pieces. The latest few tweets will also appear in the blog sidebar.
Speaking of which, that sidebar is getting kind of crowded. I’m going to have to do something about that eventually.
