Howard Porter talks to Newsarama about the injury that nearly destroyed his career, and how driving a school bus helped him start drawing again.
Also at Newsarama, Mark Waid talks about his new comics at BOOM!, including a fourth issue of Potter’s Field.
One interesting surprise buried in The Flash Companion is the fact that during the development for the 1990 Flash TV Series, CBS wanted to cast Jack Coleman as Barry Allen. Yes, Heroes‘ very own Noah Bennet, the man with the horn-rimmed glasses.
From the interview with Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo:
BILSON: You know what? The network offered the role to Jack Coleman, who used to be on Dynasty, and he wouldn’t do it because he wouldn’t wear the suit. That’s what I remember.
So what might Coleman have been like as Barry?
Here’s Barry Allen from his first appearance in Showcase #4, alongside a picture of Jack Coleman from Dynasty a couple of years before The Flash went on the air, and another picture of him as today’s audience would recognize him.
Well, he certainly would have looked the part!
Also, John Wesley Shipp was Bilson & De Meo’s second choice for the role. Their first was Richard Burgi, who went on to lead the duo’s later show, The Sentinel. CBS went with Shipp because, in the network head’s words (according to De Meo), “I can see that guy on a lunchbox.”
Image sources: Barry Allen scanned from The Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told, art by Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert. Dynasty photo via Heroes The Series. Heroes photo via BuddyTV.
This week, the Flash appears in Justice League of America #25 and collected editions of Justice and Countdown to Final Crisis. He may also appear in DCU: Decisions #2 and Trinity #18.
Written by Dwayne McDuffie ; Art by Ed Benes; Cover by Ed Benes
Vixen and Animal Man journey into the sacred Tantu Totem to solve the mystery of their altered powers. But Anansi, the African spider god responsible for these changes, has only begun reshaping the powers and histories of the Justice League, as eight-year-old Bruce Wayne shoots the burglar who killed his parents, Wonder Woman retires from the JLA after the tragic death of her husband, Superman, and The Green Lantern Corps quarantines Earth after one of their number destroys an American city. With the team’s history changing before Vixen’s eyes, is the JLA we now know gone forever?
Notes: Totally off-topic, I know, but speaking of Anansi, I’d like to recommend Neil Gaiman’s novel, Anansi Boys. It’s set in the same world as American Gods (in which Shadow does encounter a version of Anansi), but neither book requires the other.