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.
Great News! I’ll be more than happy to pick up another Flash Archives.
Hopefully this will give new hope to the Green Lantern Silvar Age Archives as well I have Volumes 1-6 (as well as 1-5 of the Flash of course!) and I was dismayed that they had held off for so long on finishing the GL SA run which ended (unofficially) at issue 74 before becoming Green Lantern Green Arrow with Issue 75 (Thus entering the Bronze Age)
Green Lantern Omnibus#2 comes out on November 29th, and it goes up to issue #45, so you may want to start investing in the Omnibus line, which is a better value anyway. Although I don’t know what you’re going to do about #46 and #47, then. Either way, with the Omnibi out, I doubt DC will be putting out any more Green Lantern Archives.
I REALLY, REALLY hope to someday see that wonderful copy of Golden Age Flash Archives #3 on my bookshelf. DC has done a very nice job of getting their DC Archives imprint up and going again, with several different books being released in the upcoming months. I encourage everyone to support this new Flash Archive and pre-order it from your favorite retailer.
Personally, I’m going to worry about the Silver Age Flash being fully collected until I know that DC has collected up to #174 (Infantino’s last issue) in color. They’ll need to put out two more volumes of 12 issues each to get there. And until they do, I’m not spending any money on what may end up to be a never completed collection line.
Though that still leaves the question of price. $60 for 9 issues is absurd. That’s over $6 per issue! Even if you can find a 40% off sale (which isn’t too hard with the Internet), that’s still $4 an issue, which is STILL utterly ridiculous. More than $2 doesn’t seem reasonable for any comic, pretty reprint or not.
I really hope the Flash gets reprinted in 3 omnibi, like Green Lantern got. I’d feel bad for everyone who’s already invested in the Flash Archives, but the Archive line was always horrifically overpriced, and now DC’s raised the price and decreased the issue count, making the problem even worse. I love the Silver Age Flash, and I’d love to own it in hard copy, but I can’t justify spending over $250 for 74 comics. If DC wants anyone to actually buy their Archive books, then in addition to making them bigger and putting them out more frequently, they may want to consider making them affordable.
Speaking as someone who did go out and buy the entire Silver Age run a few years ago, the copies I got in the $5-7 dollar range weren’t in very good shape until the late 1960s. Maybe prices have gone down since then, but you’re still comparing a battered VHS pan-and-scan transfer that’s been played 50 times to a newly-remastered widescreen HD Blu-Ray.
Personally, I’ve always been happy enough with Standard Definition. I would never shell out the money for Blu-Ray when there were other options.
I get that the Archive line are very high quality books, but I’m happy enough with the quality of regular trade paperbacks that the quality of the Archive books isn’t a factor for me. It’s that I have the material to read that makes them appealing to me. It’s not like with the Absolute line, where (in most cases) you can choose to buy the high quality collector’s edition, or the regular collection. With the Archives, you’re forced to buy the Absolute edition. And there’s no comic I’d buy the Absolute edition for. Even with the quality, it’s just not worth the money to me.
That’s why I like the Omnibi. $75 for about 25 issues is just at the edge of what I’d consider justifiable pricing, and that’s before factoring in Internet deals. And you get a lot more for your dollar. One Omnibus costs twice what an Archive costs, but you get at least double the material also, so you end up saving a bit in the long run, and you have to buy less books. To me, it’s a superior format in every way.
I was fine with standard def too until I got a large-screen TV and discovered that HD broadcasts actually looked better than standard-def DVDs of the same movies on the same hardware. The thing that clinched it was getting the combo pack of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and comparing the opening sequence with the stained glass and village crowd scenes in DVD and Blu-Ray. The difference in detail is amazing.
But that’s getting off-topic.
My point is that you do get something for the extra money. If what you get isn’t valuable to you personally, that’s fine. You’re not forced to get this edition any more than the Absolute editions force you to buy those. If you just want to read the stories, the Showcase Presents books are actually ahead of the archives. If you want “Regular” trades, they’re working on that with the Chronicles line, plus there are thematic collections like Flash vs. the Rogues.
I will always buy the DC Archives series. It is the highest quality reprint of the comics that I love. Ultimately, buy what you love and love what you buy. Fortunately, with so many formats available, you can find a format that you enjoy. I am very pleased that DC continues these wonderful books and hope that you continue for many, many more years.