Category Archives: Covers

Speed Reading: Covers, Talking Costumes and Ewoks on Steroids

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Some weekend linkblogging:

Art

Covered features artist James Duncan’s reinterpretation of Flash v.1 #108.

Flash v.1 #159iFanboy’s Great Moments in Comics features a scan of the Flash’s costume begging Barry Allen not to leave it. “The Case of the Curious Costume,” which appeared in Flash v.1 #161 (1966) was a “bonus” story based on the cover from Flash v.1 #159. (Thanks to GCD for the scan!)

Crave Online’s Top 5 Covers for April starts the countdown with Flash: Rebirth #1 at position 5.

History

Over at Comics Should Be Good, Scott’s Classic Comics Corner has been trying to pin down the start of the Bronze Age of comics (a much fuzzier boundary than the start of the Silver Age), and finishes his series with several less serious suggestions. Among them: Flash #220 (1973), the return of Turtle Man, 17 years after he first appeared in…Showcase #4.

Critique

Profzoom has launched a series of Flash: Rebirth Annotations.

Pete’s Rambling Observations suggests that Wally’s kids are “Ewoks on steroids”

Read/RANT considers How Many Green Arrows (or Flashes) is Too Many?

The Weekly Crisis’ Moments of the Week include several “anti-moments” from Flash: Rebirth #2.

Interview

Newsarama interviews Geoff Johns about his 10-year run on JSA and Justice Society of America.

Flash: Rebirth #5 Cover Revealed

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DC’s The Source spotlights seven August Covers, including the cover for Flash: Rebirth#5.

Flash: Rebirth #5

It’s the latest homage to the classic “Flash of Two Worlds” cover from Flash v.1 #123, the first meeting of Barry Allen and Jay Garrick — only this time it’s Barry Allen vs. the Black Flash, and the poor hapless construction worker has been crushed by the falling beam.

There are actually two visual references to this famous cover in Flash: Rebirth #1 as well — a parade float, and then a side view in Jay Garrick’s reminiscences.

Also of interest is the cover to Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape, in which it looks like Nemesis is running on the Cosmic Treadmill.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape #4

Flash: Crisis on Earth-Blog (Alex Ross and George Perez)

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Crisis on Earth-Blog

The landmark Crisis on Infinite Earths, by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, came out in 1985-1986, but it took until 1998 for DC to collect the whole series in one volume. The slipcased hardcover featured a wraparound painted cover by Perez and superstar Alex Ross. (That edition is no longer available, but the paperback edition is based around the same cover.)

Crisis on Infinite Earths Poster

The Flashes figured prominently in the story. Jay Garrick and Barry Allen shared the story that introduced the concept of the DC Multiverse, “Flash of Two Worlds” (Flash v.1 #123, 1963). And of course, Crisis on Infinite Earths featured Barry Allen’s death, and Wally West taking up the mantle. So naturally, the Flashes had a prominent spot on the cover, arguably the second most-visible after the pair of Supermen holding the bodies of Wonder Woman and Supergirl. A streak of crimson, yellow and white runs along the lower half of the cover, colliding dead center in a burst of lightning, and finally images of the Flash disintegrate and collapse at the end.

The Run-Down

Read on for an in-depth examination of the scarlet speedsters on this cover. Continue reading →

Velocity: One of These Things Is Not Like the Other

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Top Cow’s upcoming Velocity series (focusing on Cyberforce’s speedster) has been delayed once again, with series artist ChrisCross leaving the project.

This reminds me of something I’d been meaning to post about the covers solicited for the (now canceled) first two issues:

Velocity #1 - ChrisCross and Snakebite Velocity #1 - Kenneth Rocafort

Velocity #1. Left: ChrisCross and Snakebite. Right: Kenneth Rocafort.

Velocity #2 - ChrisCross and Snakebite Velocity #2 - Stjepan Sejic

Velocity #2. Left: ChrisCross and Snakebite. Right: Stjepan Sejic

Notice which ones say “super-heroine” and which one says “swimsuit model.” Now, guess which one Top Cow was using to promote the book?

I’ve got to say, I really like the Stjepan Sejic cover for #2 and the ChrisCross cover for #1. The Rocafort cover? Frankly, I’d have been a bit embarrassed to buy it. Of course, this is Top Cow… Continue reading →

Flash Christmas Covers

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When I thought of doing this feature, I figured there would be more of these. But there are surprisingly few. Most of them, as it turns out, are from Comic Cavalcade back in the 1940s. None appeared during Barry Allen’s run, and only two during Wally West’s. (One of them I only included because the cover quoted “Jingle Bells.”) Impulse, however, managed three.

Interesting notes:

  • 5 feature Santa Claus.
  • 5 feature Christmas Trees.
  • 4 name the holiday.

I even went hunting for team books — Justice League, Teen Titans, Justice Society, etc. Oddly enough, I couldn’t find many that were both Christmas-themed and featured a Flash.

Thanks to the Grand Comics Database for the covers.