Category Archives: Creators

Speed Reading: Creator Catch-Up

Catching up with various Flash writers and an artist.

Mark Waid and BOOM! Studios are working at LA’s Meltdown Comics shop on Wednesdays this month, spinning off from an earlier promotion for the new book Hexed.

Comics Should Be Good is running a Year of Writing stars. Monday’s installment: Tom Peyer, who wrote last year’s six-part Flash arc, “Fast Money”

Marc Guggenheim, writer of the “Full Throttle” arc on Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, tells Newsarama that his Green Lantern movie is still on track, and that there may be hope for Eli Stone. He also talks (along with Steve Wacker) about Spider-Man, and talks to CBR about Super-Zombies, his upcoming mini-series from Dynamite.

The Comic Treadmill writes up Alter Ego #54, focusing on 1970s Flash artist Mike Esposito, and Gold– and Silver-Age Flash writer, Robert Kanigher.

Geoff Johns on Flash: Rebirth, Smallville and More

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Geoff Johns was all over the place this week, talking with Hero Complex about several projects including Flash: Rebirth, to Newsarama about his Smallville episode, Legion, and to Wizard about the comic book projects he has for 2009.

Regarding Flash: Rebirth, he tells Hero Complex about series losing their focus:

When the book starts to not be about that, maybe it needs to refocus. Writing Flash with Wally West, he was kind of the sidekick to Barry Allen, the original, then he became the main Flash after Barry left and died. But you look at what the theme of Flash’s book has been for the last 200-something issues with Wally West and it’s been about a man trying to fill someone else’s boots. It doesn’t really have anything to do with speed. I mean, it has something to do with speed, but it was not totally what the book was about. The new Flash that I’m doing is all about speed. What speed means. I’m sure that you have a Blackberry or cellphone, or I’m sure that you’ve downloaded songs or something and asked, “Why is it taking so long?” Everyone wants everything faster today, so speed is even more of something that we can all relate to on a different level.

I like the fact that he wants to focus the book on speed. However….

The guy writing Flash: Rebirth, who also wrote ~60 issues of the last series, feels that Wally West’s defining characteristic is being a wannabe. Remind me again why Wally’s fans should simply relax and trust him? 🙄

Speed Reading: Best-Of, Classics, Kerschl and Waid

And the year-end round-ups keep coming!

At Comic Fodder, Tpull’s Top Ten Mini-Series of 2008 counts Rogues Revenge at #4.

CBR’s When Worlds Collide lists Geoff Johns among its 15 Creators to Watch in 2009.

Geoff Johns makes iFanboy’s list of The Top 5 Best Things About Comic Books in 2008.

Also:

Bags and Boards looks at Flash v.1 #309 (May 1982), pitting the Flash against a man from the future who would, by the end of the issue, become the first future Flash

According to David S. Goyer, all DC movies at Warner Bros. are on hold while they figure out how to get them right. (via The Beat)

The Montreal Mirror profiles artist Karl Kerschl, who penciled Teen Titans Year One and one issue of Flash: The Fastest Man Alive. The article focuses on his work with the band Ragni and his webcomic, The Abominable Charles Christopher.

Major Spoilers has some preview pages from the upcoming The Incredibles comic written by Mark Waid.

Geoff Johns Leaves JSA

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Geoff Johns has announced that he will be leaving Justice Society of America — a title that he has co-written even through a relaunch for nearly a decade — after the upcoming Justice Society of America #26.

At the center of his announcement is this:

The JSA to me represents everything good about life, work and superheroes. In life, generations past, present and future all provide different viewpoints. There can be something magical when it’s past from grandfather to father to son or from mother to daughter or son to grandfather. There’s nothing more important than family – and family means a lot more than just blood relatives. That’s what my very first book, STARS & S.T.R.I.P.E., was about and that’s what JSA, and life, is about.

So why am I leaving?

I have more stories to tell, and the characters are endless, but that’s also true for the DC Universe. I’m ready to move on to some other challenges like returning to THE FLASH and SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN. And I am also obsessed with making sure that GREEN LANTERN, BLACKEST NIGHT and everything around it is the absolute best it can possibly be.…and that’s only part of 2009. There are some new projects on the horizon.

It’s a shock to see him leave the book after so long, but as he says, the DC Universe is huge, and I can absolutely understand wanting to explore more facets of it.

Of course, this being a Flash blog, I’ll have to point out the phrasing, “returning to The Flash.” That may just be a reference to Flash: Rebirth, but it certainly sounds like he plans to stick around afterward.

(via Comic Book Resources)

And I thought there wouldn’t be any big Flash news to cover this week…

Update: Newsarama has an interview in which Geoff Johns clarifies what he’ll be working on next year:

With my runs on Action Comics and Justice Society of America coming to a close I’ll be focusing on Green Lantern, The Flash: Rebirth, Superman: Secret Origin and Blackest Night. Technically that gives me one monthly book and three mini-series, but by the time 2009 is over I’ll be back on three monthly books. So that’s what it’ll look like a year from now.

Catching Up: Messner-Loebs, Guggenheim, Waid and Van Sciver

Twenty years ago, William Messner-Loebs started a four-year run on The Flash. Seven years ago, out of work, he and his wife lost their house. Michigan Live writes about how his life has turned around since then. (via The Beat).

Another former Flash scribe, Mark Waid, talks to CBR about his arrival on Spider-Man.

Flash: The Fastest Man Alive “Full Throttle” writer Marc Guggenheim’s TV show Eli Stone has not been renewed beyond the network’s current 13-episode commitment. Update: Newsarama also has an interview about Guggenheim’s “Character Assassination” arc on Amazing Spider-Man

Flash: Iron Heights and Impulse artist Ethan Van Sciver, currently working on Flash: Rebirth, has started a weekly column at Newsarama, Your Time Is Now Mine.

Update: One more: Geoff Johns talks with CBR about bringing the Legion of Super-Heroes to Smallville.

Speed Reading: Kolins, Johns, Morrison

IGN is running an interview, the Geoff Johns Marathon, in which the writer talks about just about everything he’s working on, including Flash: Rebirth (via trmnlvlctyyy at Comic Bloc). Among other things, he writes:

Right now I’m looking at the Flash with Rebirth, and I want to see how I can make this mythology even bigger. It’s already huge. The Flash has an awesome base, so cracking it open even more has been an incredible challenge.

and

The Flash has always been my favorite character since I was a kid. And it’s fun to get back to writing Wally West. I wrote him for five years. To get back to him and then write Barry Allen. Like I said earlier, I get to take what I’ve learned over the last several years writing comics and apply it to the Flash. Because I started writing the Flash almost when I started writing comics, and now I get to look at everything I’ve done to this point and see how I can apply that onto my original work on the character. I want to continue to elevate my writing, and hopefully I’ll achieve that.

Newsarama interviews artist Scott Kolins on Faces of Evil: Grundy, which reunites him with Flash and Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge collaborator Geoff Johns.

Finally, MTV’s Splash Page wonders why Grant Morrison can’t talk about a Flash movie, given the number of NDAs he’s signed in connection with various film projects. [Edit: Since the original page has vanished, I’m attaching a quote from the Google cache so you can have a little context. Thanks, Rockin’ Rich.]

“Yeah, that’s the kind of thing I can’t talk about,” Morrison said. “Yes, I have talked to them. I’m deeply involved in those discussions. I know what’s going down with all of that, and it’s actually really exciting. But beyond that, I can’t say anything. I wish I could tell you. I’m sure announcements will probably be made at some point, but I can’t say anything.”