Category Archives: Fun

Umm…Not For Sale?

I received an odd email yesterday on the webmaster account for Hyperborea.org:

My name is [removed] and i will like to purchase one of your product in your company. I need to order a Tread Mill and i wanted to know the price for one then i will be able to know the number i can order. You can also email me back with your website for me to choose from the one that suite my requirement. I will be hoping to hear from you soon.

It took me a second to realize it wasn’t just ordinary nonsense spam, but probably triggered by a search matching the writeup on the Cosmic Treadmill, the Flash’s time travel (and dimension travel) device!

Sorry, I don’t have one of those for sale…

Remember That Twitter Contest?

Way back in April, DC ran a Flash trivia contest on Twitter for a signed copy of The Flash . 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 , 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 at Comic-Con International. So now I have two signed copies: one signed by the writer, and one signed by the artist!

Speed Reading: Art Round-Up

Some Flash art found this past week…

Zoom Zoom cover design by scottygod and skutterfly. (via GoRogues)

The webcomic Gutters satirizes the comics industry. It recently took on the Speed Force.

Project Rooftop’s invitational features a redesign of The Flash by Joel Carroll. (via Michael Kaiser)

Philip Tan draws Wally West. (via @Speedstersite)

Flash Cakes & GLO Balls from Hostess (Who Else?)

Rickey Purdin’s discovery of Green Lantern GLO-Balls in the supermarket has been making the rounds of comics blogs this week, but he spotted another super-hero-themed snack at the same time: Flash Cakes.

OK, so the name doesn’t amuse the inner twelve-year-old. But it does call to mind those 1970s Hostess ads in which super-heroes, the Flash included, defeated villains with the power of Twinkies. Usually they were low-rent villains like the Bureauc-Rat, Destroyer, Medusa and Dr. Sorcery, but occasionally real villains like Mirror Master or the Penguin.

They’re also surprisingly close to convincing me to buy Hostess cupcakes for the first time in a decade, and I’m married to someone who can make considerably better cupcakes in her sleep. (Of course, she’d probably draw the Flash symbol on the top, rather than simply toss yellow sprinkles onto the red frosting.) Update: She did!

Oh, for the record:

T-Shirt: Camera with Flash! (no longer available)

Today’s TeeFury T-shirt is a picture of a camera fully equipped with a flash — or rather, the Flash.

Like Woot (source of the Flash vs. Apple shirt), TeeFury sells one design each day, but unlike Woot, they don’t offer second chances. The design by artist Joao Lauro Fonte will only be available until midnight EDT (sorry I didn’t spot it earlier), so if you want one, run over and buy it fast. They’ll be gone…in a flash. Update: They’re all gone now.

(via Gfest)