Category Archives: Round-Ups

Flash Week at Collected Editions

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The Collected Editions blog has just started Flash Week, a whole week of reviews of Flash trade paperbacks and hardcovers, leading up to a review of Flash: Rebirth. First up: a review of The Return of Barry Allen.

Along the way, I’ll be contributing a couple of guest reviews covering the Grant Morrison/Mark Millar collections, Emergency Stop and The Human Race.

Collected Editions is a great site for news about upcoming DC Comics (and sometimes other) collections as well as reviews. The site also maintains the DC Trade Paperback Timeline. Last year they put together a Top Flash Trade Paperbacks list.

Speed Reading: Spotlight, Uni-Formz, Gratuitous Storytelling and More

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More weekend linkblogging!

Crimson Lightning has finished the month-long Rogue Spotlight on Abra Kadabra.

That F—ing Monkey reviews the Flash Uni-Formz action figures in great detail.

At Newsarama, Jill Pantozzi considers possible super-hero dads. Her favorite pick? A certain redheaded speedster who might be familiar to readers of this blog.

Other Comics

Collected Editions looks into the question: will the Young Justice cartoon series bring us any new YJ collections? They’ve also updated the DC Trade Paperback Timeline.

Multiversity Comics discusses gratuitous storytelling in recent comics, particularly DC and Marvel. *cough*Rise of Arsenal*cough*

Comics Should Be Good compares various artists’ approach to super-heroic posture.

Comics Nexus notes a trend in current DC Comics and concludes that Geoff Johns must be stopped. Is the tendency to tie everything together good for comics…or is it hurting them in favor of media adaptations? There’s a follow-up post, too, which amounts to, we really don’t think he’s the problem, honest!

Speaking of Geoff Johns, IGN interviews DC’s Chief Creative Officer about Brightest Day and the Rebirth of the DC Universe.

Cons: SDCC Transportation & Tips, LBCC Lifetime Memberships, EVS at Philly

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Some quick convention notes:

Flash: Rebirth artist Ethan Van Sciver will be at Wizard World’s Philadelphia Comic Con* this weekend, and will be signing this afternoon from 3:00-3:45.

Comic Con InternationalComic-Con International is gearing up for next month’s event with transportation news: they’re adding shuttle service to hotels in Mission Valley, Shelter Island, and North Harbor Island. Also, they’re partnering with some downtown San Diego parking lots to sell pre-paid parking. Amazingly enough, spaces in the lot below the convention center still seem to be available!

If you’re headed to San Diego, or to any other convention this summer, you may want to check out my Tips for Comic-Con.

Long Beach Comic ConLong Beach Comic Con has only been around for a year, but they’re already offering a limited-edition lifetime membership for $129. That’s comparable to three years at the full-weekend price of $45…or just over one year at Comic-Con International (currently $100 for 4½ days). They’re running a contest though the end of July to win one of the lifetime memberships.

I enjoyed the first LBCC last October, and I definitely plan on going back this year if I can.

*I don’t link to the individual convention pages anymore because they keep moving them around. Not to mention renaming the cons.

Speed Reading: Letterheads, Casting, Waid and More

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Sorry I haven’t been updating much this week. I’ve been busy, and there hasn’t been much Flash news. So, to tide things over a bit, here’s some linkblogging.

The Comic Book Letterheads Museum has been posting headers from The Flash letter columns, including 1988’s Fleet Sheet and 1989’s Speed Reading (where I got the title for this feature). Further back in the archives you can find Flash-Grams from 1970 and 1976.

Multiversity Comics casts a Flash movie. Has anyone else noticed how often Neil Patrick Harris shows up in these lists? (Also: Linda Park as…Linda Park.)

When Words Collide reviews Wednesday Comics in its new hardcover form, concluding that “The Flash is still, by far, the best thing in Wednesday Comics.

Following up on the reader-chosen Greatest Mark Waid Stories Ever Told, Comics Should Be Good got Mark Waid to pick his own list of favorite stories from his work. A lot of the usual suspects still appear, but one of the surprises was Impulse #3, Bart Allen’s first day at school.

Newsarama interviews Geoff Johns and asks him about Flashpoint. As usual, he can’t say more than we already know.

Judging by this cover for Guardians of the Globe #1 (not the joke one with Barack Obama and Harry Potter, the serious one further down), the design has been tweaked a bit for the Invincible spin-off’s resident speedster, Outrun. [Edit: I forgot to include the link when I posted this!]

Speed Reading: Recommendations

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The linkblogging catchup continues!

Comics Should Be Good features Flash #54: “Nobody Dies” (William Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRocque) in their Year of Cool Comics. It’s one of my favorite one-issue stories from Wally West’s run, and not surprisingly it made the reader-selected list of top 10 Wally West stories a few weeks later.

A bit off topic, CSBG also reviews Mysterius the Unfathomable. It was a fun fantasy/horror/comedy miniseries last year, and is now available as a trade paperback.

Multiversity Comics recommends the new Flash series. Among other reasons: “he has a secret identity which actually gets used, instead of being forgotten for more exciting superhero stories.” And of course, “Flash has some of the best and most fleshed out rogues in the business.”

Update: One more! Several Flash storylines appear in CSBG’s Greatest Mark Waid Stories Ever Told list: Dead Heat, Terminal Velocity and The Return of Barry Allen.

Speed Reading: Things to Think About

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More linkblogging! Here are some (mostly) non-Flash-related posts on general comics, fandom, and online community issues.

Orbital Vector analyzes an aspect of super-speed that’s usually glossed over: Just How Old is the Flash, subjectively? (via dhusk’s comment on the Flashes’ experience post)

Techland has eight questions for comics creators to consider before putting a book on the market. (via @SpeedsterSite)

Multiversity Comics looks at some of the pros and cons of waiting for the trade.

Comic Vine has 5 Things to be Aware of When Buying Back Issues.

What do websites with open comments do when they realize that people are jerks? Reining in Nasty Comments. (via @ThisIsTrue) I’m reminded of Penny Arcade’s expression of the Greater Internet ****wad Theory (NSFW language): Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total ****wad.

Technologizer tracks down the origin of the term Fanboy (via The Beat)

High Five Comics considers The Problem with Madame Lady Girl-Woman.

In the 1940s, Crash Comics introduced a super-hero named Blue Streak. He was a “skilled fighter.” With that name, how did they not make him a speedster?

There have been a lot of articles on the battle for the future of Comic-Con International, but one question jumped out at me in this one at Deadline Hollywood: Jeff Katz asks, “Are you a fan show with trade elements, or are you a trade show that lets in fans…or is there a happy medium?”