Category Archives: Site News

New Contributor

Greetings

My name is Karl and I will be helping Kelson around here. I have been collecting comics since 1984 and have been a fan of the flash for the last 19 years. I fell in love with the book with issue #72 and have a complete run of the Wally series (one of my most prized collections).

I suppose my passion for the flash comes from my love of the character and the fact that Mark Waid took a group of supporting characters and created a family around Wally and in Wally created a character that matured and became in my opinion one of the greatest super heroes in the last twenty years.

I have been a fan of what Geoff Johns has done with the character and am waiting to see where Barry, Wally and Bart go from here.

I am really quite honoured to be contributing on a site and being part of a community that Kelson has worked hard to create, I will be contributing in various ways and hope to get to know all of you and look forward to being a part of this site.

Karl

PS my favourite flash villain is Dr Alchemy. Give you two guesses why.

State of the Blog 2010

It’s been about a year since I last posted one of these things. Speed Force has grown a lot in that time. I’ve tried to have something new on a daily basis, and over a year and a half the site has grown to a total of 824 posts. It’s also expanded past the blog itself, with nearly 3,000 tweets on Twitter @SpeedForceOrg and with a fan page on Facebook.

Speed Force’s audience has grown a lot too, with an average of 989 views per day (up from 469 a year earlier), 220 fans on Facebook, over 400 followers on Twitter…and almost 3,000 comments! Thank you, everyone!

On the downside: I’m kind of stressed out. The Flash is still in limbo after all this time, and while we have an unofficial launch date, DC has continued to change their plans for the character. I’ve also been finding DC’s output more frustrating and less interesting over the past few years, and I don’t want this to turn into a 24/7 rant station.

So here’s what I’m doing to avoid burning out. Continue reading

Cooling Off

First off, I’d like to apologize for the meltdown in yesterday’s post. I’m still extremely disappointed in DC’s decision to cancel the Kid Flash series and Wally West backups, but instead of flying off the handle, I should have made a terse, neutral news post, then waited a few hours before writing a more considered opinion piece.

Well, it’s too late to stuff all the feathers back into the bag. As much as I’d like to delete it and start over, a lot of people have already read it, and I’d rather keep the original available so that people can read what I actually said, not what someone else said that I said.

So, about the future. Over the last few years, I’ve been slowly losing interest in super-heroes in general and the DC Universe in particular, to the point that right now, the only DCU books I’m reading are Flash: Rebirth and Blackest Night: The Flash.

Meanwhile, I’ve spent four years in “wait and see” mode with The Flash as DC has changed direction seemingly every 6 months. I’m frustrated. So frustrated that I’m getting bitter about what used to be my favorite book.

You know the kind of fan who constantly writes angry rants about how he hates the current version of a book or TV series? The fan who stands up in panels at conventions and complains about books he doesn’t like? The fan who puts “Only Bob is the real Ultraguy!” in his forum signature? The fan who shows up to say “You should be happy that your favorite book is being canceled! Now you can enjoy my favorite book! Isn’t it great?” You know, that guy?

I don’t want to be “that guy.”

So I think I need to take a step back for a bit.

I’ve got a few informational and linkblogging posts lined up for the rest of the week, but I think unless major news hits, I’m going to sit things out until after Christmas (I’ve got enough holiday stress already) while I figure out what I want to do, both as a reader and as a blogger.

Site Updates: Lady Flash and Silver Age Reprints

So much for getting something done every week…Still, I made some new progress this weekend catching up on Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning.

The most visible update is to Christina/Lady Flash. I added a scan of her “Lady Savage” outfit, rearranged the profile a bit, and updated her with her current status as shown in Flash: Rebirth.

I also tackled the Silver Age Reprints list. Aside from some reformatting, I’ve added:

  • Contents from the upcoming Flash vs. the Rogues trade paperback. The solicitations only list issue numbers, but in most cases it’s clear that if one story has a one-off villain and the other story has, say, Captain Cold, it’s going to be the Captain Cold story.
  • Notes on villains and guest stars. If the title is “Mirror Master’s Magic Bullet,” it’s obvious who’s in it. But if it’s “The Case of the Real-Gone Flash,” you might not know that it stars Abra Kadabra.
  • Solid through Flash v.1 #130. I have everything that’s been reprinted in later issues of The Flash, or in trade paperbacks, but I’m still missing a lot of items that were reprinted in some of DC’s random 1970s books like Four Star Spectacular. To find them, I’ve gone through the GCD up through #130, so that part of the list is as complete as the GCD is.

I’ve also made some smaller updates — added some appearances, listed upcoming series and recent collections on the Series, Books and Specials list, etc.

Back on Track and off to Long Beach!

Long Beach Comic ConThanks, everyone, for sticking around for reruns while I dealt with a busy month! I’m still busy, but things are a bit more under control, so I can get back to bringing you more new content!

I’ve got a few more flashback posts in reserve for the next time real life gets in the way of writing. Or I might start a “Flashback Fridays” or “Monday Memories” series.

Tomorrow I’m going to the first-ever Long Beach Comic Con. Among other things, I plan on attending the DC Nation panel, though I don’t expect there to be any big Flash news unless they’ve picked an artist for Kid Flash in the last week. Update: DC is planning to announce something big. I doubt it’ll be Flash-related, but who knows?

Keep an eye on this blog, on @SpeedForceOrg on Twitter, and my Flickr stream for reports and photos from the event!

Fall Reruns

There’s a project at work that may be taking over my life for a few weeks, and I realized I’m going to have to cut into either sleep, blogging, or downtime. It looks like the best course for now is for me to take some time off of blogging and other fan activities for the rest of September.

Don’t worry, I’m not shutting down Speed Force for a month! I’ll keep up the “Out This Week…” posts, and check on comments, and post major news if it breaks.

To keep things going here, I’ll be rerunning some old Flash-related posts from before Speed Force launched, pulled from my other blog, K-Squared Ramblings.

Then I’ll be back in *ahem* full force next month, probably starting with a con report on Long Beach Comic Con.

Enjoy the reruns!