Category Archives: Site News

Site Updates: Lady Flash and Silver Age Reprints

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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!

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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

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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!

Minor Site Updates: Appearances, Covers, Dimwits, Josh

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I finally made an effort to catch up a little bit on my waaaaay-behind Flash reference site, Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning. This afternoon I’ve accomplished:

Added the fourth printing of Flash: Rebirth #1 — yes, fourth printing! — to the Variant Covers catalog.

Updated Winky, Blink and Noddy, also known as the “three dimwits.” They were the Flash’s sidekicks during the Golden Age, then disappeared for almost 60 years. They got a mention in the recent Justice League: Cry for Justice #2.

Updated Josh Jackam. Somehow I never got around to adding the significant events of Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge.

Renamed “Crisis Era” as “Legacy Era” based on this discussion.

Started updating appearance lists for the last…um…year. So far: Barry Allen, Jay Garrick, Iris Allen and Gorilla Grodd. I still need to index “This Was Your Life, Wally West,” though.

I’m going to make it a goal to do at least some work on the site each week from now on, and with luck I’ll have everything up to current status by the time Flash: Rebirth wraps up.

Covering San Diego (2009)

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In a few days I’ll be off to Comic-Con International in San Diego. It’ll be my 20th year attending the con. Now I feel old.

Anyway, I’ll be posting about my experiences at the con in several places:

Here’s a list of my past convention reports and photos, including San Diego 2003–2008, Wizard World Los Angeles 2007–2008, and WonderCon 2008–2009. I’m also almost done with the Convention Tips list, which should wrap up Wednesday morning.

Speeding for a Year

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It’s hard to believe, but it’s been a year since I launched Speed Force!

Flash in Limbo

June 2008 was a very uncertain time for Flash fans.

Over the previous two years, DC had changed Flashes twice and creative teams four times. Sharp sales spikes with each relaunch were followed by sharp drops as readers rejected each new direction. Bart Allen was dead. Wally West‘s revived series, already on its second writer and artist, continued to shed readers at an alarming rate.

It had become clear that the Infinite Crisis relaunch had completely derailed the book.

And then there was Barry Allen. DC had announced his return in April when they released DC Universe #0 (which very heavily hints that it’s narrated by Barry Allen)…but after mearly two months, he hadn’t actually appeared on-panel anywhere. Fans weren’t even sure they believed DC when they said he was back for good.

Still, with sales continuing to drop and the apparent return of an earlier Flash, DC was obviously planning another relaunch. It was just a question of when the hammer would fall, and who would wield it.

There were two bright spots:

  • Barry Allen’s fans knew he was returning…sometime.
  • Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge was coming up, reuniting the fan-favorite team of Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins.

Jumping Into the Deep End

So what on Earth-Prime made me think that was a good time to launch a blog about the Flash?

Well, the idea had been kicking around in my head for a few months, just as a better place to post news. If I’d been on Twitter at the time, I might have just stuck with that. I had the domain already. I’d picked it up the previous year when I noticed it was available, and hadn’t figured out what to do with it yet.

The trigger was reading about the plans to release a Morrison/Millar Flash collection (or, rather, collections as it’s turned out). I installed a new copy of WordPress on a Sunday afternoon, picked a theme, wrote an intro post and then posted the news.

Running Commentary

Over the past year I’ve made more than 500 posts here. I’ve collected news (and on occasion broken it), reviewed more than a dozen comics, written opinion pieces and the occasional rant, promoted a book, reported on two conventions, done a couple of guest posts and participated in a group April Fool’s joke. I’ve gotten to know (virtually) a bunch of commenters and bloggers, some of whom I’d read or corresponded with before, many of them new. I’ve expanded the site onto Twitter and Facebook.

Meanwhile, as DC announced a new focus on the Flash in Flash: Rebirth, other people started launching Flash websites: Crimson Lightning returned from hiatus. Speedster Site launched a dedicated Flash forum. Tom vs. JLA transformed itself into Tom vs. the Flash, reviewing old Silver-Age Flash comics. The Flash-Back Podcast launched with an eye toward covering Flash: Rebirth, and there’s even a set of Flash: Rebirth Annotations.

It’s been a heck of a year, even if it has kept me really busy, between writing here and keeping up with everyone else. Thanks to all the readers, commenters, linkers, and fellow bloggers out there!