Category Archives: Timely

Peter David Stroke Update: How You Can Help

Writer Peter David (Young Justice and a whole lot more) is in the hospital recovering from last weekend’s stroke. His wife has posted an update on his condition. Things are looking up, but rehab is going to take a lot of time and money, even with insurance. You can help most directly by buying his books from Crazy 8 Press. (Buying his stuff from other publishers will help in the long term, but these will help out sooner.) Kathleen David has a run-down of these books, some epic science fiction, others fantasy and humor. I picked up the two Hidden Earth books to start with.

Update (Jan 17): They’ve put together a donation button through the Hero Initiative if you’d like to contribute directly. Also, he’s able to keep writing (apparently the damage was mainly to parts of the brain that control movement), and he’s still on X-Factor.

Peter David Suffers Stroke

Writer Peter David suffered a stroke this weekend. He’s lost control of his right arm and can’t see out of his right eye, but is mentally acute (he wrote the first report himself) and joking with hospital staff.

Among many other works, Peter David wrote the entire original run of the Young Justice comic book, which might actually give him the record for the most issues featuring Impulse. More recently, he wrote the animated Young Justice episode “Bloodlines,” which this blog’s readers voted as favorite Flash story of 2012 just last week.

Best wishes to Peter David and his family, and hopes for a speedy recovery.

Results: Your Favorite Flash Stories of 2012!

The results are in, and Speed Force readers’ favorite Flash story of 2012 was….

Young Justice: Bloodlines - Four Speedsters

Young Justice: Bloodlines! This episode of the animated TV series featured for the first time ever four generations of Flashes in the same episode: Jay Garrick and Barry Allen as the Flash, Wally West as Kid Flash, and Bart Allen as Impulse.

The top comic book story was Flash , retelling the origin of Barry Allen.

Chart: Favorite Flash Stories of 2012

Here are the full results of the poll.

Story Votes
Young Justice: Bloodlines   30   23%
Flash #0 (Origin)   23   17%
Young Justice: Coldhearted   17   13%
Flash Annual (Rogues)   13   10%
Earth 2 #2 (Jay Garrick’s Origin)   11   8%
Flash -7 (Captain Cold)   9   7%
Other   8   6%
Flash #13-14 (Gorilla Warfare)   8   6%
Flash #10 (Weather Wizard)   4   3%
Flash #12 (Glider)   3   2%
Flash #11 (Heat Wave)   3   2%
Flash #9 (Gorilla Grodd)   2   2%
Flash #8 (Turbine)   2   2%

The “Other” choices were interesting, including two write-in votes for DC Universe Presents #12 (Kid Flash), which I literally thought of adding about 30 seconds after the poll went live, and several expressing dissatisfaction with the current book.

  • The one where Wally West was re-introduced in the New 52, exactly the same way as he appeared pre-Flashpoint.
  • They all made me sad and unhappy.
  • Comixology reprints Flash 48-50 Wally west stops Vandal Savage and gets “the Shiny Suit” that he would wear icionically until Flash #107
  • Absolutely Nothing; No Wally West Flash means no favorite story of 2012.
  • Didn’t like any of it.

It’s much more varied than last year’s poll, though since 2011 was dominated by Flashpoint and the launch of the New 52, that’s understandable.

Brian Buccellato: Black Bat & Foster

Two quick updates on Flash co-writer Brian Buccellato’s other projects:

Foster is available for purchase on his website. Issue will wrap up his creator-owned crime/horror thriller story…”for now.”

As announced at New York Comic-Con, he’ll be writing the revival of The Black Bat, a golden-age super-hero from the pulp novels who was somewhat overshadowed by another character who dressed up as a bat to fight crime, for Dynamite.

Long Weekend at Worldcon in Chicago

Chicon 7I’d really hoped to have this written sooner, since the convention was over Labor Day Weekend. But, better late than never,* right?

At the end of August, I took my family to Chicago for a very different convention experience. Worldcon is a more literary and, in some ways, academic con than the glitzier media cons like Comic-Con International, or the celebrity-oriented cons like Wizard World. The guest list is more focused on writers than on actors or media personalities, and panels tend toward discussions rather than announcements.

Worldcon itself travels around from year to year, essentially a convention franchise where members of one year’s convention vote on who gets to put on the con two years from now. Last year it was in Reno. Next year it’ll be in San Antonio, Texas, and in 2014 it’ll be in London. Certain elements remain constant — there’s always a masquerade, an art show, a Regency Dance, and of course the Hugo Awards — but the tenor of the con can change wildly from one year to the next.

This year’s con was the seventh Worldcon in Chicago, and it was a lot of fun.

Read my full writeup at K-Squared Ramblings.

*Even on the Internet!
Globe of Krypton