Speed Reading: To the Art

Some art-related linkblogging…

Yildiray Cinar draws an impressive Reverse Flash (via @SpeedsterSite)

There’s a new Rogue in town…a new Rogues blog, that is: The Rogues Kick Ass (via @liabrown1). So far, it’s mostly comedic scans from published comics. (Context? What context?)

This is Knutz presents: The Rogues as kittens. (via @SpeedsterSite) Hilarious!

The Best Comic Covers looks back on the 9 Best Superman vs Flash Covers.

Various people at DC Comics weigh in on their favorite DC covers. Dan Didio’s is Michael Turner’s Flash #207 (via @SpeedsterSite).

Last week, Once Upon a Geek posted a series of poster galleries, including the JSA, Flash, Green Lantern, Sandman, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and more.

Behind the Scenes

Francis Manapul has been posting a lot of Flash art on Twitter lately: the uncolored art for the Flash #5 cover and five pages from Flash #2.

Val Victory’s review of the Flash: Rebirth hardcover includes scans of Ethan Van Sciver’s discarded designs for Wally West’s new costume.

Lots of places have been posting about Wednesday Comics with the release of the hardcover this week. The Source has some of the extras, including art from Karl Kerschl’s Flash strip.

Comic Strips

OK, none of these strips are Flash-related… but I had to share them anyway.

Comic Critics points out that Gotham City is a bad place to open themed businesses.

Creebobby presents Batman after a bad night on patrol: Bat-Fail.

Quick News: Velocity, DC History, Green Lantern, World’s Fastest Man

A few brief news items:

Top Cow’s delayed Velocity #1 is shipping June 16. I’ve been looking forward to this since reading the Pilot Season book, though of course this is an entirely new creative team. On the plus side, it’s a miniseries, so there’s not a huge commitment to picking it up.

Cartoon Network will be producing a Green Lantern animated series. Green Lantern: First Flight was pretty good, but of course there’s no guarantee that any of the same people will be working on this.

DC will be teaming up with TASCHEN Books to produce 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking. Basically it’s a history of DC Comics. How soon can I pre-order this?

Hypergeek notes that the UK graphic novel Whatever Happened to the World’s Fastest Man? has been nominated for the 2009 Eagle Awards. From his review, it looks like it’s not about a speester so much as it’s about a man who can stop time, and reluctantly becomes a hero. I’m going to have to look for this one as well. [Edit: I should note that I stopped reading the review once I decided the book looked interesting, just in case there were spoilers.]

Flash Movie Nearing Greenlight

The Hollywood Reporter reports on a presentation by Warner Bros. chariman and CEO Barry Meyer to investors. The big news is a release date for the next Sherlock Holmes movie (December 2011), but he also talked about upcoming super-hero movies, saying that the Flash movie is “nearing” a greenlight.

WB has previously said that they intend to make DC’s super-heroes the new “tentpole” movies once the Harry Potter series is over (the last book has been split into two films, with part two coming out in July next year). Green Lantern will arrive in theaters June 17, 2011, and Batman and Superman films are in the works for 2012. Meyer also mentioned Wonder Woman and Aquaman movies in development…and, oddly enough, Mad Magazine characters. (I’m blanking. Maybe a live-action Spy vs. Spy? Could the premise actually sustain a full-length movie?)

The Flash has taken a long, slow road to the silver screen, starting with the David Goyer version announced in 2004. Since then, Warner Bros. has gone darker, lighter, then darker again, dropped Goyer’s script entirely, and run through several directors. The current version of the film is being written by Dan Mazeau from a story treatment by Geoff Johns.

Flash Family to appear on Batman: The Brave and the Bold this Saturday in Australia

Lucky Aussies. Batman: The Brave and the Bold’s Facebook page announced a couple of hours ago that The Flash Family will be appearing this Saturday for the first time together (although Jay had an appearance in the episode “Trials of the Demon” last year) and it will be airing in Australia first.

Australian fans will be able to watch a brand new, never before seen episode this Saturday on Nine Network’s Kids WB block at 10:35a! “Requiem for a Scarlet Speedster!” Barry Allen has long been presumed dead, but his “ghost” has been haunting Jay Garrick and Kid Flash. When Batman sees it too, they realize he is not dead!

Definitely sounds like a great episode in the making. I have to wonder though, who is under the cowl of Kid Flash? Wally West or Bart Allen? Since Barry has been long presumed dead in this continuity as well, did Wally ever step up to take over the mantle? Or did Jay just jump back into the role after Barry disappeared? And if either is the case how in the heck is Kid Flash still a “Kid”? Just how long are we talking about here?

As usual I can’t wait until we see more toy prospects. We’ve already seen a picture of The Brave and the Bold Flash (Barry Allen), I wonder if there is any chance we will be seeing a Jay Garrick and a Kid Flash in the near future as well? Flash Family box set? Yes please.

Interesting to note, this will be the first time we will ever be seeing The Flash Family all at once in a TV Show or movie. So excited for all the big things they have lined up for The Flash franchise.

Devin “The Flash” Johnson

And The Winner Is… *Design and Win Your Own Flash Ring Contest Results*

So we just heard back from Arroba Silver and we finally have a winner for Speed Force and Arroba Silver’s Design and Win Your Own Flash Ring Contest. Please congratulate Joey Forlini on his sleek and stylish Flash ring design bringing home the gold. Or in this case, the silver:


For his efforts, Joey will be receiving a sterling silver replica of his ring design and his ring will be featured for a limited run on Arroba Silver’s product line of officially licensed DC Comics’ rings and jewelry! Date of availability for the ring has not yet been determined but you better believe that Speed Force is on top of it and will get the details out to you all, as soon as they become available.

We have to thank you all yet again for entering and making Speed Force’s first contest a solid success. We will definitely be doing more contests in the future so keep an eye out.

Devin “The Flash” Johnson

This Week (May 26): Wednesday Comics HC & More

The long-awaited hardcover edition of Wednesday Comics is out this week, featuring all 15 strips from last summer’s weekly series in all their 11×17″ oversized glory:

  • ADAM STRANGE written and illustrated by Paul Pope
  • BATMAN written by Brian Azzarello with art by Eduardo Risso including additional panel art on each page!
  • METAMORPHO written by Neil Gaiman with art by Michael Allred
  • DEADMAN written by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck with art by Dave Bullock
  • THE DEMON AND CATWOMAN written by Walter Simonson with art by Brian Stelfreeze
  • THE FLASH written by Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher with art by Karl Kerschl
  • GREEN LANTERN written by Kurt Busiek with art by Joe Quinones
  • HAWKMAN written and illustrated by Kyle Baker
  • KAMANDI written by Dave Gibbons with art by Ryan Sook
  • THE METAL MEN written by Dan DiDio with art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan
  • SGT. ROCK written by Adam Kubert with art by Joe Kubert
  • SUPERGIRL written by Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Amanda Conner
  • SUPERMAN written by John Arcudi with art by Lee Bermejo
  • TEEN TITANS written by Eddie Berganza with art by Sean Galloway
  • WONDER WOMAN written and illustrated by Ben Caldwell

The Fletcher/Kerschl Flash strip was my favorite Flash story of 2009 (yes, I liked it better than Flash: Rebirth or Blackest Night: The Flash). It was fun, full of crazy ideas and adventure, and played around with the format, making use of the fact that it was being told as a newspaper comic strip.

Wednesday Comics sells for $49.99, though you can find it for less if you shop around. (Amazon’s selling it at $31.49 to start, though since they get their inventory on a book publishing schedule, they won’t have Wednesday Comics until next Tuesday.)

Other Flash appearances this week include: