Justice Guild feat. The Streak on sale at Mattycollector.com 2/16

As previously reported by Kelson, in a effort to fill in the gaps of characters not yet made in the Justice League Unlimited toy line, Mattel is releasing the Justice Guild of America Set on 2/16 for sale exclusively at Mattycollector.com for $30.00.

Justice League and Justice League Unlimited devotees will remember the Justice Guild of America from the Season 1 episode “Legends”. The Justice Guild was the closest the show got to featuring the original Justice Society of America, as the creators of the show were not allowed to feature any of the original members due to the nature of the story. To that end they created several analogs that were a direct homage or in some cases a combination of characters.

The Streak was obviously based on Jay Garrick, the very first Flash (and the primary reason I’m featuring and purchasing this set). The Green Guardsman and Black Siren were Alan Scott (Green Lantern I/Sentinel) and Dinah Lance (Black Canary I). And Tom Turbine and Catman were amalgamations of the original Atom/Golden Age Superman and Batman/Wildcat respectively. Unfortunately for Batman and Wildcat fans we won’t be getting Catman, but every other member of the group is present and accounted for (well except for mascot, Ray Thompson, himself a tribute to classic comic book writer, Roy Thomas and celebrated author, Ray Bradbury).

Again, the set goes on sale at Mattycollector.com for $30.00 on 2/16 so be sure to swing by there and grab yours before they are all gone. And yes there is a limited stock.

-Devin “The Flash” Johnson

Let Me Introduce Myself…

Hey all. My name is Devin “The Flash” Johnson and I’m the newest contributor to Kelson’s already fantastic Flash fan site. I’m an avid Flash collector and I own a fairly large collection of Flash action figures, books, jewelry, trinkets and apparel. People frequently refer to me as “Flash” in day to day life and typically I have no less than 6 items of “Flash Wear” on at any given time. I was hoping to get some recent pics of it to post with my introduction, but unfortunately I moved recently and a lot of my collection is still packed up.

Due to my slightly explicable interest in all things Flash, and because I kept hounding Kelson about adding more collectible information, he asked me to help out in that area. I can’t put into words how excited and honored I am to be a part of this.

I welcome all tips about new Flash-related action figures, collectibles and even custom action figures, jewelry, statues, and trinkets. I’m looking forward to building a great relationship with you all and doing my best to make sure all the Flash news and information you need is at one place, Speedforce.org.

You can reach me by email at Devintheflashjohnson@yahoo.com or you can find me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dcflash

I look forward to hearing from you all and I can’t wait to get started.

-Devin “The Flash” Johnson

Flash #2 Solicited

DC has posted May’s Brightest Day solicitations, including The Flash #2:

The Flash #2

On sale MAY 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
1:10 variant cover by RYAN SOOK

BRIGHTEST DAY shines its light on the continuing saga of Barry Allen – The Fastest Man Alive! The Flash continues his investigation into the “Dastardly Death of the Rogues” as the case takes a dramatic turn and Barry corners a suspect…and can’t believe who it is!

Judging by all the snow in May, either Captain Cold or Weather Wizard is probably involved. Or Central City has been transported to the southern hemisphere. 🙂

On one hand, I hope they stop with the variant covers soon. On the other hand, I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Ryan Sook’s take on the Flash.

Also, it looks like Jay Garrick is guest-starring in Justice League of America.

Update: Artist Francis Manapul has posted a scan of the original art for the cover. Continue reading

EVS Talks Flash: Rebirth at Word Balloon

I finally finished listening to last week’s Word Balloon Podcast with Ethan Van Sciver this morning. During the 90-minute interview, he talks about Flash: Rebirth, the personal issues that caused the delays, redesigning Wally West’s costume, bringing back Impulse, the balance of power between writers and artists, and Cyberfrog.

Some points that Flash readers will find interesting:

Last spring, Ethan Van Sciver started experiencing chest pains and was told that if he didn’t do something about his health, he was going to have a heart attack. So he embarked on a complete lifestyle change, which threw off his work schedule, slowing down Flash: Rebirth. The final issue, originally scheduled for September 30 of last year, will be out in two weeks on February 24.

It was his idea to make Iris “Irey” West II the new Impulse. He wanted the character back, and deliberately made Iris and Jai younger than they had been previously because of that (and because he didn’t like them as tweens). He also made an effort to draw Bart Allen as Kid Flash looking a bit more like he appeared as Impulse: round face, big feet, slightly exaggerated features. On a related note: Geoff Johns has plans for Jai.

He had a really hard time redesigning Wally West’s costume. The way he put it was that it’s easy to design a speedster costume, but it’s hard to design a Flash costume. Whereas with Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night he basically had free reign with new designs, this time he kept getting notes and had several designs rejected. The final version was quite literally a composite of other Flash costumes: EVS wanted the straight cowl from the TV series & Dark Flash, to make it look like a knight’s helmet (in line with his Barry = King Arthur and Wally = Lancelot metaphor), Geoff Johns came up with using the animated-style emblem, etc. To this day, Van Sciver isn’t happy with the way it turned out.

There’s a lot more in there — it is an hour and a half long — and it’s worth listening to if you have the time. There’s also a discussion at Comic Bloc that’s gotten into the writer/artist balance.

Related note: Daniel Way interviews EVS in connection with Cherry Capital Con.

More Figures: Zoom, Streak, Chronicles

Matty Collector: The Streak (Justice Guild) action figure.Matty Collector is selling a set of Justice Guild figures, featuring the Justice Society stand-ins Green Guardsman (Green Lantern), The Streak (Flash), Black Siren (Black Canary) and Tom Turbine from the Justice League animated episode, “Legends” (via JSA Round Table).

Professor Zoom (The Reverse Flash) - JLA Classified Series 3 DC Direct Action Figure.Newsarama has pictures of DC Direct’s JLA Classified Series 3, featuring such classics as Professor Zoom (more or less; the design is sort of a hybrid between Eobard Thawne and Hunter Zolomon), Superman Red (not to be confused with Superman Blue), the Atom, and Hal Jordan (special extra-grumpy edition).

Techland has a first look at the DC Chronicles: The Flash statue. This series is “created to capture the original depictions of DC Comics’ most renowned heroes” according to the DC Direct website. So far they’ve announced Golden Age Superman, Golden Age Batman, Golden Age Wonder Woman, and Golden Age Aquaman. Naturally, the next statue is Silver Age Flash.

It’s a great statue of Barry Allen, but shouldn’t a line designed around the original versions of DC’s characters feature, well, the original version of the character?

Flash Chronicles Vol.2 Coming in September

The Source has released a list of DC collected books for fall 2010, including the second volume of The Flash Chronicles.

THE FLASH CHRONICLES VOL. 2 TP
Writer: John Broome
Artists: Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson and others
Collects: THE FLASH #107-112
$14.99 US, 160 pg

DC has three series of books reprinting the Silver Age Flash starting from the beginning:

  • Showcase Presents: The Flash – big, cheap black-and-white collections on newsprint, typically 500-600 pages for $20.
  • The Flash Archives – hardcover, high-quality reprints on good paper, typically around 200 pages for around $50 (though you can usually find them for $30-35 online).
  • The Flash Chronicles – typical trade paperback, around 160 pages for $15.

The Archives are up to 5 volumes and reprint issues through #141 (1963). Showcase Presents… is up to 3 volumes, reprinting through #161 (1966). This new volume will bring the Chronicles up to about halfway through The Flash Archives vol.2.