New Flash Secret Files Coming

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And the relaunch of the Flash franchise continues! With Flash: Rebirth in progress, Blackest Night: The Flash launching in December, and new Flash and Kid Flash ongoing series launching next spring, it seems that DC has one more element on its way. This morning, artist Tony Harris (Ex Machina) posted the following on Twitter:

@TONYFINGHARRIS: Gonna start a Flash Secret Files cover today. Excited. Never Drawn Flash before except my version in JSA: The Liberty Files.

The last time the Flash had a Secret Files and Origins issue was 2001, shortly after Geoff Johns became the regular writer on Wally West’s series. Since the Flashes’ origins had been covered only a couple of years earlier (1997), Johns used the issue to establish characters and story elements that fed into the next two years of stories, particularly “Crossfire” and “Blitz.”

Now seems like a good time, with three heroes and a villain returning from limbo, a refactoring of the cast and of the nature of the Flash’s powers, and two new series launching, spotlighting at least three characters (Barry Allen in the lead stories in The Flash, Wally West in the backup stories, and presumably Bart Allen in Kid Flash).

[Edited to add:] It would be an ideal way to help potential new readers get in on the ground floor, especially if it arrives the same month as, or right before the new series launches. Considering that DC’s been saying “March or April” for the launch, and Blackest Night: Flash should finish in February, it might even make sense to release this in March and The Flash #1 in April. That would a good way to give the creative team on the series a little extra lead time while still maintaining the momentum of a monthly schedule, kind of like the way All-Flash #1 bridged the month between Flash: The Fastest Man Alive and the relaunch of Wally West’s series.

I’d almost rather DC had just launched the ongoing books last April along with a Secret Files, but I guess they wanted the publicity of a second Geoff Johns/Ethan Van Sciver “Rebirth” book, and I’m sure Geoff Johns wanted more pages to lay a foundation before getting started.

Update: Harris has posted a small section of his art featuring the Flash.

(via MTV Splash Page)

Flash: Rebirth #5 Now Due November 18

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Flash: Rebirth #5It looks like Flash: Rebirth #5 won’t be out next week after all. Reader Perplexio wrote in to point out that DC’s website now shows a release date of November 18.

The funny thing is, I checked it two hours ago and it still said November 11. It’s starting to feel like I should check it on an hourly basis!

No change on the release dates for Flash: Rebirth #6 or the first two issues of Blackest Night: The Flash.

The current schedule looks like this:

Flash: Rebirth #5 November 18, 2009
Blackest Night: The Flash #1 December 2, 2009
Flash: Rebirth #6 December 23, 2009
Blackest Night: The Flash #2 January 13, 2010

It’s beginning to look less and less likely that Flash: Rebirth will finish this year. With no comics shipping the week of December 30, even a one-week slip on issue #6 will push it into January.

Keeping Comics on Schedule

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By now the delays on Flash: Rebirth #4-6 have become legendary. But the book is hardly alone. Just this week, I picked up issues of Dynamo 5 and Ignition City that, despite the series starting on a monthly schedule, came out several months after the previous issue. In fact, a lot of the independent comics I read don’t seem to have a strict schedule. Rather than soliciting them monthly and then rescheduling them the way DC often does, they seem to solicit them as they’re ready.

On the plus side, it’s less frustrating for the reader who doesn’t see a particular issue get scheduled, then delayed repeatedly. On the minus side, the reader has no clue when to expect more.

Solutions

If the goal is to keep a book to a regular schedule, some of the ways I’ve seen to keep it from falling behind include: Continue reading →