An End to Noble Causes

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Noble Causes ends in a few months with issue #40. Apparently the “Five Years Later” relaunch didn’t bring in many new readers, and on top of that, series writer and co-creator Jay Faerber “started feeling like [he] didn’t have much else to say about the characters.”

It’s disappointing news, but hey, it’s always better to leave on a high note than fade into obscurity. And it’s been a pretty solid run: three 4-issue miniseries, two specials, and a 40-issue ongoing.

Noble Causes is about a super-hero team as a dysfunctional family. There are elements of the Fantastic Four, but with personal secrets, double-crossing, affairs, family feuds, cover-ups, and celebrity scandals. The series initially focused on Liz Donnelly-Noble, an ordinary woman who married the family’s resident speedster, Race Noble, and found herself immersed in their bizarre world. (Every once in a while there are some interesting Wally/Linda parallels.) Over time, the scope broadened. A few months ago, the story jumped forward in time five years, and the former viewpoint character has been conspicuously absent.

If you only know Jay Faerber from his disastrous run on The Titans, it’s worth taking a look at some of his creator-owned books. The first Dynamo 5 trade is a good introduction to that team (and it’s pretty cheap), and Gemini is only two issues into a five-issue miniseries.

This Week (Aug 20): Flash #243

Flash #243

The conclusion of “Fast Money”! The Flash returns to Keystone, making some bold moves to get his life and reputation back on track – with some serious consequences for his family!

Written by Tom Peyer; Art and Cover by Freddie E. Williams II

Note: This is Tom Peyer’s and Freddie Williams II’s final issue before Alan Burnett and Paco Diaz take over for a 4-issue arc. Aftet that, the series goes on hold for Flash: Rebirth. Personally, I felt that Peyer and Williams finally “got” the book and would have made a good long-term creative team, but it’s clear from sales figures that a lot of readers either didn’t like their take, disliked the Flash Family concept, or had already dropped the book and didn’t want to pick it up again.

Williams is returning to Robin, while Peyer moves on to Galveston and Marvel Apes.

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Flash Sales Leveling Out?

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ICv2 has posted July sales estimates. The entire comics market is down, but the Flash numbers are better than expected. Flash #242 sold an estimated 30,325 copies. It’s still down from June, but only by 1.5% — and total comics sales have been declining over the last few months. This is the same data that The Beat uses for their sales commentary, so I can use the numbers from earlier posts.

02/2008: Flash #237     —  37,719 (-  9.0%)
03/2008: Flash #238     —  35,606 (-  5.6%)
04/2008: Flash #239     —  33,741 (-  5.2%)
05/2008: Flash #240     —  31,944 (-  5.3%)
06/2008: Flash #241     —  30,810 (-  3.6%)
07/2008: Flash #242     —  30,325 (-  1.5%)

Meanwhile, Final Crisis: Rogues’ Revenge #1 sold an estimated 62,482 copies — more than twice the numbers on the main Flash title, despite costing more ($3.99 vs. $2.99). Factors at work: Final Crisis, Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, multiple covers.

I mentioned that the overall market was in decline. ICv2 cites a 3% drop in sales, but I can’t tell whether they mean 3% between June and July 2008, or 3% between July 2007 and July 2008. If the former, then Flash actually dropped less than the overall market. (The 1.5% drop for Flash is in units sold, and the 3% drop overall is for dollar amount — but the price on Flash didn’t change between June and July, so it works out the same.)

70s Flashback: Super-Speed Twinkies

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If you read DC or Marvel comics during the late 1970s or early 1980s, or if you’ve read back issues from that era, chances are that you’ve seen the super-hero ads for Hostess cupcakes, Twinkies, etc. These were done as 1-page stories in which a low-rent villain would appear as a menace. Then a super-hero would arrive, and somehow use snack cakes to defeat the villain.

Yep.

There were at least four ads featuring the Flash:

These are all scanned and hosted by Seanbaby, who has a full set of these Hostess ads. (Watch out for NSFW language in the commentary.)

You know, now that I think about it, the subtext of the Flash helping The Destroyer fight off his depression by eating junk food is disturbingly reminiscent of the Golden Age Flash providing “happiness pills” to the Worry Wart.

Sadly, the Destroyer didn’t share the Flash’s hyper-accelerated metabolism.

(Inspired by a recent post at Mike’s Progressive Ruin.)

Flash Comics For November 2008

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DC’s solicitations for comics shipping in November are up, and things don’t look terribly good for Wally West’s future. It’s beginning to look like DC wants to clear the deck before starting over with Flash: Rebirth.

The Flash #246

As Queen Bee circles in closer for the kill, everything The Flash holds dear starts slipping away from him. His powers, his wife — what’s next to go?

On sale November 19. Written by Alan Burnett. Art by Carlo Barberi & Drew Geraci. Cover by Brian Stelfreeze.

Notes: Interesting that Paco Diaz has been replaced by Carlo Barberi — who used to draw Impulse. Also, this doesn’t look good for some of the things I want to see after Flash: Rebirth.

Team books and tie-ins after the cut. Continue reading →

Convention Behavior

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The post on sexual harassment at Comic-Con on Comics Oughta Be Fun has been making the rounds. It’s disturbing, but worth a read. It lists a few examples of women being harassed during the con, then points out that there’s no written policy against harassment, and no clear procedure for reporting it.

In theory, it shouldn’t be necessary to spell out “Don’t stalk or assault people” in the program. We’re talking about behavior that’s already unacceptable and, once you cross a certain line, illegal. Unfortunately some people either lack basic social graces (I’m trying to keep the language family-friendly, here), or think that costumes give them a free pass.

I do think the convention needs a clear reporting procedure. Let people know they can report incidents to security, and follow through.

They also need better coordination between convention staff and security. My wife and I spent an hour and a half dealing with what we thought was the theft of her purse. She stood up at the end of a panel and it was gone. She reported it to security, filled out a missing property report, checked lost and found, canceled her credit card…and in the end it turned out that the room’s staff had removed it from under her seat during the previous panel break, thinking someone else had left it behind, and put it at the back of the room. But they hadn’t said anything to security about it, and security didn’t ask them.

(Found via several blogs.)