Tag Archives: Art

Speed Reading: Archenemies, SBP, CFJ, Smallville, Art, and More

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Some weekend linkblogging.

Commentary

The Speedster Site Forum wants to know: Who do you consider the Flash’s archenemy?

The Weekly Crisis posts thoughts on comics for November. Regarding Superboy Prime’s upcoming appearance in Adventure Comics #4 (a Blackest Night tie-in), Ryan says, “The only way this won’t make me even more annoyed with the end of Legion of Three Worlds is if the Superboy Prime scenes are actually just him ranting on message boards.”

ICv2’s Confessions of a Comic-Book Guy discusses two events in Justice League: Cry For Justice #2: one now infamous among comics discussion circles, the other the less-commented-on off-panel killing of Jay Garrick’s three dimwitted sidekicks.

Update: IO9 talks to Mark Waid about The Unknown, science, and death, and has the first issue online for free. The Unknown has been an excellent miniseries, and I’m really looking forward to the conclusion on Wednesday.

Art

Photon Torpedoes looks at the use of ghost images to show the Flash’s speed in Blackest Night.

Adventure Comics artist Francis Manapul has posted photos of several convention sketches he’s done this year, including the Flash and Kid Flash! Elfgrove posts a scan of another Francics Manapul Kid Flash. Update: Manapul has posted a follow-up with more sketches after asking fans to send in their scans.

Update: Former Impulse artist Craig Rousseau shares a sketch of Bart Allen.

Television

Geoff Johns drops a hint about his upcoming Smallville episode, “Society:”

The Justice Society will be heroes that come out of ‘retirement’ to see how the current generation operates. Can’t say much more than that right now. Sorry! 🙂

Superhero Shows spotlights the Flash’s TV appearances in cartoons and live-action, from the early Filmation cartoons of the 1960s through to recent appearances on Smallville and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Conventions

Long Beach Comic-Con (October 2-4) is running a “Why Long Beach?” series on life outside the convention. So far they’ve posted nearby attractions and a restaurant guide.

Please help identify these Unknown Cosplay Characters from various conventions! I’ve got a few of my own photos in there of people who had interesting costumes, but I still have no idea who they were dressed as!

Speed Reading: Interviews and Flashbacks

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Some Friday morning linkblogging…

Creator Interviews

Remember that interview with Carmine Infantino last week? The legendary artist was unhappy about how he was portrayed in the article, and has fired back a complaint at the interviewer. The Beat has the whole story.

CBR goes in-depth with Ethan Van Sciver, talking with the artist about everything from Cyberfrog and Impulse to Green Lantern: Rebirth, Blackest Night, and Flash: Rebirth.

The Half Hour Wasted podcast devotes its latest episode to Ethan Van Sciver. Despite the name, it’s actually over two hours long, and the artist talks about topics as varied as his recent trip to South Africa, balancing previews against spoilers (apparently none of the solicited covers for Flash: Rebirth issues 4-6 are the “real” cover — I’m guessing that the cover for #5 is mostly the same image, only with Professor Zoom instead of the Black Flash), redesigning Sinestro, and much, much more.

CBR presents the second monthly Geoff Johns Prime question-and-answer column.

Marc Guggenheim will attempt to re-imagine the campy Battlestar Galactica spin-off Galactica 1980 as a comic book.

Flashing Back

Comics in Crisis has Attack of the Cartoon Heroes part 2, including a Justice League clip.

Castle Vardulon presents: the amazing single-sentence continuity error from Flash v.1 #133.

Comics Should Be Good looks at DC’s June 1965 covers, including Flash v.1 #153, featuring Professor Zoom and the Mightiest Punch of All Time!

Silver Age Comics looks back on Neal Adams’ Brave and the Bold run, including his take on guest stars like the Flash.

More

A nifty series of superhero illustrations, with several nice Flash pieces in part 2.

Blog@Newsarama has an interesting idea: What if the JLA membership were chosen by DC’s sales rankings?

Speed Reading: Cool Moments, Jumping On, Coloring and Mor(rison)

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Comics Should Be Good highlights more Cool Comic Book Moments from Mark Waid’s Flash story, Terminal Velocity. They’ve got two items from Flash #99: Wally’s sacrifice and Bart stepping up (which doesn’t go quite as well as he expects) — and one of two moments from Flash #100: Wally’s…return? One more coming up tomorrow. Update: the conclusion is up!

Comics in Crisis thinks that now is a perfect time for new readers to jump into the Flash.

Wally’s World: If I Ran DC Comics (Part 1)

iFanboy compares comic book coloring techniques from the 1980s and today, using pages from Secret Wars and The Flash: Rebirth as examples.

Lying in the Gutters, in its final column, cites conflicting rumors on the future of Justice League of America, with either a Grant Morrison/Jim Lee team-up or Geoff Johns. Earlier rumors had Geoff Johns and Jim Lee.

When Worlds Collide has put together a list of the Best and Worst of Grant Morrison, with a Top 10 and Bottom 5. I’ve only read about 1/3 of the combined list. Update: Comics Should Be Good fires back with another Top 10 Grant Morrison list.

Also interesting: my Google Alert for “flash comics” came up with this list of things about the (American) comic book industry that should be common knowledge, but aren’t.

J.G. Jones is the Flash

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According to CBR’s coverage of the J.G. Jones Spotlight panel at Comic-Con, the artist used himself as the reference for the iconic Flash cover on Final Crisis #2:

Finally, who did Jones use for photo reference for the Flash image on the cover of “Final Crisis” #2? “I used me!” But self-reliance has its price, Jones revealed, because the posing process slows things down. “I have to pose, take a shot, look at it, pose, take a shot, look at it…” Fortunately for readers, Jones’s patience tends to pay off.

Iris Sketch by Freddie Williams II

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I stumbled on Freddie Williams II’s Artist’s Alley table at Comic-Con today, and commissioned a sketch of Iris West II in her Flash phase.

I had time, so I waited around while he did the sketch, looked through his portfolio, and talked about the book. Several other people came by to talk, or to look at his art, or to commission sketches of their own. When he was almost done, Dan Didio dropped by to say hello. (To the artist, of course!)

He had original art for sale, including a few pages from the last few issues of The Flash. I was seriously tempted by the page that showed Wally, Iris and Jai running into battle from #241, but I just don’t have the spare $250 lying around…

I mentioned that I’d really liked his run with Tom Peyer, especially the last few issues, and he mentioned that the editor had previously asked him to go with a more open, flat, happy style to his art, and he actually felt better about the art the last few issues. We talked about the harshness of internet fandom — when people like something, they don’t always go out of their way to post about it, but when they dislike it, and when they can hide behind anonymity, it’s almost a compulsion to say so, loudly, as brutally as possible.

Impulse Convergence

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On Friday afternoon at Comic-Con, I went over to Artists’ Alley to see if I could commission a sketch of Impulse from Todd Nauck (Young Justice). He was talking with someone, and they kept talking for something like 5 minutes. When he walked away, it turned out that the guy he’d been talking to was Carlo Barberi — who drew Impulse during most of Todd Dezago’s run!

I talked to Todd Nauck briefly, and asked for the sketch, but I had a panel to get to so I couldn’t pick it up. I went back Saturday around 1:00 or so to pick it up. He was doing a sketch of Secret for someone else. He mentioned that when he started doing Young Justice, he was a huge Impulse fan, but got to really like the other characters over the course of his run on the book. By the end, Wonder Girl had become one of his favorites, because of all the character growth he got to portray.

See also: Autograph/Sketch Tally: SDCC 2008