Just a few Flash photos from New York Comic-Con that I found on Flickr.
Flash Flickr Finds: NYCC
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Tag Archives: Fans
Boycotting DC?
People can get very worked up about their hobbies, and comic books are no exception. Final Crisis, for instance, has inspired some very passionate responses. Between that and Barry Allen replacing Wally West*, I’ve seen a number of people say things like “I’ll never read another DC comic again!”**
I don’t understand this reaction.
To clarify: I understand dropping comics because you’ve lost interest in them. (I’m down to one ongoing DC book, Flash, and it’s technically been canceled.) I also understand dropping a series because of something you disliked in that series. If you don’t want to read it anymore, then by all means, you shouldn’t be obligated to read it anymore (but be prepared for people to tell you that you aren’t a “true fan,” whatever that means).
What I don’t understand is protesting something that happens in one book by refusing to buy other books. It just doesn’t make sense to me. If you like, say, Booster Gold but dislike the direction that Batman is going in, dropping both series isn’t going to encourage DC to make more books like Booster Gold.
Maybe it’s because I’ve never been one to refuse to buy a company’s comics. I might have held Marvel and Image in disdain back in my teenage years, but if something looked interesting, that didn’t stop me from buying it. (Not that I found much of it interesting, but it wasn’t a hard-and-fast rule.)
So I’m curious: Who out here has done this? Or are you planning to? What tipped you over the edge? Why did you decide to drop all of the company’s books and not just the ones that bothered you? Did you extend it to other brands owned by the same company (Vertigo, Icon, etc.) or only the particular division? How long did you keep it up, and if you went back, what did it take?
*Yes, Barry is replacing Wally. Wally has highlighted the main Flash book for most of the last 23 years, and after Flash: Rebirth is over, Barry will, and it looks like Barry will be taking the Flash spot in Justice League of America as well, leaving Wally in Titans. Just because they haven’t actually killed Wally doesn’t mean he’s not being replaced.
** Update: Lying in the Gutters reports that a lot of retailers have been hearing this, too — from their customers.
New Flash Forums and Podcasts Sighted (Updated)
Two quick items:
A new podcast, Flash-back, plans to review The Flash on a monthly basis. So far they’ve posted an introduction to their podcast and an overview of Flash history. (thanks to Heatwave the Rogue on Comic Bloc)
The forum Speedster Site also launched a few days ago, and is focused exclusively on the Flash (thanks to younglionsimba)
Update: In the Comic Bloc thread on “Flash-back,” Chris Hansbrough pointed to another podcast, Tom vs. the Flash, a series of 5–10-minute reviews of classic Silver Age Flash episodes.
Fan Film: Flash — Crossover
Influence Films has released a short fan film starring the Flash, called Crossover.
Here’s how the site describes the film:
Wally West (Jason Damian), is grieving the death of his mentor, Barry Allen, The Flash … and trying to decide if he wants to continue the heroic legacy as The Fastest Man Alive; when two of Gotham City’s most sensational villains, Harley Quinn (Amanda Geisel) and Talia al Ghul (Rachael Redler), along with Talia’s henchmen (Tim Rowe & Khigh Abner), come to Kansas to ask for his help at any expense. They are willing to do anything to get his help — even — if it means harming Linda Park (Angela Morrow), Wally West’s longtime friend and love interest. Now Wally must choose between hurting over the death of his mentor, or helping these two villains with a shocking request, and in the process determine his own future in The Flash: Crossover.
It runs about 13 minutes, and you can view the film at InfluenceFilms.com.
Speed Reading: TV, Battles, Run!
Crimson Lightning reviews the Flash TV Episode, “Twin Streaks.”
Ethan Van Sciver’s Your Time is Now Mine column continues.
Matt Sturges talks to CBR about the post-Final Crisis miniseries he’s doing with Freddie Williams II, Run!, which, as it turns out, isn’t connected to the Flash at all.
Comics Should Be Good has started posting the results of the Top 100 Comic Battles poll. #100 is Superboy-Prime vs. the Teen Titans from Infinite Crisis, a battle which ended only when the Flashes got together and pushed him into the speed force…at significant cost to the Flash franchise.
Gaslight Flash
There’s a whole community of artists who create custom action figures, often by taking a commercially-produced figure and modifying it through sculpture and paint. Sometimes they’ll simply convert it into a character who doesn’t have an official figure yet, but the really interesting ones are those that go off on a tangent and create something new, like this set of Victorian-style Justice Leaguers by Sillof, inspired by the now-classic Gotham by Gaslight.
Setting it in the 1880s puts it a little earlier than JLA: Age of Wonder (which had its own Flash), and while it’s still too early for aviation, the artist “went for the pilot look” with the Flash, as you can see here:
On a not entirely unrelated note, I’ve been re-reading Girl Genius from the beginning. The comic’s authors, Phil and Kaja Foglio, describe it as a “gaslamp fantasy,” or as most people would call it, steampunk.
(This post is brought to you by Google Alerts, bespredell, and the letter G. Image used by permission.)