Tag Archives: Francis Manapul

Review: The Flash #6

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Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Francis Manapul

The long-awaited conclusion of “The Dastardly Death of the Rogues” is here! And while it doesn’t exactly end with a bang, it does race to a satisfying finish. Mysteries are revealed, conflicts are resolved, and events that seemed unrelated turn out to be connected, with teases for upcoming events.

It’s been a fun story, one I really didn’t expect going into this series. I do think it could have been told just as effectively in less time — maybe 4 parts instead of 6. This storytelling style isn’t going to lose much when DC drops the page count from 22 to 20 next year.

Francis Manapul’s artwork is amazing, as always. I really can’t add more to what I’ve already said about it, so I’ll focus on the story, and since this is the conclusion, it’ll be hard to say much without spoilers…

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Remember That Twitter Contest?

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Way back in April, DC ran a Flash trivia contest on Twitter for a signed copy of The Flash . A new question each day for a week, with winners chosen from the first few correct responses. I won one of the days with the answer to a question about “Flash of Two Worlds,” and immediately sent in my mailing address.

And waited.

And waited.

After about a month, one of the other winners contacted me through Comic Bloc trying to get us all together to write to DC and ask what was going on. DC wrote back, assuring us that the signed books would be out within a few weeks.

Eventually, September rolled around, along with a second or third round of, “Hey, what happened?” This time, they assured us all that the books would be sent out by the end of the month.

Guess what?

Last Friday (October 8), I came home and found an envelope from DC Comics! In it was not only a copy of The Flash , but a copy of the Blackest Night hardcover to make up for the long wait time!

When I checked in on Comic Bloc, it turned out that they’d sent Blackest Night to some of us, and Flash Rebirth to others.

I remember last year telling someone that I wasn’t planning to read Blackest Night because I had no interest in it, but I’d read it if someone else bought it for me. It’s weird that not only did someone end up buying it for me, but it was DC themselves! I guess they really want me to read this book! 😀

Another funny thing: Back in July, I got Francis Manapul to sign my copy of The Flash at Comic-Con International. So now I have two signed copies: one signed by the writer, and one signed by the artist!

Francis Manapul Talks Flash & Beast Legends

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Comic Vine interviews Francis Manapul about his work on The Flash and his role on the TV series Beast Legends.

Key Flash items:

  • The two Rogue Profile issues with art by Scott Kolins were planned to help get the book back on schedule, as well as to add depth to the villains. (No big surprise, here.)
  • The second story arc will be even “crazier” than the first. On a scale of 1–10, “we’re gonna aim for 15!”
  • Flashpoint will run concurrently with the third story arc in The Flash.
  • He can’t say anything about Wally West, but we “may have an answer in a few months.”

The rest of the article focuses on Beast Legends, which is all about tracing the origins of mythological creatures and using modern science to figure out what they would be like if they were real.

He touches briefly on the delays that have plagued The Flash from onward. While working on the show, he’d come back to the hotel from a shoot, sleep, then wake up at 1am to draw through the night and send scans on to DC. “We were able to minimize any major delays to the book, ironically enough it was SDCC that wreaked havoc to the schedule.”

Head over to Comic Vine to read the whole interview!

Beast Legends premieres in the US on SyFy this Thursday, and has been running in Canada on History Television.

Speed Reading

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Some weekend linkblogging…

Neil Patrick Harris has definitely picked up a following as a choice for Barry Allen, judging by how often he shows up in fan casting lists. This one from Comic Book Movie pairs him with Felicia Day as Iris, and adds Anton Yelchin (who recently played a young Kyle Reese in Teminator Salvation and a young Pavel Chekhov in Star Trek) as Wally West.

That F’ing Monkey reviews a Giant Sized Flash figure from SDCC.

The Best Comic Covers highlights 9 Superman vs. Flash covers.

Wizard World returns to Anaheim next year on the weekend of April 29 through May 1. Tickets are already on sale. (Whatever happened to tickets for the canceled WWLA 2009, anyway? Did people finally get refunds, or free tickets to Anaheim 2010?)

The Word Balloon podcast interviews Francis Manapul. In part 1 they focus on The Flash and Adventure Comics, while the upcoming part 2 will go into Beast Legends.

Robot 6 offers some website usability tips for comic book publishers.

The Aquaman Shrine and Firestorm Fan have teamed up for “Unresolved Issues” – the behind-the-scenes spat between Firestorm and Aquaman. But what role does the Flash have? The answer may shock you! (Okay, not really, but the promo phrasing seems like it fits the era.)

Interviews: Beast Legends, Teen Titans, Young Justice

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Some recent interviews at Newsarama:

Francis Manapul talks to Newsarama about Beast Legends.

UPDATE: Francis Manapul also talks to CBR about drawing the Flash.

Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani talk about the upcoming Young Justice comic that will tie into the animated series.

Artist Nicola Scott talks about Teen Titans.