Tag Archives: Francis Manapul

Speed Reading for 2010

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The Flash picked up several mentions in Newsarama’s 10 for 2010 series including the character in 10 Characters to Watch, the series in 10 Comics to Watch, and artist Francis Manapul in 10 Creators to Watch.

The Flash Family also makes Grumpy Old Fan’s list of Ten from the old, ten for the new.

DC: New Frontier #1The standard cover of Flash: Rebirth and the Flash-themed cover for DC: The New Frontier are among IO9’s 100 Amazing Comic Covers from the last ten years.

The Perhapablog posts a Craig Rousseau sketch of Impulse reacting to cancellation, along with the Thing drawn by Mike Wieringo.

Remember that Breakfast Club/Teen Titans mashup last summer? Artist Cliff Chiang has recreated more 80s album covers with characters such as Batgirl, Elektra and Vampirella.

Crimson Lightning brings us a “Hi and Lois” strip portraying the Greek gods as super-heroes.

The Rogues’ tailor, Paul Gambi, is named after Paul Gambaccini, a UK-based DJ and long-time comic fan. Bleeding Cool spotted him on a celebrity game show demonstrating his impressive knowledge of DC Comics trivia.

Update: One more item – the New York Times has named Geoff Johns in their “Nifty Fifty” list of up-and-coming talent. (via The Source)

Flash in 2010: Geoff Johns Speaks & Francis Manapul Draws

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DC’s week of 2010 announcements continues with new Francis Manapul art on The Source and a Geoff Johns interview at the Los Angeles Times’ blog, Hero Complex.

First up: the cover for Flash Secret Files and Origins 2010, due in March:
Flash Secret Files 2010

The Source article also features two in-progress images, and quotes Francis Manapul:

The entire creative team is looking forward to introducing new ways of portraying speed. It’s also cool that we’ll be introducing a new generation to Barry Allen as well as myself so I’ll be right in they’re shoes of getting to know this guy. It should be an exciting ride!

The Hero Complex interview doesn’t reveal anything new about the upcoming series, but Geoff Johns does talk about his history with the Flash and thoughts about his approach to the character. Some quotes that stood out to me:

We all have a “thicket of mythology.” You meet someone and they have an entire backstory. A city they were born in. A best friend they lost touch with. An event that affected their whole family. A first job. Everyone has history. And every character has history.

The most frustrating thing for Barry is related to his job as a member of Central City CSI. He investigates crimes that have already happened. Murders he can’t stop. No matter how fast he is, that’s the past.

I look at something like “The Flash” as a long term mission. “The Flash: Rebirth” was the knot to untangle in the shoelace before we could run. I wanted to clear the board, re-examine some key elements of Barry Allen and re-introduce a threat that would play throughout the next several years.

I’d offer more commentary, but I’m kind of swamped at the moment.

Update: Forgot to mention: The first hints of the new Secret Files book had Tony Harris working on the cover. Or, rather, “a” cover. He even posted a snippet of art. Maybe one of them is a variant cover, or maybe DC decided not to use his, or maybe it’ll be an interior splash page.

Speed Reading: Prime, LEGO, Reborn

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Some weekend linkblogging…

Interviews

CBR is readying a new installment of its Geoff Johns Prime Q&A column. If you have a question for the Flash: Rebirth and Blackest Night writer, you can submit it through Monday at 5:00 PM PST.

CHIU-stream is holding a contest for original art by Francis Manapul, and will be interviewing the upcoming Flash artist on December 10.

Art Finds

Crimson Lightning is back from its Nanowrimo-imposed hiatus with a Foxtrot Flash Find.

Ulises Farinas draws a LEGO Blackest Night (via Robot6). Brickest night?

Augustine at Comic Bloc found a probable Flash reference in Ultimate Spider-Man.

Commentary

Also at Comic Bloc, a discussion on the origin of Wednesday as new comics day.

I haven’t decided yet whether to put together a list of Blackest Night: The Flash reviews. If I do, it’ll probably just be major sites and those that I follow, plus anything I stumble across. Searching does take time, even with Google Alerts.

Speed Reading

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Some linkblogging for the weekend…

Francis Manapul shares a black and white version of his variant cover for Blackest Night: The Flash .

Dan Didio talks to CBR about a number of things including Flash. He reiterates some of the reasons they let the book fall behind rather than put a new team on it to bring it out quickly, like they did with Final Crisis:

That ran with some delays, but at the end of the day we looked at the full package of how that will look as a book, and we wanted to maintain consistency all the way through. The events of that book weren’t essential to what happens with the Flash in “Blackest Night.”

Nothing new. In fact he said more or less the same thing a couple of days earlier to Newsarama. Interestingly, he describes the new Flash series book as spinning out of Blackest Night. Whether that’s simply in publishing terms, or in story terms as well, is not clear.

Collected Editions compares the Final Crisis and Blackest Night collections.

The Flash in New Frontier makes Comics Should Be Good’s 313th cool comic book moment.

Blackest Night: Flash #3 Solicitation & Cover

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IGN has posted DC’s Blackest Night solicitations for February 2010, including the conclusion of Blackest Night: The Flash.

Blackest Night: The Flash

Blackest Night Flash #3 (Variant)On sale February 17 – 3 of 3 – 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Written by Geoff Johns
Art and cover by Scott Kolins
Variant cover by Francis Manapul

It’s a case of the chicken-or-the-egg as Barry Allen takes on the Black Lantern Reverse-Flash and seeks answers to the very nature of Professor Zoom’s impending resurrection. Plus, the Rogues witness an act so horrifying that it changes one of their own forever.

This issue will ship with two covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Scott Kolins), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Francis Manapul).

Notes: I hate to admit it, but I have no idea who the Flash is fighting on this cover. Well, almost no idea. Is this the new design for Nekron?

Also, this pretty much confirms that Professor Zoom’s personal timeline is, well, reversed, and that he’s being resurrected in Blackest Night, then going back in time for Flash: Rebirth. It’s not 100% certain, but it looks extremely likely at this point.

And finally: I believe this is the first official Flash art by Francis Manapul that DC has released. He’s doing alternate covers for all three issues of Blackest Night: The Flash, and will of course take over as the artist on The Flash when it launches next spring.

Speed Reading: Dezago, Manapul, Reviews and More

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It’s been a busy week, and while I’ve got a couple of posts I’m working on, nothing’s quite close to ready. So what to do? Of course! Some mid-week linkblogging!

Interviews

Here are a couple of interviews with upcoming Flash artist Francis Manapul: one at Multiversity Comics, and one at Comic Book Resources. He talks about trying different ways to portray the hero’s speed, and adds:

…for me, the trickiest part is making sure my Barry Allen looks different from my Wally West. Having grown up with Wally, my natural portrayal of The Flash tends to look like him. As I get more familiar with Barry, I know I’ll get my footing and get it right.

Update: CBR has followed up by interviewing Scott Kolins, artist on Blackest Night: The Flash (starting in December) and the Wally West “second feature” stories in the upcoming monthly book.

Robot6 interviews Todd Dezago, former Impulse writer, on Perhapanauts and its recent Halloween Spooktacular. At the end he reveals what’s next for the series: another special in Spring, followed a few months later by the next major story: “Fourshadowing.” (After “First Blood,” “Second Chances,” and “Triangle.”)

Reviews

Weekly Crisis reviews a bunch of collections including Flash: Ignition.

Several sites have reviews last week’s Brave and the Bold starring Flash (Barry Allen) and the Blackhawks. The Savage Critics didn’t like it. 4thLetter really didn’t like it.

DoubleDCoverage reviews last week’s books including the DC Universe Halloween Special, which featured a Kid Flash story and a Flash vs. Superman race.

Commentary

Daily Scans finds it odd that, early in his career, Jay Garrick didn’t hide his identity very well.

Art

Kid Flash sketch by Teen Titans artist Yildiray Cinar. (via SpeedsterSite)