Tag Archives: Golden Age

On the Hunt: Finding Back Issues, Then and Now

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How I searched for back issues of comics in…

1989:

  1. Look at the local comic store.
  2. Wait for a convention that my parents were going to.

1999:

  1. Look at the local comic store.
  2. Drive around to other stores.
  3. Save up for San Diego Comic-Con.
  4. Look on this new site called eBay.

2009:

  1. Look at a couple of local comic stores.
  2. Look on eBay and Mile High Comics (singles)
  3. Look on eBay and Amazon (for trades & hardcovers)
  4. Look at a convention.
  5. Look for other sources on the net.

Two main things have changed: mobility (I couldn’t drive when I was 13) and the Internet. Continue reading →

Wait…What? The Flash and the Baby Raffle (Golden Age Hijinks)

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I’ve got a saved search set up at eBay that lets me know when Golden-Age Flash comics show up in my price range. It’s been a while since I actually bought one, though. Most of them are either too expensive or contain stories I’ve already read, either through reprints or through my own small Golden-Age collection.

Flash Comics #45Anyway, several books showed up in this morning’s email, and I checked them against my want-list and already-read list. Then I looked up the one that I didn’t recognize, Flash Comics #45. Comics.org has a synopsis of the Flash story, “Blessed Event:”

Jay wins a baby in a raffle and it immediately becomes a headache for himself [trying to explain it to Joan], and to the Flash, when the baby turns out to be a midget crook!

Leaving aside the silliness of an adult dwarf being able to pass as an infant (a premise that doesn’t seem to have gone away, being the basis of the 2006 Wayans Brothers film, Little Man), consider the fact that Jay Garrick wins a baby in a raffle.

Seriously. Even in 1943, who thought that raffling off children to the hero was a good idea for a setup?

Midget Joe in his second appearance.It’s probably an oversimplication.

But then, this is the same series where the Flash’s dimwitted sidekicks buy a restaurant and accidentally turn people invisible when they use an alien plant in their salads. (To top things off, it ties into the otherwise-serious origin of the Thinker.) The Silver Age had its share of goofy stories, but it’s got nothing on the Golden Age for sheer silliness.

Believe it or not, “Midget Joe” (as his name is given) actually comes back in Flash Comics #61, one of the issues I’ve read. The criminal escapes from prison, then hides out in a children’s hospital ward. Unfortunately for him, the Flash is performing magic tricks to cheer up the patients, but the hero doesn’t recognize him at first…

Speed Reading: Lightning Blades, Bronze Age, Variant Covers and More

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RikDad identifies a precedent for those lightning-bolt blades seen in Flash: Rebirth…way back in the Golden Age.

Comic Bronze Age tries to identify…What IS the Bronze Age of Comics? Considering that many fans today are of the opinion that the Silver Age lasted through 1985, it’s a good question.

The podcast Views From the Longbox has their second installment of Views from the Speed Force, focusing on Flash: Rebirth #2.

Flash Rebirth #3 CoversNewsarama asks retailers, do variant covers sell more books? Personally, when a comic has alternate covers that are distributed equally (like they’ve done with the Final Crisis books) I’ll just pick the one I like better. When the variant is rare, like the 1-in-25 alternate covers they’re doing for Flash: Rebirth, I usually won’t bother. Though I am going to try to pick up the alternate cover for #3, which is 100% more interesting than the standard cover.

Speaking of variant covers, it looks like I forgot to link to the site updates I did last weekend: I updated the collections of variant covers and cover homages to include current and upcoming Flash: Rebirth covers. Still need to work through an email backlog of homages, though.

Crimson Lightning is back from a three-week hiatus with new posts.

Mania’s Top 20 writers of all time includes long-term Flash writers Mark Waid, Geoff Johns and Gardner Fox.

Fastest FirefoxSpeaking of foxes, and still somewhat relevant to this blog’s topic, Firefox is holding a video contest called “Show Us Your Speed“ to promote the upcoming Firefox 3.5 release. Submit a 30-second video of your fastest talent to www.fastestfirefox.com.

Speed Reading: Bow Ties, Variant Covers, and Top Villains

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I’m working on a round-up of reviews of Flash: Rebirth #2, but that’s taking a while. For now, here’s some general Flash linkblogging.

Current Events

The webcomic Comic Critics takes on Wardrobe Origins. (If you’ve read Flash: Rebirth #2, you can probably guess where this is going.)

Major Spoilers’ Stephen is impressed to see DC unveil a variant cover he actually wants.

Star Clipper looks at Flash: Rebirth in the context of reviving a failing franchise.

CBR talks to Mark Waid about the “24/7” arc in Spider-Man.

Edit: Just after I posted this, I saw this scan of Tiny Titans‘ Battle for the COW joke.

The Tops

Flash Comics #1The Judge declares Flash Comics #1 to have the Best.Cover.Ever.

POP puts Professor Zoom on its list of 25 coolest comic book villains.

IGN’s Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time includes Shade at #89, Mirror Master at #79, Zoom at #37, Gorilla Grodd at #35, Professor Zoom at #31 [Update:] Captain Cold at #27. (At this time, the top 30 20 is not up yet.)

Speed Reading: Central City, Lightning Pants, Podcast

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centralcityWith Barry Allen returning, it’s clear that Central City is going to get a lot more attention. The Absorbascon has calculated the size of Central City based on depictions in Flash comics, determining that it covers 62 times the area of Manhattan and contains 100 million people. Actually, the Absorbascon has a running feature on the vastness that is Central City.

Comic Coverage looks at the earliest costume tweaks for the Flash: the disappearing lightning bolts on Jay Garrick’s legs.

The Views from the Longbox podcast is starting a series of additional episodes focused on Flash: Rebirth, Views from the Speed Force.

4thletter has an interesting question: What’s your deal-breaker? What would cause you to drop a book, or a writer, or a publisher, or even comics altogether?

Golden-Age Art Mystery

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Flash stippled portrait (All-Flash #13)Comic Coverage is seeking help in solving an All-Flash Art Mystery — namely, this stippled portrait of the Flash from All-Flash #13 (reprinted in the 1973 Flash 100 Page Spectacular ) in a dramatically different style than regular artist E.E. Hibbard‘s usual (of which the faces in the border are more typical).

(My take: I don’t see any reason to believe it’s not Hibbard’s own work, judging by some of the panels he did for creator cameos and wildlife paintings he did in the years after his comics career. And in The Flash Companion, Tom Brevoort recalls being astonished by this page, and believes it to be Hibbard’s work.)