I’ve been slowly scanning my pre-digital photos, and stumbled across these pictures I’d taken of my DC Direct (and a few other) action figures around 2000 or so.
I had fun coming up with a situation that could combine the New Teen Titans, Flash, and Sandman figures.
In retrospect, I really wish I’d used a camera that had a little depth of field. I think it may have been fixed-focus as well.
I finally finished listening to last week’s Word Balloon Podcast with Ethan Van Sciver this morning. During the 90-minute interview, he talks about Flash: Rebirth, the personal issues that caused the delays, redesigning Wally West’s costume, bringing back Impulse, the balance of power between writers and artists, and Cyberfrog.
Some points that Flash readers will find interesting:
Last spring, Ethan Van Sciver started experiencing chest pains and was told that if he didn’t do something about his health, he was going to have a heart attack. So he embarked on a complete lifestyle change, which threw off his work schedule, slowing down Flash: Rebirth. The final issue, originally scheduled for September 30 of last year, will be out in two weeks on February 24.
It was his idea to make Iris “Irey” West II the new Impulse. He wanted the character back, and deliberately made Iris and Jai younger than they had been previously because of that (and because he didn’t like them as tweens). He also made an effort to draw Bart Allen as Kid Flash looking a bit more like he appeared as Impulse: round face, big feet, slightly exaggerated features. On a related note: Geoff Johns has plans for Jai.
He had a really hard time redesigning Wally West’s costume. The way he put it was that it’s easy to design a speedster costume, but it’s hard to design a Flash costume. Whereas with Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night he basically had free reign with new designs, this time he kept getting notes and had several designs rejected. The final version was quite literally a composite of other Flash costumes: EVS wanted the straight cowl from the TV series & Dark Flash, to make it look like a knight’s helmet (in line with his Barry = King Arthur and Wally = Lancelot metaphor), Geoff Johns came up with using the animated-style emblem, etc. To this day, Van Sciver isn’t happy with the way it turned out.
There’s a lot more in there — it is an hour and a half long — and it’s worth listening to if you have the time. There’s also a discussion at Comic Bloc that’s gotten into the writer/artist balance.
Related note: Daniel Way interviews EVS in connection with Cherry Capital Con.
Last week, the Titans Tower Monitor Room reported on a rumor, based on a message board post, of a Young Justice cartoon in development. It seemed far-fetched at the time, but more information surfaced, including possible character designs. (Note: the Monitor room moved to a new site today. It looks like everything’s been transferred, but here’s the original post from last Thursday, for completeness’ sake.)
Yesterday, Bleeding Cool picked up the story, and today it’s on Blog@Newsarama, MTV Splash Page, etc.
Reportedly the show will be Young Justice League (trading on name recognition?) and will feature Martian Girl (is that Miss Martian?), Aqualad, Nightwing (is Robin tied to the Batman license again?), Impulse, Arrowette, and Connor Kent as teenagers.
Honestly? I’ll believe it when I see it. But an animated Impulse would be great fun to watch.
Interestingly enough, Impulse was part of the original pitch to Kids WB! for the 2001 Justice League cartoon. I’d been under the impression that this footage was hard to find, but apparently it’s an easter egg on the “Paradise Lost” DVD.
Update (April): The show has been officially announced.
Yes, Wally West’s new costume, which we’ve known was coming since Ethan Van Sciver said he was designing it last summer, has finally been revealed in Flash: Rebirth #5!
If you don’t want to be spoiled, stop now! Continue reading
Superman, Batman, and Max Mercury have all been cited as giving comic-book speedster Bart Allen the name Impulse. Batman most famously in Impulse #50, and Superman in the previews for All-Flash #1. (The final lettering simply said “He was code-named Impulse,” sidestepping the issue). But who named him originally?
The name first appears on the cover of Flash #93 (August 1994), with an out-of-control Bart Allen fighting the Flash. The cover is captioned, “Brash Impulse!” Over the next few issues, Wally West’s inner monologue refers to Bart as being impulsive, or (at one point) as “Mr. Impulse.”
It first appears on-panel as a name in Zero Hour #3 (September 1994), when Bart meets Superman for the first time, but Bart introduces himself as Impulse. Dan Jurgens writes.
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Update: A couple of Halloween-themed posts over at my other blog: