Tag Archives: Mark Waid

Flash Companion Preview: Mark Waid on Impulse

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TwoMorrows’ book, The Flash Companion is now available! It debuted at Comic-Con last week, Amazon orders have been shipping, and it’s been showing up in stores.

Here’s one more excerpt to round out the quartet of Scarlet Speedsters. As with the others, it’s posted here with permission of the book’s main author, Keith Dallas.

Mark Waid: Running on Impulse (excerpt)

By John Wells

WELLS: Why call him “Impulse,” rather than “Kid Flash”?

WAID: Because it was a perfect name. We didn’t want to call him “Kid Flash” because it sounded a little corny, and I still think it sounds a little corny. “Impulse” is the perfect confluence of a character’s name, his powers, and his personality, all in one word. And once we had the name — and I can’t swear it wasn’t Kurt Busiek’s suggestion — it completely summed up the character. Thought to deed in one motion without all those pesky synapses getting in the way.

WELLS: [laughs] It really did. Whose idea was that hair?

WAID: I think it was Humberto’s. Pure Humberto [Ramos]. Mike Wieringo had done the initial costume design, without the mask, but boy, Humberto went to town with the look, with the giant hair and the gigantic feet.

WELLS: Now kind of earlier on, you’d had the Tornado Twins revived in 1991’s Legion of Super-Heroes #18 and immediately had them executed by the Dominators.

WAID: [chuckles] “You” meaning “the Legion editors and writers after you left staff.” Don’t look at me, man.

WELLS: And later on, their DNA created a female speedster called Rush. And meantime, Don Allen was said to have been survived by his wife, Carmen Johnson and their two-year old son, Barry II. So what came first? You said you had the teen speedster idea for the Justice League story []earlier in the interview], was that before or after?

WAID: A little after, so that would have been the “Barry II” that we were talking about at the time, I suppose. But at that point, we were going to reboot the Legion with Zero Hour, so I knew that all bets were off in terms of Rush and those characters. It also freed up the name “Impulse,” which I believe was the codename of —

WELLS: Kent Shakespeare.

WAID: Kent Shakespeare, yeah.

WELLS: Iris brought Bart back to the 20th Century in the hope that Wally could cure her grandson, but she also wanted Wally to rein in Bart and train him in the use of his powers. Why was that not going to work?

WAID: It was so not going to work because Bart and Wally just hated each other. Wally saw in Impulse all of his own negative characteristics, so it put his teeth on edge.

WELLS: On the other hand, Max [Mercury] and Bart did work out pretty well, even though they didn’t think it was going to. How did you see that relationship?

WAID: We went into the Impulse series not sure who the mentor figure was going to be. And for a long time, I think we were talking about it being Jay, but Jay has his wife, Joan, and I don’t know what they could have brought to the series that wouldn’ t have been Ma and Pa Kent. Making Bart’s mentor Max, somebody who was so dry and so much the opposite of Bart, was too much comic potential to let go.

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Flash Companion at Comic-Con

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I had a chance to check out The Flash Companion at the TwoMorrows booth today, and it looks really great. I also attended the TwoMorrows panel, where they talked about current and upcoming projects, and author Keith Dallas talked about the book.

John Morrow told a funny story about how, last night, Mark Waid showed up at the booth and wanted to buy a copy. They pointed out that he didn’t need to, they were sending him a comp copy, and he said, no, you don’t understand, I need to read this in my hotel room, tonight! They gave him his free copy then and there.

After the panel I finally got to meet Keith Dallas, Bill Walko, and someone else whose name already escapes me (sorry!) [Edit:] Jim Kingman. Keith is doing a signing at the TwoMorrows booth until 5:00.

Flash Sales: 1996-2002

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Following up on yesterday’s graph showing Flash Sales from 2001-2008, I did some more searching and found a site with figures going back to 1996. More importantly, this one also has relative rankings.

Sales — but not ranking — dropped heavily in 1996 and early 1997. Of course, this was in the middle of the speculator crash, so the entire comics industry was doing pretty badly at the time. (Also, the first issue in these stats might have been higher, since #119 was a Final Night tie-in.)

They stayed in the low-to-mid 40,000s for the next few years, during the Grant Morrison/Mark Millar run and the return of Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn. Highlights during this period include:

  • #130, the first Morrison/Millar issue.
  • #135, part of the “Three of a Kind” crossover with Green Lantern and Green Arrow.
  • #1,000,000, part of the DC One Million crossover. Oddly, it didn’t jump much the previous month, when Waid and Augustyn returned with #142.
  • Small spike for #150, conclusion of Chain Lightning and a milestone issue.
  • Larger spike for #152, start of the Dark Flash saga.
  • I’m not sure what made #157 catch on, unless it was the striking cover showing Linda’s grave.

Sales started dropping as soon as Waid and Augustyn wrapped up the main part of their run (#159), and the book went into a series of done-in-ones.

Geoff Johns took over for a 6-part arc, “Wonderland,” with #164. I was surprised to find that sales dropped through the whole arc, but DC decided to give him the regular gig anyway. They kept dropping through “Blood Will Run,” bottoming out with the conclusion in #174. Oddly enough, that was also the highest rated issue since he’d taken over. The next year and a half held steady around 30,000. And the post-2002 climb is shown in yesterday’s post.

This shows an interesting contrast to DC’s current tactic of changing the creative team every time sales come in lower than the month before.

Other Observations

These years also cover most of Impulse‘s 90-issue run. At the start of this period it was selling in the mid-to-low-30K range, dropped to around 20K in 1998, and down to 15K from 2000-2002.

This also includes the overlap period between regular Annuals and Secret Files.

For three months in 1999, there were four Flash-related books each month: Flash, Impulse, and the miniseries Flashpoint and Flash/Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold. The latter miniseries outsold Flash for the first two months, then dropped below it for the next four issues.

The actual figures from CBGXtra appear after the cut. Continue reading →

Mike Wieringo: Tribute Book and Scholarship

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Anyone who read The Flash during the mid-1990s will remember artist Mike Wieringo‘s run on the book with Mark Waid.  Wieringo’s brief run as regular artist and occasional covers over the next year or so set a standard for Wally West as the Flash, and he co-created Bart Allen, a.k.a. Impulse.  His sudden death last August shocked fans around the world.

This weekend, Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina will see two tributes to Mike Wieringo.

First, the Hero Initiative will release What If…This Was The Fantastic Four?: A Tribute to Mike Wieringo. This was the project he was working on at the time of his death.

With Mike’s passing, Marvel Comics generously provided access to the script and Mike’s art to The Hero Initiative, and Mike’s friends stepped up to finish the story, and pay tribute to Mike. Now, What If…This Was The Fantastic Four?: A Tribute to Mike Wieringo is a massive, 48-page tribute book that contains the full story, and additional written tributes to Mike.

The tremendous list of talent participating in the book includes Jeff Parker, Arthur Adams, Paul Renaud, Stuart Immonen, Cully Hamner, Alan Davis, David Williams, Sanford Greene, Humberto Ramos, Skottie Young, Mike Allred, Barry Kitson, and Val Staples. Cover artwork is by Mike Wieringo and Paul Mounts, and The Hero Initiative is publishing the book with the full support of both Marvel Comics, and the family of Mike Wieringo.

The book will be available at the Hero Initiative booth at the con, and will arrive in stores next week. (There’s also a Newsarama interview from back in March.)

Second, the artist’s family has gotten together with the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) to create the Mike Wieringo Scholarship, or ’Ringo. (via Warren Ellis)

Created by Mike’s brother Matt and his sister-in-law Suzanne, the ‘Ringo is designed to help provide similar help to artists at the Savannah College of Art and Design or SCAD. Domestic and international students with have a minimum 3.0 grade point average who demonstrate financial need and display a serious interest in pursuing comics as a career are eligible. The scholarship will take effect in the artist’s second year of classes, and is renewable for up to two additional years, provided the student continues to meet the criteria.

The recipient will be chosen from three finalists determined by the college in a portfolio review by Matt and Suzanne Wieringo, along with a rotating group. The ultimate goal for the ‘Ringo is to raise enough funds so that it can cover a full year’s expenses at SCAD, approximately $30,000.

The scholarship will be raising funds in Artists Alley at Heroes Con through selling sketchbooks, comics featuring his artwork, original art, sketches by other artists, and collecting donations.

Update June 22: Newsarama has coverage of the scholarship at HeroesCon, and adds that they plan to have an annual presence at the con.