Tag Archives: Podcast

EVS Talks Flash: Rebirth at Word Balloon

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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.

Weekend Speed Reading: Wally, Flashforward, Hostess Ads and More

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Geoff Johns reassures fans of Wally West that “Wally’s not only going to be fine, he’s going to kick ass.”

The third installment of Views from the Speed Force is up. The spinoff from the Views from the Longbox podcast has been focusing on each issue of Flash: Rebirth, and this one tackles issue #3.

Fanboy Wife contemplates the Flash, alternate meanings of the name, the value of hard water and just what super-speed is good for.

Blog@Newsarama considers what might go into a second volume of Wednesday Comics.

Tomheroes has a collection of super-hero Hostess ads from the 1970s. I’ve mentioned these before, and profiled the lame villains who appeared in the Flash installments. This page doesn’t have the snarky commentary of Seanbaby’s Hostess Page, but some of the scans are somewhat higher quality.

The Weekly Crisis is giving away 4 trade paperbacks and hardcovers in a contest to celebrate two years online.

Over at K-Squared Ramblings I’ve written up the Flash Forward panel at Comic-Con. This show looks like it’s going to be awesome! Also: the Lost panel was full of win. I missed it, but my wife posted a detailed write-up.

Geoff Johns on Word Balloon

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The Word Balloon podcast interviews Geoff Johns, and the writer talks about Flash: Rebirth, Blackest Night, and Legion of Three Worlds. Newsarama has a few excerpts, including this bit about reader reaction to Barry Allen’s characterization:

I love the discussion and debates, because I know where this story is going …I remember when we did The Sinestro Corps Wars, and Kyle at the end of the first issue was possessed by Parallax. People went crazy! They couldn’t believe how we could do this (laughs) …and Ethan was saying ‘We should tell them that he’s not going to be Parallax,’ and I said ‘No! Let them get riled up, because they should, but we know where this story ends.’ … In Flash: Rebirth, Barry is searching for the same answers…this story is trying to solve a crime, but Barry is moving much too fast to do that. [Emphasis added.]

The whole interview is about an hour long. I know what I’m going to be listening to at lunch!

Update: I forgot my headphones, so I had to wait until I got home to listen. 🙁

Things that stood out, Flash-wise:

  • Trying to go against expectations
  • Twist coming for Wally
  • Flash is back, but Barry isn’t yet (figuratively speaking)
  • Bart’s attitude toward the Rogues is sort of “Nyah, nyah, missed me!”
  • Bart and Barry are in sync in terms of sensing that something’s wrong.
  • Expanding the Flash mythos so that there could be more than one Flash book post-Rebirth

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?

EVS Talks Flash at Word Balloon

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The Word Balloon podcast interviews Ethan Van Sciver about Flash: Rebirth and Blackest Night. The post has a few excerpts in which he talks about Barry Allen’s origin pre-figuring the Marvel-style accident-based origin (of course Jay’s fits the same pattern), about returning to draw Bart Allen years after his run on Impulse, about the Flash Museum and Central & Keystone Cities’ obsession with the Rogues, and about the challenge of drawing a monthly comic.

I’m really going to have to listen to this when I get home (or maybe at lunch if I can find a USB cable).

New Flash Forums and Podcasts Sighted (Updated)

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Two quick items:

A new podcast, Flash-back, plans to review The Flash on a monthly basis. So far they’ve posted an introduction to their podcast and an overview of Flash history. (thanks to Heatwave the Rogue on Comic Bloc)

The forum Speedster Site also launched a few days ago, and is focused exclusively on the Flash (thanks to younglionsimba)

Update: In the Comic Bloc thread on “Flash-back,” Chris Hansbrough pointed to another podcast, Tom vs. the Flash, a series of 5–10-minute reviews of classic Silver Age Flash episodes.