Influence Films debuted last year with the fan film Flash: Crossover. For their eighth project, they’re returned to the scarlet speedster with Flash: The Brave and the Bold
When the father of Wally West’s friend is found dead, The Flash races into action. He soon discovers that to solve the case he might need some help and guidance from his friends: Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl.
You can watch the eight-minute video on YouTube.
This weekend features two comic book conventions: the comics track at FanExpo in Toronto, and Baltimore Comic Con. DC has had a presence at both, splitting their events between Dan Didio in Toronto and Ian Sattler in Baltimore.
CBR covers FanExpo’s DC Nation without revealing any Flash news, though they did plug Francis Manapul’s role on the TV show Beast Legends.
@liabrown1 caught a few bits of info at today’s DC Universe panel:
Update: CBR’s FanExpo DC Universe report is now online.
Newsarama covers Baltimore’s DC Nation with a live-blog, including this exchange:
Q: Is Sterling Gates’s Kid Flash book coming out?
Gates: nope.
Sattler: “But we have something really cool in its place that we can’t talk about.”
They may be talking about the second Flash book, Flash: Speed Force, that Geoff Johns leaked/announced in San Diego. (I got the impression that they weren’t quite ready to announce it at the time.) Or they may have something else in the works.
Update: CBR’s Baltimore DC Nation report is up as well.
Update (Monday): a bit more news from DC’s Sunday Conversation (Baltimore, via CBR):
Where should fans of Wally West be directing their attention? “It’s coming,” Gates said. “Geoff Johns is world-building for Barry Allen right now.”
Yeah, and tomorrow is a rest day. As much as I’m enjoying the new series, I’m really cynical when it comes to DC’s treatment of Wally West these days.
Update (Monday): ComicsAlliance’s FanExpo DC Nation write-up includes Dan Didio explaining that “the constant reinventing of the same characters was getting confusing and factionalizing our audience,” so they decided to pick one Flash, one Atom, etc. and standardize on the “classic” version.
Never mind that in some cases, the “classic” version was dead or retired before they made this decision, and never mind the fact that they also insist that Blue Beetle Ted Kord will stay dead, and Renee Montoya will continue to be the Question. And I don’t see Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, either. So the explanation doesn’t quite add up.
DC’s full November solicitations are out, featuring two more major Flash appearances in addition to the Flash #8 Reverse-Flash one-shot.
Written by RON MARZ, MARK WAID and BRIAN AUGUSTYN
Art by BART SEARS, VAL SEMEIKS, RON LIM, ANDY SMITH, TOM GRINDBERG, JEFF JOHNSON and others
Cover by DAVE JOHNSON
Collecting the two-part miniseries from 1997 that brought together two Flashes and two Green Lanterns to battle the menace called Alien X in a story that begins in the 1940s and concludes in the modern era!
On sale November 3 • 96 pg, FC, $7.99 US
Notes: This story stars Jay Garrick and Alan Scott in the 1940s, and Wally West and Kyle Rayner in the modern era. Naturally, they’ve put Hal Jordan on the cover.
Fun Fact: This is the comic book with the polar bear that Walt was reading in the first season of LOST.
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art and cover by DAN JURGENS & NORM RAPMUND
None of the Time Masters’ problems in the time continuum compares with what’s in store for them when they cross paths with the Reverse Flash! In fact, nothing will be the same for the entire universe after this fateful meeting!
Don’t miss this companion series to the best-selling “Return of Bruce Wayne” storyline!
On sale November 17 • 5 of 6 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US
Notes: That Thawne guy sure is going to be busy in November, isn’t he? Can you say Flashpoint setup?
Justice Society of America (with Jay Garrick) picks up the new run by Marc Guggenheim and Scott Kolins.
Justice League of America (with Jesse Quick) battles the Crime Syndicate.
The Teen Titans meet Robin.
DC Comics Presents: Young Justice continues with #2, reprinting The Secret, stories from the Young Justice Secret Files, and Young Justice in No-Man’s Land. We seem to be getting the specials reprinted – how long before DC reprints the series itself?
I’ve gotten out of the habit of putting together the full “Out this week…” posts except when a new Flash issue is out, mostly because of the time it takes (more than you’d expect, especially if I include images), but Jesse reminded me that this week’s issue of Magog features Flash Wally West…in a cover appearance, no less!
Also this week is the collected edition of Blackest Night: The Flash!
Written by SCOTT KOLINS • Art and cover by SCOTT KOLINS
The Psy-cho Twins are seeing flashes of the future, and for Magog that appears to mean KINGDOM COME! In part 1 of a 5-part* story written and illustrated by Scott Kolins, Magog races across the U.S./Canadian border to stop an experiment gone wrong at S.T.A.R. Labs, and it becomes clear he’s witnessing the birth of N-I-L-8, a major player from KINGDOM COME!
Note: I told myself that my days of picking up every random appearance by my favorite character were over, but (a) it’s Scott Kolins, (b) I doubt we’re likely to see Wally much of anywhere else until Flashpoint, and (c) Jesse reports that it’s got Tina and Jerry McGee in the issue as well.
*DC canceled the book with issue #12. Instead of finishing in the pages of Magog, the story will wrap up in Kolins’ JSA Special in September.
Written by JAMES ROBINSON, GEOFF JOHNS & GREG RUCKA • Art by SCOTT KOLINS, NICOLA SCOTT, EDDY BARROWS & RUY JOSE • Cover by RUDOLFO MIGLIARI
The Flash, Wonder Woman and the JSA come face to face with their greatest foes and long-lost loved ones, newly undead as evil Black Lanterns, in this collection of three 3-issue BLACKEST NIGHT miniseries:
240pg. · Color · Hardcover · $24.99 US
Order from Amazon (shipping next week) or buy it at your local comic shop today!
Note: Volume 1, featuring the Blackest Night Superman, Batman and Titans miniseries, is also out this week.
Jesse sent in this photo of an amazing piece of Flash artwork he recently bought:
Here’s how he describes it:
It’s a single board of paper with drawings of the Flash from some of his most notable artists. You’ve got the two main Flash artists from the ’90s: Greg LaRocque (my favorite Flash artist) drew the large picture of Wally on the left, and Mike Wieringo drew one, too! There are also drawings by Pop Mhan and Craig Rousseau. To top it off, Carmine Infantino did the sketch at the top. (I like to think that the 4 drawings are of Wally, with the spirit of Barry looking over, since it’s in a lighter ink.) Oh, and Mark Waid signed the bottom as well. I don’t own a lot of comic art, but even though this was expensive, I jumped at the chance to get it.
Wow!
It really makes me wonder what the story is behind the fan who originally went around collecting these sketches.
Update: Check out the comments below, where artist Greg LaRocque reveals the secret origin of the sketch!
A couple of weeks ago, CBR previewed Icons, an upcoming book featuring Jim Lee’s WildStorm and DC Comics art. It got me thinking: Has Jim Lee ever drawn the Flash?
I posed the question on Twitter and Facebook. @Pogophile and Joe Dy came up with the cover of the “Joker’s Last Laugh” issue of The Flash:
I did some searching around the Grand Comics Database when I looked up the Flash v.2 #179 cover, and didn’t find anything obvious. Several people suggested that the Flash may have appeared in Superman: For Tomorrow.
Then of course there are his designs for DC Universe Online.
It’s entirely possible that this is the only published Jim Lee art focusing on the Flash!