Tag Archives: Wednesday Comics

Speed Reading: Letterheads, Casting, Waid and More

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Sorry I haven’t been updating much this week. I’ve been busy, and there hasn’t been much Flash news. So, to tide things over a bit, here’s some linkblogging.

The Comic Book Letterheads Museum has been posting headers from The Flash letter columns, including 1988’s Fleet Sheet and 1989’s Speed Reading (where I got the title for this feature). Further back in the archives you can find Flash-Grams from 1970 and 1976.

Multiversity Comics casts a Flash movie. Has anyone else noticed how often Neil Patrick Harris shows up in these lists? (Also: Linda Park as…Linda Park.)

When Words Collide reviews Wednesday Comics in its new hardcover form, concluding that “The Flash is still, by far, the best thing in Wednesday Comics.

Following up on the reader-chosen Greatest Mark Waid Stories Ever Told, Comics Should Be Good got Mark Waid to pick his own list of favorite stories from his work. A lot of the usual suspects still appear, but one of the surprises was Impulse #3, Bart Allen’s first day at school.

Newsarama interviews Geoff Johns and asks him about Flashpoint. As usual, he can’t say more than we already know.

Judging by this cover for Guardians of the Globe #1 (not the joke one with Barack Obama and Harry Potter, the serious one further down), the design has been tweaked a bit for the Invincible spin-off’s resident speedster, Outrun. [Edit: I forgot to include the link when I posted this!]

Speed Reading: To the Art

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Some art-related linkblogging…

Yildiray Cinar draws an impressive Reverse Flash (via @SpeedsterSite)

There’s a new Rogue in town…a new Rogues blog, that is: The Rogues Kick Ass (via @liabrown1). So far, it’s mostly comedic scans from published comics. (Context? What context?)

This is Knutz presents: The Rogues as kittens. (via @SpeedsterSite) Hilarious!

The Best Comic Covers looks back on the 9 Best Superman vs Flash Covers.

Various people at DC Comics weigh in on their favorite DC covers. Dan Didio’s is Michael Turner’s Flash #207 (via @SpeedsterSite).

Last week, Once Upon a Geek posted a series of poster galleries, including the JSA, Flash, Green Lantern, Sandman, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and more.

Behind the Scenes

Francis Manapul has been posting a lot of Flash art on Twitter lately: the uncolored art for the Flash #5 cover and five pages from Flash #2.

Val Victory’s review of the Flash: Rebirth hardcover includes scans of Ethan Van Sciver’s discarded designs for Wally West’s new costume.

Lots of places have been posting about Wednesday Comics with the release of the hardcover this week. The Source has some of the extras, including art from Karl Kerschl’s Flash strip.

Comic Strips

OK, none of these strips are Flash-related… but I had to share them anyway.

Comic Critics points out that Gotham City is a bad place to open themed businesses.

Creebobby presents Batman after a bad night on patrol: Bat-Fail.

This Week (May 26): Wednesday Comics HC & More

The long-awaited hardcover edition of Wednesday Comics is out this week, featuring all 15 strips from last summer’s weekly series in all their 11×17″ oversized glory:

  • ADAM STRANGE written and illustrated by Paul Pope
  • BATMAN written by Brian Azzarello with art by Eduardo Risso including additional panel art on each page!
  • METAMORPHO written by Neil Gaiman with art by Michael Allred
  • DEADMAN written by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck with art by Dave Bullock
  • THE DEMON AND CATWOMAN written by Walter Simonson with art by Brian Stelfreeze
  • THE FLASH written by Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher with art by Karl Kerschl
  • GREEN LANTERN written by Kurt Busiek with art by Joe Quinones
  • HAWKMAN written and illustrated by Kyle Baker
  • KAMANDI written by Dave Gibbons with art by Ryan Sook
  • THE METAL MEN written by Dan DiDio with art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan
  • SGT. ROCK written by Adam Kubert with art by Joe Kubert
  • SUPERGIRL written by Jimmy Palmiotti with art by Amanda Conner
  • SUPERMAN written by John Arcudi with art by Lee Bermejo
  • TEEN TITANS written by Eddie Berganza with art by Sean Galloway
  • WONDER WOMAN written and illustrated by Ben Caldwell

The Fletcher/Kerschl Flash strip was my favorite Flash story of 2009 (yes, I liked it better than Flash: Rebirth or Blackest Night: The Flash). It was fun, full of crazy ideas and adventure, and played around with the format, making use of the fact that it was being told as a newspaper comic strip.

Wednesday Comics sells for $49.99, though you can find it for less if you shop around. (Amazon’s selling it at $31.49 to start, though since they get their inventory on a book publishing schedule, they won’t have Wednesday Comics until next Tuesday.)

Other Flash appearances this week include:

Readers’ Favorite Flash Story of 2009

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Earlier this month I posted a poll asking readers to choose their favorite Flash story of 2009. The poll closed today, so here are the results.

Not surprisingly, Flash: Rebirth — the only Flash-titled series we’ve really had during 2009 (not counting one issue of Blackest Night: The Flash in December) won the poll…but it only pulled in 35% of the vote!

Making a strong second-place showing was Blackest Night at 28%. While not primarily a Flash story, the Green Lantern-based universe-wide event has focused heavily on Hal Jordan and Barry Allen.

Third place, with 13%, is the Flash feature in Wednesday Comics. (This one was my favorite.)

Some of the write-ins are rather telling, though. While many readers have liked this year’s Flash stories (or at least some of them), others have been extremely disappointed. I have to admit getting a chuckle out of “It’s like asking which punch in the face was better.”

Update: Sadly, Twtpoll purged the complete results before I thought to copy them over.

Speed Reading: Breathing in Space, the Blur, Casting, EVS vs. Carmine Infantino & More

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Batman can breathe in space, but the Flash can't.Comics Alliance has a couple of Flashy items: First, a page from the Shortpacked! coloring book: Batman Can Breathe In Space, But Not The Flash.

Second: they look back at a pair of Baby Ruth commercials from the 1990s, featuring Hawkman and an obvious Flash stand-in called the Blur. They have a video clip of the Blur commercial. Fun fact: The Blur was played by Tim Thomerson, who played Barry Allen’s brother Jay in the pilot episode of the 1990 Flash TV show.

Speaking of the Flash TV series, it makes Comic Book Movie’s list of Top Ten Most Accurate Live Action Superhero Costumes

The Secret of Wednesday’s Haul contrasts Ethan Van Sciver and Carmine Infantino in their approaches to conveying speed.

noscans_daily has a Flash Appreciation Post focusing on the character from the animated Justice League and Justice League Unlimited TV series.

A Trout in the Milk reviews Wednesday Comics and asks the question: “What have we learned?”

InTylerWeTrust82 casts Superman and the Flash, with some interesting choices for the heroes, their supporting casts, and selected villains.

What Were They Thinking? has an example of Golden Age Flashdickery. Jay Garrick was a bit of a prankster in those days…

Wednesday Comics: The Giant Coffee Table Book

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All right! DC has announced that they’ll be collecting Wednesday Comics as an oversized hardcover book at 11×17″!

It’s not the full size, which would be ideal, but I do think an oversized hardcover is the best way to collect it. Shrinking the art to standard size would diminish the experience of reading it, and trying to do something this size as a paperback is unwieldy at best, judging by Comic Book Tattoo. There’s a reason I bought the hardcover of that book, and it wasn’t so that I could carry extra weight around the convention floor. (It wasn’t to weaponize a comic book, either, but I’m sure I could knock someone out if I hit them over the head with it.)

Amazingly enough, they plan to sell it for $49.99, the same price as the archive books that clock in at the same page count but smaller page size. Back when I tried to figure out how Wednesday Comics could be collected, I figured a coffee table book from DC would end up costing a lot more.

I do have to wonder how they’re going to manage the paperback edition, but with this option available for this price (and you know it’ll be discounted in places like Amazon)…does it really matter?

Note: I managed to delete the original post when I intended to edit it, losing the comments made earlier this evening. Sorry about that!