Category: Comics

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Cover: Flash Comics #90: Nine Empty UniformsSomething I’ve noticed as I read through various Golden-Age Flash Comics is a repeated subgenre in which the Flash plays an entire team. “Nine Empty Uniforms” (Flash Comics #90, 1947) is the first one I read, since it was reprinted in an 80-page Giant. The bad guys cause problems for a baseball team, so the Flash takes the place of every single player in the upcoming game.

flash-hockeyAs I’ve picked up comics from the 1940s, and the new Archive book, I’ve found more. In an untitled story from All-Flash Quarterly #1 (1941, reprinted in The Golden Age Flash Archive Volume 2), racketeers hassle a hockey team.The owner needs the money from the “Manley Cup” for an operation for his daughter, so when the racketeers force the players to sit the game out, the Flash steps in.

Flash Comics #39: stage rehearsal“Play of the Year” (Flash Comics #39, 1943) breaks with tradition a bit and instead of a sports team, the Flash replaces a troupe of actors. A rival producer tries to financially ruin one of Jay’s friends by preventing his play from opening, in this case faking a measles outbreak among the cast and putting them in quarantine. Once again, the Flash steps in and plays every single role, changing costumes and switching places faster than the eye can see.

The weird thing about these stories is that nowhere does anyone suggest that having a super-powered player—who isn’t even on your roster—just might be cheating. It goes all the way back to his first appearance in Flash Comics #1: Back in college, Jay Garrick was a football scrub. After the accident gave him super-speed, he convinced the coach to put him on the field so he could show off in front of his girlfriend, Joan.

Interestingly, later retellings of the Flash’s origin make it a point that he quit the team immediately afterward because staying would have given him an unfair advantage.

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Scott Pilgrim vol. 3 Front CoverAfter seeing it recommended on several blogs (sorry, I can’t remember which ones), I eventually tracked down the first book of Scott Pilgrim. It was great fun—a wonderful balance of comedy, drama, and sheer post-video-game absurdity—and I immediately went out and got volume 2. Then I started watching for volume 3, which was supposed to come out early this year.

The scheduled date came and went. For about a month, I would walk into the comic store each week and ask whether Scott Pilgrim volume 3 was out. After a while I didn’t even have to ask. All that anyone knew was that it was behind schedule. Way behind.

So I started checking the website from time to time. Nothing, then nothing, then more nothing… so I checked less and less often… until tonight, I found a note that not only is volume three done, it’s at the printers, tentatively scheduled for May 24!

Plus, there’s a book scheduled for Free Comic Book Day, which is coming up on Saturday. (Yes, you can walk into a participating comic store this weekend and get a free comic book.)

I’m sure this is just like the Animaniacs DVDs that everyone seemed to know about before I did, but just in case anyone missed the announcement…

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DC has announced their comics for June, and I’m really looking forward to three books.

Cover of The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #1First, they finally announced a release date for the re-launch of The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive. It was getting to the point where I was in more suspense over when they’d launch it than who was going to be wearing the mask. And at least we know that Wally and Bart are “not dead” (in the words of Infinite Crisis writer Geoff Johns), though that doesn’t necessarily imply we’ll see them anytime soon. Now I only have to worry about who’s going to be “the” Flash, and whether the new book will be any good.

Cover of Solo #11Almost as good was the surprise return of Michael Moorcock & Walter Simonson’s Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer. They got half-way through this mini-series in 2004, and issue #3 just never appeared. It looks like they’re finally going to finish it. Which reminds me, I should look for the final book in the Elric/Von Bek trilogy and see if it’s in paperback.

And then there was the real surprise: An issue of Solo by Sergio Aragonés and Mark Evanier. (Shouldn’t that be Duet?) Need I say more?

Also interesting: Astro City: Samaritan and Fables #50.

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It’s been almost two weeks since hotel reservations for the San Diego Comic Con went on sale and sold out in a matter of hours.

The crunch is amazing. Last year, San Diego’s public transportation system dissolved under the combined assault of 100,000+ Comic Con attendees and a weekend of Padres games. Two years ago, the first year we stayed in town instead of just driving down for Saturday, we booked so late that we were stuck with the Super 8. Just for kicks, I checked the prices there. A room for this coming weekend would cost half what we paid per night on Comic Con weekend in 2004. And their prices during the con this year? I can’t tell, because they’re already sold out.

This morning, Travel Planners (the company handling reservations for the convention) sent out an email to people who had reserved hotel rooms through their service. After assuring me that my reservation was fine, they went on to ask:

In the meantime, we have a favor to ask of you. Please take a minute to reassess the number of rooms that you’ve booked and help your fellow attendees and exhibitors by canceling any rooms that you are not absolutely certain you’ll need.

Like you, we’re all thrilled that Comic Con is growing by leaps and bounds every year, but with each new show it gets more and more difficult to find enough hotel rooms to accommodate so many visitors. Accordingly, every hotel room becomes an integral part of the show’s success.

It’s not uncommon for people to grab multiple rooms just in case more people come, or to keep their options open (say, reserving both an expensive hotel downtown and a less expensive one further out, then cancelling one once they’ve made a decision). I’m astonished that it’s come to the agency pleading with people to let others have a chance at the rooms now, instead of waiting until just before the hotels start charging for cancellations.

On a related note, now’s as good a time to any to link to some recommendations for anyone planning to attend Comic Con:

  • Our own Suggestions for Comic-Con still hold up. I’d like to add: don’t forget to pack long pants as well as shorts. It may be July, but San Diego is a coastal city, and it can get cold at night or in the morning. Update: We’ve expanded this to a more thorough Tips for Comic Con at Speed Force.
  • The Comics Reporter’s Comic Con By the Numbers has been updated.
  • And of course, there’s Aubrey’s Guide to Con Hygiene.

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We went to see Scott Shaw’s show, Oddball Comics last night. Maybe a block away from the Acme Comedy Theatre, we saw this billboard:

Billboard with two women in swimsuits and red capes with wolf heads. WTF?

It’s hard to see in the photo, but they’re touching their index fingers together. There’s nothing else in the center of the billboard, just empty space.

As near as I can tell, they’re combining Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf, a mirror universe, and a pair of Vegas showgirls. All of which adds up to a resounding: “Huh?!?”