Flash Fridays – Showcase #13
posted on November 7, 2014
I’ve got to admit that the cover to Showcase #13, the Flash’s third tryout appearance, is pretty cool. When you’ve got a skull and crossbones painted on the nose of a torpedo that’s chasing after your hero… what’s not to like? Again, while the cover is credited to Infantino and Giella, it looks a little odd to me and makes me wonder. I wondered about it when I was twelve and I wonder about it now. The handling of the (for want of better words) ear wings and boot wings seem very un-Giella like to me. But who am I to argue with the credits in The Flash Archives? Chalk it up to everyone still getting a feel for the new character.
Which is what I did when the splash page shows the Flash referring to Center City rather than the Central City it’s supposed to be. Mistakes like that don’t bother me though because it tends to humanize the artists and writers. It’s reassuring to know that my heroes make mistakes like calling Peter Parker, Peter Palmer. Plus it provides me with a little cover whenever I refer to Crankshaft’s home town as Circleville rather than Centerville, or spell the last name of the science teacher in Funky as Kablichnick rather than Kablichnik (or vice versa?). It’s times like these that will send me to a Funky fan site to see what the correct spelling of my characters names really are.
The splash page is the symbolic splash that editor Julie Schwartz will explain to me in the letter column of issue #115. It was my introduction to the vernacular of comic books and what made Julie’s letter cols so special, and I will have much more to say about that when we reach that halcyon issue. We see the Flash running around a figurative world apropos the title Around the World in Eighty Minutes!, a take off on Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days which had been made into a popular movie at the time. The set-up is a fairly simple one opening with Barry Allen and Iris West agreeing to a date the next day and Iris chiding him to be on time. The monkey wrench in the plan is special watch that Barry has created that allows him to monitor police calls around the world. This allows the writer, as the first calls for help from around the world come in, to begin to expand on the Flash’s bag of speed tricks as well as the scope of what he can do. So we see the Flash racing around the world to Paris and up the side of the Eiffel Tower to foil a mad bomber, race to Egypt where upends a kidnapping by using his speed to tear down and reassemble a pyramid, stopping an avalanche in Tibet, and foil some pirates at sea. Pirates who have a submarine and the aforementioned skull and crossbones torpedo. It all serves to to demo Flash’s expanding skill set which Barry seems to be mastering at an almost alarming rate. The writer makes us think that Barry has missed his date with Iris by a day because of all of his around the world crime fighting, but all ends well when we find out that he has only crossed the international dateline allowing him to meet with Iris on time. The story does a good job of advancing the Flash’s powers, but contributes little else to the nascent Flash canon.
In the second story Master of the Elements however, writer John Broome adds a new member to the still small cast with the creation of Mr. Element. Once again building on a scientific fact, the table of elements, he creates a character who gains “mastery over the elements”. He uses those elements to launch a criminal career and bedevil the Flash. He’s also the first villain who tries to get rid of the Flash by shooting him off into space. Yes, this will happen more than once believe it or not and I’ll try to remember to keep a running tab as we roll along. Somehow providing a villain with an established background and motive, along with the ability to possibly return at some time in the future seemed imminently more interesting at the time and even today in rereading the stories. To a child reading these stories, the villain becomes a stand-in for whatever real life villains they face, and the story becomes an allegory for life’s real battles. Just like football is often touted for teaching life lessons, these comic book stories taught life lessons as well. Except that you solved things by using your head rather than getting your head traumatically bopped. In any event, Mr. Element fills that role quite nicely and immediately becomes a keeper. By the way, the Flash saves himself disappearing into outer space by vibrating enough to be captured by the moon’s gravity and to use that gravitational pull to slingshot himself back to Earth. Just like NASA would later do to sling exploratory probes through our solar system. Hmmmm. Maybe there’s a little more going on here than we thought. Stay tuned.
Tags
Calendar
- ► 2018 (70)
- ► April (14)
- John Darling - Take 111
- Cover Me 15
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #194 February 1970
- Match to Flame 71
- Son of On The Road
- John Darling - Take 110
- Cover Me 14
- Match to Flame - 70
- Ohioans Book Festival
- John Darling - Take 109
- Cover Me 13
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #193 December 1969
- Studio Stuff OMEA CD - 2012
- Ohioana Panel
- ► March (21)
- John Darling - Take 108
- Cover Me 12
- Match to Flame - 69
- Match to Flame - 68
- John Darling - Take 107
- Cover Me 11
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #192 November 1969
- On The Road Again With Vol. 7
- Match to Flame - 67
- John Darling - Take 106
- Cover Me 10
- Studio File
- Match to Flame - 66
- John Darling - Take 105
- Cover Me 9
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #191 September 1969
- In The Pipeline - Rana
- Match to Flame - 65
- John Darling - Take 104
- Cover Me 8
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #190 August 1969
- ► February (18)
- Tom Corbet Space Cadet
- John Darling - Take 103
- Cover Me 7
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #189 June 1969
- Parlor
- John Darling - Take 102
- Cover Me 6
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #188 May 1969
- OMEA 2018
- Winter
- John Darling - Take 101
- Cover Me 5
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #187 April 1969
- Studio Stuff - The Dinkle Bag
- Match to Flame - 64
- John Darling - Take 100
- Cover Me 4
- Flash Fridays - The Flash # 186 March 1969
- ► January (17)
- Match to Flame - 63
- John Darling - Take 99
- Cover Me 3
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #185 February 1969
- John Darling - Take 98
- The Complete Funky Winkerbean Vol. Seven
- On the Studio Shelf
- John Darling - Take 97
- Cover Me 2
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #184 December 1968
- Golden Dinkle Award
- The Flash is in the Studio
- John Darling - Take 96
- Cover Me
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #183 November 1968
- Match to Flame - 62
- In The Pipeline - Adeela
- ► April (14)
- ► 2017 (204)
- ► December (13)
- ► November (24)
- John Darling - Takes 87 & 88
- Match to Flame - 58
- John Darling - Take 86
- Match to Flame - 57
- One More from the Road
- John Darling - Take 85
- B & N - San Diego
- Elliott Bay
- Countdown to Heritage Auction Ten
- Countdown to Heritage Auction Nine
- Countdown to Heritage Auction Eight
- Countdown to Heritage Auction Seven
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- Countdown to Heritage Auction Three
- Countdown to Heritage Auction Two
- Countdown to Heritage Auction One
- Back on the Road
- Batty Batom Bullpen - John Byrne & Joe Giella
- John Darling - Take 84
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Tom Palmer
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #182 September 1968
- Son of Akron Comicon 2017
- ► October (20)
- Match to Flame - 56
- Akron Comicon 2017
- John Darling - Take 83
- Left Bank Books
- Buckeye Book Fair 2017
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Tom Lyle
- Deep Vellum
- Rothko Chapel
- Brazos
- John Darling - Take 82
- Fox 8 in the Morning
- Lisa's Legacy Run
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #181 August 1968
- Philly
- New York ComicCon
- John Darling - Take 81
- Kent Book Festival
- John Darling - Take 80
- Match to Flame - 55
- John Darling - Take 79
- ► September (19)
- The Thurber Attic
- Lisa's Legacy Trilogy on the Road
- John Darling - Take 78
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Russ Heath - Redux
- Akron Marathon Lisa's Legacy Relay Team
- Launch Signing Nears
- Superman and Cleveland
- John Darling - Take 77
- Batty Batom Bullpen - P. Craig Russell
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #180 June 1968
- More Ripples
- Thurber House Part 3
- John Darling - Take 76
- Batty batom Bullpen - Russ Heath
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #179 May 1968
- Summer's Story
- John Darling - Take 75
- Match to Flame - 54
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #178 April/May 1968
- ► August (19)
- The Last Leaf
- Thurber House Part 2
- John Darling - Take 74
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Rick Burchett Rides Again
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #177 March 1968
- Match to Flame - 53
- Prelude
- John Darling - Take 73
- Ripples Redux Redux
- Thurber House Event
- The Cat Exits the Bag
- John Darling - Take 72
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Rick Burchett
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #176 February - 1968
- Match to Flame - 52
- Match to Flame - 51
- Flash Fridays - Superman #199 The Flash #175 December 1967
- Match to Flame - 50
- Match to Flame - 49
- ► July (18)
- John Darling - Take 71
- Ripples Redux
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #174 November 1967
- Match to Flame - 48
- Even More New in the Studio
- John Darling - Take 70
- The Ripples
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #173 September 1967
- Son of Odds and Ends
- Match to Flame - 47
- John Darling - Take 69
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Don Perlin-Encore
- Flash Fridays - The Flash # 172 August 1967
- John Darling - Take 68
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Neal Adams
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #71 June 1967
- Match to Flame - 46
- John Darling - Take 67
- ► June (18)
- More New in the Studio
- The More Things Seem to Change...
- John Darling - Take 66
- Heritage Consignment
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #170 May 1967
- Match to Flame - 45
- John Darling - Take 65
- The Batty Batom Bullpen - Full Disclosure
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #169 April-May 1967
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Randy Reynaldo
- Match to Flame - 44
- John Darling - Take 64
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Neil Vokes
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #168 March 1967
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Norm Breyfogle
- John Darling - Take 63
- Return to the Road
- The Batty Batom Bullpen - Bob Layton
- ► May (10)
- ► April (14)
- John Darling - Take 60
- The Pipeline
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #164 September 1966
- Match to Flame - 42
- John Darling - Take 59
- The Radar
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #163 August 1966
- Band Calendar - April
- John Darling - Take 58
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Frank Brunner
- Match to Flame - 41
- Les and Cayla
- John Darling - Take 57
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #162 June 1966
- ► March (19)
- The Secret Sauce - The More Things Change
- John Darling - Take 56
- Batty Batom Bullpen - Ron Frenz
- Flash Fridays - #161 May 1966
- Match to Flame - 40
- John Darling - Take 55
- Magic
- The Pipeline
- Flash Fridays - #160 April 1966
- The Secret Sauce - Roses in December
- John Darling - Take 54
- The Batty Batom Bullpen - Paul Gulacy
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #159 March 1966
- Match to Flame - 39
- The Batty Batom Bullpen - Michael Gilbert
- John Darling - Take 53
- Flash Fridays - Green Lantern #43 March 1966 - The Brave and the Bold #65
- The Secret Sauce
- Band Calendar - March
- ► February (13)
- John Darling - Take 52
- John Darling - Take 51
- The Pipeline
- John Darling -Take 50
- The Batty Batom Bullpen - Joe Staton
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #158 February 1966
- Studio Laptop
- John Darling - Take 49
- In the Rearview Mirror
- The Batty Batom Bullpen
- The Pipeline
- John Darling - Take 48
- Band calendar - February
- ► January (17)
- Superman Crayons
- John Darling - Take 47
- Flash Fridays - The Flash # 157 December 1965
- John Darling - Take 46
- Match to Flame 38
- Match to Flame 37
- Volume Six is in the house.
- John Darling - Take 45
- Match to Flame 36
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #156 November 1965
- Sunday News
- John Darling - Take 44 1980
- Studio Stuff - Cleaning the Studio
- Son of Superman Crayons
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #155 September 1965
- The Pipeline 2
- Band Calendar - January
- ► 2016 (146)
- ► December (14)
- John Darling - Take 43
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #154 August 1965
- John Daring - Take 42
- John Darling - Take 41
- John Darling - Take 40
- Match to Flame 35
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #153 June 1965
- John Darling - Take 39
- Match to Flame 34
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #152 May 1965
- Match to Flame 33
- Home for the Holidays
- Flash Fridays- The Flash Annual #3 April 1965
- Band Calendar - December
- ► November (11)
- ► October (14)
- On the Road Again - Akron Comicon
- John Darling - Take 36
- Batom Comics - The Untold History Part 11
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #148 - November 1964
- On the Road Again - Buckeye Book Fair
- John Darling - Take 35
- Match to Flame 31
- Flash Fridays - The Flash Annual #2 October 1964
- Autumn
- Match to Flame 30
- John Darling - Take 34
- Flash Fridays- The Flash #147 September 1964
- Match to Flame 29
- October
- ► September (12)
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #146 August 1964
- John Darling - Take 33
- Match to Flame 28
- The Pipeline 1
- Flash Fridays - The Flash # 145 June 1964
- John Darling - Take 32
- Match to Flame 27
- Lisa's Legacy Run 2016
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #144 May 1964
- John Darling - Take 31
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #143 March 1964
- September
- ► August (10)
- ► July (12)
- SDCC 2016
- Flash Fridays - The Flash Annual #1-1963
- Anatomy of a Cover Seven
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #140 November 1963
- Match to Flame 25
- John Darling - Take 28
- Studio Stuff - Wood-burned Starbuck
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #139 September 1963
- Match to Flame 23
- Match to Flame 24
- July
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #138 August 1963
- ► June (11)
- ► May (7)
- ► April (8)
- ► March (17)
- Match to Flame 20
- John Darling - Take 20
- Anatomy of a Cover Four
- Flash Fridays #131 September 1962
- Studio Stuff 4
- Studio Stuff 3
- Studio Stuff 2
- Studio Stuff 1
- Match to Flame 19
- ANATOMY OF A COVER Three
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #130 August 1962
- John Darling - Take 19
- Match to Flame 18
- John Darling - Take 18
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #129 June 1962
- John Darling - Take 17
- Match to Flame 17
- ► February (15)
- John Darling - Take 16
- Anatomy of a Cover Two
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #128
- Match to Flame 16
- Anatomy of a Cover - One
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #127
- On The Road Again
- Blast from Funky's Past
- Flattop Junior's Final Act
- Batom Comics - The Untold History Part 10
- Match to Flame 15
- John Darling - Take 15
- Batom Comics - The Untold History Part 9
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #126
- John Darling - Take 14
- ► January (15)
- Batom Comics - The Untold History Part 8
- Flash Fridays - The Flash # 125
- John Darling - Take 13
- Match to Flame 14
- Match to Flame 13
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #124
- John Darling - Take 12
- Batom Comics - The Untold History Part 7
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #123
- Match to Flame 12
- John Darling - Take 11
- Batom Comics - The Untold History Part 6
- Flash Fridays - The Flash #122
- Match to Flame 11
- John Darling - Take 10
- ► December (14)
- ► 2015 (72)
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- ► 2013 (5)
- ► 2012 (12)
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- ► 2010 (5)
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- ► 2006 (1)