FW Presents: Find Your Joy: FLASH #275

Happy 2019, the year when the Fire and Water Network outsources its joy! Ryan Daly welcomes longtime friend of the FW community Dr. Anj to discuss an important issue from the doctor's fandom, THE FLASH #275!

Let us know what you think! Leave a comment or send an email to: RDalyPodcast@gmail.com.

Follow Dr. Anj's Supergirl blog at: http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com

This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK.

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Music this episode: "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen; "Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell.

Thanks for listening!

 

17 responses to “FW Presents: Find Your Joy: FLASH #275

  1. Great episode chaps. I was a big fan of Flash in the Wally West 90s era, but I’m only familiar with these earlier issues through the highly recommended “Tom vs the Flash” podcasts by Tom Katers.

    If Shag ever wants to ‘Find His Joy’™️ in Doctor Who’s “Pyramids of Mars”, or the Elongated Man miniseries (1992?), I’d be well up for a discussion… :o)

  2. What, no Donna Summer “Last Dance”? Too obvious?

    Great episode fellas. I remember that ads for this particular cover, although I never could find Flash at the time. I began collecting the series a few years later when Infantino came back, right before Barry was forced to kill Reverse-Flash. And of course, ol’ Eobard Thawne is ON this cover, so the real killer is right there.

    I think Andru had just taken over the book from Julius Schwartz, and it seems his time at Marvel directed him toward this more soap operatic path. Cary Bates went from writing typically Silver Age type material to this. Must have been quite a shock to longtime readers! I know this is where Alex Ross’ DC Universe ends. 😉

    Chris

  3. Great to have Dr Anj on a FYJ episode, because podcasting with him is always a joy, so it all makes sense.

    As a kid, I loved any superhero comic that featured a Halloween/masquerade party, because it always gave the artist(s) the chance to slip in characters that normally couldn’t appear in a DC/Marvel comic. Back then, I figured that was the only chance we’d ever get to seeing that kind of weirdo crossover.

    I have never read this comic, but of course saw the house ad a billion times. That cover is off-the-chain good. I love the use of lights and darks to really put across the sense of depth. How many times on a comic cover do you see the closest characters to the camera be in shade like that?

    The idea of a sort of super hero groupie is an interesting one. Not something I need to see explored in a modern comic, because all subtlety would be tossed to the wind, but considering that there are groupies for virtually every strata of celebrity, it only makes sense there would be people who get turned on over the idea of bagging a superhero/villain. Too bad(?) Barry just didn’t do it for her. I wonder what she was expecting, considering how much you can see of The Flash’s face normally.

    Very fun show!

    “Born To Run”, so obvious, yet it made me laugh nonetheless.

  4. This is like my only issue of that run of the Flash, and I don’t know how it got there. Sometimes people give me old comics they found in their basement. I’d read earlier Flash stories in those big French Jumbos, but my Flash adventure really starts much later.

    Happy to hear we all got volunteered for guest-FYJ. I’ll try to make room in my schedule.

  5. Great show – it was interesting to hear your comments on this story. This was an issue that I did not read but heard about after the event – I remember they did a version of this in Mark Waid and Gil Kane’s “The Life Story of the Flash” so it was good to hear your discussions on the source material for that.

    Given that the Sandman was the only person at the party that was an Earth-2 character, I wonder was that a hint of who was disguised as him, being someone with the power to cross over the dimensions to the other earths like Barry Allen?

    It is amazing to hear that Cary Bates run started in issue 270, that was an 81 issue run to cover so many momentous events in Barry’s life. My major exposure to this was reading the Showcase Presents reprint of The Trial of the Flash – I know I have heard a few commenters on the network not being too keen on this storyline but I really enjoyed this. Maybe it was better in reading in one go rather than waiting 2-3 years for its conclusion?

    I love listening to the Find Your Joy stories and look forward to the next one.

  6. ‘It is amazing to hear that Cary Bates run started in issue 270 …’ Actually, Jimmy, that was the one tiny slip-up in this hugely enjoyable podcast… more amazingly, Bates began as full-time writer with #209 in 1971, having had his first Flash story published in 1968. New editor (and former Flash artist) Ross Andru allowed Bates, whose run up to this point had been solidly entertaining, to escape the Julius ‘Mr Surprise’ Schwartz house style and show what he could really do in terms of bringing a more modern feel to the superheroic soap.

    Having been reading the book for a few years at this point. I found this run hugely refreshing, though I was shocked and saddened by the death of Iris. The art by Saviuk and Chiaramonte was great, I liked that they seemed to be keeping an Irv novick vibe in their while going for more dynamic compositions.

    While I don’t agree with Alex Ross flouncing off, I do agree that this, and not Barry’s death in CoIE, was where the Silver Age ended – suddenly things got very real – with respect to Arthur Jr.

    That Sandman impersonator must have been as big a superhero groupie as Melanie, they obviously followed the JLA/JAS team-ups!

    Well done Anj and Ryan on giving us some fantastic Flash comic box commentary!

  7. That turned out to be the real Captain Boomerang that was at the party, as told in 277. Some of the other villains were real as well, but we never found out who.

    1. Whoops, spoke too soon. The Reverse-Flash at the party was the real one. That’s what I get for relying on my memory instead of checking the comics.

  8. It was great to hear Anj talk about part of his secret origin, but for me there is no joy about this comic. I’ve got memories of really getting caught up in the stories that bates had been unwinding in this title. I remember taking a bunch of these Flash comics as reading material for a long bus trip Freshman year. I was digging the new supporting character from the Central City PD (the bearded detective whose name escapes me. Frank?), the Clive Yorkin experiment sub-plot, and the intrigue of this psychic seducer. I had been a regular reader of the Flash for almost three years at this point. However, I was less-than-enamored of Alex Saviuk’s art. I certainly preferred his predecessor, Irv Novick. As the story continued after this issue, I was liking it less and less. Poor Barry was just getting the worst of it as a husband, as a police scientist, as a super-hero, and as a comic book character. Don Heck’s arrival on the book, as well as the new direction in Barry’s life, was enough for me to drop the title. (Now, I’m curious. Was this the first title I gave up on? Most of my other favorites were cancelled by the companies.)
    I give Cary Bates great credit for trying new things, and for his tremendous run (sorry) on the title, but I think that he, and editor Ross Andru, painted themselves into a corner. In escaping that corner, they had to bust a hole in the wall, which eventually caused the whole house to collapse.
    Every issue is someone’s first. This issue is important in the history of Anj, and he is an admirable comic book fan! That should be part of Cary Bates’ legacy!

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