DC’s Archive line is their line of hardcover reprints on nice, glossy paper, usually following a character or team starting at the beginning of the series. DC has two sets of Flash archives right now:

• The Flash Archives: 4 volumes following Barry Allen from his first few appearances in Showcase through the start of his solo title, covering 1956–1962.
• The Golden Age Flash Archives: 2 volumes following Jay Garrick through the first 2 years of Flash Comics and All-Flash, covering 1940–1941.

The survey also asks about other reprint formats, including the paperback Chronicles series, the Omnibus series (hardcover, but lower-quality paper), and more thematic reprint sets (one suggestion is Flash: The Death of Iris Allen

So if, like me, you’re still hoping for that next volume of Golden Age Flash Archives—or any other classic DC book that hasn’t been reprinted in decades, if ever—stop on over and fill out the survey.

(via Comic Bloc Forums)

Are there more Legion, Flash or Justice League Archives coming? [VP of Sales Bob] Wayne said that when you get up to the issues that can be affordably bought by collectors the demand for the Archive Editions goes down.

Okay, this might apply to the Silver-Age material. The four Flash Archives books so far are up to Flash #132 (1962). When I was tracking down back-issues in the #133–140 range (the likely contents of a hypothetical book 5) about 6 or 7 years ago, I seem to remember finding reasonably good copies in the $5-15 range. (Better copies, of course, run into triple digits.)

But there’s still 8 years of Golden-Age material to cover, from 1942–1949: more than 75% of Jay Garrick’s solo run. And those books are much harder to find, with battered readers’ copies often selling for $40–150.

Moreover, those 8 years include the first appearances of every major Golden-Age Flash villain. The current 2 volumes of The Golden Age Flash Archives only make it through Flash Comics #24 and All-Flash #2. The Shade, the first real supervillain to grace the series’ pages, didn’t appear until Flash Comics #33. The Fiddler, the Thinker, the Turtle, the Rag Doll—even the original Rose & Thorn and Star Sapphire all made their appearances during those years, and haven’t shown up in the archives yet.

In fact, the only Golden-Age villain to get the archive treatment for his original appearances is the Rival, who showed up in Flash Comics #104 (the final issue of the series), and whose story was (oddly) included in the silver-age Flash Archives vol. 1.

Even when you factor in the golden-age stories that got reprinted in later Flash books, the “Greatest Stories” collections, and the occasional anthology series like DC Super-Stars, 75% of the stories have never been reprinted* since the 1940s.

I’ve been looking for Golden-Age issues for almost 2 years now, and by focusing on All-Flash (which typically included 3–4 short stories or 1 long one), I’ve managed to hit 50%. It’s gotten harder, largely because I’m less willing to pay the big bucks for random issues than for issues with specific characters.

Now, there is of course a question of whether there’s a demand for the material at all…but when a beat-up reader’s copy of a book goes for more than the archive would cost on Amazon, I’d say there’s no risk that the availability of back issues will interfere with the market for the archive.

(Expanded from a comment I made in the subsequent forum thread.)

*104 stories in Flash Comics, 1 in the Flash Comics Miniature edition, 29 in Comic Cavalcade, 71 stories in 32 issues of All-Flash, 3 completed but unpublished until years later = 208 total. Of those, 32 have appeared in the GA Flash and Comic Cavalcade Archives, 1 in the Silver Age Flash Archives, and another 16 in various other books. Just 49 out of 208. Only 23.5% It’s a little harder to go by issues instead of stories, since some issues of All-Flash have only partially been reprinted, but it seems to be roughly 41 out of 169 — which works out to 24.3%.

First, here are the original 1940 panels from Flash Comics #1 (copied from Comic Coverage), showing grad student Jay Garrick taking time out for a smoke:

Four decades later, in 1986, Secret Origins #9 would retell his origin. Mindful of the details, but also concerned about modern sensibilities about health, writer Roy Thomas kept the cigarette break, but added Jay thinking, “I know I should give up these things…”

A decade later, the cigarette had disappeared completely. Flash Secret Files #1 (1997) featured a condensed retelling of all three (at the time) Flashes’ origins, and this time, Jay simply succumbed to the hour and nodded off, dropping the beaker.

(Via Crimson Lightning)

An explanation: I recently stumbled across a mention of Smash Comics, a series from Quality Comics that ran more or less concurrently with the more familiar Flash Comics. Just for kicks, I searched the Grand Comics Database (which is where I got the cover images) for Crash Comics, and found Crash Comics Adventures, which ran for 5 issues in 1940 before spinning off a series on the original Cat-Man. So the three books would have been on sale at the same time!

I couldn’t find any other books with the same pattern in the title. The GCD does substring matches, and “ash comics” only brought up variations on these three series. Though it did remind me that DC resurrected the Smash Comics title for one chapter of the 1999 The Justice Society Returns! event.

As I kept watching auctions and looking on sites like the Grand Comics Database, I identified at least two more appearances. I finally tracked down the last of the three in March, and was able to write up a bio of the character.

Who is the Worry Wart? In short, he was an ordinary man who had a case of anxiety so bad it was contagious.

There’s an odd subtext to the character’s stories, though. The reason he returns to Keystone City is that the Flash had previously set him up with a supply of “happiness pills,” which had run out. In Flash Comics #76 (1946), Ebenezer Jones deliberately overdoses on the happiness pills, causing a euphoric delirium just as contagious as his anxiety.

Looking back on this from 2007, it’s hard not to think of it in terms of the vast numbers of people today taking medications for depression or anxiety. Not to mention people who abuse prescription medications. Or just people who abuse drugs. There’s a disturbing drug-dealer vibe in that panel.

It gets better, though. In the Worry Wart’s first appearance, in All-Flash #15 (1944), the Flash makes him a serum to counteract his anxiety:

Yes, that’s right. The Flash gives him a bottle, and he drinks his cares away. No subtext here!

The Thinker story is played more or less as a straight super-hero vs. organized crime story. I’d summarize it, but the Comics Archive has already written it up in their article on the Thinker. Now, imagine the first five paragraphs over there interwoven with a Three Stooges film and you’ll get the idea. The Dimwits end up buying a restaurant heavily in debt to the mob, and accidentally make salads out of an alien plant that make people turn invisible.

It’s incredibly silly, but it ties into the other half of the story: The original mob boss’ henchmen are caught robbing the Dimwits’ restaurant, so he calls in the Thinker to solve his problem before they can rat on him. And of course, once the Thinker takes over, he’s mighty interested in these salads that turn people invisible.

And yet, the feel is so completely different that it seems like two different stories.

An unexpected discovery was a reference to the planet Karma, where the alien plant comes from. I’d seen two other references in other Golden-Age Flash stories, so it’s clearly part of the background mythos. This is one reason I’ve been looking for the source material. It’s relatively easy to find info on the leads, or the major villains, but the minor supporting characters who appear in three or four issues—Deuces Wilde, Evart Keenan, Dr. Flura, Ebenezer Jones—are mostly forgotten.

On a related note, while looking up the Thinker’s other appearances, I discovered that one of the non-Flash titles I’d been looking for, All-Star Comics #37, was reprinted in The Greatest Golden-Age Stories Ever Told—a book I already had. I felt bad that I hadn’t actually read the entire book, but that meant I could cross off two items from my wantlist instead of just one.

I won two.

So now I’m in the market for reader’s copies of Golden-Age Flash comics. There are a few in particular I’d like to pick up, though I suspect they’ll be the hardest to find in my budget. If you happen to have a reader’s copy of one of the following that you would be willing to sell at a two-digit price or trade for other comics, please let me know in the comments here. (Be sure to leave your email address!)

• All-Flash #12 (Fall 1943) – Thinker
• All-Flash #21 (Winter 1945) – Turtle
• All-Flash #27 (February-March 1947) – Thinker
• All-Flash #32 (December-January 1948) – Thinker
• All Star Comics #37 (October-November 1947) – Thinker, Vandal Savage
• Comic Cavalcade #22 (August-September 1947) – Thinker
• Comic Cavalcade #23 (October-November 1947) – Thinker
• Comic Cavalcade #28 (August-September 1948) – Fiddler
• Comic Cavalcade #29 (October-November 1948) – Star Sapphire
• Flash Comics #33 (September 1942) – Shade
• Flash Comics #36 (December 1942) – Rag Doll
• Flash Comics #89 (November 1947) – Thorn
• Flash Comics #93 (March 1948) – Fiddler
• Flash Comics #96 (June 1948) – Thorn
• Flash Comics #102 (December 1948) – Turtle

Update: Please see my current wantlist.

Edit Oct. 10: Confirmed! Today’s DC Comics Direct Channel Special lists the archive and its contents among the books scheduled for January-February.

Now, there are lists and databases online already, but I like to be able to verify things directly when possible. I know how easy it is to make a mistake on a website and not catch it for months or even years. Also, most indexes aren’t really interested in the supporting cast. If I want to find a villain like the Fiddler, chances are I can find a complete list. But if I want to know which issues featured Jay’s old college buddies, I’m on my own.

And speaking of Jay’s old college buddies, he runs into five of them during the issues featured in The Golden Age Flash Archives #1. And four of them are named Jim. There’s Jimmie Dolan, Jim Evans, Jim Carter, and Jim Dane. (Interestingly, the fifth friend is named Wally.) Jim Carter and Jim Dane are both in silver mining. Jimmie Dolan and Jim Evans both know that Jay is the Flash, but Jim Carter and Jim Dane don’t. I suspect that Carter and Dane are the same guy, but the writer didn’t remember the name he used before and didn’t feel like looking it up. (Comics were episodic back then, and you didn’t have continuity police among the readers ready to pounce on every coloring error.)

Also interesting: In the 17 issues collected in that book, no super-villains appear. The villains are all gangsters, kidnappers, corrupt politicians, crime bosses, etc. Even the story with the giant lizards has gangsters creating them. Skimming one list, the first recognizable villain to show up is the Shade—in issue #33! For the first three years (or at least the first year and a half), most of the Flash’s enemies wore ordinary business suits!

I read a few of the stories this afternoon, and these panels from the Green Lantern story in issue 1, “The Adventures of Luckless Lenore,” made me laugh out loud.

Green Lantern’s sidekick, Doiby, has been trying to romance Lenore, whose “bad luck” seems to be engineered. At this point he’s been captured. I didn’t even notice the name of the bar the first time through, it was the menu that caught me off-guard.

• Whiskey
• Beer
• Whiskey & Beer
• Whiskey & Milk
• Whiskey & Egg
• Whiskey, Beer, Egg & Milk

I rushed into the other room to show Katie, and she immediately said, “Spam, spam, bacon and spam!”

On a related note, I recall reading somewhere that one of the reasons DC has released so few Golden-Age books in Archive Editions is that the original art is rarely available. In the 50s or 60s, they started keeping their own archives, but for the stuff from the 40s, they generally have to take an actual copy of the comic book—crappy printing, faded newsprint and all—scan it, re-ink it, and re-color it. This book actually has credits for “black-and-white reconstruction” and “color reconstruction.”