{"id":32280,"date":"2025-02-22T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T09:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32280"},"modified":"2025-02-20T17:54:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T17:54:26","slug":"golden-age-flash-archives-volume-ii-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/02\/22\/golden-age-flash-archives-volume-ii-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Age Flash Archives volume II"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Gardner F. Fox<\/strong>, E.E. Hibbard<\/strong>, Hal Sharp<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-0784-7 (HB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

The ever-expanding array of companies that became DC published many iconic \u201cFirsts\u201d in the early years of the industry. Associated outfit All-American Publications (co-publishers until bought out by National\/DC in 1946) were responsible for the first comic book super-speedster as well as the iconic Wonder Woman<\/strong>, Green Lantern<\/strong>, The Atom<\/strong>, Hawkman<\/strong>, Johnny Thunder<\/strong> and so many others who became mainstays of DC\u2019s pantheon of stars.<\/p>\n

Devised, created and written by Gardner Fox and originally limned by Harry Lampert, Flash Comics<\/strong> #1 saw Jay Garrick debut as the very first Vizier of Velocity and quickly become a veritable sensation. \u201cThe Fastest Man Alive\u201d wowed readers for just over a decade before changing tastes ended the first costumed hero as the 1950s opened.<\/p>\n

This charmingly seductive deluxe Archive edition collects the Fastest Yarns Alive from Flash Comics<\/strong> #18-24, covering June-December 1941, plus the first two issues of the irrepressible Garrick\u2019s whimsically eccentric full-length exploits from All-Flash Quarterly<\/strong> (Summer and Fall of that same fateful year). All were written by an apparently inexhaustible Gardner Fox.<\/p>\n

After another informative Introduction<\/em> from comic book all-star Jim Amash, the rollercoaster of fun and thrills gathers steam with \u2018The Restaurant Protective Association\u2019<\/em> (illustrated by Hal Sharp), with Jay and girlfriend\/confidante Joan Williams stumbling upon a pack of extortionists and exposing a treacherous viper preying on Joan\u2019s best gal-pal, after which \u2018The Fall Guy\u2019<\/em> in #19 reveals how a gang of agile fraudsters are faking motor accidents to fleece insurance companies. Both cases gave Garrick ample opportunity to display his hilarious and humiliating bag of super-speed tricks and punishing pranks to astound playful kids of the day and which still delight decades later.<\/p>\n

Flash Comics<\/strong> #20 led with \u2018The Adventure of the Auctioned Utility Company\u2019<\/em> wherein Joan accidentally buys a regional power outfit and Jay uses all his energies to reconcile a feuding family whilst teaching a miserly embezzler an unforgettable lesson…<\/p>\n

Sharp had been doing such splendid artistic service on the monthly tales because regular illustrator E. E. Hibbard had been devoting all his creative energies to the contents of a forthcoming solo title: 64-page All-Flash Quarterly<\/strong> #1. The epic premiere issue opened with tantalising frontispiece \u2018The JSA Bid Farewell to the Flash\u2019<\/em>, celebrating the fact that the Fastest Man Alive was the third character to win his own solo comic – after Superman <\/strong>and Batman <\/strong>– and would therefore be \u201ctoo busy for Justice Society get-togethers\u201d…<\/p>\n

Fox & Hibbard then retold \u2018The Origin of the Flash\u2019<\/em>, revealing again how some years previously college student Garrick had passed out in a lab at Midwestern University, only to awaken hyper-charged and the fastest creature on Earth thanks to \u201chard water fumes\u201d he inhaled whilst unconscious. After weeks in hospital, the formerly-frail apprentice chemist deduced he had developed super-speed and endurance, and promptly sought to impress his apparently unattainable sort-of girlfriend Joan Williams by becoming an unbeatable football star. Upon graduation Garrick moved to New York where, appalled by its rampant criminality, he employed his gift to fight it…<\/p>\n

\u2018The Men Who Turned to Stone\u2019<\/em> plunged readers back to the present as one of Garrick\u2019s colleagues at Chemical Research Incorporated discovers an instant petrification process and is abducted by criminals hoping to make lots of illegal money with it. Hibbard also illustrated uncredited fun-fact featurette \u2018The Flash Presents his Hall of Speed Records\u2019<\/em> before \u2018Meet the Author and Artist of the Flash\u2019<\/em> offers an intimate introduction to the creative team, before \u2018The Adventure of the Monocle and his Garden of Gems\u2019<\/em> sees the debut of a rare returning villain with an unwise addiction to other people\u2019s jewels, but enough brains to counter Flash\u2019s speed, if not Jay\u2019s courage and ingenuity.<\/p>\n

When Flash prevents the murder of a cowboy performer in New York, \u2018The Rodeo Mystery\u2019<\/em> soon takes Jay & Joan to Oklahoma and a crooked ploy to steal a newly discovered oil well, after which the issue closes with Flash smashing a gambler trying to take over the sport of Ice Hockey in \u2018Menace of the Racket King\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gambling was also a problem in monthly Flash Comics<\/strong> #21 as \u2018The Lottery\u2019<\/em> (illustrated by Sharp) sees the Speedster expose a cunning criminal scheme to bilk theatre patrons and carnival-goers. Issue #22\u2019s \u2018The Hatchet Cult\u2019<\/em> offers a rare exceedingly dark walk on the wild side as the speedster gets involved in a Chinatown Tong war and exposes the incredible secret of modern Mongol mastermind Mighty Kong<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Hibbard & Sharp collaborated on issue #23\u2019s \u2018A Millionaire\u2019s Revenge\u2019<\/em> wherein wealthy plutocrat Leffingwell Funk<\/em> decides to avenge an imagined slight inadvertently delivered by a poor but happy man. The methodology is unique: beginning with engineering unsuspecting shoe store owner Jim Sewell<\/em>\u2019s inheritance of half a million dollars. It would have ended with leg-breaking thugs, disgrace and prison had not Jim counted Jay Garrick amongst his circle of friends…<\/p>\n

Cover-dated Fall 1941, All-Flash Quarterly<\/strong> #2 (another all Fox\/Hibbard co-production) kicks off with a spectacular all-action \u2018Title Page\u2019<\/em> and informative recap in \u2018A Short History of the Flash\u2019<\/em> before the creators ambitiously undertake a massive 4-chapter saga of vengeance and justice. In an era where story was paramount, this oddly time-skewed tale might jar slightly with modern continuity-freaks, spanning as it does nearly a lifetime in the telling, but trust me, just go with it…<\/p>\n

\u2018The Threat: Part One – The Adventure of Roy Revenge!\u2019<\/em> opens as brilliant young criminal Joe Connor<\/em> is sentenced to ten years in jail and swears vengeance on DA Jim Kelley<\/em>. The convict means it too, spending every waking moment inside improving himself educationally, becoming a trustee to foster the illusion of rehabilitation. On his release Connor befriends Kelley – who is currently pursuing a political career – and orchestrates the abduction of the lawyer\u2019s newborn son. Years later a bold young thug dubbed Roy Revenge<\/em> begins a campaign of terror against Mayor Jim Kelley which even Flash is hard-pressed to stop. When the bandit is at last apprehended, Kelley pushes hard to have the boy jailed, unaware of his biological connection to the savage youth. In the intervening years Connor had truly reformed – until his angelic wife died, leaving him to care for their little girl Ann<\/em> and \u201cadopted\u201d son Roy. Without his wife\u2019s influence, Connor again turns to crime and raises the stolen boy to hate his biological father…<\/p>\n

\u2018The Flash Presents his Hall of Speed Records\u2019<\/em> and \u2018How to Develop Your Speed by the Flash\u2019<\/em> break up the rolling melodrama before the saga continues in \u2018The Threat: Part Two – Adventure of the Blood-Red Ray\u2019 <\/em>wherein Connor rises through ranks of the Underworld. He now plans to take over the country. Ann has grown up a decent and upstanding – if oblivious – citizen whose only weakness is her constant concealment of her bad brother Roy, who has been hiding from the law for years…<\/p>\n

Even when the elder master criminal\u2019s plan to destroy the Kelleys with a heat-ray is scotched by the Flash, the canny crook convinces the Speedster that he is merely a henchman and escapes the full force of justice…<\/p>\n

\u2018The Threat: Part Three – The Wrecker Racket\u2019<\/em> sees a new gang plaguing the city, led by a monstrous disfigured albino. No one realises this is Connor – who escaped custody by a method which physically ruined his body and only increased his hatred of Kelley. Locating Roy – who has since found peace in rural isolation – the malign menace again draws the young man into his maniacal schemes. When the boy nearly kills his \u201csister\u201d Ann in pursuance of Connor\u2019s ambitions, only the Flash can save the day, leading to a swathe of revelation and a shocking conclusion in \u2018The Threat: Part Four – The End of the Threat\u2019<\/em>…<\/p>\n

After that monumental generational saga this splendid selection closes with a full-on alien extravaganza from Flash Comics<\/strong> #24 as Garrick investigates a series of abductions and foils a madman\u2019s plot to forcibly colonise the Red Planet. Unfortunately, when inventor Jennings<\/em> and his gangster backer reach their destination with Jay a helpless prisoner, nobody expected the arid world to be already occupied by belligerent insectoids. Fox, Hibbard & Sharp\u2019s \u2018The Flash and the Spider-Man of Mars\u2019<\/em> ends the book on a gloriously madcap, spectacular fantasy high note.<\/p>\n

Amazing, exciting and quirkily captivating – even if not to many modern fans\u2019 taste, the sheer exuberance, whimsical tone and constant narrative invention in these tales of a nerd who became a social crusader and justice-dispensing human meteor are addictively appealing, and with covers by Sharp, Sheldon Moldoff & Hibbard, this book is another utter delight for lovers of early Fights \u2018n\u2019 Tights fantasy. Of course, with such straightforward thrills on show any reader with an open mind could find his opinion changed in a flash.
\n\u00a9 1941, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gardner F. Fox, E.E. Hibbard, Hal Sharp & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-0784-7 (HB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. The ever-expanding array of companies that became DC published many iconic \u201cFirsts\u201d in the early years of the industry. Associated outfit All-American Publications (co-publishers until bought out by National\/DC in … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Golden Age Flash Archives volume II”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,75,76,91,28,225,127,148,107,93,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-crime-comics","category-dc-superhero","category-flash","category-jsa","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-romance","category-science-fiction","category-war-stories","category-westerns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8oE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32282,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32280\/revisions\/32282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}