Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watcgl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!drforsey
From: drforsey@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Forsey)
Newsgroups: net.comics
Subject: Flash fan laments
Message-ID: <1211@watcgl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 8-Feb-85 17:11:16 EST
Article-I.D.: watcgl.1211
Posted: Fri Feb  8 17:11:16 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Feb-85 05:57:49 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 43



Catching up on what's left of the net after a few weeks' absence,
I notice a lot of messages about how DC is gonna get rid of the Flash
and good thing, too. Now admittedly I have given the series cursory
attention at best over the last I-won't-say-how-many years, but this
talk causes a bizarre sadness, a heaviness like unto leaden velour,
to settle upon me. I have such fond memories of the Flash. My very
first superhero comic was a Flash Giant (80 pages! 25 cents! Alas!).
I was seven, and mostly read How and Why science books for fun. This
comic came around and taught me things beyond my imagining, showed me
what could happen if this science I was learning were extended, stretched.
The young me always considered FLASH the most scientific of comics; it
introduced me to the very concept of science fiction. (Sure, the old
me now realizes that most of it was garbage as far as decent SF science
goes, but we're talking about expanding the consciousness of some grubby
little brat till it reaches the stars, fer chrissakes.) For years, FLASH
was my favourite comic and favourite character. The concept and 
possibilities of superspeed astounded and excited me like nothing else
in comics. Every issue seemed to have some new piece of Nifty Science
Stuff in it. Superman supposedly had superspeed too, but never seemed
to know how to use it like Flash.

And the art of Infantino/Giella, to my young eyes, was so sleek and
graceful as to shame everything else I'd seen. (And those cityscapes...!)
It was one of my prime motivations to become a comic artist, and 
Infantino was my first role model. Somehow I still can't accept the
angular stylization of his later work...

Dammit, I loved those old FLASHes. Even later, when Infantino left so
I did too, (hey, I was young and stupid) it was always nice to know Flash
was around. If Flash goes, I will miss him. I owe him my
chosen profession. Granted, these have been the maudlin nostalgic
mewlings of an old coot, but *too bad*. I just wanted to go on record
in defense of what the Flash once was, if nothing else. I'd be interested
to know if anyone else in netland remembers him the way I do.



				       The Gray Mouser