Sharing My Story

This was a special year for me at the San Diego Comic Con.
Every year the convention produces a high quality souvenir
magazine filled with biographies of writers, artists, film
producers, actors and others who are special guests of
the convention. It also the chronicles the passing of well
known entertainment creators and It also highlights
significant anniversary events that have happened in
the past on that year. For example this was the 75th
anniversary of the Universal Monsters (Frankenstein,
Dracula). It was the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, the
100th anniversary of the birth of Robert E. Howard
(creator of Conan the Barbarian), the 65th anniversary
of Captain America and Archie. For me the most
significant landmark was the 50th anniversary of the
first appearance of the Flash.

In 1956 (I was 8 years old), the comic book industry
was going through a severe depression. With the
notable exception of Dell Comics (publisher of Disney,
Warner Brothers and other TV/film related comics)
many publishers were dying or had increasing trouble
finding and holding an audience. Was the comic book
industry going to eventually expire with the onslaught
of television?

At National (now DC Comics), the publisher of Superman
and Batman, it was decided to revive with a new costume
and identity a defunct superhero that was shelved over
a half decade previously. This hero was the scarlet speedster,
The Flash, whose alter ego was police scientist Barry Allen.
This new improved Flash appeared in Showcase #4
(August 1956) and after several further appearances
in 1957 and 1958 (with very good sales figures) gained
his own comic in 1959. The editor and artist of that first
issue of the Flash was Julie Schwartz and Carmine Infantino.
Schwartz later went on to revive more of the classic 1940s
super heroes with new identities like Green Lantern, Atom,
Hawkman and a super hero group called
the Justice League of America.

Over at Marvel Comics Stan Lee noting the success
DC was having with these new super heroes (with the
help of artists Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others) began
publishing their own super heroes like the Fantastic Four,
The Hulk, Thor, Antman, SpiderMan, Iron Man, the
X-Men and others. Other companies followed suit and
the 1960s saw a major upsurge in the popularity of a
once floundering industry. The enormously popular
campy TV series, Batman added further to the fortunes
of comic book publishers in the 1960s.

Editor Julius Schwartz died two years ago, but artist
(and former DC Publisher) Carmine Infantino was on
hand at this year’s convention to recount the origin
of the “Silver Age” Flash. During this past year I
decided to contribute some artwork to the Comic
Con Souvenir booklet. Since my first convention in 1974
I had thought about doing this but had never gotten
around to it. I depicted (perhaps apocryphal) the
moment when Infantino began drawing the first
Flash story with editor Schwartz approvingly
looking on. I had long-time small press comic
artist Larry Blake ink it. And it was published (p. 73).

The answer to your question, no, I didn’t read the
first Flash story when it was originally published.
I discovered the character in 1962 and enjoyed
the series very much.