Flash #112, May 1960
Continuing our celebration of the Fastest Man Alive with a few classic “reruns” — pun absolutely intended— from the early days of the blog.
Some of the most talented superhero storytellers in comics couldn’t figure out what to do with the narrative and exposition elements that move the story along when no one is wearing spandex or a cape.
Many older comics were filled with pages and pages of standard medium-angle shots of talking heads. Six panels per page. Rinse. Repeat.
Not Carmine Infantino’s pages. His innovative sense of panel composition and design, and use of varying camera angles, made the “yada yada” part of the story much more engaging than most of his peers.
In this very early Flash story from issue #112, he even manages to innovate a phone call. Nowadays we take narrow “widescreen” (horizontal) panel layouts for granted, but in 1960? Less so. A page design like this is revolutionary 60 years ago.
Of course, superhero comics are ultimately about conflict and action, and re-reading these early Flash stories, his innovative style really jumps out. Those crazy speed lines that help give the illusion of 3D motion in a 2D medium. That sleek space age costume… designed before the space age really began.
And those amazing covers? Carmine gave up pencilling The Flash when he was promoted to DC’s art director. His innovative cover on the final issue of his 11-year run as Flash artist blew my mind as a kid in 1967 — and still does today.
What else would you expect from the lead designer of the Silver Age of Comics?
