Harry Lampert, creator of The Flash, dead at 88

LC writes, Harry Lampert, who invented The Flash, based on the Greek god Hermes (the messenger of the gods, who possessed winged shoes), died at the age of 88.

He was also a leading authority on bridge and his books are still classics today.

He and writer Gardner Fox created The Flash (Jay Garrick) in the 1940s, as part of the new All-American line, and though he didn’t stay with the character very long, Flash captured the comics world’s imagination and became a vital part of DC’s superhero comics. When DC decided to revive its superhero line in 1956, it began with a new version of The Flash. This success helped revive the entire superhero genre.

Lampert also contributed to Wonder Woman as well as some lesser-known DC series such as The King.

Weekly Comics Discussion

This week’s shipping
list includes the first issue of a four part
Incredibles series from Dark Horse, an
assortment of trade paperbacks from DC, along with
Identity Crisis , and a number of new
titles from Marvel. The Marvel pickings I’ll be
getting include Avengers Finale #1, which
might as well not be numbered, as it’s a one shot,
and X-Men: The End Book One #5. Other
titles I’ll be passing on include the rebooted
Iron Man, the new Marvel Team-Up,
and the first issue of The New Thunderbolts.
Trade paperbacks include the first volume of The
Pulse (which I just reviewed), and the first
volume of She-Hulk. It has been announced
that She-Hulk will be cancelled with issue
12, and then relaunched later with a larger marketing
push to improve its visibility. This TPB is
apparantly one of the most highly ordered trades
Marvel has had this year. It looks like a lot of
people are waiting for the trades rather than getting
a new series from the start, which could be why new
titles based on low profile characters are finding a
hard time getting readers.

Wizardworld Dallas and Marvel’s 2005 plans

Newsarama
is currently running an article with a summary of
events from the Marvel forum at Wizardworld Dallas.
In regards to series reviewed here, New
Avengers will last at least 18 issues,
Fantastic Four will get a new creative team
early in 2005, Daredevil will get a new
creative team after 2005, and a new Ultimate Iron
Man title will launch. They have news for other
Marvel projects there, too, so comic readers should
definitely follow that link.