Flash Comics
Entry updated 22 June 2026. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1940-1949). DC Comics. 104 issues. Artists include Stan Asch, Homer Fleming, Frank Harry, E E Hibbard, Harry Lampert, Sheldon Moldoff, Dennis Neville and Ed Wheelan. Scriptwriters include Gardner Fox, Evelyn Gaines, Harry Lampert, John Wentworth and Ed Wheelan. Initially 68 pages, down to 52 by the end of its run. Usually 5-6 long strips and a short text story per issue, plus occasional shorts pieces as filler (including book reviews).
#1 (January 1940) introduces The Flash, Hawkman, Johnny Thunderbolt and The Whip, along with two other strips. The Flash and Hawkman appear in all issues and were created by Gardner Fox, with artists Harry Lampert and Dennis Neville respectively. Fox seems to have written all The Flash and Hawkman stories to #80; early on there are a few serious stories, dealing with corruption; though later Humorous stories become frequent, particularly involving The Flash.
"By a strange freak of chance, Jay Garrick, while a student at a western state university, inhaled the gaseous elements of 'hard water', rendering himself the fastest human alive ... faster than the speed of a bullet ... he renders himself Invisible to the slow-functioning human eye" (see Superpowers) – and The Flash is born. #1 and #3 have him frustrating attempts to obtain the plans for "the atomic bombarder" which, by bombarding uranium, can "make energy enough to throw a shell over a thousand miles" (see Weapons): however, whilst #9 has crooks using a Scientist's serum that makes small animals big (see Great and Small), such genre elements are rare in the earlier issues, but do become more frequent. For example, in #24 a fellow scientist tells Jay that he has designed a spaceship that flies by utilizing "the electro-magnetism of the cosmic rays that fly through space"; Jay is dismissive until the other kidnaps some "healthy families" and flies to Mars with plans for Colonization of Other Worlds. The Flash manages to get on board as it departs. On arrival, the planet proves to be inhabited by large, hostile spider people. #30 has a "curiosity Ray" based on "the science of Phrenology" (see Pseudoscience) which increases a person's "bump of curiosity", making them compulsively seek out answers to questions, the scientist's intent was to enhance Intelligence, but criminals use the ray on The Flash to distract him. Another inventor develops a "paper-light suit of armour that resists all bullets"; this too is misused by gangsters (#34). A boy steals an Ancient Egyptian parchment from a museum: inhaling smoke from the formula it describes gives him the ability to know people's minds by reading their face: as an adult his loose tongue makes him unemployable, so he turns to crime (#40). #52 reintroduces Evart Keenan, seen in All Flash #11 and #23 (1943 and 1946): he is an inventor, now living on the planet Karma; here he turns up with a "mechanical brain" (see Computers) which can answer any question by scanning "tiny discs which contain all knowledge known to mankind": he gifts this to humanity, but – realizing it could be used for evil – wants The Flash as its guardian (#52). The Wind Master's wind machine hinders The Flash's powers in #60. Crooks again steal a scientist's invention in #65, this time a "thinking cap", enabling them to out-think our hero. From #54-#79 The Three Dimwits (based on The Three Stooges; see Three Stooges Films) often appear; in #73 they build a submarine that goes to Mars and in #75 a Robot. #84 has an escaped prisoner electrocuted and becoming a Shapeshifter. Buckton City is taken over by forces dressed as medieval knights: their leader's ancestor, The Black Templar, had claimed the area a thousand years ago and now he restores feudalism, declares himself monarch and secedes from the USA (see Politics) – the authorities are powerless as he holds the populace hostage and threatens to kill them (#92). In #101 The Flash visits a museum 1,000 years in the future (see Time Travel). A scientist reproduces the experiment that created The Flash, to become The Rival, with the same abilities, but using them to criminal ends: he also forces The Flash to inhale a hard water gas by-product, resulting in the temporarily loss of his powers (#104).
Hawkman is "Carter Hall, wealthy collector of weapons and research scientist", who learns he is the Ancient Egyptian Prince Khu-fu reincarnated; his old girlfriend has also been reincarnated, now called Shiera Sanders. Hall's discovery of the "ninth metal", which counteracts Gravity, enables him to fly: he dons a winged costume to fight crime. In #2 he battles a Scientist whose Invention multiplies an object's weight a thousand times. #3 has a couple who have devised a formula that will make them Immortal, but only by living in a chemical-filled container: so they kidnap scientists to refine this and devise a more tolerable option. A sculptor uses "plasm clay" to create a human body, then injects it with adrenalin, whereupon it comes alive (see Androids) and can only be killed by asphyxiation (#7). Because sunspots effect people's minds, a scientist bombards them with atoms, increasing their number to cause unrest, believing this power will enable him to rule the world (#8). Hawkman is baffled when he sees tigers acting like human-beings – one smokes a pipe – but learns brilliant scientist and "girl surgeon" Sara Descarl has transplanted human brains and eyes into tigers (seemingly with the donors' consent) for criminal purposes (#13). "Scorio, the Alligator God of the Phoenicians" (see Gods and Demons) appears in #14 and is referred to as an "Elder God", perhaps a nod to H P Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. An physicist discovers "cold light" and fakes his murder to become The Hood, using the cold light to rob banks (its qualities are a little vague; radio controlled, it is mobile and described as a "light killer") (#19). Watching a Spaceship crash, Hawkman finds a dead Neptunian (see Outer Planets) couple in the wreckage – they look human, but are giants – and a large egg, which he takes home: circumstances lead to its theft and a child hatches; he grows rapidly, has inherited his parents' memories, is ill-natured and can fire Death Rays from his eyes (#21). Shiera becomes Hawkgirl in #24. A scientist's serum Rejuvenates animals but not, it turns out, people (#25). An accident causes a scientist to become the Human Dynamo, with electrical powers; needing funds to find a cure, he robs banks (#49). An unnamed detective in #69 seems to be Sherlock Holmes; #71 has an Antarctic race of bird people, whilst there are visits to Venus (#80) and to a domed City of Aliens in space (#84), with centaurs appearing in #96.
Johnny Thunder (early on Johnny Thunderbolt is also used) is the seventh son of a seventh son; born at 7am on July 7th on the seventh day of the week. As a child, the nation of Badhnesia kidnapped him, intending to use him to take over the world, but – despite managing to perform a rite – things go awry and Johnny ends up back in the USA. Now a young man who "could be brighter for his age", the rite means he has the ability "to make anyone do his bidding when he utters the magic words 'Cei-U'", or its homophone (it takes him several issues to realize this). In #7 we learn a magical thunderbolt-like being actually performs the deeds; this creature gradually becomes more humanoid looking and starts giving Johnny advice (last appearance #91).
The Whip wears a mask and wields a whip, so might be deemed a borderline superhero: "one hundred years ago when the great land owners of the old south-west ground the necks of the poor peons into the dust, El Castigo ("The Whip") rose to smite the oppressors"; in the present day ranchers have banded together to similarly oppress their workers, so Rod Gaynor adopts the identity of The Whip to fight them. In #19 he goes to New York and fights crime there, later battles Axis agents,then after the war goes back to crime fighting [last appearance #55].
Rod Rian of the Sky Police has strips in #2-#11, having first appeared in Wags #1 (1937), printed in the USA for sale in the UK; these strips seem to be reprints. In 2500 Rod is investigating space piracy; he is captured by the devil-men of planet Mephistos and sent to the Island of the Living Dead where he faces Monsters and a pool whose water turns flesh but not bones Invisible. #29 introduces The Ghost Patrol, three French Foreign Legionnaires who die and, as ghosts, can make their bodies solid and change size by regulating their ectoplasm; they now fight the Nazis. After the war they have adventures. (Last appearance #100.) The King (#3-#41), initially called King Standish, is a crime fighter whose abilities with wax and make-up means he can impersonate anyone; the stories are not usually genre, but a rare exception is his last tale (#41), where a scientist develops an immortality serum which makes the recipient invulnerable.
A strip that began in #1 was the "Flash Picture Novelette", of which the Humorous "Don Fuel and the Mystery Planet" (#6) is sf: Don Fuel the "famous space explorer" foils Mad Scientist Dr Rascalli's scheme to destroy the world with "atomic pellets" by collecting a soil sample. The series was later renamed "Minute Movies", of which a few – like #12's mind control formula – have sf or Fantasy elements [last appearance #58].
The Atom (previously in All-American Comics) has strips in #80-#104; he is a costumed fighter without superpowers, as is the The Black Canary, who appears in most Johnny Thunder strips from #86, before starring in her own (#92-#104). She is Dinah Drake, a police detective's daughter; though not wearing a mask, a blonde wig hides her brunette hair: she has a feisty relationship with private detective Larry Lance. The stories are mostly non-genre, though #103 does involve "Element X-99".
The two-page text stories begin with "Warfare in Space" (#1 & #2) and "Adventure in a Time Warp" (#3 & #4), by Gardner Fox. Evelyn Gaines then wrote them for #5-#57, beginning with "Planet of the Metal Men" in #5-#7: these featured twenty-fifth-century scientist Jack Raymond and his wife Sally, making Gaines a fairly early pulp Women SF Writer. Subsequently the text stories are adventure tales by various hands, including Gaines.
Superheroes declined in popularity in the years after World War Two and Flash Comics ceased publication in 1951. In 1956 DC Comics revived the superhero's name and abilities – but involving a different character (Barry Allen), costume and origin story (again see The Flash). He first appeared in Showcase #4 (1956). Eventually he was given his own comic, The Flash, which commenced with #105 (the numbering a continuation of Flash Comics). [SP]
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