Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The Arrival and Return of Flex

The bad timing of birthdays (a 'woe is me' post of infinite pity party sadness) will come later as will a tale of sandwiches and father/son moments. But for now, the inner geek (who, let's be honest, isn't really and truly all that *inner* and is more like the traumatized lover who wears his crushed and bleeding heart on his sleeve)...

Okay, the *outer and very much alive* geek takes over.

"Flex Mentallo" is finally going to be collected by Vertigo Comics this fall! The classic Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely collaboration is finally going to be available for everyone to enjoy and discuss and love.

To express the news in film terms, this is like "The African Queen" finally being released on dvd, the ultimate "Blade Runner" blu-ray collection announcement and the found footage of "Metropolis" -- all rolled into one!

(Okay-okay, the news is not on the level of a completely restored "The Magnificent Ambersons" finally seeing the light of day, but since that is never likely to happen, that's like evoking Godwin's Law in terms of collecting.)

The only news that could possibly be better would be Marvel finally announcing that they're bringing Alan Moore and then Neil Gaiman's "Miracleman" (aka Marvelman) back in print. I wouldn't be surprised to see that announcement sometime in the near future, but the Flex news is a dazzling way to start the new year.

For a history of all of Flex's mis-adventures, Johanna Carlson at "Comics Worth Reading" has a history of the character's legal problems. It's strange to think in our current world of Batporn parody that this character's satire of Charles Atlas has prevented the story from being in-print. I'm not sure if this upcoming collection says something about DC Comics overcoming their legal timidity or a seismic shift in attitudes regarding parody laws.

Whatever the reason, I'm thrilled to have the line "I got six chambers of semi-jacketed realism aimed right at your Sea of Tranquility. Drop the rock" soon to arrive in a collected and easily available form.

Bring on the Flex.

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