Who is Gaspar Saladino?

The work of a letterer might seem small in the line of comic production. Even moreso in modern comics in which the work can be done with computers. Yet the role is quite important, ensuring that the text is placed in a readable layout, flowing nicely for the readers and that it doesn't detract from the art. If this is done poorly, the resulting comic book can be dissatisfying, even with a good story and art. So, we here at Dibny Diaries would like to pay tribute to everyone who helped make the legendary comics we break down.

Gaspar Saladino was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 1, 1927. By the age of 20, he'd attended Manhattan's School of Industrial Art for his high school education and had begun his work in comics by inking for Funnies Inc., and then later served two years in Japan in public relations for the military.

In 1949, he showed some samples of his work to the staff at what would become DC Comics. Editor Julius Schwartz was unimpressed with his art style, but liked the lettering. In 1950, he debuted in National Publications' Romance Trail, a western magazine. He lettered Romance by Mail, which was drawn by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Giella, who he would later work with on the legendary relaunch of superhero titles that marked the beginning of the Silver Age. This would, of course, include the first Elongated Man stories in The Flash.

Comics were generally produced onsite in those days and Gaspar would work with the artists to ensure that the lettering worked naturally with the art. His calligraphy was aesthetically pleasing and easy to read, and about 1966 to 1967, he was given the main tasks of lettering and designing logos and house ads at DC, although the work was considered freelancing. He would also do freelance lettering and design work for Marvel and other smaller comic companies that would come along. He would remain actively employed in lettering until about 2002 when it seems he retired, only doing occasional work.

He married his wife Celeste in 1957 and moved to Plainview, Long Island in 1959, where he lived until his death on August 4, 2016. He is survived by his three children and five grandchildren.

The Curious Absence of Ralph Dibny from "And Therefore I Am"

Last night's episode of The Flash hadn't featured Hartley Sawyer's Ralph Dibny in any publicity photos, and I noted that he wasn't credited in the guest star credits either. Ralph was entirely absent from the episode with no explanation. That is, aside from the "Stretched Scene" which doubled as a commercial for Microsoft's Surface computers.

In the "stretched scene" Ralph chats with Iris West (Candice Patton), and he's sporting a pair of glasses, which he explains Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes, not appearing in this scene) set up with a HUD. He references Cyrano DeBergerac (getting the name wrong, Iris corrects him), a play with a scene in which a writer remotely provides words for someone to say. We then see a small bit of text Ralph is seemingly going to read off.

Umm, guys? They might have needed a sugar boost and decided to treat themselves to one.

As Ralph leaves, Iris reminds him not to "interrupt a bride in wedding plan mode." He respectfully motions that the point has been taken and goes on his way.

It was rather ironic that Ralph was not in the episode as part of it featured Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) investigating Clifford DeVoe (Neil Sandilands), who manages to report Barry's investigation as harassment to the police, getting Barry suspended. Barry's over-reach into trying to dig up evidence on DeVoe echoes the situation that got Ralph removed from the police force, and not seeing Ralph react to this turn of events feels like a missed opportunity.

Next week is the major crossover between the DC shows on the CW, and Hartley Sawyer has reported that he is not in it, which is strange as the setting for the crossover is Barry and Iris' wedding, and you would imagine that Ralph would have attended since he's in their lives. Perhaps we'll see yet another "Stretched Scene" revealing where he is.

In a little bit of trivia, when Stephen DeStefano designed Ralph's third costume in the comics, he had the idea to give him glasses, specifically "granny style" glasses. While this was nixed and I can't recall Ralph wearing glasses in any comics I've seen, it's interesting to see him with glasses that are also going to be a tool in his investigations on The Flash.

The Man Who Mastered Absolute Zero!

Ralph's penultimate appearance as a recurring character in The Flash for nearly eight years was in #134. Quite a familiar team by now was on board with this one: Carmine Infantino on the artwork for the cover and the story, John Broome writing, and Joe Giella on inks.

The front cover throws us for a loop, looking as if Ralph is somehow in cahoots with Captain Cold, capturing the Flash. In fact, the smug Captain Cold is so confident, he throws his cold gun away as he runs. If you missed Ralph's previous appearances, it might make Ralph seem to be one of the rogues.

The detail on the cover is very good, despite no background beyond the sidewalk. This art is so lively.

The splash panel depicts a scene late in the story in which Captain Cold creates a mirage with his cold gun to slow down Barry. The difference between the splash panel and the point in the story is that the splash panel puts the scene outside. In the story, it's inside.

The story finds some scientists working on a supercomputer called a "lightning calculator" or "Lical," which has been giving the wrong answers to questions they feed to it.

And here we find Barry and Ralph casually riding in a car together at the campus where they're about to check out Lical. No sign or mention of Sue. However, we do get an asterisk informing us that Ralph's identity has been revealed to the world, although the wording is a little off. If you thought Ralph's secret identity (such as it was, thanks, Barry) being revealed would be a big story, think again. There's a reason why I'm glad that The Flash TV show is giving Ralph character arcs: he needed a revamp that did something like that.

I do love the way Infantino draws Ralph's elongated neck. It already tells you he likes to show off.

Wait, is this Barry's car? If it was one of the cars Ralph and Sue use (I'm theorizing that they rent), why isn't Ralph driving? The problem is, I doubt he has that car licensed to "the Flash," thus meaning all someone has to do is take down his license plate number and look it up, and they know who the Flash actually is. What the heck, Barry?

The two superheroes go to check out Lical and the error is reported to them. Barry attempts a test to see if he can spot any errors with the electric pulse since he can actually keep up with it. However, he loses balances and nearly falls into a glass case, but Ralph springs into action and saves him. Aside from this mishap, Barry can't detect an error.

These pages where Ralph and Barry inspect Lical are well-done with Infantino's use of shading to imply limited light sources and an indoor locale.

Heading back out in the car, Ralph and Barry hear about a mass escape from the state prison and decide to go hunt down the escapees.

The panel where Ralph gets a newspaper is oddly without dialogue when compared to all the other pages. It's the only panel without a narration box or dialogue. There's quite a bit of mainly empty space in the lower right corner, so I wonder if there's a missing word balloon where Ralph tells the newsboy that he'll take a paper. If this is the case, it's never been corrected.

Ralph and Barry set out to use their own techniques to round up the thirty escaped convicts.

Barry and Ralph manage to capture all of the convicts except one: Leonard Snart, a.k.a. Captain Cold. The two heroes stroll out in what should be an iconic pose for the duo, though it's mainly in silhouette. Ralph says he's going to stick around.

Take a look at Ralph's dialogue here: "The two of us will be, Flash—for I'm going to hang around here till Captain Cold is—put on ice!" He takes a pause to make a pun. That's our Ralph.

Noting the repairs to the prison wall, Barry reflects that it was pure luck that caused the earthquake that allowed Snart to escape. We then cut over to a cave outside Central City where Snart is congratulating himself for causing the earthquake with "ultra-cold." How on earth he made that happen in prison is anyone's guess.

At the bottom of page 7, we see Barry and Iris West on a dinner date, Iris eager to tell Barry about what she was doing, but Barry's thoughts appear and we don't see Iris say what she was doing. I'm interpreting this as Barry getting lost in his thoughts and missing what she said. Rude, Barry. Rude. Well, until the next page where she reveals that she got to visit Snart's cell and noted that he seemed to be obsessed with a dancer named Miss Twist when he'd previously approached her for romantic intentions.

Overhearing that Captain Cold is in midtown, Barry convinces Iris to go see him, intending to dash out himself. I hope he made arrangements to pay for dinner. Barry finds Snart at a subdivision of the US mint, where he's just frozen the guards and prepares to make off with a lot of cash. Snart manages to distract Barry with a mirage from his cold gun as seen in the splash panel.

Seriously, Barry, did you slow down? You're moving at super speed. He shouldn't have time to see you're there and use his gun before you can catch him.

Running outside, Barry almost apprehends Snart before Ralph grabs him instead by accident, knocking him down. He doesn't know why he did it, but Barry assures him that they'll catch him. After catching up to Snart again, Barry gets frozen with "absolute zero," but manages to free himself with "vibration at super-speed." And yes, seems this bit serves as the basis for the title of the story.

As Ralph makes another grab for Snart, he again grabs Barry, making Snart so smug, he throws away his ice gun, and yep, here's the panel Infantino redrew as the cover. The composition is nearly the same, with things a bit more detailed and striking on the cover.

Whatever is going wrong with Ralph, it causes him to pick up Cold's gun and fire at Barry. Barry manages to out-maneuver him and finally has to knock out Ralph and then whirls Captain Cold back to jail.

Helping Ralph recover, Barry is reminded of Lical and drags Ralph back to the college campus, where he realizes some of the tubes in Lical are giving off a strange violet glow. Once the tubes are replaced, Lical begins working correctly. It seems that the odd radiation had affected Ralph as well due to his molecules being "vulnerable" because of his elasticity.

Well, looks like Barry has stopped using his car everywhere now. Also, the explanation of why the radiation affected Ralph reeks of bull. If anything, elastic molecules should bounce back, not absorb.

So, everything's peachy keen for Ralph and Barry, and apparently Sue, who it seems the creative team has completely forgotten about.

So, Ralph goes up against Captain Cold, is exposed to an odd weakness, and also, the defining moment of him not having a secret identity is right here, although it could easily have been an editorial afterthought. This story would've been better before Ralph's marriage to Sue.

The story is a rather weak team up story because we get a random "nerfing" of Ralph and Barry to make the story have any stakes. There's details about Captain Cold established in the story that wind up going nowhere. His interest in Miss Twist is why he commits the robbery of the subdivision of the mint. Speaking of which, are those people okay? We don't hear a thing about them. Realistically, no, those people are dead. Comic book science... maybe they survived once they thawed out.

In any case, next issue, Ralph's last appearance in The Flash for a long, long time.

TV Review: When Harry Met Harry

"When Harry Met Harry" featured a special bonus scene during the commercials. I decided to go ahead and give you guys the commercial declaring it and the actual scene. Videos are copyright of Warner Television, DC Entertainment, The CW, etc.

"When Harry Met Harry" has two main plots: to find the mysterious DeVoe, Harry (Tom Cavanagh) enlists the help of different versions of himself from across the multiverse. However, with each having a distinct, strong personality, Harry finds it surprisingly difficult to work with himself.

The other plotline finds Barry (Grant Gustin) beginning to train Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) in the ways of being a superhero. Barry and Ralph have different priorities, Ralph focusing on catching the bad guy while Barry tries to minimize casualties by protecting anyone who might get hurt. As they track a new metahuman who can puppet any image of a living thing (Chelsea Kurtz), Ralph gets to use the prototype costume Cisco (Carlos Valdes) has made for him.

The Flash has consistently been a lot of fun this season, and "When Harry Met Harry" is no exception. Ralph's redemption arc really kicks into high gear here, and our new metahuman isn't an entirely unsympathetic villain. However, there are a few cringe-worthy moments when viewed in the light of recent events, some of them involving Ralph. That said, still an overall fun episode.

Viewers in the US may view "When Harry Met Harry" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire fourth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix in June, 2018. Digital versions of the episode may be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Google Play and other retailers of digital video content. Blu-Ray and DVD copies of the season are expected to be available for sale in or by September, 2018.

Non-US viewers should check their local listings, the websites of the channels that air The Flash, and digital video retailers.

Who is Julius Schwartz?

Julius Schwartz was born in New York's Bronx on June 19, 1915. He was the son of Joseph and Bertha Schwartz, who were Jewish emigrants from Romania. At about age 17, Schwartz co-published The Time Traveler with Mort Weisinger and Forrest J. Ackerman, one of the first science fiction fan magazines. It would be rebranded as Science Fiction Digest and Fantasy Magazine before ceasing in 1937.

Schwartz and Weisinger would go on to found the Solar Sales Service literary agency, which would represent writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Ray Bradbury during 1934 to 1944. He also helped organize the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939.

He became an editor at All-American Publications, which would eventually be folded into National Publications, now known as DC Comics. Among his writing recruits were John Broome and science fiction writer Alfred Bester.

Beginning in 1956, Schwartz was the driving force behind reintroducing superheroes to the market, creating new versions of characters such as the Flash, the Atom and Green Lantern, now with a more science fiction orientation. Schwartz himself created the non-superpowered hero Adam Strange and conceptualized the Justice League of America. Relevant to this blog is his directive to create other superheroes to serve as supporting characters for The Flash, which brought us Kid Flash and Elongated Man.

Schwartz worked extensively at DC until his retirement in 1986, the same year his wife Jean of 34 years died. He returned to edit some graphic novels for the company. Under his supervision, Batman and Superman were made more grounded and serious, with an attempt to eliminate Kryptonite from the latter's weaknesses.

Until his death from pneumonia in 2004, Schwartz was a "Goodwill Ambassador" for DC and considered an "Editor Emeritus." However, after his death, a number of women came forward with reports that he had sexually harassed them.

Schwartz's contribution to DC Comics is undeniably significant, basically shepherding the company from the 50s through the 70s. However, that last moment lets us remember that few people are without flaw, and sometimes you must separate your love of the work from the artist.

Kid Flash Meets The Elongated Man!

This story comes from The Flash #130. John Broome is writing again, Carmine Infantino is back on the art, and Julius Schwartz editing.

So, we have the first time Ralph meets young Wally West, Kid Flash, and post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, he became the Flash after Barry died while making a strike against the Anti-Monitor. This is before Kid Flash had his own unique costume.

This splash page does something unusual by showing us the main characters twice. The lower part shows a moment from the climax of the story, while up above, we get decorative illustrations of the characters around the title and a teaser.

The lower part of the splash page amuses me because that is a HUGE block of dialogue that Ralph is rambling off as he moves quickly. Infantino draws it nice and dramatic here, although you'll notice Wally's costume is lacking the circle behind the thunderbolt on the chest.

The story starts with Barry arriving in Wally's room at his home in Blue Valley, and the art makes it look like Barry is spinning at super speed. He makes Wally close the window blinds so no one sees him. Maybe you could have done that at super speed first, Barry, just saying. Would've looked cooler.

Barry tells Wally that Ralph Dibny sent a letter to the Flash at the Central City Police Department asking for his help in investigating a "situation." Barry is about to vacation with Iris, so he sends Wally because he can't spare a moment away from his woman.

Okay, can our superheroes not work out a better way to communicate than just letters?

Wally agrees, eager to meet Ralph and become friends, so he hurries to Ralph's location.

Ralph (Sue is nowhere to be seen) explains that Oakley County is inaccessible due to the roads being blocked by extreme winter weather. Not even planes can get through due to heavy clouds. Ralph and Wally head out, and the use of outdoor scenes only on the rest of the page can get a little confusing. Also, Ralph's car is seemingly the only car at the motel, so maybe this bad weather has really badly affected the economy of the area.

Here we have Ralph and Wally making their way through the ice and snow wearing only their superhero costumes. I really hope for their sake that those costumes are well-insulated.

Infantino is doing good work with the winter landscape here, especially this ravine that Ralph helps Wally cross. He shows you how deep it is, and how resourceful the two are. So you get the idea that they're well-matched to what they'd come across.

Aside from the splash page, this is the point of the story where it is confirmed that the Weather Wizard is behind the extreme weather. He's making the people of Goldville (the main town of Oakley County) pay him before he'll stop the extreme weather, seeking a payout of $100,000. The townsfolk are beginning to break.

The comic cuts to some excellently drawn panels of Weather Wizard, who reveals to the reader that his plan is to use the money to build an even bigger weather station. And to supplement the ransom money, he's having a few assistants robbing the local bank.

Having split ways with Wally, Ralph runs into Goldville and spots the bank robbers. Noting hail falling directly out of the way of the robbers but  blocking the way of the bank guard. However, Ralph springs directly into action, stretching in a long arc to grab one of the thieves.

Infantino excellently draws snow and hail, but again, I really hope his costume is helping him fend off the cold, and he must have some good traction on those shoes to be running like that on the snow.

The captured henchman squeals that the Weather Wizard is behind this, making Ralph hurry to the hideout, where Wally has been heading.

More great art from Infantino, on the next panel (which I didn't show), he draws a little brown rabbit hopping around in the snow.

Wally notices a big reflector on the shack, then hurries in and finds Weather Wizard, who manages to take him out with a flash of light and a smoke bomb that masks him punching him in the back of the head. Wow, it's almost as if Wally didn't have super speed.

Ralph has reached the cabin and manages to spot that Weather Wizard has taken out Wally. He slips in, but Weather Wizard is ready for him and uses a "lightning bolt device" that stops Ralph's "circulation" which paralyzes him.

Um, pretty sure that if you stop someone's circulation, they die.

Wally revives and "vibrates" at super speed in an attempt to save Ralph. I mean, to be fair, maybe Ralph is dying here.

I looks more like Wally is moving Ralph at super speed than just "vibrating." But I guess he has to move so Weather Wizard can't get them again.

I am going to save my comments on these pages' story for the end...

Ralph's circulation is restored and he manages to knock out Weather Wizard. The criminals are all thrown in jail, the weather controlling mechanisms are destroyed, and the snow finally melts across Oakley County as the two heroes head home.

Well, it's one of those Silver Age stories that has points that don't really hold up to actual scientific scrutiny. But that's just about standard for any Silver Age story.

The bigger issue is that aside from that bit to getting to Goldville, there's really no reason why Wally needed Ralph's help. No reason why Weather Wizard should've been able to knock him out. Basically, both characters get "nerfed" (or having their power reduced) in order to justify a team up, which is one of the negative tropes of team up stories of this era.

So, it's cool that we see Ralph meet Wally, a friendship that'll come up quite a bit in the future, but the two really deserved a more solid team up.

What's Up With The CW's Ralph?

It's no question that the incarnation of Ralph Dibny on The Flash TV show is very different from the version seen in the comics from 1960 to quite recently. Is this being unfaithful to the character?

The classic incarnation of Ralph was a good guy after Barry Allen discovers that he has no hidden agenda. Shortly into his appearances, he entered a marriage he remained committed to. He's a glutton for attention, however, in a good-fashioned manner, which contrasted to his fellow superheroes' secret identities, even when he joins the Justice League.

Ralph on the CW is morally questionable in his first couple of appearances. Barry reveals that he was formerly a police officer, discharged after committing perjury by faking evidence in order to ensure a man he believed was guilty was punished. After running into him, Barry discovers that Ralph is blackmailing the mayor with evidence of infidelity. At the last minute, Ralph decides not to go through with it and helps Barry apprehend the mayor. In his second appearance, it's revealed he's the number one customer at a strip club, but he loses his place of honor when he's accused of stealing money and gets into a fight. (He claims he's getting change, but it's unclear as to if this claim is on the up and up.)

So, why would they depict Ralph like this? Well, producers have said they want to build Ralph into the hero we know from the comics. It's a character development arc that we've only just begun.

But why is it so at odds from the character we know? The answer is, Ralph's personality from the comics is rather bland. He uses his powers to help people and solve mysteries, and that's it. He was created to be a supporting character for Barry Allen. In fact, many characters from the Silver Age and earlier were pretty bland with little depth to their characterization.

Over the many years, comic companies have tackled this by revising the origins of their characters. Marvel characters would have more stories from their past revealed while DC would sometimes do this, but more often they'd revise origins. For example, Barry Allen's mother being murdered is a rather recent addition to Flash lore. And now, finally, Ralph's origins have been revisited.

In Gail Simone's 2014-2016 run on Secret Six, we were introduced to a new version of Ralph for the "New 52" continuity of Earth Prime. He works in a criminal organization because "Mockingbird"(the Riddler) has Sue and uses his elongating powers to disguise himself as a heavyset man named Damon Wells, a.k.a. Big Shot. In addition, there is no scene where he uses gingo extract, gingo fruit, or Gingold soda or any mention of it. He seemingly just has these powers.

So, does the CW version of Ralph tie in to what we saw in Secret Six? Is this a mega franchise wide revision of Ralph's character? Possibly. We've yet to see Ralph appear since Rebirth began. Perhaps when we do, his backstory will be similar to what has been happening on The Flash.

But is there precedent for Ralph doing dubious or illegal things or even just being a jerk? To answer the latter first, yes. Many of us view classic Ralph through rose-tinted glasses, but his insistence on being the center of attention can easily be seen as being a jerk. Nowhere is this clearer than in Secret Origins #30, in which Ralph returns to his hometown and finding everyone not fawning over him, makes a few dismissive comments about them.

And yes to the former, although not under his usual will. In The Flash #252-253, Ralph turns into a supervillain called The Molder. He has the power to change the shape of anything he touches, and this involves actually killing Barry by turning him into a pile of putty. (Barry is revived due to weirdo science of course.) I've always interpreted this as Ralph having a dark side he usually doesn't turn to.

Finally, Ralph has been the subject of a lot of humor on the CW while he was generally wasn't in the classic comics. This has caused some to assume they're mixing aspects of Plastic Man into his character. However, I'd point these critics in the direction of Justice League Europe, where Ralph became more of a comic character.

With all of this, I'd say the CW version of Ralph Dibny is based on how different writers have interpreted the character through the comics over the years, done to complement the show's current lineup of characters. They had a number of nice guys in Barry, Cisco and Joe West, so bringing some of Ralph's rarely highlighted characteristics to the forefront provides some variety to the cast and an interesting new take on a classic DC superhero.

P.S. - I just remembered that Ralph was a private investigator in the Flashpoint Elseworlds miniseries (not to be confused with the continuity reboot event), just as he was on The Flash.

TV review: "Girls Night Out"

 Episode 5 of Season 4 of The Flash brings us Hartley Sawyer's second outing as Ralph Dibny and the first time the character is a full-fledged member of "Team Flash."

"Girls Night Out" features the bachelor and bachelorette parties of Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Iris West (Candice Patton). Cisco (Carlos Valdes) had planned a night of brandy with home movies and a nice steak dinner for Barry, but Ralph convinces the guys to go to the Golden Booty, a strip club. Cisco presents Barry with a concoction that'll get him nicely buzzed, but he might have overshot its potency.

Iris' party is interrupted by a henchman for Amunet Black (Katee Sackoff), which causes Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) to change into her evil alter-ego of Killer Frost. Iris, Caitlin and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) set out to put a stop to Amunet trafficking the discharge of a captive metahuman. (It's less gross than it sounds. But still gross.)

The episode was fun and had some nice character moments for what's going on with Caitlin this season. Ralph gets a few fun scenes, still getting over being sleazy, though. Character development, you're coming. However, I'm going to have to join the fans reacting negatively to the girls cheering "hashtag feminism" just because they're doing things without the guys.

Next week teases the debut of Ralph's first superhero costume which looks a little like his original getup from The Flash #112, but way more bland. Hope it's a prototype...

Viewers in the US may view "Girls Night Out" at no charge during a limited availability window on the CW website and app. With the current licensing agreement, the entire fourth season of The Flash will be available on Netflix in June, 2018. Digital versions of the episode may be purchased on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Vudu, Google Play and other retailers of digital video content. Blu-Ray and DVD copies of the season are expected to be available for sale in or by September, 2018.

Non-US viewers should check their local listings, the websites of the channels that air The Flash, and digital video retailers.

Who is John Broome?

So, I keep bringing up their names when talking about the comics, who are some of the men responsible for creating the Elongated Man comics?

Irving Broome was born on May 4, 1913 to a Jewish family and grew up enjoying science fiction. In the 1940s, he had already begun a writing career of his own. His first published work was a two-page "Pals and Pastimes" spread in Funny Pages #7, published in 1936.

This began his writing for comics career. Eventually, he was working for Fawcett, writing text pages for their comics, using a variety of pseudonyms. It was at Fawcett that he met Julius Schwartz, who would move to All-American Publications and managed to get Broome over as well. All-American would eventually be merged into National Publications, which was soon nicknamed DC Comics, and later officially took that name.

Broome worked on many stories for the original incarnations of the Flash and the Green Lantern. He kept up a varied output, and created many minor characters for DC. When DC decided to revive superhero brands in the mid to late 1950s, Broome was the one to write the first stories featuring Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, the new Flash and Green Lantern, these new versions varying wildly from the original versions, becoming the iconic incarnations of these heroes.

After establishing new heroes and characters in the early 60s, Broome and artist Carmine Infantino would revamp none other than Batman, giving him a new look, removing many of the sillier additions to Batman lore, and focusing the stories in Detective Comics on mysteries. Their first issue of Detective Comics with the new Batman was #327, which also saw the Elongated Man appear as a solo backup feature. Broome would continue at DC until 1970.

By the time of his retirement, Broome was sending his scripts to DC from his new home in Paris, France. He and his wife Peggy later moved to Japan to teach English. Broome died in 1999, vacationing in Thailand while swimming in his hotel's pool with his wife.

Thanks to John Broome for offering his talent to DC Comics as they revived themselves in the Silver Age. He helped create Ralph Dibny, and many of the properties he helped establish we still love and enjoy today.

Even though sometimes his plot devices were downright weird. But hey, that's part of what I love about these comics.

The Space-Boomerang Trap!

Well, here's the second time Ralph featured on the front cover of a comic. And what a cover...

The Flash #124 features Barry being hurled off into the sky, strapped to a giant boomerang while Ralph stretches up to try to catch him.

"You're going on a one-way trip to the moon, Flash—and there's nothing on Earth that can save you!" gloats Captain Boomerang.

Okay, so you're trying to send Barry out into space on a giant boomerang? Buddy, no, that's not how that works. There is no way that can break the atmosphere. It does make a pretty striking cover, though, and this particular story would be referenced as an example of a team-up with the Flash when Ralph moves to Detective Comics.

Anyway, a familiar team is at work on this issue. Carmine Infantino is penciling both the cover and interior art with Joe Giella on inks, and John Broome writes the story.

 Splash page time!

This one is more illustrative of what the story's going to do rather than illustrate a scene from it. We have Ralph and Barry teaming up with villain Captain Boomerang as they take their stances against a group of invading aliens.

I rather like this splash page with the offensive stances and the view of the invaders. It does a good job of making you excited for the story.

Little trivia, this scan is from The Flash Archives, which would usually recreate the original colors from the comics just with better printing technology and on-register. However, the sky in the original printing was yellow. In the digital version through Comixology, it's yellow again. And in the reprints in Showcase Presents, there was no color so it didn't matter.

Here we find Mr. Dibny relaxing on the beach, reading a letter from the Flash. I'm a little surprised that Barry would mail it. In fact, I'd imagine that Barry would be more likely to run in and talk to Ralph rather than mail or drop off a letter. That could've made a much more dramatic start to this story, actually. And also, how on earth did Barry know where Ralph would be? If they keep in touch through the phone or something, why not just talk over that? John Broome, you let me down here. But, we do get Malibu Ralph out of it, so... it's not that bad.

Barry's letter tells how Captain Boomerang is out on parole and how he's suspicious that Boomerang might try to steal the Normark jewels on a public exhibition. Arriving there, Barry is surprised to find Boomerang in his costume. The paroled felon claims he's not doing anything wrong, so Barry can't do anything. Boomerang in fact invites Barry to keep an eye on him to prove that he's not doing anything. As expected, a boomerang enters the hall and scoops up the jewels, flying outside and up into the air and vanishing with the loot. Barry knows Boomerang did it, but how? The letter reveals that two other robberies have since happened.

Well, here for the first time is Sue in a bathing suit, looking quite lovely. Sadly, she only gets three words of dialogue before Ralph leaves for Central City. Sadly, this will set the standard for a lot of Sue's appearances in the 60s, both in The Flash and Detective Comics.

The story cuts over to Captain Boomerang who reveals through his thoughts that he has a boomerang that can travel twenty four hours into the future, allowing him to have an alibi for what he was doing as the crime was taking place.

However, as he sets out to do another job, we discover that his boomerangs actually pass through another dimension and the beings that live there have seen the boomerang and take it as a threat and decide to attack Earth.

Frickin' Captain Boomerang... This is why you don't mess with time travel.

No lie, I cracked up the first time I read that plot twist.

Infantino does a good job of drawing an alien world and selling that that's what it is, even if we only see it for four panels.

The bottom half of this page is dedicated to Ralph joining Barry at the museum to protect some priceless jade on display. (Honestly, it's like these museums are just asking for people to steal from them. Three previous robberies that )

Ralph has an interesting aside here that begins to tie into his persona that would soon be established as he thinks, "I like people looking at me! I guess that's why I always wear my Elongated Man uniform in public—my trademark!" Compare this to his declaration of only using his powers to help back in #112. It's less an inconsistency and more that someone's learning to love the spotlight.

So, Captain Boomerang pops up to prove he's not behind any funny business, and sure enough, a boomerang appears and snags the jade, but thanks to Ralph, Barry is able to recover the jade.

Barry then realizes that they might be able to find Captain Boomerang's fingerprints on the boomerang. The villain overhears and realizes this will sink him, but Flash catches him.

There's not a lot to say because Infantino does a good job, and except for handling the boomerang so much, the story is pretty sound.

I will say that on panel five, just as on the splash page, we can see that Ralph uses a string to keep his mask on his face.

Captain Boomerang spots people passed out in the street and Ralph spots a news report about aliens attacking earth. People are being struck with fatigue weapons that sap their strength. The government is helpless. So, Captain Boomerang offers to help Ralph and Barry fight the aliens.

I'm just going to say that Infantino's panels here are actually really good at getting the idea of the alien invasion  And in the panels to your left, he uses shading to neatly convey where the light would be blocked, but it also conveys a sense of foreboding. Basically, this story could probably be a bit longer and darker.

All right here, you know how I feel about Ralph elongating his back like this. At least here, he's doing it for a clear purpose. And Infantino does get a very good sense of scale of how far Ralph has stretched with that angle.

So, spotting the aliens holed up at City Hall, the three split up to slowly take them out.

I will say that the previous pages made me think this was all of the country being attacked, but seemingly the invasion is local to Central City. It's not unthinkable Central City would have a division of the National Guard or something, but the previous pages made us think the threat was bigger than the rest of the story lets on.

So, apparently, those aliens were really good at narrowing down where that boomerang they weren't able to properly observe came from.

And that's one of those things I just write off as "It was the Silver Age."

So, here we have a particularly dramatic panel of Ralph stretching across a river and popping up out of the water to sneak attack an alien. Honestly, that's pretty badass. Captain Boomerang is able to take out some from a hiding place with his boomerang, and Flash is able to run circles around them until they pass out, trying to catch him.

 So, our trio gets a hold of fatigue guns and turn them on the invaders. This strike causes the leaders to decide to retreat, and after they escape in a fissure in space, Barry seals it up so they can never return.

Barry finds Ralph passed out, surmising that he was struck by a retreating alien, but I think the idea is that Captain Boomerang did it, since he was only helping to get rid of the aliens. And so he turns his weapon on Barry...

So, yes, he has a giant space-boomerang that he's tied Barry to that will send Barry into perpetual orbit around the earth. Captain Boomerang, that's bullshit and you should know it.

I just want to imagine Captain Boomerang getting a crew of workmen to help him set that up and explaining that he's going to use this rig to send the Flash into orbit. Meanwhile, the workmen just nod and do the job, not telling him that there is no way a non-powered launch like that is going to break the atmosphere.

 The penultimate page sees Ralph recover from the fatigue weapon and look up to see Barry on the boomerang. Launching up as fast as he can, he manages to reach the boomerang, free Barry and return him to the rooftop where Captain Boomerang is.

Gotta love Captain Boomerang standing there just going "!?"

I do not want to be where that boomerang would come down. Unless it turns out it actually did get into orbit. In which case, there's canonically a giant boomerang orbiting around this earth. Unless we assume someone like Superman or Green Lantern pulls it out. That's going to make for some interesting discussion fodder for the next Justice League meeting.

As my buddy Duke says, "These are things man was not meant to question."

Anyway, Ralph really must have juiced up on his gingo extract. But the way Infantino draws it is pretty cool.

Final page, Barry catches Captain Boomerang and hauls him back to jail. As he runs through town, he observes people recovering from the alien attack.

The final panel has Barry confirm that Captain Boomerang's fingerprints were on the mystery boomerang. I think we can assume from this that they were able to recover the stolen jewelry.

This is while Barry and Ralph are riding in the back of a car, so... did they have an impromptu parade? I mean, I guess "Hey, they saved us from an alien invasion" is parade worthy... And just the type of attention Ralph would eat up with a spoon.

So, yeah, excellent work from Infantino on the art, kind of wish they'd given the story a little more space. John Broome kind of let me down in a couple spots in the writing, but hey, the guy probably had a deadline to meet.

I think what we learned here is don't mess with objects that travel into the future or else you might bring an alien invasion upon your fair city. Also, Barry also isn't always the worst.