January 8 (FLASH: "Chain Lightning" in 30 Seconds)

[Zeke]

Welcome to 2007 at FiveMinute.net. There'll be a 2006-in-review article, but first I want to get some content out. Some really weird content.

See, a while ago I discovered the wide world of comics blogs. (This is comic books, not comic strips or webcomics, although all three interest me.) There are some seriously hilarious ones out there; among the best is Chris's Invincible Super-Blog by Chris Sims. All you need to know is that this is the guy who likened reading a particular comic arc to "trying to pull yourself out of quicksand on a rope made of punches to the face." Because that's how he rolls.

Anyway, a while back Chris posted a parody of DC Comics's maxiseries INFINITE CRISIS, done very much in FiveMinute.net's style -- except for the crayon, that is. He called it INFINITE CRISIS in 30 Seconds. It was a great success, so when the blog's second anniversary rolled around last week, he decided to celebrate with a contest. Readers were invited to come up with their own "30-seconders," and the winner would get stuff.

Naturally, I couldn't pass that up. This sort of thing is my bread and butter -- except the drawing part, but that was expected to be bad. So while I didn't quite make the deadline for the contest part of things, I did create a submission, which I submit to you as well. Here's FLASH: "Chain Lightning" in 30 Seconds. (Since we're not exactly a comics site, I've included some annotations in this update's LJ post to explain what's going on.)

Next update: stuff you've heard of!

[Nate the Great]

Who's that guy between Adam Strange and Starfire supposed to be?

[Zeke]

Huh? I didn't draw either of those.

[Nate the Great]

Chris Sims did. In Infinite Crisis in 30 Seconds, the "Meanwhile in Outer Spaaaaace" panel. I was just curious.

[Zeke]

Oh, that's Firestorm. (The new one, Jason Rusch. Ronnie Raymond was killed rather pointlessly in IDENTITY CRISIS.)

Crazy thought here, but does anyone have a comment on what I did?

[Nate the Great]

Uh, yeah. That was...different. Ahem.

"A lot of a bunch of speedsters!" I'd have stuck a plethora joke in there, but then again, I'm the kind of loser that thinks that everything needs to have references to second-tier cult classics.

"Hey, look out for Cobalt Blue!" "Yeah, thanks!" I admit that this was pretty good. Sardonic, deadpan wit is always good.

Was that Time Paradox blue boot supposed to actually be somebody in the comic, or did you invent a personification of a trope?

"I set everything right, but it cost me my life. No, seriously. I mean it this time." Yes, he sounds ever-so convincing.

[Derek]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Crazy thought here, but does anyone have a comment on what I did?

Sorry, Zeke. I don't like not getting comments on my stuff either, but I don't follow Flash comics, so I didn't really get the jokes until reading your annotations (except the Zod reference), at which point I got them, but couldn't quote them to let you know I got it since I didn't.

That said, your dialogue is witty, as always, and the art is clear and stylistically done well. I don't really recognize the characters since I don't read the comics, and in fact thought Panel 4's Flash was Jay Garrick. And I thought Bigfoot was a girl with the hair, but I'm sure that's just because I don't read the comics.