Summer 1963: The Fastest Men Alive

As wish fulfillment, speed rated high with kids.

Speed, fueled by their boundless energy, was after all the one area where children could outdistance the somewhat worn-out adults who talked down to them, punished them and generally looked after them.

But just imagine what you might do with some real speed…

Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the Flash was among the first of the shtick superheroes.

In just two years, Superman, Captain Marvel and their various copycats had already covered the ground of the all-purpose superhero who wielded an array of powers. By 1940, to get ahead, a super being had to have a gimmick. So the Human Torch burned and the Submariner swam, Hawkman could fly, Doll Man could shrink, Wonder Woman could be female and the Flash could run really, really fast.

College student Jay Garrick was one of only three characters I can name who became a superhero by smoking, by the way.

In a chemistry lab, while breaking football training with a cigarette, Jay accidentally knocked over some beakers and further polluted his lungs by breathing in fumes that turned him into the Flash.

The Flash could run up the sides of buildings and across water. He could catch bullets, create multiple images of himself, become invisible and — eventually — even vibrate through walls. His one power turned out to make him nearly as omnipotent as Superman’s many.

For me, the early adventures of this seminal superhero are difficult because of the underdeveloped, cartoony art.

But by All-Flash 31 (Oct.-Nov. 1947), an artist named Carmine Infantino had arrived to make the Scarlet Speedster’s adventures a pure pleasure. Infantino would carry the character, in his second and even more successful incarnation of Barry Allen, through the 1950s and 1960s.

By 1963, the new Flash was popular enough to have earned his own giant annual, which included an adventure of the original Flash and this feature page spotlighting famous Flash covers.