DC Finest: The Flash: The Human Thunderbolt

Robert Kanigher has long been recognized as one of the most prolific and innovative writers and editors in the comic book industry. Since the 1940s, Kanigher wrote and/or created more characters than nearly anybody else in the field, including Batman, the Flash, Blue Beetle, Steel Sterling, Black Canary, Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Captain Marvel, Sgt. Rock, and the Haunted Tank. He also penned innumerable war, horror, and romance scripts. Kanigher scripted the Silver Age Flash’s origin story in Showcase #4 and contributed several more tales to his subsequent Showcase appearances before finally returning to the character for an extended run as regular writer on The Flash in 1970.

John Broome scripted the majority of the Silver Age Flash tales, beginning with the second story in Showcase #4 (the issue which launched the character’s new incarnation) and continuing on The Flash until 1970. Prior to the Flash, Broome had accumulated a lively résumé of comic book credits, including Captain Marvel and the rest of the Marvel Family, the Golden Age Green Lantern, the Justice Society of America, Captain Comet, the Silver Age revival of Green Lantern, the Atomic Knights, Batman, Star Hawkins, Rex the Wonder Dog, Detective Chimp, and a variety of science fiction tales. Broome retired from comics in the 1970s and passed away in 1999.

The man most closely associated with the Silver Age Flash, Carmine Infantino began working in comics in the mid-1940s as the artist on such features as Green Lantern, Black Canary, Ghost Patro,l and the original Golden Age Flash. Infantino lent his unique style to a variety of superhero, supernatural, and Western features throughout the 1950s until he was tapped to pencil the 1956 revival of the Flash. While continuing to pencil The Flash, he also provided the art for other strips, including Batman, The Elongated Man and Adam Strange. Infantino became DC’s editorial director in 1967 and ultimately its president before returning to freelancing in 1976. Since then he has penciled and inked numerous features, including the Batman newspaper strip, Green Lantern Corps, and Danger Trail.