These are big-time days for comic-book writers, and right now no one is bigger than Geoff Johns, the scribe who had the surreal experience this year of walking on the same stage as Keith Richards, Johnny Depp and the cast of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon"  at the Scream Awards. The 36-year-old Detroit native picked up the Scream trophy for best comic-book writer. This year, Johns wrote the six-issue miniseries "The Flash: Rebirth," which chronicled the return of Barry Allen, the most famous Flash. Today, DC announced that Johns and artist Francis Manapul would take the mythology further in March with "The Flash: Secret Files and Origins." It's a one-shot that leads up to a creative team taking over "The Flash" series, which already looks like one of the most promising runs of 2010. I caught up with Johns to talk a bit about the Scarlett Speedster.

GB: Tell me about your memories, as a reader, of Barry Allen getting killed off in 1985. It was such a jolting moment for DC readers and a pivotal point in comics history...

GJ: I had just started reading comics when the DC-altering "Crisis on Infinite Earths" came out.  One of the first comics I ever bought was the death of Barry Allen. I had seen the Flash before in animation and had really been drawn to the character, and then he died. Ironically, his death might've even been the trigger that really sucked me into the world of DC Comics. When I got to the end of "Crisis," and Wally West took on the mantle of the new Flash, I followed him into his book.  Barry's death really hit the DC Universe hard, it changed the entire makeup of it, and decades later his return is ushering in a new direction for the DC Universe.

GB: Do you feel restricted by the thicket of mythology that surrounds these characters? Even when it "doesn't count," you have to compete with it in some sense.

GJ: No. We all have a "thicket of mythology." You meet someone and they have an entire back story. A city they were born in. A best friend they lost touch with. An event that affected their whole family. A first job. Everyone has history. And every character has history. We don't meet characters the day they're born. We meet them years later. To me, it's the same thing. I think people can over-complicate the mythology, but I believe in highlighting the important parts -- that is, the events that affected them emotionally -- and moving on.

GB: Tell me about Barry Allen's voice compared to some of his heroic peers' -- what's his personality and mien?

GJ: Barry is a man who, despite what life throws at him, continues to step forward with a clear purpose and sense of who he is. He believes in justice, sometimes looking at it in black and white. He has no tolerance for those who victimize others. Before he became the Flash, Barry had trouble connecting with people emotionally, he was letting life pass him by. As the Flash, Barry found that excitement in life again and rejoined it with a vengeance. The most frustrating thing for Barry is related to his job as a member of Central City CSI. He investigates crimes that have already happened. Murders he can't stop. No matter how fast he is, that's the past.

GB: What did you want to avoid with this incarnation? In other words, what needed to be left behind for the character to run on?

GJ: Really, I look at something like "The Flash" as a long-term mission. "The Flash: Rebirth" was the knot to untangle in the shoelace before we could run. I wanted to clear the board, reexamine some key elements of Barry Allen and re-introduce a threat that would play throughout the next several years. Much in the same way as Green Lantern, I'm committed to a long-term story with the Flash and the universe around him. There's nothing that really needs to be left behind, so to speak. However, "The Flash" No. 1 that will start in April -- post-"Blackest Night" by Francis Manapul and I -- will be extremely accessible.  It's Barry Allen a.k.a. the Flash, Central City and the Rogues.

GB: Were there any lessons in Lantern experience that you can point to that helped you here?

GJ: Green Lantern is a very different beast, but if I learned anything, it was patience.  As soon as I came up with "Blackest Night," I wanted to get to it as soon as possible. But I knew I wouldn't have the proper buildup to the payoffs unless I rolled it out in the correct way. The same thing goes for "The Flash."  There are so many amazing villains and concepts within the Flash, they all deserve the proper time to explore.

GB: What are the compass points here as far as art? Flash has such a storied history, especially those Carmine Infantino years, how does that affect the present?

GJ: There are a handful of iconic Flash artists to me -- Carmine Infantino, of course, being among the top.  But speaking with Francis about his approach to the Flash and the world, thinking about the layouts, and specifically rethinking how to approach the power of speed and illustrate it in the best way possible is an ongoing conversation we're all having. But I have a very clear idea of showing the true power of super speed in a way we haven't really seen before. The Flash has always been a book at the forefront of where the rest of the superhero universe is going, and Francis Manapul and I intend to do our best to continue that tradition, yet we're starting with a very basic concept -- it's superhero "CSI."  The first arc is entitled "The Dasterdly Death of the Rogues" and it's a murder mystery, Flash-style. Which means it's anything but what it first looks like. He's my favorite character and it's great to be back with him.

-- Geoff Boucher

READ MORE ABOUT "THE FLASH: THE SECRET FILES" AT THE DC COMICS BLOG

RECENT AND RELATED

Carmine Infantino, a look back at a flashy icon

David S. Goyer on Green Lantern and the Flash as film franchises

Shhhh...Grant Morrison is "deeply involved" in "The Flash" film

For you inner Boy Wonder: Top 10 vintage Batman toys

Adam West, back in the Batmobile

VIDEO: Batman and Superman fight...to the death!

FOR THE RECORD: I referred to Barry Allen as the "original Flash" in an earlier version of this post but, of course, there was Jay Garrick in the Golden Age. I meant the "original guy in the cool all-red suit" but just to make it more precise it nows says "the most famous" Flash.

If you read DC Comics in the 1960s and '70s you were probably looking at images drawn by Carmine Infantino or influenced by him. Just as Jack Kirby was the signature force at rival Marvel Comics, Infantino was an inescapable presence at DC, where the Space Age brought a new science-based, cerebral tone that fit his angular style and sleek, kinetic flair.

Infantino was so adept at creating striking images that, after Marvel's failed 1967 attempt to steal him away, the veteran went on to become DC's artistic director ... then editorial director ... and then publisher. One of his first moves in the top post: luring Kirby away from the House of Ideas and onto the DC roster. Don't think for a minute that talent doesn't recognize talent.       

Infantino is celebrating his 84th birthday today and here at the mighty Hero Complex we thought that would be a wonderful excuse to dip into the vault and reflect on his singular style. Infantino's career stretched out six decades but it was his Silver Age work on Batman, Adam Strange and, especially, the Flash, where his elegant lines and eye-catching composition made for a special kind of magic.       

--Geoff Boucher

David S. Goyer on Green Lantern and the Flash as film franchises

Shhhh...Grant Morrison is "deeply involved" in "The Flash" film

For you inner Boy Wonder: Top 10 vintage Batman toys

Adam West, back in the Batmobile

VIDEO: Batman and Superman fight...to the death!

Silver Age memories: Fred Hembeck reeling in the years

Illustration: The Flash. Credit: Alex Ross / DC Comics  

Today's handpicked headlines from the fanboy universe...

Left-over Halloween treat: It was posted last week but I just came across a nifty photo gallery put together by Mandi Bierly, who got William Friedkin, the director "The Exorcist," to make a list of the movies that scare him. The unlucky 13 that he came up with has the usual suspects ("Alien," Psycho" and "Rosemary's Baby," all righteously scary if unsurprising) as well as some dark fare that casual movie fans won't recognize. Here, for instance, is Freidkin's appraisal of Kaneto Shindō's "Onibaba," the 1964 Japanese horror film with the title that translates to "Demon Woman": "'It's a masterpiece of horror and suspense. It's about an old woman, who has only her daughter-in-law to care for her in a remote village. She starts to see her daughter-in-law sneak out every night, and she follows her to see where she's gone — off to have sex with a man out in the weeds. This incredibly frightening, mythological Japanese demon appears every time the daughter-in-law goes out, and the pursuit by the demon through those weeds is terrifying. It's a cautionary tale about going off and sinning and not worrying about paying the price. It can send shivers up your spine like a cold hand on the back of your neck, and there's little if any blood."

Batman's "Brave" new world: I watched an advance copy of the new animated Batman team-up series, "The Brave and the Bold," with my 7-year-old son, Ben, and we both adored it. "Dad, you should write about this show," he told me. Well, son, here you go. The tone is brighter and more bouyant than most recent incarnations of the Caped Crusader (it's got clean lines and a real old-school, Dick Sprang vibe to it, in fact) but there's nothing condescending in its tone. I want to know more about the creative teams, so I read with interest an interview that Steve Fritz has with one of the show's directors, Ben Jones, who said the real fun of the show is putting the hero with a changing cast of costars: "It’s like being at a really big buffet and trying to choose between a hundred different foods. There are a lot of things that would be really awesome to do. The problem isn’t coming up with ideas. The problem is which to actually pick, especially as we only have 26 episodes. How it was done was everyone has their favorite characters ... there are a group of guest stars that appear more frequently, like Blue Beetle, Red Tornado, Green Arrow, Aquaman and, at least I’m thinking, Plastic Man." [Newsarama]

Taking a run at 'Flash' rumors: The very talented Grant Morrison is talking about "The Flash" with somebody in Hollywood but just don't ask him about it. Jennfier Vineland did and the writer of "The Invisibles," citing nondisclosure agreements, did some fancy footwork that the scarlet speedster would be proud of: “The thing with Hollywood stuff,” Morrison started to explain, “is that I’ve signed all these NDAs, so I can’t talk about it. I don’t want to get myself in trouble for saying the wrong things. There’s a lot of projects I’m not ready to talk about. I can’t. It’s just not allowed...[a Flash movie] yeah, that’s the kind of thing I can’t talk about. Yes, I have talked to them. I’m deeply involved in those discussions. I know what’s going down with all of that, and it’s actually really exciting. But beyond that, I can’t say anything. I wish I could tell you. I’m sure announcements will probably be made at some point, but I can’t say anything.” Does that mean director David Dobkin might use a Morrison idea or script? He can’t say. Does it mean he pitched it and they turned it down? Again, he can’t say." [Splash Page blog, MTV] NOTE: I had a link to this Splash Page post, but now it's been taken down by MTV.

-- Geoff Boucher

"The Exorcist" image courtesy of Warner Bros. "The Brave & the Bold" image courtesy of Warner Bros. Animation. The Flash image, art by Alex Ross, courtesy of DC Comics.

David S. Goyer is headed to International Comic-Con in two weeks to promote “The Unborn,” the horror film due in 2009 that finds the “Batman Begins” screenwriter back in the director’s chair and working with Meagan Good, Carla Gugino, Jane Alexander and Gary Oldman. Goyer is a familiar name to comics and genre film fans, of course, and he hopes to solidify that stature in the next few years with two more heroic projects: “The Flash” and “Green Arrow.”

Here’s Goyer’s approach on each:

“The Flash”: “To me, Wally West as the Flash has always been the most-Marvel of all the major DC characters. He’s like Peter Parker. He’s screwed up a lot, he’s overwhelmed. He wasn’t born as the last son of Krypton or some Amazonian princess, he’s a person who just ends up with these powers. He’s not even the first Flash, he’s sort of had this costume passed on to him by Barry Allen, he’s had to live up to this other guy who everybody admired. I like all of that. I don’t think we’ve seen a movie like that, where someone is trying to live up to the legacy of someone who came before him.”

“Green Arrow”: “We’re not even going to tell an origin story. The movie starts with Green Arrow framed for a crime and sent to a prison for meta-humans. He has to survive in this special, high-security prison with a lot of people that he put in there. And of course, he has no super powers and he’s always been such a black-and-white, moralist kind of guy, and he has to make certain relationships inside that cause him to reexamine some of his beliefs and assumptions.”