Even with this large amount of comic books that have been collected in trade paperbacks, there are still a number of great comic books that have never been reprinted (I'd say roughly 60% of them are DC Comics from the 1980s through the mid-1990s). So every day this month I will spotlight a different cool comic book that is only available as a back issue. Here is an archive of the comic books featured so far.

I want you folks to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com with your suggestions for comics that I should feature this month. I'd like to see what you all would like to see get more attention.

After the nice response to the previous piece I did on William Messner-Loebs' Flash run, I knew I had to use this issue, as well, when we gained one of the few openly gay superhero supporting characters in DC Comics History in 1991's Flash #53, written by William Messner-Loebs and drawn by Greg La Rocque and Jose Marzan, Jr.

Enjoy!

In Flash #53, there is a fun story where Superman teams up with the Flash to save Jimmy Olsen from a bad guy who is demanding (in exchange for Jimmy) a supposedly dead dictator from a South American country. Flash's mission is to find that dictator (as his speed makes him a very good finder of stuff).

It's an interesting tale. Here a couple of pages from this story...

La Rocque does a really nice job on Superman there.

Of course, though, the REAL highlight of the issue is this opening sequence, featuring Wally West talking things over with his former foe and current friend, the Pied Piper...

Really well done passage, particularly for 1991.

Be sure to try to snare a copy of this issue to see how the situation is resolved. It's really well-handled by Loebs.