Jay Garrick

Jason Peter "Jay" Garrick is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the first character known as the Flash. The character first appeared in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940), created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert.

In the original Golden Age comics, Jay Garrick gained his speed-enhancing abilities by inhaling hard water vapor during a lab experiment. This accident granted him superhuman speed and agility, allowing him to become the Flash and fight crime.

Jay Garrick has made numerous appearances in other media. For television series on The CW, John Wesley Shipp portrayed the character as a recurring character in The Flash and in a guest capacity in Stargirl. Additionally, Billy Mitchell played the character's live-action debut as a cameo in Smallville, with a cameo appearance in The Flash (2023) portrayed via CGI and modeled after editor Jason Ballantine.

Creation

The character of Jay Garrick was created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert. In an interview, Lampert commented on the character's creation. "The idea of the Flash was Gardner Fox's idea...it was supposed to be based upon the god Mercury… I went into the dictionary and there's the most beautiful rendition of Mercury and then I took my Flash and superimposed [them together] and they were almost identical, the pose is the same except a few doodads, and as I did it, I kept it as close as possible to that graceful attitude."

Publication history

Jay Garrick first appeared in Flash Comics #1, which was published in 1940 by All-American Publications. He was soon featured in All-Star Comics as part of the Justice Society of America. In 1941, he received a solo comic book series, All-Flash.