Fans from around the world continue to find inspiration when meeting JOHN WESLEY SHIPP the only actor to have traversed the Golden Age and Silver Age of THE FLASH and still keeping step with the journey of the hero!
With a career that began with a stint in Daytime Dramas (and landed him two consecutive Emmy Award wins) and morphed into roles in the most critically acclaimed primetime series of their time, actor John Wesley Shipp has traveled the world and is still most well known for originating the role of CSI investigator Barry Allen on the 1990 CBS adventure The Flashbased on the DC Comics character.
He recently traveled to Peru as a guest to celebrate Día del Comic Festival 2018, the capital city of Lima’s own version of Comic-Con and received an overwhelming rock star reception, as more than 100,000 guests attended the event all eager to meet their hero and get a selfie with John. Among the multitude of events there were several Q&A sessions, one in particular was hosted outdoors. Over the weekend, John shook hands and answered questions about his time on The Flash.
Lightning struck twice for Shipp when in 2014 he was invited to join the cast of The CW’s The Flash a proper spin-off to the network’s other hit Arrow that introduced a primetime inundation of genre shows capitalizing on the DC universe of superheroes. John has had the unique experience of res-establishing himself within the mythology in the role of Henry Allen, the father of Barry Allen opposite Grant Gustin who has assumed the title role of the Scarlet Speedster.
At the conclusion of the Second Season, in a turn of events no one (including Shipp himself) had seen coming, Henry became the latest victim of the villainous Zoom who exacts his vendetta against Barry by hurting the ones he loves most, but the prisoner held captive in Zoom’s Earth-2 retreat was another speedster and a hero from Earth-3. That earth’s “Flash” in fact — Jay Garrick, and Henry Allen’s doppelgänger!
Shipp recently recurred again as Jay Garrick for Season Four’s speedster-heavy team-up episode “Enter Flashtime” written by series writer Sterling Gates which had Flash enlist the help of both Earth-2’s Jesse Quick (guest star Violett Beane) and Jay Garrick in order to keep a nuclear device from destroying Central City. The episode introduced a new super-power for our heroes and featured another glimpse into the enduring legacy of this iconic character.
Now in the running shoes of the veteran speedster, John Wesley Shipp is in the unique position of having portrayed the Golden Age version of The Flash, and his Silver Age counterpart, as well as the modern interpretation of the hero’s father Henry, and passing the baton not only into the worthy hands of Gustin, but also tipping his hat to the cinematic Flash played by Ezra Miller in the Justice League motion picture. It’s a legacy that Shipp is very proud to be a part of.
John Wesley Shipp will be making additional appearances through the summer and will be appearing Birmingham, UK for Showmasters Film & Comic ConJune 2 – 3 (filmandcomicconbirmingham.com) and the Greater Austin Comic-Conin Cedar Park, Texas, June 16 – 17 (greateraustincomiccon.com). Visit website for convention and ticket information.
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