In Central City, which exists only in a world created by D.C. Comics, there’s a museum devoted to the local superhero, the Flash. In Chicago the Flash Museum, as dreamed up by Matt Streets, is located in Graham Crackers Comics (77 E. Madison), where Streets is a manager.
Streets joined Graham Crackers in 2000 and began his Flash museum soon thereafter. What began as a few action figures on his desk grew into a collection that now overflows two shelves in the store. The Flash Museum consists mainly of action figures, but also includes comic books, buttons, T-shirts, and other miscellanea. It adds up to about 40 or 50 items, not including the Flash collectibles Streets has at home. Some action figures date back to the 80s, some comic books to the 60s.
The combination of Flash’s superpower—incredible speed—and his costume’s sleek, simple design is what made him Streets’s favorite character. The lighter tone of the Flash comic books also added to the appeal.
“[They were] not quite as dark as some of the superhero books were in the late 90s and the early part of the 21st century,” he says. “It still kind of had an element of awe and wonderment to it. It was fun to recapture some of that feeling.”
Got something to show us? showus@chicagoreader.com