[1] 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.

After World War II, superheroes declined in popularity, causing many of the Flash's comic book series to be canceled.

However, starting in 1976, Garrick became a regular character in the revived All-Star Comics, partaking in adventures with the Justice Society in stories set in modern times.

Unlike characters such as Batman or Superman, DC decided not to update Jay as a young hero but portrayed him as a veteran of World War II with a magically prolonged lifespan.

After a brief career as a college football star, he dons a red shirt with a lightning bolt and a stylized metal helmet with wings (based on images of the Roman god Mercury).

[7] Later stories would show him as having his identity secret, and that he maintains it without the use of a mask by constantly "vibrating" his face, making him difficult to recognize or clearly photograph.

[8] During his career, he would often find himself embroiled in semi-comic situations inadvertently initiated by Winky, Blinky, and Noddy, a trio of tramps known as the Three Dimwits, who tried their hand at one job after another, never successfully.

His first case involves battling the Faultless Four, a group of blackmailers (Sieur Satan, Serge Orloff, Duriel, and Smythe), who plot to steal an atomic bombarder and sell it.

It is later revealed that a professor named Edward Clariss found the last container of heavy water vapor and used it to gain super-speed, becoming the Rival.

Like the Flashes who followed him, Garrick became a close friend of Green Lantern Alan Scott, whom he met through the Justice Society of America.

The All-Star Squadron Annual #3 issue states that the JSA fought a being named Ian Karkull, who imbued them with energy that slowed their aging, allowing Garrick and many others – as well as their girlfriends and sidekicks – to remain active into the late 20th century without infirmity.

The rest of the JSA soon joined the Flash, although their activities during the 1960s (other than their annual meeting with Earth-One's Justice League of America) were unrecorded, although it is clear that Garrick and Green Lantern (Alan Scott) were good friends.

An updated story suggests that Keystone in this new continuity was rendered invisible and wiped from the memories of the world for many years through the actions of several supervillains.

[12] Of the three original JSA members still on the team (along with Alan Scott and Wildcat), Jay takes a fatherly approach toward his teammates and the DC superhero community in general.

[13][dubious – discuss] Soon after this, he holds a funeral for Alan Scott, who is killed defeating the villain D'arken, and tells the Justice Society that they must endure.

In the Outsiders: One Year Later story arc, a clone of the character called Velocity appears as an antagonist, created by the Brotherhood of Evil.

This makes it difficult for Checkmate to find a way to wake him and undo his brainwash, because, even with his special suit, tailored to stave the degenerating process, he would be doomed to a slow death whenever he awakens from his suspended animation.

After the events of the Brightest Day, Garrick and the rest of the JSA travel to the city of Monument Point, which has been attacked by a superpowered terrorist named Scythe.

[17][full citation needed] In the following story, it is revealed that Scythe is the product of Nazi genetic engineering, and that Scott and Garrick had been tasked by the president with killing him back when he was in infancy during World War II.

[19][full citation needed] Jade visits her bedridden father in the Emerald City, and offers to use her abilities to help him walk again.

Due to the entity's ability to absorb powers from superhumans in its vicinity, only non-superpowered and magical members fight D'arken.

[26][27] The New Golden Age storyline reveals that Jay and Joan had a daughter named Judy who was the former's sidekick before being kidnapped by the Time Masters.

The limits of his speed have fluctuated over the years, though he has usually been second to DC's "flagship" Flash, Barry Allen and his successor, Wally West.