In a striking departure from the expected seriality of the prints and paintings, Warhol produced Flash -November 32, 1963 (II.32 - 42), a 1968 portfolio of eleven prints that extended his earlier interest in the assassination of John F. Kennedy and is related to the paintings and prints of Jackie Kennedy. Ready-made images, fragmented and non- linear, are joined by words that recount the story of Kennedy's murder through the news photos capturing the event and the Teletype report announcing the tragedy to the world. The unexpected colors make the event more surreal than real. Though this portfolio comes close in structure to the illustrated books Warhol produced throughout the 1950s, it has an affinity with later more abstract works. One particular print (II.32), in black and gray inks, virtually dematerializes Kennedy's face, a transformation that results in an afterimage, or imprint left on the brain. The portfolio's cover is based on the front page of the New York World Telegram for November 22, the day of Kennedy's assassination, and is overlaid with flowers. Ironically, in 1968, an assassination attempt was made on Warhol's life by Valerie Solans, a writer and activist, and he was hospitalized for two months.
— Frayda Feldman and Jörg Schellmann, Andy Warhol Prints, p. 25
