Back in the day BBC didn't have any morning television until the school holidays and then they filled the time with an odd mixture of cheap homegrown product, strange shows from Eastern Europe (The Singing Ringing Tree is still disturbing) and classic American shows like Champion, the Wonder Horse and old cinema serials. The best of these to a burgeoning sf reader like myself was Flash Gordon with Buster Crabbe in the title role and Charles Middleton as Ming. Everything may have been made of cardboard and rubber but there was a genuine sense of wonder about it.

Over the years I had heard of the Alex Raymond depiction of Flash but I had never investigated it to any extent. Finding myself at a loose end and wanting something light to read I found a copy of the original adventures to read. (FG wasn't the first newspaper sf series, that was Buck Rogers. Raymond was asked to create a rival strip to Rogers, and the new strip soon overshadowed the original).

First off, Alex Raymond was a great artist, everything looks beautiful – all the heroes look like Greek Gods and the women like Goddesses. It is incredible how much of Raymond's vision reached the cinema (in both the 1930's and 1980 versions) – most of the design is simply lifted from the strip – even the garish colouring of the 1980 film resembles the strip: the colouring is the one area that lets the strip down visually. Raymond wasn't flawless though, some of the monsters look more like children's toys than vicious space creatures, although again some of that is down to the colouring – nowadays when we see a giant purple dinosaur-like creature we think of 'Barney', rather than feeling fear (although 'Barney' is, in his own way, very frightening). There is no doubt that Raymond's illustrations had a profound affect on the look and feel of exotic science fiction for subsequent generations.

A comic strip comprises two disciplines however – illustration and writing (Raymond didn't actually write the script, it was ghostwritten by Don Moore) – and what lets FG down is the writing. It would be wrong to expect great writing on a comic strip but coherence is usually a useful skill. Firstly, it is written in a slightly odd style – rather than words and art working together to move the story together; the words state something, and then it is illustrated – they effectively duplicate each other. The problems with continuity are hilarious, especially when it comes to Flash himself – one minute he hasn't seen a spaceship, the next he flying one in a dogfight; nothing phases Flash, he adapts to very situation, very piece of technology instantly. (Of course, this could be down to his skill as an international polo player – never having played polo I can't comment on that). This is virtually never a panel of pause, as if the creators were paranoid about reader attention span. My favourite character is Prince Thun (lion-man), who is the missing fourth Stooge: never, with the exception of Tonto in the 1950's Lone Ranger tv series, has a character been knocked unconscious in so many different ways at crucial times. You have to wonder he why he even bothers to get up again.
As for the plot, if you have ever seen or read any Flash Gordon at all, you know the plot.

Overall ( )

3rd printing 2007; I love it! ( )

Alex Raymod was quite a dreamer. He envisioned so many fantastic things with his comic strip. He was a fantastic storyteller and artist. I'm glad to have a sampling of his work in this book. I would enjoy it even more if it more plausible science fiction, but it is enjoyable reading nonetheless. Of course, there is a world of difference between the comic strip and the TV series that followed with Larry "Buster" Crabbe. I like them both. ( )

"Flash Gordon" [newspaper strip] (January 7, 1934 to April 14, 1935)

[Chapter 1, "On the Planet Mongo"] (Jan. 7, 1934 - Apr. 15, 1934), [Chapter 2, "Monsters of Mongo"] (Apr. 22, 1934 - Nov. 18, 1934), [Chapter 3, "Tournaments of Mongo"] (Nov. 25, 1934 - Feb. 24, 1935), ["Caverns of Mongo"] (Mar. 3, 1935 - Apr. 14, 1935)
Credits: Alex Raymond (writer/artist).

Significant characters: Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, Dr. Hans Zarkov, Prince Thun (of the Lion Men), Prince Barin, Khan, Ming the Merciless, Princess Aura, Kala (of the Shark Men), King Vultan (of the Hawkmen), Zug (chief of the Cavemen), The Lizard Men.

Reprinted In: Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon Volume 1 (2003).

Summary: My chronological reading plan starts way back here with the first of the "Flash Gordon" newspaper strips from 1934 to 1935 (although as I receive new reprint collections I will doubtlessly be dropping back from time to time to earlier years again; for instance, I've already got the first volumes in the "Popeye" and "Dick Tracy" newspaper strip reprint series, and those start in 1928 and 1931, respectively, and I'll also be including bits of Disney comic strips from this period as well).

This first volume in the Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon series reprints just over the first year of the strip. "Flash Gordon" is an interesting strip right from the start, but anyone reading volume one of this reprint series will notice right away the amazing transformation the strip underwent during its first year. The earliest strips tend to be very "crowded", three tiers of three equally shaped small rectangular panels per tier (or row) plus a fourth tier with one panel just like the ones above it and one last extra long panel to finish up the page (and in some cases not even that last double long panel, instead exactly four tiers of four identically spaced panels to a page). This by necessity makes the artwork rather small and the text a bit hard to read. Raymond was obviously trying to fit a lot of story into each individual strip at this point. And a good bit happens in each strip, accordingly.

Around July 1934, however, Raymond starts to experiment a bit more with the layout, using extra long panels and, more importantly, extra tall panels, giving the strip a much more dynamic look. By the last story arc in this collection ("Caverns of Mongo", Nov. 25, 1934 to Feb. 24, 1935), the strips averaged four to six panels per page. But they are nice, big panels, lush with detail. No more squinting required!

The stories themselves are silly yet fun at the same time. We are introduced to the primary characters of Flash Gordon and Dale Arden right from the first strip. A "strange new planet" is on a collision course with the Earth (I know, I know; don't question it, just go along with it; remember, this is more "space fantasy" than actual "science fiction" we're dealing with here). Flash and Dale are taken at gunpoint by Dr. Zarkov (who thinks at first that they are spies) in his rocket ship to this strange planet and they manage to deflect its course so that it won't crash into the Earth. This is all in the first two Sunday strips. After this point Earth is no more than occasional referred to as the strip's focus shifts to following Flash's and Dale's adventures on this strange new world, Planet Mongo.

They instantly are taken to the evil ruler of Mongo, Ming the Merciless. Ming decides to make Dale his wife (he already has several) and that Flash should be killed. The first story arc ("On the Planet Mongo", Jan. 7, 1934 - Apr. 15, 1934) deal with Flash's escape from Mongo, his initial encounter with Ming's daughter, Princess Aura (who becomes so enamored with Flash as to work against Flash's efforts to rescue Dale), Flash's meeting a new ally in Thun, prince of the Lion Men, and the three's (Flash, Dale, and Thun) escape from the Shark Men. (Whew! See what I meant about Raymond's squeezing a lot into these early strips?)

The second story arc ("Monsters of Mongo", Apr. 22, 1934 - Nov. 18, 1934), picks up right where the previous "chapter" leaves off. Matter a fact, the previous week's strip finished with a cliffhanger (as they usually do), not with an apparent story arc ending. "Monsters" finds Flash joining forces with Thun and Prince Barin in attempting to overthrow Ming and to rescue Dale (who has been recaptured by Ming). Flash, Thun, and Barin are captured, and Flash chooses to undergo the two "terrible tests" rather than being executed. Succeeding in his tests, the three men are sent as slaves to the prison city of the Hawkmen (seemingly starting a new story arc according to a note at the end of the June 10, 1934 installment but the reprint does not acknowledge this, keeping it all part of "Monsters of Mongo"). Jumping ahead a bit, the group (the three men and Dale) end up prisoners of the Hawkmen (Dale once again in the position of being forced to marry a tyrant king) and they must escape from the Hawkmen's floating city.

The third story arc ("Tournaments of Mongo", Nov. 25, 1934 - Feb. 24, 1935), focuses on a tournament Flash enters. The tournament is called for by the king of the Hawkmen (who is by now an ally of Flash and company) in order to prevent Ming from taking Flash captive again. The winner of the tournament gets any post in the empire, short of emperor, and any woman for his bride. All but one (the winner) must die in the tournament, however. Many enter the tournament (including, secretly, Prince Barin, for he desires Princess Aura). The rest of the story arc focuses on the different stages of the tournament. Ultimately it comes down to Flash and Prince Barin, and when Prince Barin's identity is revealed, it is determined that both Flash and Barin will receive kingdoms of their own. Ming, however, grants them unconquered kingdoms however as one last trick against them. To Flash and Dale goes the "Kingdom of the Caves".

Finally, the last story arc in this reprint collection ("Caverns of Mongo", Mar. 3, 1935 - Apr. 14, 1935), deals with Flash's and Dale's first adventures in the "Kingdom of the Caves". Flash initially meets with resistance from the Cavemen but he soon convinces them that he is their new lord and master after defeating their king, Zug, in hand-to-hand combat. Soon after this, however, Flash is ambushed and taken captive by the Lizard Men. Recovering from the attack, Flash overcomes his captors and reunites with Dale and their loyal contingent of Hawkmen and Cavemen.

I've never really read Flash Gordon much in the past (the sole exception being the 1988 Flash Gordon series by DC). I briefly picked up the first volume of the Mac Raboy's Flash Gordon reprint series back when I was reading my 1950s comics but right around that time had my mishap which led to my deciding to go back instead to my 1930s material instead. I'm glad that I did as I had a hard time getting into Raboy's material as I had no idea who the characters really were yet. Going back and starting at the beginning of the strip really helped me to enjoy it much more and I now look forward to the rest of the Raymond volumes and the Mac Raboy strips as well.

As you can probably tell from my comments above, much of Raymond's "Flash Gordon" is high fantasy. "Hawkmen", "Lizard Men", "Cavemen", etc. It's really all comes across like a sort of combination of "Star Wars" (or, rather, "Buck Rogers", which "Flash Gordon" was initially created to be a sort of knock-off of and competition for) and "Chronicles of Narnia" (which also has all sorts of talking animal-men). I know that it all sounds quite outlandish, and it is, really. But Raymond's art really is perfect for this strip, especially once he gets to the really big panels of the later story arcs in this collection. ( )