Review- FLASH GORDON SUNDAYS 1941-1944: THE FALL OF MING

FLASH GORDON SUNDAYS 1941-1944: THE FALL OF MING (Titan, 2013; Hardcover)

Collects Flash Gordon Sunday strips from January 19, 1941- August 13, 1944

Writers: Don Moore and Alex Raymond

Artists: Alex Raymond and Austin Briggs (April 30- August 13, 1944)

Alex Raymond is one of the greatest comic artists of all time. No, make that one of the greatest artists of all time, period. One of the reasons that I have such a hard time taking so many modern artists seriously is because of artists of Raymond's caliber who set the bar so high that pretty much everything else comes up short. This may sound harsh or snobbish but I call them as I see them. His layouts, panel composition, and vehicle, city, and clothing designs became the template for futuristic scenes for decades to come. Everything that you love owes a debt to Alex Raymond.

Raymond began simplifying and streamlining his style as 1944 wore on, with him eventually turning the strip over to Austin Briggs. While Briggs is a fine, fine artist in his own right it is like when Tommy Bolin stepped in for Richie Blackmore in Deep Purple. As fine as his style is, you can't follow that no matter how hard you try.

This was a wonderful read, devoid of humor and snark. Stuff like this makes many modern comics seem laughable and amateurish and only reinforces my disdain of event driven crossovers and “mature” comics. Titan has announced a fourth and fifth book in the line but neither have materialized, and it has been a while now so I am getting worried that they won't ever see the light of day.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- These strip collections are in “landscape format”, which means that they horizontal in layout.

Linework and Color restoration: These are cleaned up scans from newspaper pages, so the anomalies found there (off register printing, line bleed, etc.) are at times present here. Some of the later strips are from slightly inferior sources but look perfectly fine. The IDW collections of this same material boast full blown restoration. The long out of print Nostalgia Press books were shot from the original art.

Paper stock: Thick uncoated stock.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding, lays perfectly flat. This book will last the rest of your life.

Hardback cover notes: No dustjacket. Image is on the paper casewrap. Casewrap has spot varnish and effects like foil dye on the logo. Coating is thick and scuff resistant. 

Review- FLASH GORDON: THE TYRANT OF MONGO- SUNDAYS 1937-1941

FLASH GORDON: THE TYRANT OF MONGO- SUNDAYS 1937-1941 (Titan, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects Flash Gordon Sunday strips from April 25, 1937- January 12, 1941

Writer: Don Moore

Artist: Alex Raymond

Alex Raymond is the greatest comic strip/ comic book artist of all time, bar none. I am confident in making this statement after reading this book and poring over every panel. The man was a genius, end of story. I'll go a little further out on that limb and say that Raymond and Norman Rockwell were the greatest artists of the 20^th century. There! Now that I've either won you over or completely lost you with that statement, you know exactly where I stand. 

Flash Gordon was obviously a huge influence on a young George Lucas. You can see it everywhere in the strip, from Arboria (the city in the trees), to the Great Mongo Desert, to Frigia (the frozen world in the unexplored northern hemisphere of Mongo), to Princess Leia's ear muff hairstyle which was obviously lifted from Queen Fria's, to Dale's “slave girl” outfit when she was captured by Ming. The seeds to Star Wars are everywhere in this strip. 

While Ming the Merciless' appearance may be considered somewhat offensive and stereotypical to modern sensibilities, one has to take into account the world at the time these were released. Also, I say that folks are way too sensitive. People get their panties in a bunch over the tiniest thing these days. Grow a pair and man up. 

Alex Raymond's creature designs are so imaginative. Remember, there was no television when these strips were originally published, and little in the way of true precursors save Buck Rogers. Raymond seemed to make character designs on the fly. His architecture and costume designs were equally inventive. He created entire worlds and cultures with reckless abandon. I envy the creative freedom he must have had in a time where he could make a trail where few, if any, had gone before him. He could boldly go where no man had gone before him and let his imagination run wild, confident that whatever he came up with was original. 

Don Moore's writing is excellent if at times repetitive. There is a recurring theme of Flash meeting a king and the queen immediately falling in love with Flash, which makes Dale jealous of him. Dale always fell prey to another women making a move on him when she enters a room, etc. These strips were published a week apart, so some of these plots and threads can seem repetitive when read over the course of a month or two instead of over several years like they would be if you had read them when they were originally published.

Flash's Power-Man outfit (Mongo's electric company, if you will) is such an obvious influence on the design of (DC's) the Flash's Silver Age costume, which debuted in 1959, some 19 years after this, that I can't believe that they weren't sued. 

If I had to pick a favorite arc in this book, it would have to be The Ice Kingdom of Mongo, which ran for 57 weeks (or 57 pages in this book). The creatures of Frigia are amazing, and so is the design of the kingdom and vehicles. Again, Alex Raymond's designs were out of this world, no pun intended. I love how the strip shifts seamlessly to spaceships battling in the sky to underwater battles to battles in the snow, sword fights, giants...anything and everything goes here. I love it. 

Volume 3 was supposed to be out months ago and is due out any time now. I can tolerate the tardiness because the end product is worth the wait. I'd rather Titan take an extra month or three and make it perfect then have the book come out on the originally solicited release date and be a piece of shit that I have to live with for the rest of my life. Your mileage, as always, may vary. I look forward to reading the next volume, which will finish Alex Raymond's legendary run, and the fourth and fifth ones as well.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- IDW has been doing their own reprints of this same material. I have compared them side by side (my friend has them), and I am at a loss to pick a winner. You know what? There are no losers when it comes to reading Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon. Whichever one you buy, rest assured that it will be awesome.

Linework and Color restoration rating: 4 out of 5. The restoration is high resolution scans with the yellowing removed. They are generally excellent, although there are a few pages that look so-so (many of the 1937 strips). My guess is that this was the result of inferior source material (poorly printed strips) rather than the scanning itself.

The four color printing process used in comic books of this period is primitive and yields often lackluster results. Newspapers must have used superior printing processes, as the line bleed and off register coloring is at an absolute minimum. I am blown away by the smoothness of the original color blends. While I adore fully restored material like the Marvel Masterworks and DC Archives lines, this original color palette has a soft, muted blend to it and blends so well that you can at times forget that these were actually dots. The original printed strips were that well done. Incredible.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Wonderful uncoated stock paper. There is zero light glare and it can be read under any kind of lighting. I read different paper stocks under different kinds of lighting due to glare. Some are best in natural sunlight, others in florescent lighting, others in incandescent light. Yes, I am that mentally ill.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. Sewn binding with room for the casing to flex, allowing the book to lay perfectly flat from the first page to the last. A plus plus! I'll admit that I worry about the long term durability of the binding on all strip books since they are horizontal in length. My OCD will force me to store this one spine down so as to take the strain off of the binding long term. Or you could use a pad of the strip Post-It notes at the end of the book to prop it up. #nerdworldproblems

Hardback cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. There is no dustjacket on this book. The image is printed on the hardback itself. The coating is highly durable and scuff resistant. The gold lettering is a nice touch.

Buy FLASH GORDON: SUNDAYS 1937-1941- THE TYRANT OF MONGO HC at InStockTrades!

Challenge- Flash Gordon: IDW vs. Titan

I occasionally do videos, like the infamous Marvel Vs. DC Omnibus ones that made the rounds at Bleeding Cool a year ago. Those can be seen on my youtube channel, which you can find by watching the video below. My friend, OCD enabler and partner-in-crime Ferjo Byroy swears by the IDW Flash Gordon book. I enjoyed the Titan...but which is superior? YOU decide!

Review- FLASH GORDON: SUNDAYS 1934-1937- ON THE PLANET MONGO

FLASH GORDON: SUNDAYS 1934-1937- ON THE PLANET MONGO (Titan, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects the Flash Gordon Sunday strips from January 1, 1934- April 18, 1937

Writer: Don Moore

Artist: Alex Raymond

The impact that Flash Gordon has had on comic books, the world of science fiction, and on popular culture as a whole is immense. While the character lives on in a new series from Dynamite Entertainment, most people these days seem to know Flash Gordon best from the Queen song Flash from the 1980 feature film. That's how it started for me at least. Flash Gordon started out as a copycat competitor to Buck Rogers, but Alex Raymond's brilliant artwork quickly set it apart. 

There is a great introduction in this book which gives the reader context of America at the time. Bear in mind that this strip predates television and all comic book superheroes. All of these wild scenarios, locales, aliens, and characters are without precedent. You had pulp heroes around this time such as the Shadow, Tarzan, and Doc Samson, but none of them flew around in spaceships, battled Hawkmen, or met and fought entire undersea kingdoms. Kingdoms that predate both the Sub-Mariner and his clone, Aquaman, by the way. 

The writing and artwork are both excellent, especially for the era. This was a tough read for the first third of the book. I had a hard time getting into it. The artwork was great and kept getting better, but the story was dry. Once the writing clicked and there was a serial arc-driven continuity, I couldn't put the book down. If you can look past the faulty science and seemingly cheesy animal names and bear in mind how groundbreaking this stuff was you'll enjoy it. If you read it strictly by 2013 standards you might be disappointed in the story but not the artwork. Alex Raymond is, if not the greatest, in the top five greatest comic book artists of all time. No brag, just the facts. 

One thing that I find kind of funny is how honor bound all of these primitive kingdoms are. Flash usually makes some sort of challenge, beats their king or top warrior, and is granted his freedom or the kingdom. These strips are quaint and fun, especially when taken in their proper historical context. 

For decades these strips were in the hands of private collectors, lost to the mists of time. You could spend a lifetime trying to collect them all and still wind up empty handed. Here you can get high quality presentation at an affordable price, considering the restoration and high production values of this book. I give thanks to the original science fiction fans who saved these strips from oblivion. 

I was surprised at how many scenarios from the 1980 movie were taken from these vintage strips. It makes sense, but it was still surprising since Hollywood always knows best. Now sing it with me: Flash! Aaah-aaaahhh!! Saviour of the universe!

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This material has been issued several times over the years from various publishers. Many fans seem to prefer the IDW books, but I am happy with this book.

BUYER BEWARE NOTICE: There is a recalled version of this book making the rounds. Titan originally published this in May of 2012 and the book omitted two strips and repeated two others. These were recalled and given out to retailers as comp copies. Many of these were dumped onto the secondary market and eBay. Compounding this problem is that the corrected edition, which was released in October of 2012, also states in the indicia that it was published in May of 2012. Titan did everything within their power to remove this inferior, defective book from the market. They should have pulped the run rather than give them out to dealers, as I have read multiple reports of people getting defective copies, even from the almighty Amazon.com.

Linework restoration rating: 4 out of 5. These are straight up scans of the original strips. The first half of the book has a few rough patches, the result of inferior source material. It's not bad by any stretch but is not as clear as the latter half of the book. This is not Prince Valiant quality, but those are sourced from pristine printer proofs. There are a few pages that are iffy but the high quality of the rest of the scans lifts the rating up to a 4.

Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. Coloring can't get any more authentic than the original material. Since these are scans, this qualifies since they only filtered out the excess yellowing of the pulp paper. I am really impressed with the print quality given the primitive oil based ink four color printing process. Clearly newspapers used superior printing processes than the comic books of the Golden Age, as line bleed is at an absolute minimum here.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Beautiful, thick uncoated stock. Plus it has that glorious toxic Chinese ink aroma.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. Wonderful sewn binding with the casing not glued square to the spine, allowing the book to lay perfectly flat as god intended.

Hardback cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. There is no dustjacket for this book. The image is screen printed on the hardback itself with a reasonably thick coating. I found no scuffs or marks on it after reading the book. The gold color dye in the cover stamping is a nice touch.