Scan barcode
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
Flash Gordon: On Planet Mongo collects the Sunday strips from 1934 to 1937.
I'm passingly familiar with Flash Gordon from the cartoon when I was a wee fellow and the Defenders of the Earth cartoon when I was slightly less wee. I've been trying to read more of the revered comic strips and threw this on my Christmas list because I'm allegedly hard to buy for.
So a comet, or more correctly, a rogue planet is headed for Earth. Flash Gordon, his soon to be girlfriend Dale Arden, and Doctor Zarkov board a rocket and find themselves on Planet Mongo and at odds with its ruler, Ming the Merciless.
The story is a Planetary Romance in the old sense, a never ending series of adventures mixing medieval weapons, rayguns, and monsters. Flash goes from one battle to the next, kicking ass and taking names, and protecting his main squeeze Dale from all the alien bad guys who want to marry her. The stories are a little repetitive but Alex Raymond probably didn't intend for me to read three years worth of strips in a week.
The art is the star of the show here, no mistake about it. I knew Alex Raymond by reputation but had no idea he was this skilled. His artistic footprints are visible even on today's comics. Once the strip gets going, the artwork plateaus into a style I see reflected later in Alex Toth, Russ Manning, Wally Wood, and a lot of other greats from the EC era and beyond.
Flash Gordon: On the Planet Mongo is an eye opening look at a Golden Age great. Four out of five stars.
I'm passingly familiar with Flash Gordon from the cartoon when I was a wee fellow and the Defenders of the Earth cartoon when I was slightly less wee. I've been trying to read more of the revered comic strips and threw this on my Christmas list because I'm allegedly hard to buy for.
So a comet, or more correctly, a rogue planet is headed for Earth. Flash Gordon, his soon to be girlfriend Dale Arden, and Doctor Zarkov board a rocket and find themselves on Planet Mongo and at odds with its ruler, Ming the Merciless.
The story is a Planetary Romance in the old sense, a never ending series of adventures mixing medieval weapons, rayguns, and monsters. Flash goes from one battle to the next, kicking ass and taking names, and protecting his main squeeze Dale from all the alien bad guys who want to marry her. The stories are a little repetitive but Alex Raymond probably didn't intend for me to read three years worth of strips in a week.
The art is the star of the show here, no mistake about it. I knew Alex Raymond by reputation but had no idea he was this skilled. His artistic footprints are visible even on today's comics. Once the strip gets going, the artwork plateaus into a style I see reflected later in Alex Toth, Russ Manning, Wally Wood, and a lot of other greats from the EC era and beyond.
Flash Gordon: On the Planet Mongo is an eye opening look at a Golden Age great. Four out of five stars.
alles_allerlei's review against another edition
4.0
Zuerst einmal ist diese Sammlung sowas von liebevoll und wirklich herzlich gestaltet, mit einem informativen Vorwort zur Geschichte des Autors und der Entstehung (und auch wandlung) des Comics rund um Flash Gordon.
Das sich dieser mit der Zeit (sicherlich auch durch seinen Erfolg) in immer detailliertere Strips wandelte merkt man schon in diesem Band und kommt der Geschichte nur zu gute.
Lediglich mit der Art und Weise wie eben zu der Zeit erzählt wurde (alles geht schlag auf schlag und man kommt kaum zum Luftholen) fans ich ein wenig schade, ist aber sicherlich auch dem Geschuldete, dass ja die Leser jede Woche aufs neue dazu angehalten werden mussten weiter zu kaufen und zu lesen.
Dafür - weil es eben nicht so ganz mein Persönlicher Geschmack ist - der Stern Abzug.
Dennoch freueich mich sehr über diese Neuauflage und bin gespannt wie es mit Flash Gordon in den nächsten Sammelbänden weiter gehen wird.
Das sich dieser mit der Zeit (sicherlich auch durch seinen Erfolg) in immer detailliertere Strips wandelte merkt man schon in diesem Band und kommt der Geschichte nur zu gute.
Lediglich mit der Art und Weise wie eben zu der Zeit erzählt wurde (alles geht schlag auf schlag und man kommt kaum zum Luftholen) fans ich ein wenig schade, ist aber sicherlich auch dem Geschuldete, dass ja die Leser jede Woche aufs neue dazu angehalten werden mussten weiter zu kaufen und zu lesen.
Dafür - weil es eben nicht so ganz mein Persönlicher Geschmack ist - der Stern Abzug.
Dennoch freueich mich sehr über diese Neuauflage und bin gespannt wie es mit Flash Gordon in den nächsten Sammelbänden weiter gehen wird.
erichart's review against another edition
5.0
The story has dated badly, but the artwork is still gorgeous. Each page is action-packed; no wonder the comic strip lent itself so well to episodic movie serials. I was suprised by how sensuous it all was: every princess lusting after Flash, and every Prince or King, starting with Ming, trying to take Dale as his wife. It gets funny after a while.
Highly recommended for those interested in the history of comics and SF.
Highly recommended for those interested in the history of comics and SF.
bookwomble's review
4.0
I was surprised at how closely the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon movie serial adheres to its source material, presented in sumptuous style in this collection. Created as an answer to the science fiction, space opera adventures of the Buck Rogers newspaper serial, I think Flash's adventures owe a greater debt to the planetary romance and lost world genres of [a:Edgar Rice Burroughs|10885|Edgar Rice Burroughs|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1207155710p2/10885.jpg]' John Carter and Caspak novels, the war-torn planet of Mongo with its many-coloured peoples standing in for Barsoom, and the wild lands tormented by giant monsters (Devourosaurus being a particular personal favourite!) reminiscent of Caprona.
There's also a Ruritanian feel to some of the political machinations and empire building plots; an unreflective acceptance of Flash's imperialistic ambitions. Ming is 'Merciless' and a despotic tyrant, but when he promises to make Flash a king, only to reveal that the promised country is not held under his sway, Flash glibly recruits an army and takes his weapons of mass destruction to slaughter and subdue a people of whose existence he had previously been unaware, and whose right of self-determination is not considered and clearly of no consequence to him. Published in the mid 1930s, it sadly seems that many politicians still hold these attitudes today.
Anyway, dubious politics aside, the adventures are inevitably episodic and wholly action-oriented, with no character development and the main motivations given as obsessive passions of love, hate and revenge. This is a weakness or a strength depending on one's preferences. For me it's a venture into juvenile escapism that I sometimes feel the need for. While the story lines are fairly static and formulaic, though not without charm, the artwork definitely does evolve. Tightly contained in gridiron panels for the initial six months of the original publication schedule, there starts to be a slight freeing of the page layout, although it takes a further six months or so for Raymond to really gain confidence (if, indeed, that was what was previously lacking, rather than, perhaps, some restriction of the newspaper medium he was working in) and to start presenting his panels in a more fluid, less linear fashion. The detail and intricacy of the artwork certainly benefits from the change, capturing a certain epic sweep which looks like it might be story boards for Hollywood historical blockbusters like Ben Hur.
Naturally, the book ends in the middle of an adventure - Flash is always enmired in some plot, the resolution of one thread leading immediately into another perilous cliffhanger. I could easily go on to read the next volume without pause, while at the same time feeling no urgency to do so: every pause in reading has been at a pivotal moment of danger, so I've become inured to that narrative device. Whether or not I'm there to read it, I'm confident that Dale will be kidnapped, that Flash will hunt down and kill/befriend the abductor, that whatever life-threatening position Flash finds himself in, Zarkov will build a ray-machine out of brown paper and string which will save the day. The only question in my mind is whether, after four years of prevarication and more romantic entanglements with exotic women than Captain Kirk could shake a phaser at, Flash will ever make good on his promise to marry Dale!
There's also a Ruritanian feel to some of the political machinations and empire building plots; an unreflective acceptance of Flash's imperialistic ambitions. Ming is 'Merciless' and a despotic tyrant, but when he promises to make Flash a king, only to reveal that the promised country is not held under his sway, Flash glibly recruits an army and takes his weapons of mass destruction to slaughter and subdue a people of whose existence he had previously been unaware, and whose right of self-determination is not considered and clearly of no consequence to him. Published in the mid 1930s, it sadly seems that many politicians still hold these attitudes today.
Anyway, dubious politics aside, the adventures are inevitably episodic and wholly action-oriented, with no character development and the main motivations given as obsessive passions of love, hate and revenge. This is a weakness or a strength depending on one's preferences. For me it's a venture into juvenile escapism that I sometimes feel the need for. While the story lines are fairly static and formulaic, though not without charm, the artwork definitely does evolve. Tightly contained in gridiron panels for the initial six months of the original publication schedule, there starts to be a slight freeing of the page layout, although it takes a further six months or so for Raymond to really gain confidence (if, indeed, that was what was previously lacking, rather than, perhaps, some restriction of the newspaper medium he was working in) and to start presenting his panels in a more fluid, less linear fashion. The detail and intricacy of the artwork certainly benefits from the change, capturing a certain epic sweep which looks like it might be story boards for Hollywood historical blockbusters like Ben Hur.
Naturally, the book ends in the middle of an adventure - Flash is always enmired in some plot, the resolution of one thread leading immediately into another perilous cliffhanger. I could easily go on to read the next volume without pause, while at the same time feeling no urgency to do so: every pause in reading has been at a pivotal moment of danger, so I've become inured to that narrative device. Whether or not I'm there to read it, I'm confident that Dale will be kidnapped, that Flash will hunt down and kill/befriend the abductor, that whatever life-threatening position Flash finds himself in, Zarkov will build a ray-machine out of brown paper and string which will save the day. The only question in my mind is whether, after four years of prevarication and more romantic entanglements with exotic women than Captain Kirk could shake a phaser at, Flash will ever make good on his promise to marry Dale!
More...