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Overview
The first of three full-color volumes collecting the entire output of comics great Alex Raymond on his signature strip, Flash Gordon. Thanks to Raymond's unrivaled gift for gorgeous, sprawling artwork and rapid-fire plotting set on a world of unrivaled wonder—the mysterious planet Mongo—Flash Gordon quickly became a household name. A name which still resonates in film, literature and cartooning to this day.Earth braces for its final destruction in a collision with an onrushing planet, and only Dr. Zarkov can prevent doomsday. Taking Flash Gordon and Dale Arden captive, he takes off in a rocket to deflect the hurtling planet and save the world. The mad Zarkov, Flash and Dale survive a crash landing on Mongo, only to be captured by the diabolical Ming the Merciless. And the true adventure begins.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
This mammoth volume, the first of three, chronicles the newspaper adventures of Flash Gordon from the character's inception in 1934. Flash, of course, rose to fame in the movies, but his origins are these lavish drawings by adventure illustrator Raymond for the newspaper comic strip. Most, if not all, of this material has been seen before, and this edition adds little to the mix. The stories are swashbuckling adventures of Flash, "Yale graduate and world-renowned Polo player," and the lovely Dale Arden, who become stranded on the planet Mongo, a fierce place ruled with an iron fist by Ming the Merciless. Their pulpy adventures went on for years, and Raymond's line work becoming progressively more baroque and overdone. The editors at Checker have made some odd choices for this book, e.g., surrounding panels from the strip in a sea of black ink and rearranging panels from the original strips, reproducing the art at a tiny size, which doesn't do justice to Raymond's lush renderings and stylized fantasy. The reproduction quality is fairly rough as well: panels and colors are frequently muddy and blurry. Readers will hope for better quality in future volumes. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.Book Details
Published
October 29, 2003
Publisher
Checker Book Publishing Group, LLC
Pages
196
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780974166438