Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Conclusion

When Last We Left Flash Gordon (ahh-ahh!)...

...there's more to the plot, but it's easier for you to just read Part 1 & Part 2 than have me explain it.

BTW, Patch has her silver/white hair and original clothes from Part 1 back, while Flash is in a new uniform!

Sadly, we've never seen that showdown!

The tale, illustrated by Gil Kane, appeared in the back of King Comics' The Phantom #20 (1966) and the writer is unknown.
The storyline wasn't concluded in Flash's King Comics title and neither Patch nor Straker have ever appeared anywhere else.

Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Part 2

When Last We Left Flash Gordon (Ahh-ahhh!)...

...wow, the opening caption covered the plotline perfectly!

You'll note Flash is wearing a more ornate outfit while Patch's clothes are the same, but mis-colored (as is her hair, which was silver/white in the previous chapter)!

The story concludes next Saturday!

Illustrated by Gil Kane, replacing Wally Wood.

The writer is unknown.

Though Flash had his own comic at this time, this three-parter appeared in the back of The Phantom's book from the same publisher, King Comics, a division of King Features Syndicate.
(All the King Comics books did this, presumably to expose their target audience to other titles they might not otherwise read.)
Interestingly, Flash's own book ran backup stories of Mandrake the Magician (who also had his own book) and Secret Agent X-9 (who didn't have a book at the time)!

The particular tale appeared in the back of King's The Phantom #19 (1966).

Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "and the Space Pirates" Part 1

Ya Want Full-On Space Opera?

Now, Here's SPACE OPERA!

...starring the one-and-only Flash Gordon as rendered by EC Comics legend Wally Wood!

The story continues next Saturday...with a different artist!

Illustrated by Wally Wood and his studio.

Wood (and writer Harvey Kurtzman) had previously-done the hysterical MAD comic book parody "Flesh Garden" (which you can read HERE), but this is his only "official" Flash Gordon work...which is a really shame, because is there's anybody who deserved a chance to do at least one continuity featuring the character, it's him!

The writer is unknown.

Though Flash had his own comic at this time, this three-parter appeared in the back of The Phantom's title from the same publisher, King Comics.

The particular tale appeared in the back of King's The Phantom #18 (1966), which was actually the first issue of the series from King Comics.

(They just continued the numbering from the previous publisher, Gold Key!)

Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON Happy 45th, Flash!

Before we end 2025, we wanted to acknowledge that it's the 45th Anniversary of Flash Gordon.

Though critically-reviled when it came out, the movie has attained cult-classic status, primarily due to the soundtrack by Queen...

...and over-the-top performances by (among others) Brian Blessed (Hawkman Prince Vultan), Topol (Dr Zarkoff) and Max Von Sydow (Ming the Merciless).

The comic adaptation was written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by legendary artist Al Williamson (who, ironically, was also doing the equally-magnificent graphic novel version of The Empire Strikes Back at the same time)!

Interestingly, Williamson inked the entire Flash adaptation, while allowing the talented Carlos Garzon (himself, no slouch) to ink the bulk of Empire.
Read it, from the beginning...HERE!

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Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON by Dan Schkade

There's currently a lot of new Flash Gordon material from several different publishers...

...but the one that's a must-see is the hardest to find!
Yes. visually, it's not the minutely-detailed Alex Raymond/Austin Briggs/Mac Raboy/Al Williamson "classic" series (which, for the record, I revere)!

But it is a stylized semi-reboot that King Features decided to implement after almost 20 years of reprints!

I'm gonna give you an analogy...

If the original Flash Gordon was the Neal Adams/Jim Aparo/NormBreyfogle Batman...

...the current Flash is the Bruce Timm version!

Are you gonna tell me you don't like (if not love) Bruce Timm's take on the Caped Crusader???

He's visually-different, but incredibly-respectful to the "classic" vision!

That's the near-impossible feat Schkade's pulling-off six days a week...and Sundays!

Dan believes everybody knows the basic premise, and if you've seen the 1980 movie...

(and/or the first Buster Crabbe serial)...

...you know the basic plot!

The series follows-though with the history of Mongo shortly after Ming's fall, and carries on from there.

Here's a link to a superb interview with Dan from The Comics Journal.
And here's a link to Schkade's own feed on BlueSky, where he not only posts the strips every day, and offers backstory, but also interacts with the audience!
He goes the extra mile because he loves the series and wants it to find as big an audience as possible!
So do I!
Sadly, too few newspapers are carrying the strip.
So hit those links and/or go directly to Comics Kingdom!

Errol Flynn's Captain Blood...by the creator of Flash Gordon!

How many of you have seen this classic movie poster...

...and knew it was the work of Alex Raymond, of Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, and Secret Agent X-9 fame?

Yep!

Since Captain Blood and Arabella Bishop do not look like Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, it's a reasonable bet that this was done as an advance promo piece before casting, but it was so good, the studio still used it as their half-sheet poster for both the initial release and re-releases!

If you look at the original Flash Gordon strip, you'll see Raymond incorporated a lot of pirate/swashbuckler costume, weapon, and design motifs into Flash's adventures on other worlds!

Space Hero Saturdays WHACK "Flush Jordan"

Yes, it's a Flash Gordon spoof...

..but it has a cultural reference readers under 50 won't recognize!

Ming the Merciless usually looks like this...

...so who's "Bing", the golf-playing guy in the Hawaiian shirt and porkpie hat?

He's Bing Crosby, singer, comedian, obsessive golfer, and (when this comic was published) a pop culture icon!

With that in mind, please read...

The guy at the end, whining about "Thanks for the Memory" is comedian Bob Hope...

...Bing's co-star/rival in the 1940s-50s "Road to..." movie series as well as a pop culture legend in his own right!

Note: Thanks for the Memory" was Hope's personal theme song, used primarily to close his radio show, live appearances, and TV specials!

This never-reprinted story from #2 of St John's MAD clone WHACK was illustrated by William Overgard for 3-D use, but the collapse of the 3-D comic market forced St John to publish it in regular color comic format!

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Space Hero Saturdays SMASH GORDON "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Mongo!"

It starts out as a typical day for our Space Hero... 

...but as much as we want to tell you the rest of the story, this tale written and illustrated by Frank Brunner involves (gasp) nudity (but extremely-tasteful and not lascivious nudity), so you'll have to go to our "brother" RetroBlog, the appropriately-named

Not Safe for Work Comics

right now to see the rest!

And wait until you see who cameos on the final page!

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Mythos: Fantasy Art Realms of Frank Brunner

Space Hero Saturdays FLASH GORDON "Monster Men of Tropica!"

Probably the Last Artist You'd Think of Illustrating Flash and Dale on Mongo...

...would be sword and sorcery/gothic fantasy artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones!

But, Jones was a serious Alex Raymond/Flash Gordon fan, so this work in Charlton's Flash Gordon #13 (1969), while a bit rough, showed enormous love and enthusiasm for the character.
And Charlton's notoriously-bad printing didn't help showcase Jones' art!

Written by Bill Pearson. Penciled and inked by Jeff Jones (as they were known then).

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Jeffrey Jones

A Life in Art