Wednesday World of Wonder FLASH GORDON "and the Mole Machine" Starring BUSTER CRABBE!

Think of This as a Podcast with Pictures!

In the 1960s, due to the popularity of old radio adventure shows like The Shadow, The Lone Ranger, and I Love a Mystery being re-released on LP records, MGM/Leo the Lion Records created a series of new audio adventures of classic characters in the same style, but with hi-fi audio, such as this album starring Buster Crabbe, who played Flash Gordon in three movie serials from 1930 to 1940 reprising the role.
Trivia: Oddly, there weren't any albums of Flash Gordon's radio adventures until the 1970s!

Though ostensibly-written by cast member Ronald Liss, one of the two tales...

...was based on a story in King Comics' just-revived Flash Gordon comic book, written and illustrated by noted creative Al Williamson, who had succeeded Alex Raymond on his Secret Agent X-9/Secret Agent Corrigan newspaper strip and had ghosted some of Dan Barry's 1950s run on Flash!

We've combined the two versions together in a Power Records-style presentation!
(The original album didn't include the comic book!)

Click on the link HERE to open the audio file and read along 

Note that the audio version is not a word-for-word transcription of the comic, but it's close enough that it's easy to follow the story...

Bonus: the art for the cover, uncropped and without text/trade dress.

Plus, a study done by Al Williamson for the album cover, inked and colored by Gray Morrow and used as the cover of the Flash Gordon-themed prozine Heritage (1972)...

BTW, we normally would've included a Flash Gordon story in our ongoing Space Hero Saturdays feature...except it takes place on (and under) Earth, not in space!

Next Week, a different World of Wonder!

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Visit Amazon and Buy...

Al Williamson's

Flash Gordon
A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic

(which reprints the story and the album cover, but in black-and-white!)

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The REAL Fantastic Four!

Word is the new Fantastic Four flick is crap...

...so let's look at one of the more successful media adaptations...

Adapted from Marvel's Fantastic Four #126 (1972), this Roy Thomas-written, John Buscema/Joe Sinnott-illustrated tale beautifully-expanded on the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby story!

The voices are a fascinating group.

Johnny Storm/Human Torch (and Narrator) was Peter Fernandez (Speed Racer himself).

Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic sounds like Les Tremayne (Mentor on the SHAZAM! TV series) who started out on dramatic radio in the late 1940s!
Enjoy the REAL Fantastic Four!

Notes on audio goodies...

Two items I've recently acquired that have proven invaluable...
1) I have a huge collection of old radio shows and "kids" records on vinyl, including stuff not available on-line or on cd (like the Raiders of the Lost Ark: the Movie on Record, a 1981 release with dialogue, music and sfx from the film and NO narration!). With the ION USB TurnTable, I rip those old albums to cd with ease using Audacity (for my personal use, only, of course)! (Believe it or not, I don't have an IPod, and don't want one. I much prefer my cassette and cd walkmans!) Got it at Costco for under $100!
2) And in terms of listening to those walkmans (walkmen?), I found I had to wear a bulky pair of over-the-ears studio headphones to get decent bass for, among other things, soundtracks by Korngold, Williams, or Goldsmith (Robin Hood, ESB, and STtMP, respectively). Not the most comfortable things to wear in the dead of summer while commuting...
I looked around for smaller headsets, and ended up getting a pair of V-Moda Bass earbuds.
BEST bass I've ever heard in buds (I no longer have to use the bass-boost setting on the walkman), plus they effectively block outside sound (very important in the subway!).