EMPIRE OF PLANET X pics

What Hit The Pentagon On 9/11?

Click here to read and vote. :)

Machinima (it's what I'm doing RIGHT NOW)

I’ve just watched this video (free req required) about machinima, by Paul Marino, Executive Director, Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences.
This terms is used to describe movies done with games or game engines.

“Machinima is real-world filmmaking techniques applied within an interactive virtual space where characters and events can be either controlled by humans, scripts or artificial intelligence.”

This totally goes along the way of what I was saying about people doing movies in their garage. (I guess I didn’t invent anything then :p) Now imagine what people could do with Santos !!

Moreover, Paul Marino uses a term I really like, which is Ubiquitous Creativity, that is enabling creativity to people who would never have access to it before (remember SimTractor?

http://cb.nowan.net/blog/category/art/

EMPIRE OF PLANET X

http://planetx.wikidot.com/

This is the wiki for my new public domain-based movie franchise.

Please visit and check it out!

50 minutes into Flash Gordon!

Done 50 minutes of the new film. Can't wait to see if the government blocks the export of this one like my last three films. Fucking fascism. What a fucking world.

Flash Gordon and the sequels...

While Flash Gordon is filled with sexual triangles, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars is almost chaste. The difference between these two serials reflects the varied reactions to Alex Raymond's Sunday comic strip and the first Flash Gordon serial. While the comic strip and serial were phenomenally popular, a backlash began to develop. Church organizations in particular complained about the violence and the scantily-clad women--not to mention the hawkmen, who looked suspiciously like angels.

We don't know for certain if the comic strip's distributor, King Features, felt the mounting pressure and ordered Raymond to tone down the serial, but a form of self-censorship becomes apparent in the Flash Gordon comic strip panels of 1937. While Raymond's artwork reaches new heights this year (he was just 25 years old when he started Flash Gordon in 1934 and his artwork improved with each arc of the story), the story also loses much of its punch.

The same thing also happened when Universal filmed the first Flash Gordon sequel--Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars. In place of the sexual shenanigans, we get a wise-cracking comic relief stowaway, Happy, a newspaper reporter who accidentally becomes part of Flash's team of heroes, and a villainess named Azura, Queen of Magic, who doesn't have a third of Princess Aura's fire and determination.

With a reduction in budget (from $350,000 for Flash Gordon vs. $175,000 for Trip to Mars), there is also a noticeable reduction in the number of creatures. While Flash Gordon has a vicious crab monster, a wrestling gorilla-like orangopoid, a sea beast called an octosac, a sacred fire dragon, and a tiger-like tigron, Trip to Mars is virtually devoid of creatures.

However, some serial lovers consider Trip to Mars superior to Flash Gordon. It's not hard to see their logic: Flash Gordon's emphasis on sex was very unusual for serials. While serials were made for adults in the silent era, they were eventually handed over to kids in the sound era. So Flash Gordon appears to be a camp-filled anomaly--whereas Trip to Mars seems … well … normal. No more bare midriff for Dale. No more lustful stares from Princess Aura aimed at Flash (she disappeared entirely until the next sequel). No more Ming the Merciless pawing at Dale. No more scenes where Flash's shirt gets ripped away to reveal his oiled biceps. The sequel looks much like any other respectable serial aimed at an audience of popcorn-chomping kids.

from Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars

[click photos for larger versions]

In the process of toning down the serial, much of what made Flash Gordon such a remarkable property was drained away. Trip to Mars is still a cut ahead of most all other serials, but without the jealousies and sexual desires as prime motivations, the serial's plot machinations reduce Ming to simply a power hungry tyrant. Before, he was a lust-crazed despot willing to sacrifice his own daughter in return for making Dale Arden his wife. This go round Ming attempts to extract "nitron" from Earth and he won't stop until Earth is dead. It's a rather hollow mania.

While Trip to Mars pales in comparison to Flash Gordon, it nonetheless includes several fine developments. The Clay People, for example, are one of the finest creations of the entire Flash Gordon series. The Clay People were not a creation of Alex Raymond. They were created by the Universal screenwriters. In the scene where the Clay People make their first appearance, time lapse photography allows them to magically emerge from cave walls. It's a simple but highly effective trick that gets repeated several times over the next several episodes. Trip to Mars also features the effective use of an eerie forest set ruled by a race of dwarfs, the Forest People. They live in a stark environment of leafless tress with gnarled branches (although the effect is occasionally ruined by a ridiculously phony forest model used for long shots).

For fans of Jean Rogers' Dale Arden, Trip to Mars contains a surprising change. While Dale was a blonde in Flash Gordon, she appears as a brunette in Trip to Mars--without any explanation whatsoever for the change. In fact, when the serial opens, Flash, Zarkov, and Dale are still on their way back to Earth after their exploits on Mongo in Flash Gordon. However, during the flight, Dale's hair has apparently turned color. Dale was indeed a brunette in Alex Raymond's comic strip, so the change does make some sense. But her hair is also cut short. Now she looks like a library assistant. Needless to say, her fans were disappointed.

In 1939, Universal dropped Jean Rogers from their roster of up-and-coming talent. Subsequently, she signed with Twentieth Century Fox. So when Universal began production of the final Flash Gordon serial in the fall of 1939, they had to find a replacement for the role of Dale Arden. Carol Hughes won the role. When compared with the sexy Dale Arden of the first Flash Gordon serial, Hughes seem bland. But when compared with the demure Dale Arden of Trip to Mars, Hughes fares well. She's a more forceful presence than Jean Rogers--and equally beautiful.

from Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe

[click photos for larger versions]

Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe returned to Alex Raymond's comic strip for inspiration. It draws upon the celebrated "Ice Kingdom" story arc from the spring of 1939. The screenwriters also appropriated a character who had appeared earlier in the comic strip--Sonja. She would become the serial's requisite bad girl, following in the footsteps of Princess Aura in Flash Gordon and Azura, Queen of Magic, in Trip to Mars. While the comic strip Sonja threw herself at Flash, the serial's Sonja follows the chaste attitude of Trip to Mars. Sonja isn't interested in Flash. She's just interested in serving Ming.

Conquers the Universe also brings back two characters from the previous serials: Princess Aura and Prince Barin, who are now happily married. In the person of Priscilla Lawson in Flash Gordon, Princess Aura chased Flash unabashedly. But Anne Gwynne in Conquers the Universe is given the unenviable task of playing a colorless Princess Aura. Any fire in the eyes of the original Aura has long been replaced by blissful complacency. And while Prince Barin was played by the balding, portly (but powerful) Richard Alexander in both Flash Gordon and Trip to Mars, in Conquers the Universe, Barin suddenly loses 50 pounds and most of his muscles. In comparison to Alexander, Roland Drew's Barin looks meek and hardly capable of corralling the troublesome Aura.

While Conquers the Universe follows the pattern of Trip to Mars by eliminating creatures and utilizing ample stock spacecraft footage from Flash Gordon, it also benefits from a change of locale. For several episodes, Flash, Dale, Prince Barin, and Doctor Zarkov brave the chilly conditions of Frigia--a frozen land in Northern Mongo. This sequence provides one of the best cliffhangers of all serialdom: our heroes are caught in an avalanche as they attempt to scale a mountain. Well-integrated stock mountain-climbing film footage shows climbers being hurled down mountain slopes. Eventually two people slide over the edge of a crevasse. We hear Dale scream as they fall into the crevasse's shadowy depths. How can they survive? Of course, they do survive, but by 1939, serials were widely lying to their audiences. A fall over a crevasse in one episode becomes nothing more than a close call in the next chapter. But in Conquers the Universe the serial makers play fairly: Flash, Dale, Zarkov, and Barin do indeed fall into the crevasse and they barely escape with their lives. As the episode opens, Flash slowly rises from a bank of snow. Stunned, he shakes his head and brushes snow off his shoulders. He eventually arouses Zarkov and Dale, but Barin is seriously injured. And soon afterwards, we're given a doozy of a development as Ming sends mechanical men after our heroes. With spastic motions and foot-long fingers, the robots lurch across the frozen terrain.

In addition to the mechanical men, Conquers the Universe also features a race of men from "The Land of the Dead" who wear costumes that make them look like pointy-headed walking rocks. Unlike most serial characters, they don't speak English. They speak an obscure, strange-sounding tongue. Their speech is realized by playing their dialogue backwards. (Of course, Zarkov not only identifies the language of the Rock Men -- he can speak it!)

While Conquers the Universe is generally considered the weakest of the Flash Gordon serials, it's preferrable in many ways to Trip to Mars. Its cliffhangers, for example, are a noticeable improvement. Neither sequel comes close to capturing the delirious excesses of Flash Gordon, but these are superior examples of the American serial form.

More EMPIRE OF PLANET X pics

From Bangkok to Taipei. From Taipei to Infinity and Beyond. Then to return to the world we know with the powers of the Otherworld...

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New EMPIRE OF PLANET X pictures

STEAMPULP (tm)

SteamPulp [(c) & tm] is my new term of art I have coined to embrace and encapsulate works such as Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Captain Marvel and similar old serials and stories.

Although the pulp fiction era was very much into name dropping then-current technology such as monoplanes, dynamos, electricity, electromagnetism, rays, atomic power, rocketry and so on, the science (threadbare as it was) that went into the stories was rooted firmly in the Victorian era of scientific romances. The old stories of the pulp era are fairytales and sword and sorcery stories cloaked in a veneer of science.

When George Lucas heavily plagiarised the pulp era for his Star Wars product manufacture he understood this perfectly. That's why there is virtually no single example in Star Wars of any technology that could work as it is shown to work- it is, scientifically, bunk- or to be more accurate- magic.

Steampulp sums up this bridging of the storytelling tropes of fantasy and the clunky nut and bolts castles on hilltops with rocketships parked behind of pulp science fiction.

Also there is a high degree of overt and covert sexuality and bloodshed in the old pulps. Conan the Barbarian sprang from this milieu and he can serve as one extreme, but even the superheroes of the pulps mowed down a fair number of villainous victims.

Uncanny Valley of the Super Vixens

The "uncanny valley" is a hypothesis that as a robot is made more humanlike, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. The phenomenon can be explained by the notion that, if an entity is sufficiently non-humanlike, then the humanlike characteristics will tend to stand out and be noticed easily, generating empathy. On the other hand, if the entity is "almost human", then the non-human characteristics will be the ones that stand out, leading to a feeling of "strangeness" in the human viewer.

Dateline: Thailand

Here I am in beautiful if rainy Bangkok, capital of the representative monarchial democracy Thailand!

I spent the day with Viktor But, getting footage for the imminent Channel Seven news special as well as the documentary feature film MERCHANT OF DEATH which, since it will include this footage, will not only be the biggest budget documentary in Australian history, it will also be the most explosive and the best.

I don't really want to spend a lot of time gasbagging but let's go for some keywords to summarise the trip:

CIA
DIA
DOJ
ATF
Intelligence
Charm
Wit
Luck
Spirit
Courage
Thailand

MERCHANT OF DEATH

Soon I will be updating with real news about my explosive documentary film MERCHANT OF DEATH on the life and times of Viktor But and the other international transporters, arms dealers and middle men who are at the same time blamed by the UN and other gutless governments for all the world's ills... Whilst at the same time being used by them for all their transport needs- including humanitarian aid, evacuating their own personnel they can't take proper care of and so on.

Flash Gordon (public domain) synopsis

FLASH GORDON (1936)

Commentary by Judy Harris

Visit my homepage at http://www.bestweb.net/~foosie/index.htm

or E-mail me at foosie@bestweb.net

Mark Owen contacted me on 7/7/07 to say that this can be legally downloaded from the site www.archive.org

Flash Gordon	Larry 'Buster' Crabbe
Dale Arden	Jean Rogers
Emperor Ming	Charles Middleton
Princess Aura	Priscilla Lawson
Doctor Zarkov	Frank Shannon
Prince Barin	Richard Alexander
King Vultan	John Lipson
High Priest	Theodore Lorch
Prince Thun	James Pierce
King Kala	Duke York, Jr.
Officer Torch	Earl Askam
Professor Gordon	Richard Tucker
Professor Hensley	George Cleveland
Zona	Muriel Goodspeed
Ming's Guard/Shark Man	House Peters, Jr.
Ming's Guard	Glenn Strange
Tigron's Mistress	Sana Rayya
Ming's Guard/Shark Man	Lane Chandler
Ming's Guard	Al Ferguson
Ming's Guard	Fred Kohler, Jr.
Monkey Man	Constantine Romanoff
Monkey Man	Bull Montana
Palace Maiden	Olive Hatch
Palace Maiden	Suzanne Danielle
Orangopoid	Ray "Crash" Corrigan

Screenplay: Frederick Stephani, George Plympton, Basil Dicker, Ella O'Neill

Directed by: Frederick Stephani

The Flash Gordon serials were already 20 years old when I first saw them as a child on TV. Seeing them now with adult eyes, it's easy to laugh at their innocence, political incorrectness and many scientific flaws (not to mention their toylike props and primitive special effects). But even looking at them from the vantage point of the 21st century, with all the special effects expertise squandered on lackluster plots in today's films, FLASH GORDON is still exciting and fast paced.

So much material is jammed into each 20 minute episode; so much plot is advanced with each line of dialogue, you can forgive the awkwardness of some of these lines because there's so much to feast your eyes on.

I never read the Alex Raymond "cartoon strip" but certainly 1932 Olympic medalist Buster Crabbe was born to play the title role. His Flash is a man of action, willing to face any danger, and loyal to every friend, no matter how recent the friendship. Crabbe also is in superb physical shape and up to doing the many fights and stunts required. Although it's obvious a stunt double stood in for him occasionally, it's equally clear he did most of the athletic stunts himself, including the underwater sequences.

Jean Rogers is likewise the perfect damsel in distress as Dale Arden, blonde and gorgeous and needing rescue at every turn. (Although Dale was dark haired in the Alex Raymond comic strip and in the 2nd and 3rd serials, rumor has it Rogers was made blonde in this because of the popularity of Jean Harlow.) Provoking lust in alien men and jealousy in alien women, Dale is forever screaming and fainting and no role model for any of today's females since she takes no positive action at any time but only serves as a pawn. Although she is clearly a villain, Princess Aura is the female who repeatedly takes decisive action, frequently rescues Flash and moves the action along.

When I first saw these serials, Frank Shannon didn't seem incongruous to play Doctor Zarkov, but with his thick Irish accent, he now strikes the adult me as an odd choice for a Russian scientist. It must have been the beard that made him look both sinister and intellectual, although looking at him now, he reminds me more of Jim Henson. As an adult I confess to being annoyed at Zarkov's great facility with science (or at least his amazing luck in discovering new "rays"); he is able to summon up a newly discovered ray for almost every contingency: one replaces the power source holding up Vultan's Sky City; one restores Flash's memory which had been lost due to "draughts of forgetfulness"; one makes Flash invisible in time to escape execution; and one communicates the great distance between Earth and Mongo. All this and he designed and built his own rocketship as well (although it can't land unless all power on Earth is turned off!). Among the trio of Zarkov, Flash and Dale is everything you need in an adventure film: brains, brawn, bravery and beauty.

Charles Middleton, long a baddie in Westerns, makes an indelible impression as the bald headed, high collared Ming, every inch the villain par excellence; his occasional hamminess just part of Ming's overall appeal. It's a shame he disappears for so much of the running time, replaced by his lesser minions.

All of the heroes and some of the villains show a lot of thigh in this serial in an apparent attempt to look futuristic. No costume designer is credited on screen (a lot of the costumes came from Universal's other period films), but I feel for Frank Shannon and Richard Alexander who had to parade around in pretty scanty outfits; they didn't have the athletic build of Buster Crabbe to bring it off. Crabbe, I understand, was embarrassed about having his hair dyed blonde, but this is how I first saw him and always think of him, so it's when he's dark haired that he looks odd to me. In his biography of Buster Crabbe, excerpted in FILMFAX No. 79, Karl Whitezel attributes this quote to Crabbe about his bleach job: "It was a little embarrassing. The bleach job didn't appeal to me at all." By the time of the first sequel, he was pleased to be reunited with the cast regulars in a followup to the earlier success and didn't mind the bleaching of his hair so much.

Although no credit is given on screen for music, I have learned Universal recycled music from its other films (such as Franz Waxman's score for BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), WEREWOLF OF LONDON (1935), EAST OF JAVA (1935) and THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933) and other, presumably public domain, sources (Liszt's LES PRELUDES). There's no doubt music plays an important part in making FLASH GORDON a watchable and exciting event. Interestingly, Waxman's BRIDE music is heard to better effect in the FLASH GORDON serials than in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN where it was used under dialogue sequences or drowned out by special effects noises. The militaristic passages, in particular, seem incongruous for BRIDE's villagers and perfectly appropriate for FLASH; the creepy themes for Dr. Pretorious and the Monster are heard only fleetingly in BRIDE but are used repeatedly in FLASH, fitting especially perfectly to the eerie Clay People sequences in FLASH GORDON GOES TO MARS. The "mad scientist" type music is from the Creation lab sequence of BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

One of the things that gives me a lot of pleasure in these serials (and in older movies in general) is that the leading actors would be showcased at the beginning or end of the films, with a short silent clip from the film with their name and character's name superimposed. Very occasionally nowadays a film will still do this but, apparently, it is considered very old fashioned, so it is extremely rare, but something I wish EVERY film did.

A word about the cliffhangers I always enjoyed: when I was a kid, there were still some Robert Lowery BATMAN serials circulating at kiddie matinees I attended, and it was always interesting to speculate on how the heroes would escape from certain death. Many serials did not play fair and when the action "wound back" at the beginning of each new episode to show the tail end of the previous chapter, occasionally something would occur to rescue the hero before the doom that awaited him, but the makers of FLASH GORDON, for the most part, played fair with its cliffhangers, although not all of them were equally nail-biting.

As for its political correctness, Flash and Zarkov fly off to Mongo with good intentions but Flash seems overcome with protective ardor for Dale Arden which causes him to kill several Mongo citizens who are just obeying orders. While it's Princess Aura who causes the destruction of the Underwater Shark City, it is Zarkov who nearly destroys the floating Sky City. In addition, three animals sacred to Mongo are killed: the orangopoid and the tigron by Flash and the Fire Dragon by Zarkov. Most annoyingly to my adult sensibility, Dale is treated like chattel throughout the 3-hour running time, to be married off as a prize like the princesses in Grimm fairy tales.

George Lucas tried to obtain the rights to remake FLASH GORDON and, because he was unsuccessful, the world instead received STAR WARS (1977) which went on to be amazingly successful, spawning several sequels (and prequels to come), and having a profound impact on merchandising and special effects for decades. It's easy to see FLASH GORDON's impact on the STAR WARS films in the use of the chapter headings, text summary of the story background as well as the overall swashbuckling flavor and larger than life villains and creatures.

I can't help wishing for all the pleasure this serial has given me over the years, and the impact on people like George Lucas, that Universal had enough faith to expend the money to do it properly; there are a couple of sequences that are repeated from earlier chapters; and clearly the soundtrack has been augmented with voices after the fact, not using the original actors. An occasional chapter is dull and padded. Finally, director Frederick Stephani continually uses uninspired shots, framing things poorly or repeating the same camera setups. Despite all of this, FLASH GORDON was a success and went on to spawn two additional serials, the lamentable FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (1940) which dared to replace Jean Rogers, Richard Alexander and Priscilla Lawson as Dale, Barin and Aura; and the truly great FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (1938). In an interview published in FILMFAX #79, Crabbe revealed the entire first serial was shot in only six weeks for the entire 13 chapters. "We were on the set at seven each morning, broke for half an hour at lunchtime, then went back to work until five or six. We'd break for an hour to have dinner at the studio commissary or a nearby restaurant--depending on how we were costumed--and then reported back to the set for more shooting until ten at night or so, or whenever it was convenient to quit. We did this day in and day out, week in and week out, only taking Sundays off if we were on schedule." Crabbe also noted the cost-cutting use of standing Universal sets, including THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1939) (the walls of which were the outer walls of Ming's castle) and Opera House interiors from THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925). Another example of thrift was the shooting of every possible scene that required actors in make-up of a particular kind within one day, so that every scene in the script that had Clay men, for example, was shot consecutively until all scenes featuring them were done.

CHAPTER 1 - PLANET OF PERIL

Earth is on the verge of destruction (stock footage of panicking crowds from around the world, possibly from SHOCK (1934) and LOOKING FOR TROUBLE (1935)) due to the Planet Mongo being on a collision course. Flash Gordon is on a transatlantic flight back to his father when atmospheric conditions force all the passengers to bail out. Even the sight of this "transatlantic flight" is amusingly naive; the seats aren't attached to the floor and there are no seat belts. Dale Arden happens to be on this flight and she and Flash share a parachute as they leap to safety, landing (in an amazingly fortuitous coincidence) right next to the rocketship of Doctor Zarkov, who they run into immediately (I told you this was fast paced).

Zarkov explains his theory that Mongo is inhabited and radioactive. His assistant has turned coward and he asks Flash to help him fly to Mongo in his rocketship. Dale begs to go along and, because no place on Earth is safe, Zarkov agrees. The ship is just a wonderful design, very streamlined and toylike. Its interior is realistically cramped and there are no seats or straps of any kind. (The miniature and full sized rocketship from JUST IMAGINE (1930) was used). When Flash asks Zarkov about arriving safely at their destination, Zarkov casually mentions he's made tests with models but they've never returned! In his excitement at actually taking off, Zarkov forgets to turn on the oxygen, causing Dale nearly to faint.

Using a "countermagnet" to brake their speed, the rocketship lands on Mongo, doing a belly flop amid a wonderful mountainous miniature with a great matte painting in the background of Ming's Palace atop the mountain. (Every time the rocketship takes off or lands, it seems to have to circle a couple of times, like a dog making itself comfortable before settling down.) Immediately, the ship is menaced by monsters, really lizards with extra spines stuck on them, made to look the size of dinosaurs against a miniature of the rocketship.

Shortly thereafter, one of Ming's ships passes by and kills two of the monsters with "rays" shot from the needle nose of the ship (the ship itself is a similarly wonderful design with a sort of smiley face when viewed straight on). A man in tight fitting armor (Officer Torch) followed by two possible robots emerge from this ship and take Flash, Dale and Zarkov prisoner.

When they confront Ming in his spacious throne room (which has a handy arena nearby), Zarkov learns Ming controls the movement of Mongo and plans to destroy Earth. Thinking quickly, Zarkov suggests Ming conquer it instead, and as a reward, Ming offers Zarkov the use of his laboratory. It is certainly one of the great plot flaws of the FLASH GORDON serials that Ming is so trusting and never even puts a guard on Zarkov, accepting at face value his offer for help against his own planet.

When Ming leers at Dale and orders her taken away, Flash rushes to her defense, and engages in a sword fight with Ming's men. This catches the interest of Ming's daughter, Aura, who bargains to win Flash for her own if he survives a fight in the arena. This turns out to be a wrestling match against 3 fanged men. When Flash overcomes them, Aura rushes into the arena and the first cliffhanger brings chapter one to an end - Flash and Aura falling through a trap door into a pit which is clearly the lair of some kind of large creatures.

CHAPTER 2 - TUNNEL OF TERROR

Seeing his daughter fall with Flash, Ming orders a net to save them. Aura and Flash escape through a secret door into a cavern which figures largely throughout many of the subsequent episodes. (This "Tunnel of Terror" was filmed in Brush Quarry in Bronson Canyon, site of many early Westerns.)

Aura stashes Flash in one of Ming's rocketships; as soon as he's out of hearing, she vows he will never see Dale again.

When Dale refuses to change her clothes into the latest Mongo attire or to marry Ming, he orders his high priest to subject her to the "dehumanizer" for as long as it takes to perform the marriage ceremony.

Flash teaches himself how to fly Ming's rocketship and, noticing that Ming's Palace is being attacked by gyroships of the Lionmen, he takes off to battle them. The gyroships spin like tops and, even more than the rocketships, look like little toys. The Lionmen (of whom we see only one, Thun, their Prince, until Chapter 13), are long haired and bearded.

Flash smashes into Thun's gyroship and both vessels crash; on the ground, they fight hand to hand and Flash spares Thun's life, forging an instant friendship between them. Thun then shows Flash a secret passage to the Palace, where they overcome the single guard minding the entrance and force him to take them to Zarkov in the lab. (This lab is the planetarium set from THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936). The lab machinery was created by Kenneth Strickfadden who also created the lab equipment for the Universal FRANKENSTEIN films.) Zarkov tells Flash he has repositioned Mongo so that it no longer will collide with Earth.

Dale is hypnotized by a flashing light and dressed up like a harem girl in a tight fitting bra and flowing skirt, her midriff bare. Her hair, which previously had been pinned up, is now loose and flowing.

The highpriest consults the oracle to see if the god Tao approves of the marriage (stock footage of dancing girls writhing before a large idol from JUST IMAGINE). Flash sees this also on the spaceograph (sort of a TV monitor-sized picturephone) in Zarkov's lab and learns about the impending marriage of Ming and Dale. He forces the guard to take him to the tunnel leading to the secret chamber where the marriage is taking place. Zarkov butters up Ming and manages to be invited as well.

The marriage takes place before a completely different idol, also referred to as Tao, which is more lifesize and Egyptian in appearance, flanked by two small Sphinxes (the statue of Amon-Ra from THE MUMMY (1932)). The ceremony seems to consist of nothing more than a gong being sounded 13 times. On the 13th stroke, the ceremony will be completed.

Flash hurries to Dale's rescue, slowed down first by a contingent of Ming's guards, and then by a creature unnamed here, but which turns up in Chapter 9 as the Fire Dragon (although it doesn't breathe fire during this appearance), which walks upright and has lobster-like claws. I had not read JABBERWOCKY when I first saw this as a child, but even now that's what I think of when I read that Lewis Carroll poem. Quoting from FILMFAX 79, Crabbe says: "There was a scene that featured Flash in combat with a Gocko: a fire-breathing dragon, eleven feet long, with a horse's head, the body of a dinosaur and the tail of a dragon. Operating the bulky monster was a horrendous job, since we were in an age without automation. One man did the whole job from inside by pushing the wire-framed structure about the set, turning its head and swishing its tail by hand cranks, and firing a flame-thrower through an opening in its mouth. It didn't look even remotely real, but it was the best thing we had at the time. Glenn Strange was the actor who dragged the Gocko around." This dragon is second cliffhanger, as Flash is caught up in its claw and loses consciousness.

CHAPTER 3 - CAPTURED BY SHARK MEN

Thun overcomes the last of Ming's guards and with one of their ray guns, he shoots the dragon and rescues Flash. Flash strangles the musician before he can strike the 13th note on the gong, and when he and Thun push against the idol, it causes the idol's arm to move in a way the highpriest decides signifies Tao has been displeased. Flash and Thun push over the idol entirely, grab Dale and bolt.

Flash and Dale fall through yet another trap door into an underground river, where Flash fights with Shark Men (ordinary men wearing bathing caps even on land). They are taken prisoner and placed in a hydrocycle (from the outside, this looks like a submarine with side fins; from the inside it is indistinguishable from the rocketship). En route we are shown some stock footage of an octopus fighting with a moray eel and a shark; the Sharkmen call the octopus an "octosak". (Octopus footage from BLACK PEARL (1928).)

In Kala's underwater palace, Flash and Kala fight and when Flash overcomes him, Kala pretends he's going to let him and Dale go in the morning. However, he merely separates them and locks Flash in a tank which he then starts filling with water, and into which he releases a small octopus, which is the third cliffhanger.

CHAPTER 4 - BATTLING THE SEA BEAST

Dale is forced to watch Flash's underwater struggles and faints from the sight of them. Aura and Thun arrive and, using a ray gun, force Kala to drain the tank. Aura rescues Flash and tries to get him to leave with her, but Flash insists on going back for Dale. Spitefully, Aura destroys the controls which keep the water out of the underwater city and the sea starts to pour in. Once again, Dale passes out from lack of air. Kala tries to contact Ming on the spaceograph but the sea breaks through and swamps everyone, for this episode's cliffhanger.

CHAPTER 5 - THE DESTROYING RAY

Using a ray to counteract the magnetic power that holds Kala's Shark Palace underwater, Ming raises the underwater city to the surface.

Prince Barin appears to Zarkov, claiming to be the true ruler of Mongo, dethroned when he was a child and Ming killed his father. Barin wears body armor, a cape and a helmet like a Roman centurion. He promises to rescue Flash in return for Zarkov's allegiance. They head off in Barin's rocketship.

Flash, Dale, Aura and Thun emerge onto dry land and see some winged men floating to the ground in the distance; these are some of the best miniatures of the entire series. They are the Hawkmen of King Vultan, an ally of Ming. The Hawkmen have huge wings, even when they aren't flying, and helmets which also have wings on the side; they wear short skirts like a Roman centurion. A fight ensues; Dale and Thun are captured, but Barin's ship lands in time to rescue Flash and Aura.

In Vultan's Sky City, which is a Swiftian island in the sky, held aloft by 3 visible beams of light, Thun has been sent to the atom furnace; a guard whips all the prisoners as they shovel radium (!) into the furnaces.

King Vultan is a jolly, fat guy with a beard; he also has designs on Dale and torments her with a bear with stripes painted on it. When he learns Barin's ship is approaching, he orders the melting ray be used against it. This looks very much like an ordinary search light. Fortunately, Barin's ship is equipped with resisto-force (always handy in a situation like this) which neutralizes the melting ray, but eventually this resisto-force is depleted, and Barin's ship plummets for the latest cliffhanger.

CHAPTER 6 - FLAMING TORTURE

Barin's ship is saved by the gravity-defying rays which support Vultan's Sky City. Aura, Barin, Flash and Zarkov are brought before Vultan who, like Ming before him, allows Zarkov the freedom of his laboratory and sends Flash and Barin to the furnace room.

There, a Hawkman regulates the furnace at a ludicrously oversized control, like something out of METROPOLIS (1927). Flash and Barin, stripped to the waist, join the other prisoners.

In Vultan's lab, which looks suspiciously like Ming's, Zarkov learns the Sky City is supported by the gravity resisting rays thrown off by the atom furnace. Vultan requests that he find a substitute ray and Zarkov has extra incentive because he knows that long term exposure to the radium in the furnace room will kill Flash and his friends.

When a guard whips a prisoner who has collapsed, Flash comes to his rescue, fomenting a mutiny which is overcome. Dale sees Flash being whipped in the Furnace Room and faints again.

As punishment for starting the mutiny, Flash is taken to the Static Room where, strapped to an apparatus suspended above a machine giving off sparks, he is nearly electrocuted in this chapter's cliffhanger.

CHAPTER 7 - SHATTERING DOOM

Dale faints again to see Flash tortured in the Static Room. Aura threatens Vultan with a ray gun, rescuing Flash, who is brought to Zarkov to revive in the electro stimulator.

Dale gets a more demure outfit to wear from Vultan, who tries to win her by performing shadow puppets and giving her jewels, but it's no use. Likewise, Aura declares to Flash that she loves him, but he makes it clear he intends to return to Earth eventually with Dale. Aura threatens him with a blowtorch but is unable to harm him.

Flash tries to rescue Dale from Vultan but gets sent to the Furnace Room again, where Zarkov is forced to hook up a high voltage wire to a shackle on Flash's wrist. If he tries to escape again, he'll be electrocuted.

Ming arrives and demands the return of his daughter and all the prisoners, but Vultan has his Hawkmen standing by and negotiates from a position of power.

During Flash's break from shoveling radium, Zarkov sneaks back and reattaches the shackle to the handle of a shovel. Flash throws the shovel into the furnace which results in this episode's cliffhanging explosion.

CHAPTER 8 - TOURNAMENT OF DEATH

Escaping from the Furnace Room after the explosion, Flash dashes to the throne room and threatens Ming with a sword but is overcome and taken to the Execution Room. He escapes as the Sky City becomes unstable now that the furnace no longer is operating to produce the rays which kept the city aloft.

Zarkov agrees to save the city with a new ray he has discovered provided Vultan frees his friends. Vultan agrees but Ming calls a Tournament of Death. If Flash survives, he wins his liberty, a kingdom of his own and a bride of his choice.

Wearing a new outfit, Flash crosses swords with his opponent, the Mighty Masked Swordsman of Mongo. After a prolonged bout, Flash unmasks the swordsman as Barin, who says he was forced into it. Barin apologies to Flash and reveals he is in love with Princess Aura and hoped to win her as the bride of his choice during the tournament.

Ming has now decreed Flash must fight "the mighty beast of Mongo" which is an orangopoid (actually a pretty decent gorilla suit with a single horn in the middle of its forehead, like a unicorn). Armed only with a knife, which he soon loses, Flash engages in a losing battle with this creature as this episode's cliffhanger.

CHAPTER 9 - FIGHTING THE FIRE DRAGON

Aura once again rescues Flash by grabbing a spear from a guard and giving it to Flash who uses it to kill the orangopoid. Highly displeased at the way things have turned out, Ming nevertheless agrees to reward the champion in three days at his Palace.

Back in Ming's Palace, Aura spots Flash kissing Dale. With the help of the highpriest, she has Flash and Barin drugged and Flash spirited away. Zarkov finds Barin drugged and Flash missing, with a scarf carelessly left by Aura nearby. Upon interrogating Aura's guard, Barin, Vultan, Zarkov and Dale discover where Aura has taken Flash and set off after him.

Flash awakens briefly and is given a second drug by Aura which causes amnesia, as they enter the Tunnel of Terror guarded by the Fire Dragon (the same creature from Chapter 2's cliffhanger), who can be summoned by a gong. Betraying Aura, the highpriest strikes the gong, summoning the dragon as Dale, Barin, Vultan and Zarkov arrive.

CHAPTER 10 - THE UNSEEN PERIL

Zarkov destroys the dragon with a grenade he luckily happens to be carrying. He recognizes Flash has been given a powerful drug, but is unable to counteract the memory loss.

At the ceremony to reward Flash for surviving the tournament, Flash is unable to remember anything and refuses to choose a bride. Aura leads Flash away, over Vultan's protest, so Ming has Vultan imprisoned.

Misled by Aura, Flash repudiates his friends, forcing Barin to knock him out in order to get him to Zarkov's lab. Belatedly, Zarkov has discovered a ray which restores Flash's memory.

Ming's guards break into Zarkov's lab and just as they are about to execute Flash, he disappears in this chapter's cliffhanger.

CHAPTER 11 - IN THE CLAWS OF THE TIGRON

Zarkov has made Flash invisible via yet another ray he has discovered combined with his newly invented invisibility machine. Flash uses his new invisibility to choke Ming in his own throne room, but spares his life at the request of Prince Barin. He then frees Vultan from his cell.

Aura spies on the lab and discovers the plans of Flash and his friends. Vultan, Zarkov and the invisible Flash carry power magazines to Zarkov's rocketship, while Dale and Barin guard the invisibility machine. Barin notices Aura's listening device and takes Dale to a cave in the catacombs under the palace for her safety.

Aura sets out to find Dale using the sacred Tigron (a tiger on a leash). Flash spontaneously becomes visible during a struggle with Ming's guards, as Barin returns. Flash and Barin set off to retrieve Dale, as the Tigron attacks her in this chapter's cliffhanger.

CHAPTER 12 - TRAPPED IN THE TURRET

Flash strangles the Tigron, rescuing Dale, who is none the worse for her recent mauling. Barin convinces Aura to win Flash's friendship by helping him (Aura had earlier used this argument on Vultan about Dale). Aura brings Flash, Dale and Barin to the throne room, where Barin declares his love for Aura.

With Aura's intercession, Ming grants everyone's freedom, but it's just another ploy and he sets spies on Flash and his friends. Although he's eager to be rid of Flash, Ming still lusts after Dale and wants to retain that scientific genius, Dr. Zarkov to help him conquer the universe.

Zarkov contacts Thun on the spaceograph and asks him to meet at Vultan's Palace. Barin arranges to meet Flash at the turret house, but is overhead by Ming's spies. Ming captures Barin and uses his ship to fire on Flash and his friends, trapping them in the turret house in a fiery explosion which is this chapter's cliffhanger.

CHAPTER 13 - ROCKETING TO EARTH

In this serial's one cliffhanger cheat, Flash finds a trap door through which everyone escapes before the turret house is destroyed in an explosion. As they make their way through yet another underground tunnel, they see Barin being led to prison and rescue him.

They return to Zarkov's lab where he has electrified the door to prevent Ming's guards attacking them, but Ming has the power turned off. Just as his guards are about to nab Flash and his friends, Thun leads an air attack in his gyroships and the Lionmen break into the throne room. In the general melee, Ming escapes into the Sacred Palace of the Great God Tao "from which there is no return" according to the hardly reliable highpriest, who announces Ming's death to Flash and Aura, who nevertheless believe him.

Aura now rules Mongo with Barin as her consort. Barin, Aura, Thun and Vultan see off their Earth friends as they board their rocketship for the return trip to Earth. Once airborne, however, the highpriest can't resist gloating to Aura that they are doomed because he has planted a bomb on Zarkov's rocketship. Barin quickly heads to the lab to contact Flash via Zarkov's communications device. Flash finds the bomb and, with little impact from the lack of air or the absence of gravity in space, opens the door of the rocketship and chucks it out seconds before it explodes.

En route to Earth, Flash communicates with his father, requesting that all power on Earth be turned off (!) in case it "counteracts" the rocketship. There is a brief montage of stock footage of newspaper headlines, excited crowds and the charming old New York skyline but Flash and Dale are oblivious, having eyes only for each other.

Versions of this serial were re-edited and re-released as a feature film variously titled ROCKET SHIP, SPACESHIP TO THE UNKNOWN and SPACE SOLDIERS.

THE END

Flash Gordon

Unlike Buck Rogers, who began life as a pulp character but found greater fame in the funny pages, Flash Gordon made his first appearance in a comic strip and later made a brief foray into the pulps. Alex Raymond had been ghosting Tim Tyler's Luck for King Features when he learned that the syndicate was looking for a science fiction strip to compete with Buck Rogers, which was distributed by a rival syndicate. His first idea was rejected, but he reworked the idea with the syndicate and Flash Gordon first appeared in the Sunday pages on January 7, 1934.

The first panel of the inaugural strip shows the front page of a newspaper, the headlines blaring, "WORLD COMING TO END—STRANGE NEW PLANET RUSHING TOWARD EARTH—ONLY MIRACLE CAN SAVE US, SAYS SCIENCE." In the succeeding panels, the narration informs us: "In African jungles tom-toms roll and thunder incessantly as the howling blacks await their doom! The Arab in the desert resigned to the inevitable faces Mecca and prays for his salvation! Times Square, New York—A seething mass of humanity watches a bulletin board describing the flight of the comet! The scientist, Dr. Hans Zarkov works day and night perfecting a device with which he hopes to save the world—His great brain is weakening under the strain. Aboard an eastbound transcontinental plane we have Flash Gordon, Yale graduate and world renowned polo player and Dale Arden, a passenger. Suddenly, a flaming meteor torn loose from the approaching comet, roars past the plane shearing off a wing—The plane flounders helplessly and dives! Flash takes the girl in his arms and bails out. His 'chute opens with a crack! They float earthward. Landing near Dr. Zarkov's great observatory, Flash frees himself of his parachute. A dishevelled wild-eyed figure confronts them..."

The dishevelled, wild-eyed figure (with an unfortunate comb-over) is Dr. Zarkov, of course, and he's holding a gun. Fearing that Flash and Dale are spies sent out to thwart his plans, the distraught scientist forces them into his rocketship, determined to blast off in an attempt to deflect the onrushing planet from its course and save the Earth. However, as his rocketship approaches the new planet, Dr. Zarkov has a sudden change of heart. Fearing that they'll all be killed, he tries to swerve his rocket away from the oncoming planet. Flash, realizing that they are Earth's only hope, struggles with the mad scientist and knocks him unconscious. Roaring over a beautiful city on the surface of the new planet, the rocket crashlands on the side of a mountain, the force of the impact apparently being sufficient to jar the planet into a new orbit.

On Mongo, for such is the name of the new planet, Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, and Dr. Zarkov come under the baleful influence of Ming the Merciless, Emperor of the Universe. In the course of their improbable and breathtaking adventures they meet Princess Aura, Ming's daughter, Prince Barin, the rightful ruler of Mongo, Thun, Prince of the Lion Men, Vultan, King of the Hawk Men, Azura, the Witch Queen of the Blue Magic Men, Fria, Queen of the frozen kingdom of Frigia, and countless other friends and enemies—all beautifully illustrated with the lush, sensuous artwork for which Alex Raymond is so justly remembered.

Flash Gordon

F
lash Gordon was an immediate success, and King Features soon sought other means to capitalize on the strip's growing popularity. Flash's exploits were adapted for radio in 1935, and 1936 brought the first novelization of Flash's adventures, Flash Gordon in the Caverns of Mongo, along with the filming of the first of three Flash Gordon movie serials starring Buster Crabbe. Also in 1936 came the publication of the first, and lamentably only, issue of the Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine.

Aimed at a juvenile audience, the Flash Gordon pulp story faithfully retained the three main comic strip protagonists, the stalwart, natural leader of men, Flash Gordon, the voluptuous and occasionally petulant Dale Arden, and the brilliant though slightly unstable Dr. Hans Zarkov—but the majority of the action inexplicably takes place on Mars, and the villian, Pwami, Master of Mars, is little more than a country cousin to Ming the Merciless. Nevertheless, The Master of Mars, attributed to the otherwise unknown James Edison Northford (spelled "Northfield" on the contents page), was a rousing pulp adventure, with nearly every chapter ending in a seemingly inescapable cliffhanger—much like Raymond's Sunday pages and Buster Crabbe's serials.

As longtime pulp collectors may know, Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine's chief claim to fame is that it included full page four-color illustrations done in the comic strip style. Although the color illustrations that appeared in the pulp were done by an artist named Fred Meagher, the plot had apparently been constructed to parallel events that had taken place in the comic strip. For example, early in the pulp adventure, the evil Pwami has Flash thrown into a pit, where he is menaced by a thirty-foot long Martian Pythocra, which just happens to resemble the Constrictosaurus Flash faced in a similar pit on Mongo in the comic strip published on December 29, 1935.

Illustration by Fred Meagher, published in
Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine



Panel by Alex Raymond, published
on December 29, 1935

Special thanks to David, a longtime Alex Raymond fan, for the use of the Meagher illustration.

Likewise, at one point Dale finds herself confined in Pwami's sky gallery of Eros, a predicament remarkably similar to the one she faced in Vultan's tower harem on Mongo. Later, Flash finds himself underwater in one of the canals of Mars, fighting for his life against the Shark Men of Mars, who appear to be closely related to the Shark Men of Mongo. Perhaps the original intention had been to adapt Raymond's comic strip illustrations, similar to the adaptation that had been done for the cover (see box at the bottom of this page). If such is the case, however, the plan was regrettably abandoned, as Meagher's drawing skills weren't in the same league as Raymond's.

Dale Arden

As The Master of Mars progresses, Flash rescues Dale from Pwami's sky gallery, finds himself in the company of Illana, the beautiful Princess of Jupiter, is stranded with her in the magnetic mountains on the planetoid Tyron, rescues Dr. Zarkov from the prison asteroid Ceres, and is caught up in a titanic struggle between the forces of Earth and an invading fleet of Martian spaceships. All solid pulp science fiction adventure—that unfortunately failed to catch on with the reading public.

Dr. Zarkov

It isn't clear as to why Flash Gordon failed to successfully make the transition from comic strips to the pulps, other than to note that no attempts to adapt comic characters to the pulps had ever been successful. Sheena, a popular comic book character published by Fiction House, failed to survive her first pulp issue (other than a brief guest appearance in the final issue of Jungle Stories, also published by Fiction House). In any event, Flash Gordon's second pulp adventure, The Sun Men of Saturn, promised in the back pages of the December 1936 issue of Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine, if it was ever actually written, did not see publication.

Ironically, the Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine is now highly sought after by collectors. Although copies are seldom available, a copy was recently up for auction on eBay with a starting bid of $400. More affordably, underground reprints of the story can be had, or so I am told, for about $6.80 including postage.

T
he 1936 novelization, Flash Gordon in the Caverns of Mongo, published by Grosset & Dunlap, shared a similar fate with the pulp magazine—it had not been successful enough to result in a continuing series. Also aimed at a juvenile audience, the novel was published as being written by Alex Raymond, though there is no reason to think that he was the actual author. The cover illustration, end pages, and frontispiece were done by an illustrator named Robb Beebe, and the actual author of the book didn't really have a feel for Raymond's characters. At one point, the author appears to be unaware that Hawkmen could fly, and with the (premature) fall of Ming, the author has made Vultan the King of Mongo, whereas Raymond's storyline had made Prince Barin of Arboria the rightful heir.

Another good reason to believe that the novel wasn't actually written by Alex Raymond is that soon after beginning the Flash Gordon strip, Raymond turned the script writing duties over to Don Moore, a former pulp editor. Since Raymond was drawing Secret Agent X-9 and Jungle Jim at the same time he was doing the Flash Gordon strips, he didn't have the time to do his own writing. The main reason to doubt Raymond's authorship, however, is that even as a juvenile adventure story the book simply isn't very good.

The book starts out promisingly enough, with Lovecraftian references to "half-man, half-god things that inhabit the underworld" of Mongo, but the story quickly breaks down to a remarkably tedious battle between the forces of the upperworld and the pallid minions of the evil King Gonth of the netherworld. About halfway through the book, Flash is led to believe that Mongo and his friends have been lost, and in despair he flees to the moon Titan, which the author mistakenly believes to be in orbit around the planet Jupiter! On Titan, story "B" takes over as Flash becomes involved with the beautiful Princess Lahn-een (there aren't any plain-looking female royalty in Flash's universe) and her power struggle with the evil High Priest Oghr. After story "B" is more or less resolved, Flash, accompanied by Lahn-een and her forces, returns to Mongo and finishes up the nearly forgotten conflict from story "A" through a rather unique application of genocide. Except for Flash Gordon completists, this novel is best avoided, and it probably isn't something you'd want to read to your children.

O
ther than Big Little Book, Better Little Book, and similar adaptations of the Flash Gordon comic strips, there would be no further novelizations of Flash's adventures until 1974. In that year, Avon Books published the first of six adult Flash Gordon novelizations, the first four attributed to Con Steffanson and the remaining two attributed to Carson Bingham. In reality, the first three, The Lion Men of Mongo, The Plague of Sound, and The Space Circus, were written by Ron Goulart, and the final three, The Time Trap of Ming XIII, The Witch Queen of Mongo, and The War of the Cybernauts, were written by Carson Bingham, a pseudonym for Bruce Bingham Cassiday, a former pulp editor whose only previous writing experience was a novelization of the 1961 UK sci-fi movie Gorgo. The books were sold as being adaptations from Alex Raymond's original stories, but only the first novel is even remotely related to Raymond's work. In fact, all of the books in this series appear to be based on storylines from the Flash Gordon daily strips initiated by Dan Barry in 1951 (for example, The Witch Queen of Mongo is based on a Barry story that began on January 2, 1956). Of this series, the first three written by Ron Goulart are quick, enjoyable reads—although the language is a bit dated and the humor is pretty corny. The three by Carson Bingham are tedious time wasters, and may safely be avoided.

The next attempt at a Flash Gordon series was published by Tempo Books beginning in 1980. Although much better written than the final books in the previous series, this series isn't at all faithful to the Flash Gordon comic strip. In the first book, Massacre in the 22nd Century, Flash is introduced as a widower in his late thirties who is an agent with the Federation Central Intelligence Division. Dr. Zarkov, while still a brilliant scientist, is a frail old man who spends most of his time recovering from near-death experiences—and Dale Arden is his niece! This book and the remaining books in the series, War of the Citadels, Crisis on Citadel II, Forces from the Federation, Citadels under Attack, and Citadels on Earth, basically form an extended story arc in which our heroes get caught up in an ancient galactic civilization that has been at war for over 100,000 years. The earth itself is torn by the struggle between the Federation, the rightful government of the earth's own nascent galactic colonization efforts, and the Trans Federation, a vast conglomerate that has the power to openly flaunt the Federation's authority. It's all pretty standard SF adventure, but the three main characters could have been given any names—they bear little relation to the characters created by Alex Raymond. The books in this series were published anonymously, but were written by David Hagberg, who has also written under the name Sean Flannery, and who is better known for writing thrillers in the Tom Clancy vein.

I
n other media, Flash has met with comparatively greater success. As mentioned above, there was a Flash Gordon radio series in 1935. Running for 26 episodes between April 27, 1935 and October 26, 1935, The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon starred Gale Gordon in the role of Flash. The series faithfully adapted Flash's comic strip adventures, with the exception of the last two episodes, which took a surprising turn when Flash, Dale, and Dr. Zarkov returned to earth in their rocketship and crashlanded in Africa. In Africa, they meet Jungle Jim, who witnesses Flash and Dale's tribal wedding ceremony in episode 26. Not too surprisingly, the radio series was replaced the next week with The Adventures of Jungle Jim, and Flash, Dale, and Dr. Zarkov faded away—at least for that run. For almost immediately following the first series came a second radio series entitled The Further Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon. This second series strayed from Alex Raymond's original storyline, with some of the episodes taking place in the undersea kingdom of Atlantis, and apparently ran into 1936.

Flash's most successful foray into other media was, of course, the 1936 serial Flash Gordon (AKA Space Soldiers). Starring Buster Crabbe with a blond dye-job as Flash, Jean Rogers as a sexy Dale Arden, Frank Shannon as a somewhat stodgy Dr. Zarkov, Priscilla Lawson as a sultry Princess Aura, Richard Alexander as a pudgy Prince Barin, Jack "Tiny" Lipson as an amusing and easily amused King Vultan, and the excellent Charles Middleton as Ming the Merciless, this first Flash Gordon serial produced by Universal Pictures was remarkably faithful to Alex Raymond's storyline, with the set design of some scenes apparently taken straight from Raymond's comic strip panels. While the cheap sets, primitive special effects, and stilted dialogue can cause unwanted chuckles among today's audiences, this serial is a rousing, non-stop actioner that continues to influence filmmakers, most notably George Lucas in his Star Wars series. Despite its limitations, or perhaps because of them, Flash Gordon is the epitome of Space Opera in the grand tradition and remains great fun to watch.

Given the immense popularity of the first serial, it isn't surprising that Universal Pictures rushed out with another one in 1938. Although taking plot elements and characters from Alex Raymond's strip, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars made some significant deviations from the comic strip canon—most notably transferring the action to Mars, reportedly to capitalize on the interest in Mars that was generated by Orson Welles's radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds, and the addition of Happy Hapgood, an annoying journalist unnecessarily added to Flash's crew for comic relief. The plot this time has Ming the Merciless visiting Azura, the Queen of Magic on Mars (Witch Queen of the Blue Magic Men on Mongo in the original comic strip), and colluding with her to focus a deadly ray on the Earth so that he can wreak his revenge for the problems caused by Flash in the first serial. Flash, a disappointingly brunette Dale, and Dr. Zarkov, joined by the hapless Happy Hapgood, suspect that the attack is coming from Mongo, and blast off in their rocketship to thwart Ming's evil plans—but discover enroute that the ray is really coming from Mars and adjust their trajectory to land on the Red Planet. Since the detour to Mars was obviously done for commercial reasons, the scriptwriters had to strain a bit to incorporate Alex Raymond's Mongo-bound storyline, and it's a bit of a surprise when part way through the serial Prince Barin of Arboria shows up for no convincing reason.

Jean Rogers as a blonde Dale Arden in
Flash Gordon



Jean Rogers as a brunette Dale Arden in Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars
Which is sexier? You decide (hint: think "blonde").

Although the sets are a bit cheaper, and some of the special effects shots have obviously been salvaged from the first serial, the acting is generally better than in 1936's Flash Gordon, and all of the main characters are played by the same actors (Jean Rogers had reportedly dyed her hair brown for another film she was making at the same time), with the addition of Beatrice Roberts as Queen Azura and Donald Kerr as Happy Hapgood. It's not as fresh or as exciting as the first serial, but Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars is still great fun, and is actually preferred by some fans.

The final Flash Gordon serial, Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, was released by Universal Pictures in 1940. Back on Mongo this time, Ming the Merciless has been busily sending spaceships to Earth to poison the atmosphere with dust that causes the Purple Death. So Flash, Dale (this time played by Carol Hughes—who more closely resembles the Dale of the comic strips—but who is no match for Jean Rogers, whether blonde or brunette), and Dr. Zarkov must return to Mongo to once again thwart Ming's nefarious plans. On Mongo, they meet up with old friends Prince Barin and Princess Aura, now married and played by different actors, and enlist the aid of Queen Fria of Frigia to fight Ming, the treacherous Sonja, and the villianous Captain Torch to once again save the Earth. Although the storyline returns to Alex Raymond's source material (with the exception of the aforementioned "Purple Death"), the actors are getting tired and the use of stock footage increases. The costumes are beautiful, however, and this concluding installment in the trilogy has its supporters.

W
ith the coming of television, many of the old serials were rerun to fill programming time, and one of the most popular was the 1936 Flash Gordon serial. So perhaps it isn't too surprising to discover that Flash's renewed popularity gave rise to a television series in 1954. Independently produced in West Germany by Inter-Continental Film Productions, and broadcast on the DuMont Television Network, the Flash Gordon TV series starred Steve Holland (perhaps better known to pulp fans as the male model used by James Bama for the Doc Savage cover illustrations for the Bantam reprints) as Flash Gordon, Irene Champlin as Dale Arden, and Joseph Nash as Dr. Zarkov. Set in the year 2203 (though the year is reported as 3063 in one episode), Flash, Dale, and Dr. Zarkov are all agents for the Galactic Bureau of Investigation, which operates under the authority of the Galactic Council. Although the characters are fairly faithful to those created by Alex Raymond, Raymond's storyline has been completely abandoned and the series is little more than a knock-off of Captain Video. As might be expected for an independent production, the sets are cheap, the special effects aren't very special, and as an actor Steve Holland makes a pretty good male model. The series gained some notoriety when a childrens' programming watchdog group singled it out before a Senate subcommittee as an example of lurid and violent programming. After 39 episodes (some sources say 52), some of which are available on tape, the show folded and was soon forgotten. It's not great TV, it's Retro-TV—and good fun for cultists.

Flash's next television appearance had to wait until 1979, when The New Animated Adventures of Flash Gordon, produced by Filmation in the limited animation style of the 1970s, was broadcast on NBC. While remaining fairly faithful to Alex Raymond's storyline, this series of thirty-minute episodes was updated a bit to reflect the post-Star Wars tastes of its audience. The series began broadcasting on September 8, 1979, and featured the voices of Robert Ridgely as Flash Gordon and Prince Barin, Diane Pershing as Dale Arden, Alan Oppenheimer as Dr. Zarkov and Ming the Merciless(!), Ted Cassidy as Thun, and Allan Melvin as King Vultan. In the second season, the episodes were trimmed to twelve minutes and a pet dragon named "Gremlin" was introduced for the kiddies. In 1986 Filmation brought Flash back to TV as one of the characters in its Defenders of the Earth series, but Flash was overshadowed in this series by his son Rick.

Of course, no review of Flash Gordon's career can ignore the 1980 feature movie—as much as one might wish to. Featuring a catchy theme song by the rock group Queen, and starring Sam Jones as a mediocre Flash, Melody Anderson as a cute Dale, Topol as an inspired Dr. Zarkov, Max von Sydow as a nearly perfect Emperor Ming, Timothy Dalton as an overly serious Prince Barin, Brian Blessed as a delightful Vultan, and the delicious Ornella Muti as a breathtaking Princess Aura, Flash Gordon is extremely enjoyable as a laugh-out-loud cult favorite, but fails miserably as a retelling of the Flash Gordon story. Although it's fairly faithful in following Alex Raymond's original storyline, poor acting, dated and ludicrous dialogue, phony-looking set design and special effects, and a complete absence of the sense of romance and adventure so prominent in the Flash Gordon comic strip prevents the movie from being seriously considered as anything other than a parody. The only reason one can think of to justify watching this movie more than once is the beautiful and sultry Ornella Muti as Princess Aura. Cult movie lovers (of which I consider myself one) may relish the movie for its sheer badness, and the skimpy attire worn by Ornella Muti appears to defy science, but it would be difficult to recommend the movie to a general audience. Except, perhaps, to have a look at the luscious Ornella Muti—or have I already mentioned that?.

Although there are rumors that another Flash Gordon movie is currently in the works, the lastest production featuring Flash and his friends was another animated series released for syndication by Hearst Entertainment in 1996. To the horror of Flash Gordon purists, Flash and Dale have become skateboarding insouciant teenagers, mistakenly kidnapped by a self-centered and cowardly Dr. Zarkov, who is more interested in going to Mongo in order to win the Nobel prize than in order to save the Earth. In keeping with the PC times, Ming is depicted as being reptilian (reptiles being harder to offend than humans), and Princess Aura is his half-reptile, half-human daughter who still has the hots for Flash. Prince Thun of the Lion Men has been replaced by Princess Thundar, another overactive teenager. There were at least 26 half-hour episodes of this series, and a video, Marooned on Mongo, is occasionally available for aucion on eBay should anyone wish to see it.

Jim Keefe's version
of Flash and Dale.

A
lex Raymond continued working on the Flash Gordon Sunday strip until he entered the Marine Corps in 1944. Austin Briggs, who had ghosted a few of Raymond's Sunday strips and had drawn the Flash Gordon daily strip since its inception in 1940, assumed duties on the Sunday strip with Raymond's departure. With Briggs' transfer to the Sunday strip, the dailies were abandoned and weren't revived until 1951, when Dan Barry began a new series of Flash Gordon dailies in a less romantic style with a radically altered continuity, assisted by writers and artists such as Harvey Kurtzman, Al Williamson (most notable for his excellent work in various Flash Gordon comic books), Frank Frazetta, Fred Kida, Bob Fujitani, and Harry Harrison. In 1948, Briggs abandoned the Sunday strip and it was continued by Mac Raboy until his death in 1967. With Raboy's death, Dan Barry and his various scriptwriters, ghost artists, and assistants assumed duties on the Sunday strip while continuing the dailies. Dan Barry quit the series in 1990, and the dailies and Sunday strips were taken over by Ralph Reese as artist, occasionally assisted by Gray Morrow, with scripts by Bruce Jones. In 1992 the art duties were farmed out to a studio in Buenos Aires, with writing by Kevin Van Hook and Thomas Warkentin. The dailies were dropped from syndication in 1993, and Jim Keefe took over as artist and writer of the Sunday strip in 1996, and continued up to 2003.

An admirer of Alex Raymond and Al Williamson (for examples of Al Williamson's exquisite commercial artwork featuring Flash Gordon, click here—warning to those with slow connections, this page includes large image files), Jim Keefe dispensed with the ill-advised directions introduced into the series by Dan Barry, and returned Flash Gordon to the continuity established by Alex Raymond in 1934. Although Keefe halted production of new strips in 2003, King Features continues to syndicate reprints of Keefe's work. If the strip doesn't appear in your newspaper's Sunday pages, you'd be well advised to contact the paper's comics editor and request that it be picked up.
Early "Recycling"

The illustration for the cover of the Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine pulp (right) was adapted by Fred Meagher from this panel of Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon Sunday strip, published on June 21, 1936.


Flash Gordon

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Behold Fool Rush Stork

Brotherhood of Skulls has existed since antediluvian times. One of its original names was The Manhunters or The Fishers of Men or Manfishers.

From the very beginning through to now they have operated continuously. Their uniform has always been black, their symbol always a silver skull.

They believe in physical immortality. Their means of achieving it, received direct from the devil god that founded them, are as follows:

Perverted sex

Sex magick

The ritual of the Smothering Air

The binding of demons

The trafficking with "unclean spirits", "demons of air and darkness" and "devils"

Human sacrifice of the most grisly sort including exsanguination, ripping the living hearts out of victims, sacrifice of children, mass murder, mass cremation for homeopathic ie ritual magic purposes and skinning virgins alive

At different times and in different places they have arrived to establish versions of their order:

"Atlantis"- the world before the Flood - the Order of GIR.RA.UD
"Headhunters" amongst the debased of the "Children of Noah"
Sumerian and Semitic Lillith Cult
Temple of Cthon
Cult of the Nameless One
Black Order of the Book of Skulls, Ancient Britain
Etruscan Cult of Orc
Roman Dis Pater sect
Priesthood and Scribes of Rahan Capuac
Witch Cult
Aztec priesthood of Tezcatlipoca
Jesuits
Illuminati
Skull and Bones (and related Phi Beta Kappa groups)
Nazi Germany - the SS
Hell's Angels bikie movement
Vampire the Masquerade / Goth subculture controllers


At each point, the Black Order or Brotherhood of Skulls has never numbered many members- a tiny handful in fact. But their effects have always been colossal since they are communicating the literal processes of the ancient "gods", never meant for human use or human life.

Flash Gordon and My Father

My late father, God rest him, absolutely ADORED the Flash Gordon serials.

The original ones, from the 1930s. When he was a kid, even though those serials were already a good 10-15 years old, they were still playing in local cinemas as matinees and he could also hear them on radio. Being that "old" as a media product wasn't the unforgiveable sin back then that it is today.

My father's love for them encapsulated his whole red-blooded value system, which is the value system I inherited from him, as all good fathers pass to their sons.

He loved the stories, he loved the science fiction speculation, he loved the swashbuckling optimism and the heroic adventures. Although he never seemed to show it in other ways he was a great fan of pulp fiction (as long as it wasn't gratuitously obscene or too luridly violent) and his massive fancrush on science fiction led me to follow in his footsteps. One of the heartbreaks of his declining years for both of us was the death of the sort of science fiction types we'd read through our lives, to be replaced by pablum and "franchise" books, barely worthy of the name of book itself.

But in Flash Gordon, in all media, Dad found the apogee of his delight, and for many years so did I. Dan Dare had his moments, as did many other sub-Flash heroes and heroines... But Flash was truly Emperor of the Universe.

Dad loved the women in Flash Gordon too- and he was quite correct in his judgment. There have been stunning women portraying the characters over the decades- from the original ingenues to the smoldering Ornella Muti and beyond.

I never got to find out what Dad thought of the Rocketeer, but I imagine its basic type of story would have appealed to him and I know the incredible art of Dave Stevens would have amused and captivated him too.

For my father- my somewhat respectful and hopefully humorous parody-adventure of Flash Gordon is respectfully dedicated to you, Dad. I love you. And I still miss you so much.