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Checker Flash Gordon Reprints #5
Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon, Vol. 5
Volume five of Flash Gordon includes the stories “The Ice Kingdom of Mongo”, “Power Men of Mongo”, and “The Fall of Ming”, all originally appearing from 1940 to 1941. This quintessential science fiction title has all the trappings of what has now become the standard for modern-day sci-fi. Alex Raymond helped shape the landscape of this genre, and this landmark work is now available in a beautiful and affordable, hardcover edition from Checker Book Publishing Group
- GenresComicsScience Fiction
80 pages, Hardcover
Published October 7, 2005
About the author
Alex Raymond
723 books38 followersAlexander Gillespie Raymond was an American comic strip artist, best known for creating the comic Flash Gordon in 1934. The serial hit the silver screen three years later with Buster Crabbe and Jean Rogers as the leading players. Other strips he drew include Secret Agent X-9, Rip Kirby, Jungle Jim, Tim Tyler's Luck, and Tillie the Toiler. Alex Raymond received a Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society in 1949 for his work on Rip Kirby.
Born in New Rochelle, New York, Alex Raymond attended Iona Prep on a scholarship and played on the Gaels' football team. He joined the US Marines Corp in 1944 and served in the Pacific theatre during World War II.
His realistic style and skillful use of "feathering" (a shading technique in which a soft series of parallel lines helps to suggest the contour of an object) has continued to be an inspiration for generations of cartoonists.
Raymond was killed in an automobile accident in Westport, Connecticut while driving with fellow cartoonist Stan Drake, aged 46, and is buried in St. John's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Darien, Connecticut.
During the accident which led to his untimely demise, he was said to have remarked (by the surviving passenger of the accident) on the fact that a pencil on the dashboard seemed to be floating in relation to the plummet of the vehicle.
He was the great-uncle of actors Matt Dillon and Kevin Dillon.
Born in New Rochelle, New York, Alex Raymond attended Iona Prep on a scholarship and played on the Gaels' football team. He joined the US Marines Corp in 1944 and served in the Pacific theatre during World War II.
His realistic style and skillful use of "feathering" (a shading technique in which a soft series of parallel lines helps to suggest the contour of an object) has continued to be an inspiration for generations of cartoonists.
Raymond was killed in an automobile accident in Westport, Connecticut while driving with fellow cartoonist Stan Drake, aged 46, and is buried in St. John's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Darien, Connecticut.
During the accident which led to his untimely demise, he was said to have remarked (by the surviving passenger of the accident) on the fact that a pencil on the dashboard seemed to be floating in relation to the plummet of the vehicle.
He was the great-uncle of actors Matt Dillon and Kevin Dillon.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 9, 2026
You can't beat the classic Flash Gordon comics. Very recommended
March 4, 2014
Well, this is the last of these volumes my local library system has...it's a plot of course.
I must get to the bottom of this
Anyway, good book as are the other reprints of this great classic comic strip. I was reading them in the Sunday comics in the 1950s and '60s. This book has strips from '39 and '40.
We're still dealing with the evil Ming and his endless attempts to "get Flash". Actually I sometimes wonder that Flash managed to defeat him as Flash seems a bit thick at times.
You see every hot babe Flash meets wants him...and they all seem to end up plotting to break him and Dale up. Most of the plots seem to succeed far longer than they should. Among other "plots" here a young woman "must be near Flash" so she dresses like a..."boy". No one would fall for this. She is the most feminine looking "boy" ever and Flash has seen her before. But he falls for it.
sigh. Oh well.
As noted for a boy of the age I was when I was reading these the "hot girls" was a big reason why. Raymond was an excellent artist...
So anyway we still get high fantasy adventure. As always rayguns as well as swords and bows. Spies creeping around trying to knife Flash to get the reward Ming is offering...freedom fighting, "space ships".
These are great fun reads. Nostalgia as well as the said fun and action. Enjoy.
I must get to the bottom of this
Anyway, good book as are the other reprints of this great classic comic strip. I was reading them in the Sunday comics in the 1950s and '60s. This book has strips from '39 and '40.
We're still dealing with the evil Ming and his endless attempts to "get Flash". Actually I sometimes wonder that Flash managed to defeat him as Flash seems a bit thick at times.
You see every hot babe Flash meets wants him...and they all seem to end up plotting to break him and Dale up. Most of the plots seem to succeed far longer than they should. Among other "plots" here a young woman "must be near Flash" so she dresses like a..."boy". No one would fall for this. She is the most feminine looking "boy" ever and Flash has seen her before. But he falls for it.
sigh. Oh well.
As noted for a boy of the age I was when I was reading these the "hot girls" was a big reason why. Raymond was an excellent artist...
So anyway we still get high fantasy adventure. As always rayguns as well as swords and bows. Spies creeping around trying to knife Flash to get the reward Ming is offering...freedom fighting, "space ships".
These are great fun reads. Nostalgia as well as the said fun and action. Enjoy.
March 29, 2018
These are fun strips. Not Terry and the Pirates good, but still entertaining. The pacing is relentless - something happens in every single panel! You've read three or four strips and you can't believe how much plot has occurred. Characterization is basic and simple - Flash's a strong, righteous he-man; Dale's compassionate but prone to fainting when Flash is in danger (haha), and Ming's a tyrant. Still, the art's great and it's such a non-pretentious sci-fi thriller that it's easy to get involved with what's going on.
November 19, 2017
This volume reprints strips from January 28, 1940 through August 24, 1941. By now, you pretty much know what to expect from this series, but this volume does throw a bit of a curve: Ming is finally overthrown, and Flash, Dale and Zarkov return to Earth. There, they learn that the world is at war. Well, hey - it's 1941, right? In this case, however, the aggressors are not Nazis, but rather an organization or country (It's not quite clear which) known as "the Red Sword."
When these strips originally saw print, war was waging in Europe, but the U.S. had not yet entered the fray (That would come later in 1941.). It's obvious, though, that Nazi Germany was foremost in the minds of Alex Raymond and writer Don Moore. The Red Sword would seem to be an analogy for the Nazis, and Ming - prior to his overthrow - acts less like Fu Manchu and more like Hitler. He even has concentration camps!
Was the new development in this volume intended as a permanent change of direction or just a momentary change of pace? I honestly have no idea. Ming is overthrown but does not die, which paves the way for his possible return.
I wondered about the setting of this strip. Does FLASH GORDON take place in the present (i.e., 1941), the somewhat-near future or in an alternate universe? Any of these would seem to be possible, and I guess the reader can make up his or her own mind.
One final question: What happened to the hawkmen? We haven't seen hide nor hair of them for several volumes now. In the early strips, we saw not only hawkmen, but also lion men, shark men, panther men, etc. Did Raymond and/or Moore decide that all the animal men were too silly? I'm now curious to see if any of these races show up again.
When these strips originally saw print, war was waging in Europe, but the U.S. had not yet entered the fray (That would come later in 1941.). It's obvious, though, that Nazi Germany was foremost in the minds of Alex Raymond and writer Don Moore. The Red Sword would seem to be an analogy for the Nazis, and Ming - prior to his overthrow - acts less like Fu Manchu and more like Hitler. He even has concentration camps!
Was the new development in this volume intended as a permanent change of direction or just a momentary change of pace? I honestly have no idea. Ming is overthrown but does not die, which paves the way for his possible return.
I wondered about the setting of this strip. Does FLASH GORDON take place in the present (i.e., 1941), the somewhat-near future or in an alternate universe? Any of these would seem to be possible, and I guess the reader can make up his or her own mind.
One final question: What happened to the hawkmen? We haven't seen hide nor hair of them for several volumes now. In the early strips, we saw not only hawkmen, but also lion men, shark men, panther men, etc. Did Raymond and/or Moore decide that all the animal men were too silly? I'm now curious to see if any of these races show up again.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews