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Definitive Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim #3
Definitive Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim Vol. 3: 1939-1941
The third volume of the Definitive Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim includes every Alex Raymond Sunday from March 12, 1939 through the end of 1941.
Flash, Dale Arden, and Dr. Zarkov have a lengthy adventure with Fria, the stunning Snow Queen of Frigia; Dale is captured by Ming's secret service, culminating in a fight to the finish between Flash and the merciless tyrant. Meanwhile, when radio signals from Earth find their way to Mongo, Flash and company must decide--do they stay on Mongo or return home to help overthrow "The Dictator"?!
In the topper strip, Jim, Lil, and Kolu ward off moon worshippers on the Malay Peninsula, protect the Panama Canal from sabotage, and, in the midst of an expanding world war, are enlisted to keep a Caribbean island free of hostile foreign influences.
In the introduction by Bruce Canwell, Joe Kubert tells of being a 12-year-old making his first-ever trip out of Brooklyn to visit Alex Raymond at his Connecticut home! Plus, Howard Chaykin discusses the influence of the Matt and Benton Clark on Raymond's drawing style.
Edited by Dean Mullaney, designed by Lorraine Turner, Introduction by Bruce Canwell.
Flash, Dale Arden, and Dr. Zarkov have a lengthy adventure with Fria, the stunning Snow Queen of Frigia; Dale is captured by Ming's secret service, culminating in a fight to the finish between Flash and the merciless tyrant. Meanwhile, when radio signals from Earth find their way to Mongo, Flash and company must decide--do they stay on Mongo or return home to help overthrow "The Dictator"?!
In the topper strip, Jim, Lil, and Kolu ward off moon worshippers on the Malay Peninsula, protect the Panama Canal from sabotage, and, in the midst of an expanding world war, are enlisted to keep a Caribbean island free of hostile foreign influences.
In the introduction by Bruce Canwell, Joe Kubert tells of being a 12-year-old making his first-ever trip out of Brooklyn to visit Alex Raymond at his Connecticut home! Plus, Howard Chaykin discusses the influence of the Matt and Benton Clark on Raymond's drawing style.
Edited by Dean Mullaney, designed by Lorraine Turner, Introduction by Bruce Canwell.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published April 9, 2013
17 people want to read
About the author
Alex Raymond
717 books39 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 17, 2020
Flash Gordon survives the frozen wastes of Frigia, finally overthrows the tyrant Ming, and returns to Earth in time to blast some foreign dictator's navy with his ray guns and rocketship.
Alex Raymond's art continues to be the star of this strip. Jungle Jim is a bit more by-the-numbers worldly pulp adventure and Flash's tales are trope-ful themselves but they are both exquisitely delineated.
Alex Raymond's art continues to be the star of this strip. Jungle Jim is a bit more by-the-numbers worldly pulp adventure and Flash's tales are trope-ful themselves but they are both exquisitely delineated.
December 15, 2020
The moment they get back to Earth is a bit of a let down. Jungle Jim is still interesting. Oh well. Recommended.
December 28, 2024
Our heroic threesome makes it back to Earth by book's end in time for America to enter in to WWII. Also, Jungle Jim's story ends with him brushing off two women!
February 8, 2014
This merits at least a 3 for the gorgeous art alone, but the stories make anything higher than a 3 impossible. It's all silly, formulaic stuff, with characters almost inevitably motivated by, at best, quaint as best notions (e.g. maganimously sparing the traitor only to have him betray you again)--when they're not engaging in bone-headed skulduggery out of jealousy. I mean, really, one sequenc ein Flash Gordon has one bonehead repeatedly put himself as well as Flash in jeopardy as he tries over and over again to kill Flash because he THINKS (on the basis of almost no evidence) that Flash is after his girl. Sure, why focus your attention on stopping the planetary tyrant when there's a girl at stake? Sheesh. Most irritating tic (found in BOTH strips!): the woman who just INSISTS on being with the hero, even in terribly dangerous environments, and then ends up having to be saved or rescued because the dumb bunny gets in trouble. (This of course is when she's not conusmed by jealousy because he glanced for a second at another woman.) If I were Jungle Jim and Kitty had popped onto my boat like that, I'd like to think I'd have pitched her right back overboard. Arrrrghh!!!!!
June 22, 2016
"The Ice Kingdom of Mongo" (3/12/39 to 4/7/40) (Retro Hugo Award Finalist)
"Power Men of Mongo" (4/14/40 to 1/12/41)
"Fall of Ming" (1/19/41 to 6/29/41)
"Return to Earth" (7/6/41 to 12/28/41)
"The Ice Kingdom of Mongo" deserves a Retro Hugo Award just for its gorgeous artwork by Alex Raymond. In 1940 Raymond was definitely one of the very best artists around. The writing, however, was nothing to get excited about. It mainly consisted of Flash blithely ignoring the jealousies and intrigues of the love triangles around him while fighting crazy monsters.
I think the writing improved somewhat with the other stories, although the artwork seemed to deteriorate a little.
The Jungle Jim stories are also very good, with perhaps more emphasis on action and adventure, although there was plenty of awkward romantic entanglements, too.
"Power Men of Mongo" (4/14/40 to 1/12/41)
"Fall of Ming" (1/19/41 to 6/29/41)
"Return to Earth" (7/6/41 to 12/28/41)
"The Ice Kingdom of Mongo" deserves a Retro Hugo Award just for its gorgeous artwork by Alex Raymond. In 1940 Raymond was definitely one of the very best artists around. The writing, however, was nothing to get excited about. It mainly consisted of Flash blithely ignoring the jealousies and intrigues of the love triangles around him while fighting crazy monsters.
I think the writing improved somewhat with the other stories, although the artwork seemed to deteriorate a little.
The Jungle Jim stories are also very good, with perhaps more emphasis on action and adventure, although there was plenty of awkward romantic entanglements, too.
January 4, 2014
It's probably heresy to say it, but I think I prefer the Jungle Jim strips to the Flash Gordon strips. Raymond's artwork is terrific in both strips and purely visionary in the sci-fi Flash sequences. Neither strip's stories are particularly striking or compelling - pure formula and corn, but Jim's stories aren't so leaden with shallow women fawning over the strip's titular hero and the Jim plots are if not more creative, less prone to over-reaching themselves.
That said, the artwork and reproduction are spectacular, and the book's worth it for any fan of classic adventure strips for the artwork alone.
That said, the artwork and reproduction are spectacular, and the book's worth it for any fan of classic adventure strips for the artwork alone.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews