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Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond (Kitchen Sink Press) #4
Flash Gordon - Volume Four 1939-1941: The Fall of Ming
Collects strips from July 23, 1939 to July 20, 1941.
- GenresScience Fiction
112 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1992
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About the author
Alex Raymond
719 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 of 1 review
January 13, 2026
Flash Gordon – Volume Four (1939–1941): The Fall of Ming brings one of the great foundational sagas of science-fantasy to its long-awaited conclusion. And what a conclusion it is. After years of conflict that pitted the greatest hero of Earth against the most iconic tyrant of Mongo, Alex Raymond delivers the inevitable defeat of Ming the Merciless with operatic weight, narrative momentum, and visual splendor.
This final arc feels truly earned. The long rivalry between Flash and Ming has grown into something almost mythic, and Raymond understands that the ending must carry both triumph and grandeur. The stakes are epic, the pacing relentless, and the sense of finality unmistakable. Even knowing how it must end, the journey remains thrilling to the last panel.
Artistically, Raymond is once again at his peak. His command of composition, anatomy, and atmosphere elevates every scene, turning serialized adventure into timeless illustration. These strips don’t merely entertain—they crystallize an era and define the visual language of science-fantasy that would echo for decades in comics, pulp fiction, and cinema.
The Fall of Ming is more than the end of a storyline; it is the closing chapter of a legend. This volume stands as a testament to Alex Raymond’s enduring legacy and to Flash Gordon as one of the immortal cornerstones of imaginative adventure.
This final arc feels truly earned. The long rivalry between Flash and Ming has grown into something almost mythic, and Raymond understands that the ending must carry both triumph and grandeur. The stakes are epic, the pacing relentless, and the sense of finality unmistakable. Even knowing how it must end, the journey remains thrilling to the last panel.
Artistically, Raymond is once again at his peak. His command of composition, anatomy, and atmosphere elevates every scene, turning serialized adventure into timeless illustration. These strips don’t merely entertain—they crystallize an era and define the visual language of science-fantasy that would echo for decades in comics, pulp fiction, and cinema.
The Fall of Ming is more than the end of a storyline; it is the closing chapter of a legend. This volume stands as a testament to Alex Raymond’s enduring legacy and to Flash Gordon as one of the immortal cornerstones of imaginative adventure.
Displaying 1 of 1 review