Flash Gordon: Classic Collection, Vol. 1: The Complete Sunday Strips 1934-1937

Flash Gordon: Classic Collection

by Alex Raymond, Don Moore, Alex Ross (Introduction)

Science fiction’s most enduring icon Flash Gordon returns in a newly-restored edition, collecting his earliest adventures with Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov on the mysterious planet Mongo. There they’ll encounter strange landscapes, fantastic creatures, otherworldly characters, and the universe’s most diabolical mastermind–Ming the Merciless.

Flash Gordon: Classic Collection Volume 1 reprints all of Alex Raymond’s Sunday strips from January 1, 1934 to April 18, 1937, and includes additional background material and an introduction from Alex Ross.

Genres: Science Fiction, Comics

208 pages, Hardcover

Published July 31, 2024

About the author

Alexander 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.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I already had an inkling of what the Flash Gordon newspaper strip was like but this was my first time reading them in sequence. The original format was, of course, one strip a week, with a cliffhanger that would be resolved the following week but would then end up with another cliffhanger. This is a very unfamiliar way of storytelling for someone who is used to reading short stories and novels and took some getting used to. I can’t say I ever really learned to enjoy it that much. The incessant need for cliffhangers often devolved into creature of the week and there was almost nothing in the way of character development. Still, it was quite interesting to reflect on the kind of influence this character had on later comic strips and books.

Note that each strip was originally about 9 panels with very small script that I had to read using a magnifying glass. However, in February 1935 the strip transformed into a larger format with larger print that was much easier to read. These often had 6 or 7 panels.

[Joe Santoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been enjoying Mad Cave's recent re-boot of Flash, and since it included reprinting the originals, I thought I'd give them a shot. Raymond's creativity reminds me very much of Jack Kirby... he seems to have an endless supply of idea for weird monsters and races to inhabit Mongo.

Granted, the plot is extremely basic, and at times non-sensical... everyone always betrays everyone else, and Flash can never come out ahead for long (to get him to the next adventure) but that art and constant stream of creativity makes it well worth the read.

[Scott Waldyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This restored collection is fun to read and really showcases the beauty of Alex Raymond's art. Since it's early Flash Gordon, you really get to see his style develop and grow more complex as Raymond started using models for his character designs.

[Sam Goyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dream book for pulp adventure serial fans. Alex Raymond’s art is superb, it’s almost too good for the material. But the stories are so much fun and imaginative.