{"id":29149,"date":"2023-12-25T09:10:29","date_gmt":"2023-12-25T09:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29149"},"modified":"2023-12-27T12:56:46","modified_gmt":"2023-12-27T12:56:46","slug":"flash-gordon-annual-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2023\/12\/25\/flash-gordon-annual-1969\/","title":{"rendered":"Flash Gordon Annual 1969"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy anonymous staff of the Mick Anglo Studio<\/strong>, Dick Wood<\/strong>, Al Williamson<\/strong>, Don Heck<\/strong> & various (World Distributor\u2019s [Manchester] Ltd.)
\nNo ISBN \u2013 B06WGZR1KX<\/p>\n

By most lights, Flash Gordon<\/strong> is the most influential comic strip in the world. When the hero debuted on Sunday January 7th<\/sup> 1934 (with the superb if now-dated Jungle Jim<\/strong> running as a supplementary \u201ctopper\u201d) in response to revolutionary, inspirational, but clunky Buck Rogers<\/strong> (by Philip Nolan & Dick Calkins and which had also began on January 7th<\/sup> but back in 1929), a new element was added to the realm of fantasy wonderment: Classical Lyricism.<\/p>\n

Where Rogers had traditional adventures and high science concepts, this new feature reinterpreted Fairy Tales, Heroic Epics and Mythology. It did so by spectacularly draping them in the trappings of the contemporary future, with varying esoteric \u201cRays\u201d, \u201cEngine\u201d and \u201cMotors\u201d substituting for trusty swords and lances – although there were also plenty of those – and exotic flying craft and contraptions standing in for Galleons, Chariots and Magic Carpets.<\/p>\n

Most important of all, the sheer artistic talent of Raymond, his compositional skills, fine line-work, eye for concise, elegant detail and just plain genius for drawing beautiful people and things, swiftly made this the strip all young artists swiped from.<\/p>\n

When all-original comic books began a few years later, literally dozens of talented kids used the clean lined Romanticism of Gordon as their model and ticket to future success in the field of adventure strips. Most of the others went with Milton Caniff\u2019s expressionistic masterpiece Terry and the Pirates<\/strong> (which also began in 1934 – and he\u2019ll get his go another day).<\/p>\n

At the time of this annual a bunch of Gold Key and King Features Syndicate licenses were held by Mick Anglo, who provide strip and prose material for UK weekly TV Tornado<\/strong>. It combined British-generated material with US comic book reprints in an era when the television influence of shows like Tarzan<\/strong> and Batman<\/strong>, and veteran features like Flash Gordon<\/strong> – who had a small screen presence thanks to frequent re-runs of his cinema chapter plays. The project was extremely popular, even though not always of the highest quality\u2026<\/p>\n

In 1966, newspaper monolith King Features Syndicate briefly got into comic book publishing again: releasing a wave of titles based on their biggest stars. These were an ideal source of material for British publishers, whose regular audiences were profoundly addicted to TV and movie properties. Moreover, thematically they fitted with World Distributors\u2019 other licensed properties, which repackaged Western\u2019s comics material like Star Trek<\/strong>, Beverly Hillbillies <\/strong>and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea<\/strong> with domestically generated material – generally by Mick Anglo\u2019s packaging company Gower Studios.<\/p>\n

This Anglo-American (tee-hee!) partnership fulfilled our Christmas needs for decades, generating a wealth of UK Annuals, comics and the occasional Special, mixing full-colour US reprints with prose stories, puzzles, games and fact-features on related themes.<\/p>\n

Flash Gordon<\/strong> Annuals<\/strong> appeared sporadically over the next few decades with this release from 1968 (and forward-dated for 1969) being the second. Like the previous book it leaned heavily on generic space opera adventure in prose-based illustrated vignettes leavened with some truly stunning comics tales recasting Flash<\/em>, Dale Arden<\/em> and Dr. Hans Zarkov<\/em> as generalised space explorers undertaking non-stop voyages to the unknown by saving lesser civilizations from mischance, misfortune and monsters sentient and not.
\n\"\"
\nThe action opens with a prose return to last year\u2019s main comic feature. Sporting full-colour illustrations peppered with mini general knowledge\/science factoids, \u2018The Terror of Krenkelium\u2019<\/em> sees Flash and Zarkov head back underground to a subterranean kingdom where first-timer Dale meets her rival for Flash\u2019s attention. Happily, Princess Darla<\/em> regains her equilibrium and common sense when usurper Mogulari <\/em>tries to kill the court and take over only to meet stern and fatal resistance from the upworlders\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Plague of the Underground Forest\u2019<\/em> then finds our heroes revisiting a formerly idyllic aboriginal paradise planet whose deeply spiritual people are now racked with famine thanks to an invasion of super-rats. The problem is not destroying the immediate menace but convincing the despondent survivors to leave their ancestral lands for somewhere that can actually support them in the solution\u2019s aftermath\u2026<\/p>\n

Astronautics quiz \u2018Space Probe\u2019<\/em> and a page of \u2018Fun Time\u2019<\/em> cartoons presage a switch to 2-colour illustration as prose thriller \u2018The Idol of Zatamandoo\u2019<\/em> sees the star travellers uncover the dark underbelly of another apparent paradise planet where a godlike being trades peace and perfection for the occasional human sacrifice. After a traditional quiz – \u2018Know Your Sport\u2019<\/em> – Flash, Dale and Zarkov return to Mongo to save Earth from being drowned by \u2018The Floating Desert\u2019<\/em> before prose pauses and this year\u2019s strip quotient begins. Originating in US comic book Flash Gordon<\/strong> #6 (cover-dated July 1967) as \u2018Cragmen of the Lost Continent\u2019<\/em>, here Bill Pearson & Reed Crandall\u2019s sublime romp becomes \u2018Flash Gordon<\/strong> meets the Cragmen of the Lost Continent\u2019<\/em> as a trek through unknown regions of Mongo sees Dale in charge and kicking alien butt when Flash is swallowed by a monster and the old doctor breaks his leg.<\/p>\n

Striving against uncredible beasts and hostile conditions she eventually rescues her captive hero from sinister mountain dwellers and is bringing him to safety when\u2026
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\nAn abrupt return to words follows a full-colour board game delivering \u2018Danger in Space\u2019<\/em> (as long as you can find dice and counters) after which diversion our dynamic trio scotch \u2018The Micro-Men Plot\u2019<\/em>: an invasion scheme by a despot able to shrink his all-conquering forces.<\/p>\n

An activity page of conjuring tricks shares the how-to of \u2018Magic by Illusion\u2019 <\/em>before strip thrills blast back with a short spy story also taken from Flash Gordon<\/strong> #6. Written by Gary Poole and limned by either Mike Roy and\/or Frank Springer, it tells of Secret Agent X-9<\/strong> in Japan to obtain at all costs \u2018The Third Key of Power\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s back to 2-tone visions and peerless prose as our heroes endure the strangest case of their lives after encountering an advanced culture of ants. \u2018The Swarming Peril\u2019<\/em> proves so fearsome Flash has his brain inserted into an insect\u2019s skull to complete his mission\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Time For a Laugh\u2019<\/em> affords more cartoon buffoonery before The Mazzlins<\/em> try to eradicate humankind in a \u2018Deluge!\u2019<\/em>, after which thrills pause for general knowledge and testing in \u2018Flash Puzzles\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Strange But True\u2019. <\/em><\/p>\n

Prose poser \u2018Return to Krenkelium\u2019<\/em> finds the human heroes again going underground, with Princess Darla\u2019s embattled people invaded by The Snakemen of Syndromeda<\/em> – beings from even deeper in the planet\u2019s core\u2026<\/p>\n

Crossword \u2018Out of This World\u2019 <\/em>segues into comics and the conclusion of the Cragmen crisis as Flash faces \u2018The Totem Master!\u2019<\/em> before this slice of Christmas past fades away with another board game situated in a \u2018City Under the Sea.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Once upon a time this type of uncomplicated done-in-one media-tasty package was the basic unit of Yule fuel, entertaining millions of British kids, and still holds much rewarding fun for those looking for a simple and straightforward nostalgic escape.
\nMCMLXVII, MCMLXVIII by King Features Syndicate, Inc. All rights reserved throughout the world. The Amalgamated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By anonymous staff of the Mick Anglo Studio, Dick Wood, Al Williamson, Don Heck & various (World Distributor\u2019s [Manchester] Ltd.) No ISBN \u2013 B06WGZR1KX By most lights, Flash Gordon is the most influential comic strip in the world. When the hero debuted on Sunday January 7th 1934 (with the superb if now-dated Jungle Jim running … <\/p>\n

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