{"id":30247,"date":"2024-07-28T12:17:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-28T12:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30247"},"modified":"2024-07-28T12:17:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-28T12:17:23","slug":"mac-raboys-flash-gordon-volume-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/07\/28\/mac-raboys-flash-gordon-volume-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Mac Raboy\u2019s Flash Gordon volume 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Mac Raboy<\/strong> & Don Moore<\/strong> (Dark Horse Books)
\nISBN: 978-1569719787 (TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced during less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

By almost every metric, Flash Gordon<\/strong> is the most influential comic strip in the world. When the hero debuted on Sunday January 7th<\/sup> 1934 (with equally superb Jungle Jim<\/strong> running as a supplementary \u201ctopper\u201d strip), it was a slick, sophisticated answer to Philip Nolan & Dick Calkins\u2019 revolutionary, ideas-packed, inspirational, but quirkily clunky Buck Rogers<\/strong> (which had also launched on January 7th<\/sup> – albeit in 1929), with two fresh elements added to the wonderment: Classical Lyricism and Poetic Dynamism. The newcomer became a weekly invitation to stunningly exotic glamour and astonishing beauty.<\/p>\n

Where Buck<\/strong> merged traditional adventure with groundbreaking science concepts, Flash <\/strong>reinterpreted fairy tales, hero epics and mythology, draping them in the spectacular trappings of contemporary futurism, with the varying \u201crays\u201d, \u201cengines\u201d and \u201cmotors\u201d of modern pulp sci fi substituting for trusty swords and lances. There were also plenty of those too – and exotic craft and contraptions stood in for galleons, chariots and magic carpets. Look closely, though, and you\u2019ll see cowboys, gangsters and of course, flying saucer fetishes adding contemporary flourish to the fanciful fables. The narrative trick made the far-fetched satisfactorily familiar – and was continued with contemporary trends and innovations by Austin Briggs and Don Moore before Mac Raboy, (with Moore and Robert Rogers) took over the Sunday strips in a tenure lasting from 1948 to 1967.<\/p>\n

The sheer artistic talent of Raymond, his compositional skills, fine linework, eye for clean, concise detail and just plain genius for drawing beautiful people and things, swiftly made this the strip that all young artists swiped from literally all over the world. When original material comic books began a few years later, many talented kids used Gordon as their model and ticket to future success in the field of adventure strips. Almost all the others went with Raymond\u2019s stylistic polar opposite: emulating Milton Caniff\u2019s expressionist masterwork Terry and the Pirates<\/strong> (and to see one of his better disciples check out Beyond Mars<\/strong>, limned by wonderful Lee Elias).<\/p>\n

Flash Gordon<\/strong> began on present-day Earth (which was 1934, remember?) with a wandering world about to smash into our planet. As global panic ensued, polo player Flash and fellow passenger Dale Arden<\/em> narrowly escaped disaster when a meteor fragment downed their airliner. They landed on the estate of tormented genius Dr. Zarkov<\/em>, who imprisoned them in the rocket-ship he had built. His plan? To fly the ship directly at the astral invader and deflect it from Earth by crashing into it!<\/p>\n

Thus began a decade of sheer escapist magic in a Ruritanian Neverland: a blend of Camelot<\/em>, Oz<\/em> and a hundred other fantasy realms promising paradise yet concealing vipers, ogres and demons, all cloaked in a glimmering sheen of sleek scientific speculation. Worthy adversaries such as utterly evil yet magnetic Ming<\/em>, emperor of the fantastic wandering planet; myriad exotic races and shattering conflicts offered a fantastic alternative to drab and dangerous reality for millions of avid readers around the world.<\/p>\n

With Moore handling the majority of the scripting, Alex Raymond\u2019s \u2018On the Planet Mongo\u2019<\/em> ran every Sunday until 1944, when the artist joined the Marines. On his return, he forsook wild imaginings for sober reality: creating gentleman-detective Rip Kirby<\/strong>. The public\u2019s unmissable weekly appointment with wonderment perforce continued under the artistic auspices of Austin Briggs – who had drawn the monochrome daily instalments since 1940.<\/p>\n

In 1948, eight years after beginning his career drawing for the Harry A. Chesler production \u201cshop\u201d, comic book artist Emmanuel \u201cMac\u201d Raboy took over illustrating the Sunday page. Moore remained as scripter and began co-writing with the new artist.<\/p>\n

Raboy\u2019s sleek, fine-line brush style – heavily influenced by his idol Raymond – had made his work on Captain Marvel Jr<\/strong>.<\/em>, Kid Eternity<\/strong> and especially Green Lama<\/strong> a pinnacle of artistic quality in the early days of the proliferating superhero genre. His seemingly inevitable assumption of Flash Gordon<\/strong>\u2019s extraordinary exploits led to a renaissance of the strip and in a rapidly evolving post-war world, it became once more a benchmark of timeless, hyper-realistic quality escapism which only Hal Foster\u2019s Prince Valiant<\/strong> could match. This third 260-page paperback volume – produced in landscape format, printed in stark monochrome and still criminally out-of-print and long overdue for a fresh edition – opens after a gripping and informative appraisal of Raboy in Bruce (Incredible Hulk<\/strong>, Arena<\/strong>, Silverheels<\/strong>, Ka-Zar the Savage<\/strong>) Jones\u2019 Introduction \u2018The Body Aerodynamic\u2019. <\/em>Then it\u2019s blast-off time. again…<\/p>\n

Sequence 68 \u2018Missiles from Neptune\u2019<\/em> began on January 19th<\/sup> 1958 and closed the previous cliffhanging volume barely weeks in. It resumes here with the episode for February 30th<\/sup> and carries on until March 9th<\/sup>, revealing how the oppressive Tyrant of Neptune<\/em> seeks to impress and cow into submission his already-captive populace by testing deadly new Weapons of Interplanetary Destruction against hapless planet Earth.<\/p>\n

The callous campaign prompts Flash to go and discourage him, but after superbly succeeding the conquering hero is lost in the interplanetary void and forced to build a survival nest inside an asteroid. His ingenuity as a \u2018Robinson Crusoe in Space\u2019<\/em> (16th<\/sup> March – 27th<\/sup> April) once more demonstrates the compelling power of straight, hard science storytelling (especially at a time when America was locked in a space race of its own), but it\u2019s back to fantastic empires and extragalactic terror for his next exploit as Earth is menaced by \u2018The Z Bomb Cloud\u2019 <\/em>(4th<\/sup> May – 15th<\/sup> June).<\/p>\n

Long after a far-distant civilisation destroys itself, the deadly fallout of its doomsday weapon drifts into Earth orbit, threatening all terrestrial life. When Zarkov\u2019s desperate plan to intercept the cloud goes wrong, someone must sacrifice themself to save us all…<\/p>\n

Obviously, just this once it isn\u2019t Flash, but the potent drama peaks with appropriate tragedy and sentiment anyway, before sequence S071 taps into the sheer burgeoning wonderment of the era as Flash and Dale help big game hunter Brian Farr<\/em> prove the existence of uncanny unseen cryptids he calls \u2018Stratosphere Beasts\u2019<\/em> (22nd<\/sup> June – 17th<\/sup> August). These invisible beasts apparently dwell far above Earth\u2019s highest mountain tops, so the endeavour takes the humans to the top of Everest where the unknown isn\u2019t the only trial they face…<\/p>\n

From 24th<\/sup> August to October 12th<\/sup> S072 told how the ace space pilot was embroiled in a commercial show-race to the outer planets. However, the \u2018Rocket Derby\u2019<\/em> is apparently less about proving whose ship is best and more about rich, spoiled obsessive competitors Morgan Bates<\/em> and Babara \u201cBobcat\u201d Kathryns<\/em> realising how close hate is to love…<\/p>\n

Along the way, Dale is dragged into the competition after hearing macho males telling Bobcat that space is no place for women, even as hired gun Flash suffers numerous sabotage attempts. It\u2019s almost like there\u2019s an unknown fifth element acting on their own agenda…<\/p>\n

It\u2019s back to dramatic basics for \u2018Moon Wreck\u2019<\/em> (S073, running from 19th<\/sup> October to December 14th<\/sup>) wherein Gordon attempts to rescue an arrogant playboy and his latest dalliance from a self-inflicted crash and subsequent marooning on Luna. The pilot\u2019s every valiant effort is hampered by the autocrat\u2019s privilege, greed, stupidity and cowardice, vain starlet\u2019s Elyse Elan<\/em>\u2019s venality, and the deadly environment they both refuse to take seriously…<\/p>\n

Gordon\u2019s piloting skills land him in more trouble in \u2018The Ship of Gold\u2019<\/em> (S074: December 21st<\/sup> 1958 to January 2nd<\/sup> 1959) when he captains a transport of mining machinery and tons of cash to Mars, only to have the ship stolen out from under him with Dale trapped aboard. The evil mastermind is old college colleague Nicky Hamilton<\/em>, but when the boastful villain abandons current girlfriend Jet<\/em> in a ruthless attempt to loose Flash in the airless wastes of Titan, he seals his own fate and accidentally exposes a major threat to Earth in succeeding saga \u2018The Skorpi\u2019 <\/em>(February 8th<\/sup> – April 5th<\/sup>)…<\/p>\n

Left for dead, Flash and Dale fall through Titan\u2019s surface to discover an insectoid alien invasion force. Skorpi can become copies of humans and are well advanced in a plot to infiltrate Earth, but aren\u2019t quick enough to outwit Flash, especially once he befriends captive telepathic ET Brunn<\/em>. His gigantic kind are Gorgins<\/em> and with their allies The Dhreen<\/em> have been battling Skorpi for 30,000 years. Together, the new pals whip up a plan to defeats this particular incursion…<\/p>\n

Brunn then adapts a ship to Faster-Than-Light drive and accompanies Flash on a \u2018Flight for Help\u2019<\/em> (S076: April 12th<\/sup> – June 7th<\/sup>), beseeching Dhreen\u2019s Council of Elders for military aid. Instead, the embassage is covertly targeted by their other client vassals – like Brunn\u2019s own Gorgin race – who fear their share of aid will be diminished if the benign overlords help yet another endangered species…<\/p>\n

Plots become assassination attempts, but only accidentally expose Skorpi infiltration, leading Brunn and Gordon to further corruption, exile and ultimately capture by a hidden race who dwell unsuspected in a \u2018City of Glass\u2019<\/em> (S077: June 14th<\/sup> to August 23rd<\/sup>). Condemned to death for breaking the metropolis\u2019 sacrosanct isolation, the wanderers are only saved by lovely, sympathetic Flara<\/em>, who aids the human\u2019s escape back to the Solar system but keeps adorable Brunn by her side…<\/p>\n

The Earthman only makes it as far as the second rock from the Sun and S078 (August 30th<\/sup> – November 1st<\/sup>) radically changes pace for a \u2018Venus Mystery\u2019<\/em> wherein human colonists face disaster as their Bajo crop is targeted by \u201cswamp devils\u201d. In an early lesson in green land management, crash-landed Flash aids ecologist Dirk Van Meer<\/em> in proving to the furious farmers how badly wrong they have got things, what is actually to blame for all the chaos and carnage and how to fix it…<\/p>\n

Immediate emergency over, Flash finally reaches Earth to find Zarkov impatiently waiting. Before he can catch his breath the steadfast starman is dragooned into a dangerous new experiment with cyberneticist Dr. Else Neilson<\/em> having him ride along as a fallback option as she \u201croad-tests\u201d her \u2018Robot Spaceship\u2019<\/em> (S079: November 8th<\/sup> 1959 to 17th<\/sup> 1960). Fully automated – and what we\u2019d call AI – the ship has human safety as its core drive, but of course, human and mechanical opinions on what exactly that means differ extensively…<\/p>\n

Thanks in large part to Flash Gordon, spaceship technology has rapidly advanced and he is selected to pilot the first human-built FTL drive ship. The Columbus will ferry \u2018The Star Miners\u2019<\/em> (S080: January 24th<\/sup> – March 27th<\/sup>) to another star system, reap mineral wealth and set up a colony. However, the directives of chief advisor Dr. Zarkov are constantly challenged and ultimately overruled by gang-boss Mr. Birk<\/em>, who can only think of glory and a big fat bonus promised for prompt completion and delivery…<\/p>\n

Arriving on unexplored planet Karst, Zarkov again urges patience and caution, but is first sidelined and then arrested once Flash undertakes his secondary mission of exploration. By the time the hero returns the entire expedition is close to extinction and only drastic measures can save them all…<\/p>\n

On returning to Earth, welcome shore-leave ends in catastrophe when Flash is shanghaied by \u201centrepreneurs\u201d Roni<\/em> and Captain Graz<\/em>: kidnapped into space and ordered to pilot their ship or die. They need someone able to deliver potentially \u2018Deadly Cargo\u2019<\/em> (S081: April 3rd<\/sup> to June 12th<\/sup>) and navigate through the asteroid belt to mineral-rich big rock Juno, where a huge diamond strike has created urgent demand for explosives. It\u2019s also a race setting competitive old rivals at each other\u2019s throats and costs plenty of nefarious lives before Gordon gets ramshackle freighter Pollux down (relatively) safely…<\/p>\n

Subsequent attempts to get off Juno turn wild and dangerous in \u2018The Soil Divers\u2019<\/em> (S082: June 19th<\/sup> – August 28th<\/sup>) when Flash is suckered into an ongoing resource war on the mining asteroid. Scientist Ben Corelli<\/em> has devised a means of passing through solid matter, but fallen under the spell of avaricious faithless Roni and her new heavy Snapper Kaye<\/em>, sparking violent conflict amongst those desperate diggers stuck using old methods of extracting mineral wealth. Soon, the attempts to seize Corelli\u2019s breakthrough tech leads to murder and worse…<\/p>\n

A self-aggrandising, fame-hungry documentary filmmaker obsessed with his legacy makes trouble for Dale – and therefore Flash – next. Charles Q. Charlston<\/em> brings \u2018Dead Worlds\u2019<\/em> (S083: September 4th<\/sup> to November 20th<\/sup>) and lost civilisations to the masses, but has no qualms or scruples about breaking all the rules of space conduct: cheating, lying, stealing and even killing to ensure his own glory… until Gordon steps up. He and Dale are then called to the ringed planet and a reunion and to assist Brian Farr, now \u2018Game Warden on Saturn\u2019<\/em> (S084: November 27th<\/sup> 1960 to February 19th<\/sup> 1961)…<\/p>\n

His job is currently complicated by the system\u2019s most successful poacher – cunning sadist Von Brandt<\/em> – who seeks the joy of hunting and intends making millions selling the skins of a rare indigenous lifeform. He\u2019s also happy to excise interfering busybodies for free…<\/p>\n

A maritime tang and epic approach flavours \u2018The Trail of Orpheus\u2019<\/em> (S085: February 26th<\/sup> – May 28th<\/sup>) when Flash joins oceanologists Henry<\/em> and Veronica Weeks<\/em> on a submarine to map the unique and spectacular \u201cDevils Spring\u201d environmental phenomenon making the watery world so hazardous to rocket ships. Their undersea voyage reveals fantastic truths about the past rulers of the planet and changes the solar system forever…<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a welcome return to space opera and pulp overtones as S086 sees an orbital agriculture satellite accidentally invaded by space gremlins and transformed into a \u2018Death Farm in Space\u2019<\/em> (June 4th<\/sup> to September 3rd<\/sup>) until Zarkov and Flash investigate and act, all followed by comedic whimsy as a band of backward-looking human bandits revolt against ecological progress in \u2018Desert Prince\u2019<\/em> (S087: September 10th<\/sup> to December 10th<\/sup>)…<\/p>\n

When Earth loses the final dusty miles of once-barren Sahara to water reclamation projects, reactionary tribal chieftain Al Maarri<\/em> refuses to take up farming and instead leads his raiders on a wave of sorties. The campaign of resistance culminates in his stealing a rocket ship to carry his entire bandit horde and their families to Mars where civilisation is scarce, law is poorly enforced and beautiful sandy wastes are abundant. Soon, armed with modern weapons, he\u2019s making life difficult for genuine colonists, forcing under-resourced Flash to solve the problem creatively. That means infiltrating the tribe with the assistance of the long-suffering wives, children and oldsters the rowdy raiders forcibly dragged along with them…<\/p>\n

Law & order was the theme of the next tale as readers gained insights into future traffic management solutions in the crowded orbital paths above Earth. The revelations came thanks to Flash visiting old pal \u201cApe\u201d Rice<\/em>, an officer of the \u2018Spaceways Patrol\u2019<\/em> (S088: December 17th<\/sup> 1961 to April 1st<\/sup> 1962).<\/p>\n

Sadly, it\u2019s not a friendly visit: Gordon works for the World Space Patrol and is on an official inspection of the Police satellite. Silly cultural satire – observing how dumb the private citizens \u201cdriving\u201d in space are – quickly gives way to taut drama when recently-ousted national despot Generalissimo Sanre<\/em> and his entourage seize the station through subterfuge, planning to blackmail the world with its arsenal of atomic weapons…<\/p>\n

With only Flash and Ape free to act, tragedy inevitably follows the deadly fight that ensues before the planet is free from the threat of global tyranny…<\/p>\n

The same blend of expansive wonder and human frailty permeates the saga of a blonde, blue-eyed hero found in a block of arctic ice – a tale told in full in S089, spanning April 8th<\/sup> through July 15th<\/sup> 1962. Incidentally, The Avengers<\/strong> #4 was released on January 3rd<\/sup> 1964, reintroducing Captain America<\/strong> to the world. I\u2019m just saying…<\/p>\n

Here, the \u2018Living Fossil\u2019<\/em> is found by researchers testing magnetic fields in Greenland and only involves Flash when defrosted berserker Ragnor<\/em> goes on a rampage that brings him to the airfield Gordon is trying to land on. A renewed assault traps the Viking aboard (with Flash and a crew that includes handy Scandinavian scholar Eva<\/em>) on a flight to Venus: a world far more in keeping with the barbarian\u2019s culture of warriors, trolls, goblins, dwarves… and dragons…<\/p>\n

This third astounding visit to a historical future closes with another technological nightmare and disaster-movie precursor spanning July 22nd<\/sup> to October 14th<\/sup> 1962. \u2018Falling Moon\u2019<\/em> (S090) reveals how massive artificial satellite Deepspace-One – jumping-off point for all outgoing Earth space travel – is struck by a meteor. Deflected and doomed, it slowly falls, leaving Flash only five hours to evacuate its resort contingent and find a way to save Earth from impact and atomic fallout…<\/p>\n

As the adventures never ended, we close the collection with the opening of another exploit and pause on a moment of cliffhanging suspense. \u2018Sons of Saturn\u2019<\/em> (S091: in its original entirety running from October 21st<\/sup> 1962 to January 20th<\/sup> 1963) stops here with the December 9th<\/sup> episode. Prior to that point, a hitherto unsuspected super-civilisation thriving in the clouds of the Sixth Planet is revealed when an Earth probe provokes the current dictator to determine human nature and resource by sending super-criminal outcast Baldr<\/em> to plague, punish and test them. That results in the indestructible giant breaking into Flash\u2019s ship and going on a rampage…<\/p>\n

To Be Continued…<\/p>\n

Each week as he toiled on the strip, Raboy produced ever-more expansive artwork filled with distressed damsels, deadly monsters, incredible civilisations, increasingly authentic space hardware and locales, and all sorts of outrageous adventure that continued until the illustrator\u2019s untimely death in 1967. Perhaps it was a kindness. He was the last great Golden Age romanticist illustrator and his lushly lavish, freely-flowing adoration of perfected human form was beginning to stale in popular taste. The Daily feature had already switched to the solid, chunky, He-Manly burly realism of Dan Barry and Frank Frazetta, but here at least the last outpost of ethereally beautiful heroism and pretty perils still prevailed: a dream realm you can visit as easily and often as Flash, Dale & Zarkov popped between planets, just by tracking down this book and the one which follows\u2026
\n\u00a9 2003 King Features Syndicate Inc. \u2122 & \u00a9 Hearst Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mac Raboy & Don Moore (Dark Horse Books) ISBN: 978-1569719787 (TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times. By almost every metric, Flash Gordon is the most influential comic strip in the world. When the hero debuted on Sunday January 7th 1934 (with equally superb Jungle Jim running as a supplementary … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mac Raboy\u2019s Flash Gordon volume 3”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,90,78,75,290,239,255,142,127,148,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-cartooning-classics","category-comic-strip-classics","category-crime-comics","category-dinosaurs","category-drama","category-environmentalism","category-flash-gordon","category-nostalgia","category-romance","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7RR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30249,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30247\/revisions\/30249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}