{"id":31226,"date":"2024-12-29T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=31226"},"modified":"2024-12-28T15:50:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T15:50:30","slug":"mac-raboys-flash-gordon-volume-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/12\/29\/mac-raboys-flash-gordon-volume-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Mac Raboy\u2019s Flash Gordon volume 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Mac Raboy<\/strong> & Don Moore<\/strong>, Dan Barry<\/strong> & various (Dark Horse Books)
\nISBN: 978-156971-979-9 (TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in 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 (Happy Birthday Flash!<\/em>) 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 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, contemporary flying saucer fetishes adding 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 for a groundbreakingly modern yet comfortably familiar 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<\/a><\/strong>, limned by the 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. Hans 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! Thus began a decade of sheer escapist magic in a Ruritanian Neverland: a blend of Camelot<\/strong>, Oz<\/strong>, John Carter of Mars<\/strong> 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 bulk of scripts, 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 by introducing gentleman gumshoe 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. 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.<\/p>\n

This fourth and final 276-page paperback volume – printed in stark monochrome, landscape format and still criminally out-of-print\/long overdue for a fresh edition – spans December 16th<\/sup> 1962 through December 31st<\/sup> 1967 – by which time successor Dan Barry was already adding his artistic contributions to the final chapter (from December 24th<\/sup>). After one last informative appraisal of Raboy in Bruce Jones\u2019 Introduction \u2018Walking with Giants\u2019<\/em> it\u2019s time for one last blast-off as the adventure resumes with already-in-progress thriller \u2018Sons of Saturn\u2019<\/em>… Sequence SO91 had begun on October 21st<\/sup> 1962 and cliffhangerly closed the previous volume barely weeks in. It resumes here with the episode for December 16th<\/sup> and carries on until January 20th<\/sup> 1963 revealing how the hitherto unsuspected super-civilisation thriving in the clouds of the Sixth Planet is revealed when an Earth probe provokes its current overlord 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, but ultimately alien force proves no match for human – i.e. Flash Gordon\u2019s – ingenuity and the embattled visitors accidentally initiate a sudden and very permanent regime change…<\/p>\n

Running from January 27th<\/sup> to April 14th<\/sup> pure cold war paranoia shapes sequence S092. \u2018The Force Dome\u2019<\/em> sees well-meaning Professor Howe<\/em> build a perfectly impenetrable protective energy barrier and convince the authorities to let him run a live test by shielding all of Metropole City. When Howe dies suddenly the experiment goes awry and the generators can\u2019t be switched off. Thankfully, Flash and Zarkov are on site and able to avert the crisis before all the air under the city-sized bubble is used up…<\/p>\n

It\u2019<\/strong>s back to the beyond next as (S093: 21\/4\/63 – 14\/7\/63) finds our hero further testing the bounds of Earth\u2019s recently-developed Faster-Than-Light technologies, with Flash despatched to a far star system to discover what happened to an off-line \u2018Star Beacon\u2019<\/em> that has stopped providing subspace navigation data. That all sounds quite technical, but it\u2019s just a plot device to enable Flash & Co to wryly clash with cunning alien primitives after which it\u2019s back to Earth and the Himalayas to rescue explorer Bill Penrose<\/em> from fabled monsters (S094: 21\/7\/63-17\/11\/63). However, as Flash digs deeper, he learns these \u2018Yeti\u2019<\/em> are actually robots employed by extraterrestrial resource bandits to steal uranium, resulting in an epic battle beneath the Earth, before returning to space and a new station orbiting Jupiter. Set on Earth\u2019s newly-constructed interstellar transit station, sequence S095 (24\/11\/63 to 15\/3\/1964) sees Dale and Flash accidentally in loco parentis<\/em> to Miki <\/em>– an extremely impulsive \u2018Boy From Another World\u2019<\/em> …and his disruptively radioactive pet Zhlubb<\/em>…<\/p>\n

The furore builds as the star waifs suddenly go missing just as interplanetary bandit trio the Breen Brothers invade the station whilst Flash is testing Zarkov\u2019s latest super-ship, triggering a monumental and manic battle beyond the stars. When the shooting stops and with Miki restored to his parents, Flash finally boosts off in the new FTL vessel, destined for a colony world that has called for help by sending back all its women and children. In truth, the castaways\u2019 return is a bid by aliens on a dying world who seek to inveigle tribute and rations for their starving civilisation by holding the male human colonists hostage.<\/p>\n

Backed up by colonist Kitty Corum<\/em> and rash, overconfident Star Patrol Special Service recruit Dino<\/em>, Flash\u2019s test ride becomes a rescue\/diplomatic mission to the \u2018Dark Sun of Dragor\u2019<\/em> (S096: 22\/3\/ to 7\/19\/64): a most unconventional confrontation that culminates in the death of a star system, followed by a brief diversion. Spanning 26th<\/sup> July to November 8th<\/sup>, sequence S097 sees a family of giant, shapeshifting aliens crash on Earth and their colossal child faces typical panic and bigotry until Dale steps in to salve tensions and save \u2018The Chameleon\u2019<\/em>, prior to sheer arrogance almost destroying the world\u2019s hopes of halting chaotic storms caused by solar flares and securing reliable \u2018Man-Made Weather\u2019<\/em> (S098: 15\/11\/64 – 2\/14\/February 65). The problem is a clash of wills between abrasive Dr Franz Graf<\/em> and Zarkov, but eventually the meteorological fireworks spark a world-saving inspiration…
\n\"\"
\nAnother mountaintop yarn finds Flash and junior shuttle pilot Wally Green<\/em> captive of the \u2018Lost Tribe of the Andes\u2019 <\/em>(S099: February 21st<\/sup> to 13th<\/sup> June), facing the bellicose descendants of Spanish conquistadors shielded from progress for hundreds of years and ultimately duelling dastardly power-hungry despot-in-waiting El Mono<\/em>, before a return to modern civilisation brings the first Moon\u2019s Fair and a transport nightmare when the best pilot in space gets involved in transporting Michelangelo\u2019s David to the exhibition site. It all results in \u2018The Greatest Art Theft\u2019<\/em> (SI00: June 20th<\/sup> – October 10th<\/sup>) as petty tyrant\/organised crime overlord Baron Borgaz<\/em> purloins the masterpiece for his private orbital fiefdom and is vain enough to allow Flash entrance to search his sinister, thug-&-monster-stuffed citadel…<\/p>\n

Next comes a yarn older British fans might recognise as part of the 1967 digest series World Adventure Library: a line that also included Mandrake the Magician<\/strong>, The Phantom<\/strong>, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.<\/strong> and Batman<\/strong>. Here Flash plays space cop in pursuit of devious disguise artist\/thief Merlyn<\/em>, who swindles his way across the solar system and even escapes Gordon\u2019s justice… but not his fate or just deserts in year spanning comedic change-of-pace \u2018Con Man in Space\u2019<\/em> (SI01: 17\/10\/1965 to 30\/01\/1966). It\u2019s followed by \u2018A Visit From Mercury\u2019<\/em> (February 6th<\/sup> to June 5th<\/sup> \u201966 and another tale reprinted in the UK) as a trip to erupting volcano Vesuvius allows \u201cimpervium\u201d-clad Flash, Dale & Zarkov to enter a undiscovered base deep in the magma, where visitors fleeing the first rock from the sun are hiding. Sheltered from geological upheaval and basking in Earth\u2019s warmth, they\u2019re ultimately restored to their point of origin with Earth\u2019s aid, but only after Gordon deals with flaming recidivist usurper Janj<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Old-style mystery and monster hunting shapes survival saga \u2018Death World\u2019<\/em> (SI03: 12\/06 – 23\/10\/66) as Flash and a Space Agency Survival Corps squad led by Sikh commander Singh<\/em> are despatched to learn what caused the disappearance of an entire human colony and rise of a swathe of killer beasts. What they discover changes lives and the annals of bio-science, before Flash tangles with another low-orbit lowlife when \u2018The Duke of Naples\u2019<\/em> (SI04: 30th<\/sup> October 1966 – April 2nd<\/sup> 1967) reinstitutes privateering, slave-taking and gladiatorial combat on his private space station in his passionately plutocratic desire to return humanity to feudalism, after which big science engineering finds Flash and Zarkov mediating war between grudge-bearing Madame Mimi Duclos<\/em> and martinet Godfrey Ledge<\/em> as each attempts to seize control and complete construction of \u2018The Moon Launcher\u2019<\/em> (April 9th<\/sup> to July 16th<\/sup>). The ion launch platform is an obvious and permanent boon to human space expansion, but the project takes on desperate urgency after explorers on Pluto encounter trouble and the acceleration launcher offers the only possibility of getting a rescue ship to them in time.<\/p>\n

The bitter war between the project chiefs sparks industrial strife, worker mutiny and even criminal changes against Flash\u2019s new best pal Pancho<\/em>, but sooner rather than later the job is done and Gordon (plus fugitive stowaway Pancho) are rocketing into infernal darkness and Raboy\u2019s last adventure. \u00a0Sequence SI06 spans 23\/7\/1967 to 7\/1\/1968 (with Dan Barry taking over on December 24th<\/sup>) as the voyagers find the lost explorers but are \u2018Captured on Pluto\u2019<\/em> by super-advanced aliens playing mindgames and conjuring fantastic worlds and beings in a cosmic scaled romp deeply redolent of 1964 Star Trek<\/strong> pilot episode The Cage<\/em>…<\/p>\n

To Be Continued… by other hands<\/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 preceded it\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, Dan Barry & various (Dark Horse Books) ISBN: 978-156971-979-9 (TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in 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 (Happy Birthday Flash!) with equally … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mac Raboy\u2019s Flash Gordon volume 4”<\/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":[191,78,75,290,239,255,142,125,225,127,242,148,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-comic-strip-classics","category-crime-comics","category-dinosaurs","category-drama","category-environmentalism","category-flash-gordon","category-humour","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-pirates","category-romance","category-science-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-87E","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31226","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=31226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31229,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31226\/revisions\/31229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}