Skip to main content

Flash Gordon

 


Flash Gordon. For many of us, seeing that name evokes the imagery, sounds, and energy of the fantastically over the top 1980 film. The bright colors. The Queen Soundtrack. Brian Blessed's Vultan's booming and jovial voice.


This was my introduction to the franchise as well. It's an amazing film that still entertains as much today as it hoped to do back then. In fact, the film stuck with me so much that it pushed me to look further back into the history of Flash Gordon. "If this was the 'campy version', what was it really like?"

Digging deeper, I found the 1970's Filmation series AND their hidden film. I say hidden because it has yet to be re released outside of a Japanese Laserdisc copy that some kind soul uploaded to Youtube. This was a great series that included more of the Flash Gordon world than the 1980's film. I especially love this incarnation of Thun, the Prince of the Lion Men. And of of course, Bob Ridgely's voice stands way out with his portrayal of our hero.


There was also, of course, Defenders of the Earth. This short lived 1980's cartoon pulled Flash into a team with other King Features characters like the Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, and his ally Lothar. I never really cared for this show as it tried to shoehorn in 'legacy characters', the children of each hero.


At this point, I was thoroughly caught up in this world of adventure and desired to know the REAL story. I began reading the collected editions of Alex Raymond's Sunday comic strip. Honestly, for a series that began in 1934, it sucked me right in. From week to week, it was hard to tell if Raymond was making this up as he went along or not because an elaborate backstory began to unfold behind what was otherwise just a weekly cliffhanger. Characters that started out as fairly one dimensional all began to have strong motivations behind their actions. This was a soap opera in adventure clothing and I loved it.


After this, I chose to look into the Universal Serials from the 1930's and 40's. While the dialogue can be cringeworthy and some of the plot stretched thin to create the next cliffhanger, they really did a nice job with this. From sets and costumes to their models and miniatures, you could tell that Universal really wanted this to succeed. The first serial especially, originally titled as just Flash Gordon, does an amazing job building Alex Raymond's world.

A few years ago, I had the idea to try and create my 'ideal' Flash Gordon films. Taking the soundtrack from the 1980's film, I began the journey of editing the 4+ hours of the first Serial down into a much more streamlined and cohesive story. Because I was changing the soundtrack, I had to accept the fact that I would have to cut out the dialogue too. This was now going to be a silent film, which was fine with me. Not only would this cut out some of the wooden line delivery but it allowed me to actually script the film myself. 

The long process finally reached its end this year. The edited film now is just over two and half hours and split into 3 sections. I'm really proud of this. While there were some errors along the way, I learned a lot in the process and am now three chapters into my edit of the second Serial, Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars!

Below are the links to each part. I hope you enjoy it and maybe they will help you discover the deep and engrossing world of Flash Gordon that exists beyond the 1980's extravaganza. Without a doubt, Gordon's Alive!

Part One:


Part Two:


Part Three:


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kre-O G.I. Joe Forces/ USS Flagg

Seeing this boxed set a few years ago is what got me back into collecting G.I. Joe. I had passed on the joy of G.I. Joe to my younger brothers, and to its credit, its one of the few franchises that has stuck with them. I don't feel bad about giving them my collection because most of my collections began when my cousins passed them on to me. Plus, with all of the vehicles and playsets, they are a little much to have up and displayed. Finding the Kre-O sets allowed me to keep showing my love for G.I. Joe on a smaller scale.  The fact that it was a Slaughter's Marauders set is was truly sold me. Love the Sarge. So anyways, here are my current Joes. I've already posted a blog about my Cobra collection, which you can find here,  Cobra Forces . After this, I'll make a post on my Iron Grenadiers and the rest of my Vehicles/Playsets. USS Flagg Not an official set. I found this Chinese knock off and modified the cabin so that it could hold figures. Also added

Mattel DC Retro Action Batman

  Late in 2020, I went back through The Toys That Made Us series on Netflix and the Star Trek episode took some time to really dig into the history of Mego. Many of the toys I played with growing up or have collected are technically before my time but Mego was WAY before my time. I always kind of had a general idea of the toys, mainly thanks to Robot Chicken, but something about the presentation of the episode really gave me an itch to try this type of toyline out. I decided to get just one figure, to try it out. If I didn't like them, no big deal, not a lot of time/money wasted. My favorite superhero is Kyle Rayner (Green Lantern/Ion) and I remembered that Matty Collector had a Mego-like brand for a few years. A google search later and I found a Kyle Rayner figure for $10! Perfect. I could hardly ask for a better price for making a trial run. A week later, the figure arrived and I loved it. They had an entire sub series of GL's that I bought and some other items but that is fo

Star Wars Power of the Force Red Box Vehicles X-Wing, AT-ST, and Speeder Bike with Scout Trooper

Speeder Bike with Scout Trooper This was the only one of these three vehicles that my brother and I had as kids. We had two vintage scout troopers so finally having a speeder bike was a big deal. An added plus was that it was the same mold as the vintage line so our original scouts could finally feel the air fog up their goggles. The new scout figure introduced one of my least favorite things about the new Power of the Force line: wide stance, bending knee figures. They just look awkward off of their vehicles and besides the speeder bike, no one else could ride unless they had similar legs. Say what you will about the vintage vehicles and beasts but the trap door mechanism made it possible for most anyone to ride. Thankfully, like I mentioned, this was a vintage mold so we didn't face that issue YET. AT-ST My best friend had the AT-ST so I never felt the rush to go buy one. Though, if it had been in stores longer I probably would have. Return of the Jedi was my favorite Star Wars m

Mega Construx MOTU Castle Grayskull

So, I finally picked up the Mega Construx Castle Grayskull. Amazon had it listed for $189 so I jumped on it. One bit of sad news, I like keeping box art but Amazon has a hassle-free shipping service where they just ship the box as is. I love Amazon but I am not a fan of this service as they put shipping labels all over the front of the box, ruining it. Luckily, the inside of the box delivered something even better... How cool is that? So everything worked out in the end. The packaging by Mega Construx is actually very cool. All of the pieces to the Castle came in these great cardboard boxes... Again, very cool. The vintage cross sell on the covers was a very nice touch. The manual included all of the cover art inserted throughout so if you wanted to toss the box, you didn't have to feel bad about it. Speaking of the manual, this guy was a beast. Look at that thickness! Mega Construx wasn't joking with this thing, it took me two days to complete wi