Dale! Have You Gone Mad?

Gosh, I love the old adventure strips . . .

Alex Raymond — Flash Gordon

She Stops and Points

Another piece of candy, this from 73 years ago today, with that annoying redundancy of wasting text that describes the gesture.

Alex Raymond — Flash Gordon — May 14, 1939

Interlude

Speaking of Bruce Jones, this is a set of pages called 'Interlude' that ran as a Flash Gordon story, but really it seems to be more about a regular ol' space cowboy between roundups.

Bruce Jones — Interlude

Special Inspection, by Order of the Emperor

I'm working on a project right now that requires me to draw dozens of people doing all manner of things, spread over a number of pages. I used to think (somewhat naïvely) that illustrators could usually do such drawings without referencing anything. But in order to draw or paint realistically, the artist needs to observe reality in order to translate it.

My budget can't afford models, so the quality of my 'realism' is going to suffer a bit for it, and I'll make things up the best I can. Norman Rockwell got to the point where he could afford a photographer to gather shots of his friends and family and neighbors. Other illustrators of the past had photographs taken of their models (and sometimes themselves) in the most precarious poses, simulating the action required for their commercial assignments. Many modern illustrators utilize digital cameras to pose themselves, friends and volunteers. Most times we can't afford to actually pay someone to pose, or in many cases afford the time to take photos.

I was really taken by surprise when I found out that a number of 'realistic' cartoonists used live models to pose for the multitude of poses required for a good storyline. Milton Caniff had a great swipe file, but he also used models for key poses for Terry and the Pirates.

And then I found out that Alex Raymond used live models for Flash Gordon—but what really surprised me was that his models were nude, for poses that were fully clothed. I understand that the artist needs to understand the architecture of the body under the clothes, but that seems a bit extreme for a comic strip. Remember when Raymond's style morphed from a stylistic brushy expressionism to hard-lined realism? I do believe that's when he could afford to have models at his beck and call. The strip at that point was nice to look at, but I believe suffered artistically as he left his brushwork-feathering behind him.

Take a look at this 'run-of-the-mill' strip:

Alex Raymond — Flash Gordon — March 2, 1941

Above, Alex Raymond drawing that particular strip.

Above, the line art for one of the panels.

And above and below, the model that he required for his realism.

Above, even for this seemingly insignificant pose of Dale behind bars, he used the model, below, to act it out.

I'm going to check my schedule and budget one more time—maybe I could afford some nude models for the dozens of poses I've got ahead of me, after all.

Oh, crap, most of those poses are supposed to be of old men.

Oh, It Was Heaven

1966 was a very good year for comic and fantasy collecting. It was a golden age for many of us. In the midst of all that, Flash Gordon #1 was published, with Al Williamson channeling Alex Raymond, and oh it was heaven.

I'm not posting the whole story, nor am I necessarily showing these pages in consecutive order. These are just some favorite panels from my golden age.

Between the Panels

And then there was Flash Gordon. Who among us hasn't been mesmerized and seduced by the adventures created by Alex Raymond?

Between the panels.

Many of you know that phrase. A cartoonist creates a world so appealing, so dynamic, so fertile, that we, as the readers, use our imaginations to create what happens in the story between the panels. Raymond gave us a premise and fulfilled it with dynamic, ever-evolving artwork—inspiring generations of active imaginations to fill in the interludes between the panels.

The comic strip inspired movie serials that acted out scenes from the world of Mongo to show us what transpired between the panels. I just re-watched those serials last night. They were poorly written, poorly acted, and poorly staged. In short, they were magnificent. Buster Crabbe (Flash) was the perfect hero, saving Jean Rogers (Dale) as the perfect damsel from the clutches of Charles Middleton (Ming), the perfect villain. I watched the dvd as if I were in the audience of a theater from long ago, unspoiled by our modern aesthetics.

There really was a particular someone in that audience of long ago who thrilled to see Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon. Someone who would go on to dream of what happened between the panels, and go further on to create panels for the rest of us to step between. Of course I'm talking about Al Williamson who, more or less, had a lifelong obsession with Flash Gordon and carried on the tradition of Alex Raymond.

Directly below is probably the first Flash Gordon drawing by Al when he was seventeen.

And here, his drawing of Buster Crabbe in the role:

Williamson's fluid sketches from over the years were dynamite—bursting with energy, swirling with action. And yes, some of his thoughts were on Barsoom as well as Mongo:

Many of his panels would show us details of the exotic flora, fauna and females of the worlds of adventure. Below, a bootleg print of a preliminary sketch:

Gone Native

This Frazetta portrait of Flash Gordon and Dale Arden looks all the world like a portrait of John Carter and Dejah Thoris. But you can tell it's Flash by his cool headpiece and his monogrammed codpiece.

That's quite a halter that Flash is sporting and that Dale isn't. Apparently these two have gone native after the vanquishing of Ming.

Really nice drawing, except that it's unfortunate that Flash's left leg is lined up with Dale so that it looks like she's got a beefy thigh, bony knee and size 13 combat boot.

Yay!

Yay—Flash Gordon characters! Yay—Stanley Pitt! Yay—1972!

Sexy Renderings

Alex Raymond's spaceship renderings were almost as sexy as his renderings of women. Almost.

Below is another of the HUGE Flash Gordon (& Jungle Jim) pages that I rescued from my Grandma's canning workshop in her basement, MANY years ago:

There are many purists who like black and white panel art only. I'm not one of them. It's beautiful of course, but color breathes life into the art. Below is from the Nostalgia Press edition of Flash Gordon.

Beautiful Tribute

Since we're admiring Esteban Maroto's work, let's do another post showing his beautiful tribute to Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon.

Who Can Save You Now?

Ah, if only the movie was as good as the poster. A Richard Amsel beauty.

Ming a Ding Ding

Another front page of a 1940 Sunday section I've been keeping safe since the 1950s, rescued from my Grandma's basement. This isn't the best of Alex Raymond, but it's certainly not a bad assemblage of panels.

Some panels might be better than others . . .

Sunday Comics

The Sunday comics used to be such a treat. Week after week a phantasmagoria of HUGE pages of art delivered right to the door! A wide variety of cartooning styles were a delight to the eyes, colored and printed with care. 

One of the most visually exciting artists of the time was Alex Raymond with his Jungle Jim and Flash Gordon presented in tandem, usually on the front page. 

When I was a kid, I found this page in my grandmother's basement with old newspapers, waiting to be used as dropcloths. Grandma said 'sure, take em', and boy I did, along with some others, and kept them safe all these years. 

This page was so big I had to scan it in 6 sections.

Breakfast Serial

Flash Gordon was the first movie serial I ever saw, playing on TV on Saturday afternoons, a couple at a time. Tarzan and westerns also played intermittently, but they were pretty boring compared to Flash and Dale. I had some Sunday pages from the Alex Raymond days, but I didn't think to connect them until much later. Surprisingly the serial caught much of the flavor of the comic strip. Here Vultan, king of the Hawkmen, is just as hefty, bearded and  rowdy as his comic strip counterpart.

That's Vultan in the middle, just in case you got confused.

And wow, they got this pretty accurate as well...

Breakfast Serial

It's very cool to see the reference material that artists have used...

Frank Brunner

Frank Frazetta

Reed Crandall