Review: ‘Al Williamson’s Flash Gordon’
Al Williamsons Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic
Flesk Publications, July 2009, $29.95
While Al Williamson did not create the legendary science fiction character, in many ways he inherited Alex Raymond’s artistic legacy. The artist was born in 1931, three years before [[[Flash Gordon]]]memorably hit the Sunday newspapers.
Raymond is considered one of the finest illustrators to work in syndicated comics, along with Hal Foster, with a photorealistic style that brought his world of Mongo and its varied denizens to life. While Buck Rogers was the first SF strip, Flash Gordon was the best as the stories were epic in scope. The landscape of Mongo was unlike any realm seen in comics before and through the years that special feeling evaporated in the hands of others. Until Williamson.
In 256 pages, we are treated to the three stories produced for King Comics in the 1960s, the short-lived imprint from King Features Syndicate in addition to the his adaptation of the unfortunate 1980 film that looked better than it played. There’s also Williamson’s last major series work, the miniseries produced for Marvel in 1994. The King material is exceptional because it was the first time original material had been produced for comics with the characters actually resembling their strip origins . It’s lush and fast-paced with Williamson actually writing the first story. His long-time collaborator, Archie Goodwin, one of the most respected people in the field…ever, wrote several stories and Larry Ivie also contributed a tale.
Williamson’s style was very much like Raymond’s and his settings and characters felt just right. The deering-do is quick-paced and while the stories tread familiar ground, they are still head and shoulders above much other science fiction in comics. The three stories, brief as they were, earned him the National Cartoonist Society’s Best Comic Book Cartoonist award. His movie adaptation didn’t win awards but earned him a new generation of fans who may have only known his name in association with the legendary EC Comics.
We all knew that Michael Uslan, executive producer of the Batman movies (All of them. Yes, that one. That one too. Okay, not the Adam West one) was scripting the upcoming Archie #600, wherein the Eternal Teenager finally ties the knot with Veronica, settling more than seventy years(!) of wondering. 
Hello ComicMix dwellers (and loyal 
At the 
, 
Yes, it’s Doctor Who meets The Muppet Show!
Don’t read any further if you don’t want to be depressed for the rest of your Sunday.
When the opportunity presented itself, I could not help but wait to screen the DVD of 
until my niece Corinne, 11, arrived for a visit. After all, family-friendly films should be seen by all aspects of its target audience. The film, going on sale Tuesday, is based on Alexander H. Key’s 1968 novel [[[Escape to Witch]]] Mountain and is an updated remake with little connecting it to the 1975 Disney film or the 1995 sequel.
