MOONSTONE BRINGS A BIT OF HONEY TO ANGELTOWN..AND MORE!
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The Mix : What are people talking about today?
Now What Is Peter David Up To?
It’s official– Peter David has gone crazy. Go take a look for yourself.
FAMOUS MONSTERS EDITOR INTERVIEWED BY ALL PULP!
Jessie Lilley has been publishing and editing small press magazines for 20+ years. She is the original publisher of the much acclaimed Scarlet Street: The Magazine of Mystery and Horror, Worldly Remains: A Pop Culture Review and is currently Editor-in-Chief of Mondo Cult Magazine and MondoCult.com as well as Editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Jessie is only the fourth editor of FM since it first published back in 1958. Her freelance work has appeared in the pages of Los Angelesâ Valley Scene Magazine and Perth, Australiaâs Messenger along with a host of small press publications and websites related to horror films and music.
Jessie also edits biographies, including the memoir GLORIA by Bond-girl Gloria Hendry; an in-depth and candid look at the life of an African-American actress coming up in the extraordinary time known simply as âThe 60sâ. It is currently available at amazon.com. Another project which was completed in the fall of 2009 is the biography of character actor Paul Reed, Sr. by his son Paul, Jr. A delightful remembrance by a loving son and a retelling of the stories his father told him about making a mark in âthe businessâ in early 20th century New York City. Entitled You Grew Up, the book is available from Bear Manor Media and amazon.com. Jessie is currently editing a series of childrenâs books called Rowdy and Me. The first in the series, Rowdy Comes Home, is due to hit bookstores later this year.
Jessie lives in Santa Cruz County, CA at the top of a hill at the end of the road with her husband, musician David Paul Campbell, four sleek, rescued cats and various, visiting doggies.
AP: Jessie, first weâd like to welcome you to ALL PULP! Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to visit. Before we get into specifics, can you share a bit about yourself, your background and such?
 JL:  itâs my pleasure to talk with you and thanks so much for including me in All Pulp with the likes of such luminaries as Martin Powell. Iâm flattered. There really isnât much to tell. I was brought into this business via the back door, kicking and screaming all the way. Richard Valley, who had dragged me down the rabbit hole with him several times in our 20 year friendship, did it to me again with Scarlet Street. From there, things seemed to just move along to the coveted chair that I hold today. Being Editor of Famous Monsters is truly an unbelievable opportunity for me. Philip Kim flatters me with the position which Iâve held for over a year now.
 AP: Youâve been involved in the Horror arena for some time, including working with such luminaries in the horror magazine field as Forrest J. Ackerman. Has the field of horror changed dramatically since you became a part of it, particularly in the magazine arena? If so, how?
 JL: You know, Forry had names for everyone. Brad Linaweaver was always âpalâ and I was Wonder Woman. I was very lucky to have known the man and will always be grateful for the time I was able to spend with him. God, how that man loved his music. A love of all kinds of music was something he and I shared. Between us, we knew more lyrics than my husband. (Laughs) And thatâs saying something! But you asked if the horror field has changed since I got into it in 1990. It certainly has. For one thing, the state of the US and world economy has removed 99% of the disposable income folks use to enjoy. These days if youâre making $75K a year, youâre just scraping by so those of us who make a lot less than that are just barely off the streets. The internet seems to have come along at just the right time for the news hungry populace that doesnât have the extra change for a daily paper, let alone a monthly magazine at anywhere from $6 to $12 a pop. And those lower prices are amazing. I know what it costs to get one of these things printed and as I refuse to print overseas, it costs even more. Advertising has become extremely important to print mags at this point, even more than in decades past. Without the advertising income, a magazine like FM would be in a whole lot of trouble.Â
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| Jessie with Forrest Ackerman |
 And of course, the second thing thatâs changed regarding the magazine arena is the aforementioned internet. There are countless web-only zines out there spreading the word and most any print mag worth its salt has a website to go with it as well as a forum where, hopefully, the magazineâs readers come to chat about the articles theyâve read and what theyâd like to read about in the future.
 That part hasnât changed. We still want to know what the reader wants information on so we can continue to have those people as readers.
 AP: Why is horror a popular genre? More so than most of the others, Horror seems to have a very active, committed community following and supporting it. Why is that?
 JL: Because itâs fun. Because itâs easier to take than the evening news. Because it brings back memories of our youth, when times were better (they tell me) and life was simpler (they continue to tell me â it wasnât you know, it just seemed that way because we were kids) and the world was new and fun. Horror helps keep the world fun. In the world we know today, that counts for a whole lot.
AP: Has the fact youâre a woman working in the Horror field been a benefit or hindrance, or maybe even both, in any way?  Do you feel like women contribute something different within Horror that men do and if so, what?
 JL: I get that question a lot and Iâve answered it a lot, but am happy to reiterate my thoughts on the matter for your readership. Itâs amazingly important that people get all sides of this story. I seem to be alone in my thoughts here. There are a lot of women who really donât like what I have to say so brace yourselves. This question always seems to generate a lot of letters.
 I wish to start by saying that my being a woman â and at the time I started in this business a rather comely wench at that (Iâm old and fat now) â was never a problem for me. God knows women have been in publishing for decades and while some may say that what I did in 1990 with Scarlet Street was no big deal because of the likes of Helen Gurley Brown (canât imagine why theyâd lump me into that august company, but there it is), the fact is that at the time I was the only female publisher in the horror market. That didnât last long but for a short while thatâs the way it was. So from the git go, my being a woman was a benefit because it was new. I had a different outlook than the boys did and Richard Valley, as editor, had a far different outlook than the other boys did. By 1990 when we put out issue 1, we were all so tired of the same writers writing the same stuff and commenting about each othersâ work that we thought it might be time to shake things up a bit with some different viewpoints. We succeeded in that and after I left SS, Richard continued to shake things up in his own inimitable style. Heâs gone now, but the legacy he left changed horror publishing forever and Iâm proud to have been associated with that project and with him.
As to the second part of your question â and this is where the letters come from â may I say the answer is an emphatic yes. Itâs called the mother instinct. Whether a woman has given birth, adopted or never had children, there is something inherent in the female of the species that nurtures. Men are not natural caregivers. Women are. Also, when it comes to beating on male monsters, women are better at it because itâs part of their natural defense mechanism. Itâs the lesson life has taught many of us. Very few people out there are really interested in anyone but themselves. There are both men and women in this world that are out for whatever they can get. Being the âweakerâ of the species â in theory, if not in fact â women are aware that men (and women too, letâs be fair here) will take any advantage they can and as a result, while a man meeting a man will assume an attitude of bonhomme, a womanâs defenses will always be up. A man can be blindsided by another manâs evil intent but a woman has a better chance of being prepared out of hand.
AP: Horror films can be divided into many categories, one of those being classic monster movies. Do you feel like the old Universal monsters still have a strong appeal today and if so, what do you think contributes to that?
 JL: Yes, in fact I know those old films still appeal in the 21st century. I believe they will appeal for decades, if not centuries, to come. Many things contribute to this, I think, and while this is all speculation on my part, it comes from a fairly rich education on the subject. Thereâs the nostalgia factor of course. When I was a kid, the ânew stuffâ included the goodies that Roger Corman was putting out, like the Vincent Price Poe films. I saw those at the drive-ins and movie houses. At home though, on TV, I saw the classic horror flicks; those that starred Lugosi, Karloff, Chaney and later, Rathbone and Zucco to name just a few. Wonderful films in black & white, with scripts that were well-written, actors that took the roles seriously and delivered wonderful performances and directors that knew how to scare the pants off an audience â not to mention some really cool make-up.
Iâm not the only Monster Kid out here you know. We are legion and many have had kids of their own. The parents still love the old movies and their kids â through the wonder of videotape and now DVD and Blu-Ray â are being exposed to these old favorites along with the new. A large enough percentage of them have fallen in love with the Universal classics and some of those kids â older now and with their own progeny â are showing the films to their kids.
 These films were very well done for the most part and the love of them will never die as long as we have recordings of them to show our children.
AP:  A current project you have in the works is a new take on FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN. What details can you share about this, including format, creative team, where it will appear, etc.
JL: You know, of all the things Iâve worked on with Phil Kim, this project has to be my favorite. For 20 years or more Iâve simply been gaga for the artwork of Joe Jusko. Iâve had a mad fan crush on the guy just because of the spectacular renditions of the male and female forms divine. And his use of color is so wonderfully vibrant. Iâll never stop being in awe of those who paint. Jusko, Stout, Wrightsonâ¦. Canât name them all here. Thereâs not enough room! These creatures come off the page at you when they turn their talents to paint and canvas, and you know that one night something is going to lumber off the wall and get you while youâre in bed⦠when Martin Powell started to lobby for the FMTWM project in one of the Retro issues, I â being a Powell fan â immediately started to lobby for it with Phil for Retro 71. Then Martin says to me, he says, âSo Jessie. What do you think about the cover artist? I mean, do you know about Joe Jusko?â I almost died right then and there. What a perfect idea. What a spectacular choice. Oh, man! And Joe said yes. And Phil said yes. And I am one very happy camper. Itâs like a dream come true. So, the format will be close to the original filmbooks from Forryâs day and thatâs all youâre going to get out of me. I know Phil is hoping to have it for Comic Con, but itâs actual scheduled release is September of 2011. If we can get it done in time for Comic Con, we would be bringing a limited number for sale there. Thatâsâ the last I heard anyway.
AP: Weâve talked about the appeal of the classic monsters already. Specifically, though, what about this particular film adaptation do you think speaks to a modern audience?
JL: The fact is, there was no deep meaning in this film; not that I could see at any rate. The film says the same thing today that it said to the audience back then. Here are a couple of our monsters that you liked before. We thought weâd get them together for you and see what happens. Perhaps that statement will be seen as disrespectful by some, but it is the way I see it. FMTWM was discussed in the pages of Famous Monsters back in the day, but it never got a filmbook treatment. It struck us that it oughta have one and so Retro 71 seemed to be the logical place for it.
AP: As an editor, how do you make sure the tension and drama and fear that builds up in a horror movie translates well enough to the page to have similar effects?
JL: As an editor, you get the best writer for the project. When the writer presents the project and himself as the best writer for the job, you really donât have to do much. Pretty much be sure all the words are spelled properly and that said writer doesnât ramble off into areas not necessary to the project. Iâll tell you that working with Martin is quite possibly the easiest job Iâve had in 20 years. The fella knows his stuff. I guess that hardest part of the whole thing is figuring out what else goes in this issue with the filmbook.
AP:Â Specifically about the creative team behind this project, what do Martin Powell and Joe Jusko bring to the process that makes them the best for the job?
 JL: I think other than what Iâve already stated earlier, they bring the thing back to life through the eyes of the children that they once were. Both of these men were so completely overjoyed to be doing this for Famous Monsters that it was almost laughable. Almost, but not quite â because I knew exactly how they felt. I felt the same way when someone told me that, yeah, I was the editor of Famous Monsters now.
AP:Â Are there any projects for the magazine or yourself personally that you can or want to let our readers know about coming up in the near future?
JL: Oh absolutely! My favorite personal project is issue 3 of Mondo Cult, the magazine I edit for Brad Linaweaver. Itâs a completely different gig from FM. Iâm looking forward to being able to write about music again, and in a publication that is written for adults. FM is written as a strictly family friendly magazine, which is only proper as thatâs where it started out and the idea was to bring FM back in the same vein as it always was. Mondo, on the other hand, started out as a magazine of which I am Editor-In-Chief and I donât censor my writers. I never pretended the thing was for kids so the language you will find in the pages of Mondo is usually a bit more ripe than that which you will find in FM.
This issue of Mondo Cult is going to rock. Iâm really excited about it because Iâm finally putting my piece on Black Zoo together. Iâve wanted to write about that film for years and now I have my chance. I think Iâve got a little something to discuss about this film that hasnât been touched on before. It has to do with women again. What a surprise. Ron Garmon is going after DeSade and Medved and Brad Linaweaver is going after the world in general. Paul Gaita is back as Music Editor and all is right with the world. The best thing though, is the cover. Itâs by L.J. Dopp but thatâs all Iâm going to say about it. Youâll just have to be surprised along with everyone else. Weâll have it on the stands by the end of the year.
 AP: Thank you so much for your time, Jessie!
 JL: As I said before, itâs my pleasure. Thanks again.
MORE COMIC PULP ACTION FROM KPSB!
The cover for Issue 14 AND THE FIRST PAGE of “Flying Glory and the Hounds of Glory” has been posted at http://www.flying-glory.com
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Come celebrate 10 years of “Flying Glory and the Hounds of Glory” and discover a secret that has haunted Flying Glory for decades that will threaten her future for many years to come. Read it all in the pages of “Reverberations”
Legendary Writer/Anthologist Greenberg Passes
ALL PULP is saddened to repost the news of the passing of Martin H. Greenberg. Though the name may not be familiar to many, Greenberg gained fame as being one of the most dedicated anthologists of recent years. Many fantastic story collections that inspired many ALL PULP readers as well as Pulp creators of all sorts, were thanks either in whole or at least in part to Mr. Greenberg. He will be missed.
reposted from www.fantafiction.com
R.I.P. Martin H. Greenberg (1941-2011)
Martin Harry Greenberg (March 1, 1941-June 25, 2011) was an American speculative fiction anthologist and writer.Greenberg took a doctorate in Political Science in 1969, and has taught at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay since 1975. His first anthology was Political Science Fiction (1974, with Patricia Warrick), intended to be used as a teaching guide, then continuing with a sequence of educational anthology titles under the series name Through Science Fiction. In the late 70s Greenberg began partnering with Joseph D. Olander on more conventional SF anthologies. Early in his career, Greenberg was sometimes confused with Martin Greenberg the publisher of Gnome Press, but the anthologist has stated (at science fiction conventions, and in some of his anthologies) that they are no relation. Asimov suggested that he call himself “Martin H. Greenberg” or “Martin Harry Greenberg” to distinguish him from the other Martin Greenberg.
He shared the 2005 Prometheus Special Award with Mark Tier for the anthologies Give Me Liberty and Visions of Liberty.
Greenberg typically teamed up with another editor, splitting the duties of story selection, editing, copyright searches, and the handling of author royalties. Major partners include Isaac Asimov (127 anthologies), Charles G. Waugh, Jane Yolen, and Robert Silverberg.
In 2009, he was the recipient of one of the first three Solstice Awards presented by the SFWA in recognition of his contributions to the field of science fiction.
IRON AND BRONZE NOW AVAILABLE!!
From http://cpcarey.blogspot.com/
“Iron and Bronze” by Christopher Paul Carey & Win Scott Eckert now available on the Kindle and Nook
For a long time, my good friend and colleague Win Scott Eckert and I had been tossing around the idea of writing a story together. We had both been heavily influenced in our youth by the Doc Savage pulps, H. Rider Haggard, and Jules Verne (among others), and each of us had completed novels begun by Philip José Farmer. Win’s collaboration with Phil, The Evil in Pemberley House, came out in 2009, and mine, The Song of Kwasin, lined up behind Up the Bright River (a wonderful collection that came out to commemorate Phil’s long and wildly imaginative career following his passing), and is slated to be published in an omnibus of the Khokarsa series in 2012. So it only seemed natural that we should write a story together ourselves someday.
That opportunity finally came with the story “Iron and Bronze,” which was first published in 2009 by Black Coat Press in the anthology Tales of the Shadowmen 5: The Vampires of Paris (a terrific anthology and series that I highly recommend to pulp adventure enthusiasts), and which features two great heroes of the French pulps. Now the story is available in ebook format for both the Kindle and Nook. Here’s the product description:
Taduki-inspired visions draw an intrepid adventurer and a madman to a lost African outpost of Atlantis where they must confront an ancient mystery from the stars… Drawing on diverse sources such as Jules Verne’s The Barsac Mission, H. Rider Haggard’s She and Allan, Guy d’Armen’s Doc Ardan (who has been called the “French Doc Savage”), J.-H. Rosny âiné’s L’Étonnant Voyage de Hareton Ironcastle, Pierre Benoit’s L’Atlantide, and Philip José Farmer’s “monomyth,” “Iron and Bronze” hearkens back the classic SF adventure pulps of the 1920s and ’30s.
This story first appeared in the anthology Tales of the Shadowmen 5: The Vampires of Paris.
Christopher Paul Carey is the co-author with Philip José Farmer of The Song of Kwasin, the third novel in the Khokarsa series (omnibus forthcoming in 2012 from Subterranean Press).
Win Scott Eckert is the co-author with Philip José Farmer of the Wold Newton novel The Evil in Pemberley House, about Patricia Wildman, the daughter of a certain bronze-skinned pulp hero (Subterranean Press, 2009).
So if that grabs you, you can begin reading “Iron and Bronze” right now on the Kindle or Nook platform of your choice.
Lord of the Rings Extended Edition
Let’s stipulate upfront that Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings may be as perfect an adaptation of the source material as we are apt to get in our lifetimes. From the casting to the visuals to Howard Shore’s amazing score, this movie was a monumental achievement well deserving of its accolades and box office success.
We thought the theatrical releases were stunning until we saw the extended editions released on home video, complete with new bridging score music from Howard Shore so it all feels seamless and not at all tacky. Apparently, Jackson doesn’t consider these to be his director’s cuts or even his final word on the subject, but unlike George Lucas doesn’t appear to be making a career out of tinkering with the trilogy.
Last year, Warner Home Video gave us the theatrical trilogy on Blu-ray and we appreciated them, especially for their extra features on the making of the film, but we wanted the longer, fuller, more complete versions and finally, that day has come. The handsome box set arrives Tuesday and is well worth the investment.
There are three cases within the golden box, each containing two-disc versions of the extended edition along with three discs of bonus features. That’s 15 discs, over nine hours of movies and over 26 hours of bonus material. Try streaming that.
Jackson and co-writers Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens boiled the story down to Frodo Baggins returning the One Ring to Mordor where it would be consumed in fire. With that as their through-line, they made the necessary adaptations such as excising Tom Bombadil and Glorfindel, and rearranging lines and sequences to maintain that focus. To Tolkien, he was world-building and mythmaking focused more on lore and language than on characterization, which is where the filmmakers exceeded the source material. They had assembled a stellar cast that bonded in a unique manner allowing material to be tailored to give everyone a little more to do. We, as longtime readers of the material or new to Middle-earth, were taken on a journey that left us wanting more regardless of how long we had been sitting in the theater or living room. That’s a sign of success. (more…)
Martin H. Greenberg: 1941-2011
Martin Harry Greenberg, the leading anthologist and packager of short science fiction, fantasy, and superhero prose stories, and senior editor of Tekno Comix, died at his home in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Saturday. He was 70.
Marty’s output was staggering– here’s one partial list of the books that he actually received credit on, and here’s another. Notice how little overlap there is between the two lists, and there are hundreds more where he did back end editorial, production, or most often financial work. Marty’s packaging company, Tekno Books, produced over 2,000 books since its creation, with more than 55 New York Times bestselling authors. His collaborators have included the likes of Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, Nora Roberts, Deepak Chopra, Robert Silverberg, Jane Yolen, Esther Friesner, Ed Gorman, and the late Isaac Asimov. In the 90s, he lent his corporate name and expertise to Tekno Comix. He packaged the Further Adventures Of series of short story collections featuring Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, The Penguin, and Catwoman for Bantam Spectra in the 90s.
He is the only person to have won the Milford Award for science fiction editing, the Ellery Queen Award for mystery editing and the Bram Stoker Award for supernatural horror editing. He also received the Prometheus Award in 2005 and was one of the first recipients of the Solstice Award in 2009. He was also a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay from 1970 until his retirement in 1996, where science fiction was often used as a teaching tool.
Like almost everyone else in science fiction, I’ve received a check from Marty at least once in my life on a book I didn’t even know he was involved in. He will be missed.
DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide
DC Comics: The Ultimate Character Guide
By Brandon T. Snider
DK Books, 208 Pages, $16.99
DK continues their line of lightweight, visually interested Character Guides. Joining the extant Marvel Universe and Star Wars books is a volume dedicated to DC’s heroes and villains, or at least some of them. With a mere 208 pages, there was no way this could be considered an ultimate guide, what with 75 years of characters to work with.
These franchises all share the complication that they are organic universes, ever changing so the books can, at best, capture a distinct moment in time. In each case, DK’s editors fail to tell you where that moment in time is for the dedicated fan. This volume, for example, shows us the current version of Aqualad but also includes the currently deceased members of the Fourth World (yeah, I know, they’ve been resurrected on Earth-51, but this book focuses only on New Earth). And Dick Grayson appears here as Nightwing, not as Batman II.
The entries, from young adult writer Brandon Snider, are all surface, skimping on details and often avoids origins or focusing on the elements that make characters unique. Adam Strange is no longer a trained archaeologist and Animal Man’s family is entirely skipped.
Visually, the book is attractive with a relatively consistent modern day look so if it was drawn earlier than 2005, it won’t be here. Unfortunately, the text and art don’t always mesh so you see the Cyborg Superman as he appeared in the Blackest Night stories but the text makes no mention of his role. Wonder Woman turns up in her new outfit but the text doesn’t address the current confounding status quo.
Most of the groups have appearances here with an odd assortment of rosters presented so it’s more a hodge-podge of group. Many members don’t merit their own pages with the classic Justice Society members getting omitted (with Spectre being merely Crispus Allen with no mention of him being the Wrath of God). Other incarnations of characters are either briefly referenced or skipped entirely, such as the multiple Atoms and Green Lanterns.
This can be a primer to the DCU and it does merit flipping through to verify names, heights, weights, and the like but just about every fact appears to be rendered irrelevant or dated just two months after the book goes on sale. That’s a shame because this could have proven to be an immensely powerful tool to support the revamped line. If Co-Publisher Dan DiDio really had been planning this move for over a year, there was ample time to coordinate with DK and this is just another missed opportunity.
Given that far more detailed and comprehensive data can be found online, DK’s challenge is to make these books relevant and to date, they have yet to figure out how to manage this feat, which is a shame since they usually do stellar work.
FLASH GORDON (1936)
FLASH GORDON (1936)
1936
Universal Pictures
Directed by Frederick Stephani
Produced by Henry MacRae
Written by Basil Dickey, Ella O’Neill, George H. Plympton
Based on the comic strip by Alex Raymond
Say whatever you want about The Internet. It’s done all right by me so far. It’s a never ending source of delight to me that I can find and rediscover movies, books, comics and old TV shows that I thought I’d never see or experience again. But it’s all out there and thanks to the wonderful technology we now have, it’s a joy to be able to relive some of my childhood pleasures. This is one of ‘em.
Set The Wayback Machine for pre-Netflix days, Sherman. (I’m talking about the 70’s and 80’s, folks) when the only way I could see cliffhanger serials from the 30’s and 40’s was to either borrow them from the library and hope the VHS tape hadn’t been dubbed from a poor copy or wait until they were shown on PBS. Usually during the summer PBS would have a Saturday night marathon showing of “Spy Smasher” “Perils of Nyoka” “The Masked Marvel” or “Manhunt of Mystery Island” in their original form. Much more common were the edited versions of cliffhangers that Channel 9 or Channel 11 here in New York would show on Saturday afternoons. 15 chapters were edited down into 90 minutes. It gave you a good flavor of what cliffhangers were like but that was all.
But now we’ve got Netflix and it was while accidentally finding they had “King of The Rocketmen” available, I hunted up some other serials as well. Including what is probably the best known and best loved cliffhanger serial of all; FLASH GORDON starring Larry “Buster” Crabbe. The man was known as The King of The Serials due to his playing in serials arguably the three most popular comic strip heroes at that time: Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Tarzan. Talk about your hat tricks.
But there’s a reason why Mr. Crabbe got to play such heroes. The cat looks like a hero. He had the genuine square chin, steely eyes and a build most guys would give ten years off their life for. But I think that Buster Crabbe’s real appeal in this serial lay in his Everyman quality. His Flash Gordon isn’t the smartest guy in the room. And he’s okay with that. He’s more than happy to let Dr. Zarkov be the brains of the outfit while he does the dirty work. He’s clever and resourceful. He’s got morals and compassion for the little guy. And when it comes to kicking ass all over Mongo, just step back and give Flash some fightin’ room.
By now, the story is legend. The planet Mongo is hurtling toward Earth on what appears to be a collision course. Earth’s weather is going crazy as well as the populace. Flash Gordon is on one of the last cross country flights as he wishes to be with his scientist father when the end comes. Also on the plane is Dale Arden (Jean Rogers). Due to the severity of the weather, Flash and Dale are forced to bail out by parachute and happen to land right near the spaceship of Dr. Hans Zarkov (Frank Shannon) who talks them into a suicide mission to fly through space to the planet Mongo and somehow stop it from crashing into Earth.
Flash and Dale agree to go along and our intrepid heroes successfully make it to Mongo where they are promptly captured by Captain Torch (Earl Askam) who takes them to his Emperor: Ming The Merciless (Charles Middleton) who rules Mongo by fear and terror. Ming and Flash take an instant dislike to each other. However, Ming’s daughter Princess Aura (Priscilla Lawson) falls immediately in love with Flash and tries to save him when her daddy throws Flash in the Arena of Death with three brutal ape men. Now mind you, this is just the first chapter and I didn’t even describe half of what happens.
The next 12 chapters are a goofy blizzard of classic space opera pulp adventure as Flash and his friends are chased, captured, enslaved, escape, battle and struggle against Ming while making friends and allies with Vultan (John Lipson) King of The Hawkmen, Prince Barin (Richard Alexander) the rightful ruler of Mongo and Prince Thun (James Pierce) of The Lionmen.
First off let me say up front that you have to have a love of this kind of thing from Jump Street or at least be curious to learn more about this genre. This entire serial was made for less than a million bucks which today wouldn’t even pay for the catering for some of today’s movie. So we’re talking about production values that are downright laughable by today’s standards. The acting is nothing to brag about. But it is sincere. Buster Crabbe sells it with all his heart. When he’s up there on screen he convinces you that he’s in the deadliest of peril even while fighting the most obvious rubber octopus in the history of movies. And the rest of the cast follow suit. Especially John Lipson as Vultan who I was afraid would belly laugh himself a hernia, that’s how much he’s enjoying playing the Falstaffian King of The Hawkmen.
Jean Rogers as Dale Arden is kinda blah, even for this material. She mostly just stands around looking gorgeous in her flowing, gossamer robes. Mongo must really be hard up for women since everybody who meets Dale wants to marry her. Her contribution to the story consists of either fainting or screaming at least once every chapter. I gotta give her props, though. Not many actresses even today could give so many inflections to one line; “What have you done with Flash?” which is usually all she gets to say.
Princess Aura is much more fun to watch as she’s the real woman of action here. She’s always pulling a ray gun on someone, even on her own father to rescue Flash. Something she does a surprising number of times. There’s even a scene where Aura tells Dale that if Dale really cared about Flash, she’d do something and not just stand there cramming her fist in her mouth to hold back yet another scream. Whenever she hears Flash has been captured yet again, Aura grabs the nearest ray gun, holds up her dress so as not to trip and runs off in her marvelously high heels to save him.
Frank Shannon is amazing as Dr. Hans Zarkov, one of the greatest Mad Scientists in fiction. There’s a scene in the spaceship that made me laugh out loud: Our Heroes are heading for Mongo when Flash asks Zarkov if he’s ever done this before. Zarkov admits that he hasn’t but he’s tested with models. “What happened to them?” Flash asks. “They never came back,” Zarkov sheepishly admits. If you watch this serial, check out the expression on Flash’s face. Priceless.
And while I’m sure that Mr. Crabbe didn’t mind having to wear shorts through the whole production, I would think Frank Shannon and Richard Alexander did since they don’t have the legs to pull that look off. At least Charles Middleton didn’t have to. He doesn’t have the fabulous wardrobe Max Von Sydow sported in the 1980 movie but he does have the sufficient gravitas to make us take Ming seriously. Flash Gordon vs Ming The Merciless is one of the most celebrated hero/villain pairings in heroic fiction and I believe it’s largely due to the work Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Middleton do in this serial as well as the two sequels. They are never less than convincing and in their best moments they make us forget the cheapness of the production.
So should you see the 1936 serial version of FLASH GORDON? It depends. Are you just looking for a casual Friday or Saturday night movie? Then go Netflix the 1980 version starring Sam J. Jones as Flash and Max Von Sydow as Ming with the absolutely kickass Queen soundtrack.
But if you consider yourself a student of pulp fiction, of heroic fiction in film, of the cliffhanger serial or of the science fiction movie genre or of just plain movies then I say that there is no way you can call yourself a student of any/all those genres and not watch the 1936 FLASH GORDON at least once. It’s the great-grandfather of 90% of filmic space opera that came after it and need I remind you that the major reason George Lucas created “Star Wars” is because he couldn’t get the rights to do FLASH GORDON, which is really what he wanted to do. If things had turned out different we might have been watching Flash Gordon, Prince Thun and Prince Barin wielding those lightsabers.
Ideally you should do it the right way and watch one chapter a week on Saturday to get the real effect of watching Saturday morning cliffhangers but I’m a greedy bastard and watched it all in one day with 15 minutes breaks in between. No, it’s not the same but I kinda think that after the first two of three chapters, you’re gonna keep watching.
Taken as a cultural artifact it is a superior example of a style of film storytelling that isn’t done anymore. As a gateway drug into pulp in general and as cliffhanger serials in particular, there are few better examples than FLASH GORDON. Load it up on Netflix and enjoy.
FLASH GORDON has no rating but be advised that it is a culturally and racial insensitive movie by our standard today. If you’re willing to overlook that and understand it was made in a less socially enlightened time, fine. If not, give it a pass.
245 minutes (13 Episodes)
