31 July 2018

Sincerely Flattering Flash

We previously looked at a few Flash Gordon parodies from back in the 1940s & '50s, but we only stopped due to the growing length of the post, not lack of material. Satires continued over the decades, sometimes tucked away in odd little corners, like this tale from the 2nd issue of Drag Cartoons back in '63. The story was published without art credits, but when the original art showed up for auction it was attributed to Mel Keefer -


From the 1970s, let's look over in one of our favorite old fanzines, the Rocket's Blast ComicCollector. In RBCC #134, Ron Wilber took part in the Flash Gordon celebration that filled the issue with his own satirized take...


Even as 1980 rolled around, Flash was still getting spoofed, as here by Dave Angus & Kevin O'Neill in 2000 AD -


Of course, once the Sam Jones/Queen version of Flash Gordon hit the theatres later that year, parodies naturally experienced a resurgence in popularity once more. Here's Paul Kupperberg and Bob Camp's version of the film, sporting a cover painting by Bob Larkin...


By the way, that story from the RBCC that we opened with came with a pretty cool Flash Gordon illo from Steve Fabian (Whom we somehow have yet to get around to featuring even though i started tucking things away for posting over a year ago) on the cover -


We'll be back this afternoon with another batch, and even a little bit of Buck Rogers, too.

page art from RBCC #134 (1977), 2000 AD #181 (1980), Drag Cartoons #2 (1963), and Crazy #75 (1981)

2 comments:

  1. I used to be called Flash Gordon because I used to be a flasher. When I considered giving it up, my pals said I should stick it out for another year. Boom-boom!

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    Replies
    1. Really? Not one of them told you to cut it?

      For myself, it wasn't Flash as much as Streak (California in the '70s, y'know)

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