The Art Of Flesh (and Friends)

We've been looking at a bit of Flash Gordon parody lately, which quite naturally leads to the most ambitious effort in that arena - Flesh Gordon. Which means we'll be having this little discussion in our adult content 'back room' - The Other Voice Of ODD!

We're looking at the artwork, so we're only looking at the first movie. Flesh Meets The Cosmic Cheerleaders used no artwork for the title sequences, so they don't get to play today. But, no worries - we've got some others to join us in a bit.

So after we take a look at the title sequence artwork by  Cornelius Cole III...

...we'll be taking a peek at a few other parodies from Harvey Kurtzman, Wally Wood, Bill Pearson and Pete Poplaski.
And, no surprise, we'll toss in a bit of George Barr, too...

Slip on back past that brute checking ages to view the complete mirror of this post on The Other Voice Of ODD! and check it out.

artwork from Flesh Gordon (1974), Snarf #5 (1972), Witzend #11 (1978), and Naughty Knotty Woody (2007)

Flash To Flush To Flesh

Let's look at some of the early parodies of Flash Gordon. He's one of our cultural archetypes, with his spawn still going strong. (see Star Wars, et al.) Let's not forget, of course, that Flash was the spawn of Buck Rogers. We won't be ignoring him. (Actually, we will be ignoring him today.)

There is at least one parody earlier than the ones we have here today listed for Lala Palooza in Feature Comics #32. (Don't bother with the digital golden age archives. What i've seen of #32 may have the right cover, but the interior seems to be issue #44. There is an odd superhuman in Poison Ivy reminiscent of Flash, but only in appearance.)

Conveniently enough, since we've been doing a lot of Funny Animals lately, the next earliest i've found is Flash Rabbit from All Top Comics #s 1 & 2, written by Pat Parrish (artist unknown) -

Zany #2 brought us Flush Gordon -

Whack #2 remixed the name to Flush Jordan with artwork by William (Alex) Overgard...

...and Humbug #10, Jack Davis had fun mixing it with the paranoid times and gave us Flyashi Gordonovich, Intergalactic Commissar...

...while Wally Wood was hinting towards later work over in Mad #11 with the title Flesh Garden! -

Of course, there have been many more over the years - we're only scratching into the 1950s here. But this post is getting long, so...
So long!

page art by listed creators, otherwise unknown, for All Top Comics #2 1 & 2, Zany #2, Whack #2, Humbug #10, and Mad #11 (1946, 1953, 1954, 1958)

Blue Matinee

We're continuing our theme from the weekend in this edition of

If you weren't here, we've been doing Doppelcomix - imitations of the originals that copy art styles as well as the famous characters. We've got a Triple Feature and a bonus short for our matinee today - not quite Prince Valiant, Superman & Wonder Woman, and Flash Gordon - all brought to us by one of the old masters of the industry - Wally Wood.

NOTE: Wally's sporting serious wood today,

with all comics containing graphic sex & nudity.

The artwork has been moved to our 'back room'

for adult content following the site restructuring.

Please follow this link to The Other Voice Of ODD! archive
of the original post to view the artwork.

Our features, primarily coming from the second issue of Wally Wood's Gang Bang, are presented in the above billed order, with the bonus short following our final feature.
Bring Your Own Snacks.

features by Wally Wood from Gang Bang #2(1981)

Not to be confused with Tony Hale, Captain Zep, Lance Lewis, or the upcoming animated movie from Swamp Media Group.

Once upon a time in the 1950s...

Though many have claimed the title over the decades, Rod Hathaway is my Space Detective. Well, technically, he's the secret identity and Avenger is the Space Detective. Teena is Teena - she doesn't need the extra name.
Together they starred in four issues from Avon in 1951:

Their first adventure was written by Walter Gibson (creator of The Shadow), and drawn by comic legends Joe Orlando and Wally Wood. That's some serious pedigree papers.
Let's go ahead and take a look at that story:

The title also featured back up tales, like this one starring Lucky Dale, Girl Detective with art from Warren Kremer:

There was also the occasional bit of silly fun...

(Actually, that was a reprint from 1938's Cocomalt Big Book of Comics)

Orlando and Wood didn't stick around long on the title, just the first issue and the frontpiece for #2. Somebody did a nice job taking over for them, but nobody knows who drew most of the remaining stories. Greg Fawcette did some nice work, as seen in the 3rd frontpiece at the top of the page, but most tales are uncredited. Up until less than 10 years ago, they had been attributed to Wally Wood, but that has since been established as incorrect. Here's a short tale from #3 for a look at the work:

If only we could hire Space Detective to investigate the mystery artists...

pages from Space Detective #s 1-4 (1951)