posted March 07, 2003 03:47 PM               

Most of the stories in this book are BORIS KARLOFF TALES OF MYSTERY, but there are also some MIDNIGHT MYSTERIES (was this a separate comic?) and some text stories (somehow, I just always SKIP over those...). Amidst the Italian art, I found one story done by Dan Spiegle-- WOW! Really stands out. His inking/rendering style fits the general look, but his drawings are so much "cleaner". (There's a few artists whose styles are somewhat similar on this point-- Spiegle, Jim Aparo, Frank Thorne-- anybody ever notice that?) Right in the middle of the book, one story had the panels cut up and re-pasted so they could be printed BIGGER (but only 2 panels to a page). Makes you almost wish they'd done the whole thing that way.

Funny thing, as I'm also watching my tapes of THE OUTER LIMITS lately (all uncut!)--I must be in some kind of "anthology" mood this month.

posted March 07, 2003 11:44 PM               

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Originally posted by Professor Zoom:
Dylanfan,that sounds very much like an episode of the Twilight Zone called "The Fear" which is available on the Image Entertainment DVD Twilight Zone Vol. 42. Though old Rod used the size variation theme on several episodes this one did involve two people at an out of the way cabin.Here's a description from the Image website...
""The Fear" (Ep. 155, May 29, 1964) - An unknown creature hidden in the shadows--apparently monstrously large and immensely powerful--terrorizes a hysterical young woman and a state trooper who's arrived to help her. But is this gargantuan invader really what it seems to be? "
We now return control of this comic thread back to you...

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That's the one! Scared the crap out of me when I saw it as a kid....I'll have to track that one down.

posted March 08, 2003 12:03 AM               

Then, while renting the tapes, I was shocked to discover one week that i'd rented that mysterious episode! It was called "The Borderland", and was about an attempt to cross over into another dimension via means awfully similar to the "transporter" on STAR TREK.

posted March 08, 2003 03:51 AM               

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Originally posted by profh0011:
...And just to derail this uncalled-for tirade back to comics-- anybody gopt a copy of the Archie Goodwin-Al Williamson FLASH GORDON movie adaptation? (I've never seen a copy of it!)

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posted March 08, 2003 03:27 PM               

During the "dark ages" when Marvel had gone COMPLETELY to hell creatively, one of the few items they put out worth buying was a 2-issue FLASH GORDON mini-series, written by Mark Shultz & illustrated by Al Williamson. STUNNING!! I had the strongest impression reading it that it was somehow part of the continuity of the movie serials, rather than any previous comics series.

posted March 08, 2003 05:02 PM               

But at the same time, I'm reading the then current Mac Raboy strip in the Sunday paper. Instead of Flash leaving the mundane 20th century Earth and flying to Mongo for his adventures with ray guns and rocket ships, he was obviously living on a future Earth as a member of some kind of Rocket Patrol outfit.

So, I always wondered when the big shift in storyline came. Does anyone know?

posted March 08, 2003 06:29 PM            

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Originally posted by profh0011:
[B]a 2-issue FLASH GORDON mini-series, written by Mark Shultz & illustrated by Al Williamson. STUNNING!![B]

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posted March 08, 2003 06:36 PM            

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Originally posted by Old Dude:
he was obviously living on a future Earth as a member of some kind of Rocket Patrol outfit.

So, I always wondered when the big shift in storyline came. Does anyone know?

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It's been so long since I read the Raymond strips that I'm not sure of what I am about to say. I think the shift occured during Raymond's run. As I recall, Flash overthrew Ming and eventually went back to earth to fight a war on a future Earth that was clearly intended to symbolize World War II. I might have time to check this next weekend.

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And as I was typing this, I just remembered that Dark Horse was coming out with a collection of the Raboy strips. The last I remember, it was coming out "in a couple weeks" but that was some time ago. Forgot about it, but also, I never saw it. Did anyone get it? Was it good?

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I get my comics through the mail, and I am months behind. I did order it, but I don't recall reading it. As I understand it, this picks up immediately after Raymond's run. I'll let you know when I find out more.

posted March 09, 2003 01:39 AM               

From different articles I've read over the years, my impression was that BUCK ROGERS was a very successful, and very well-written science-fiction strip-- and FLASH GORDON was created at the insistence of the syndicate to imitate it. What readers got, however, was less sci-fi and more epic adventure fantasy-- and with FAR better artwork!

I have the 5-volume set of FLASH GORDON that reprints the 9-year Mongo epic. It was 2 hardbounds and 3 thick paperbacks, vertical format, with the art (apparently) reformatted to fit the shape of the books. I'm guessing these may only be the Sundays. I know that many strips ran the same story both on Sundays and in the Dailies, but written in such a way that you didn't necessarily need to read all 7 days. (I know this was true of DIC TRACY, and may still be, assuming it's still running anywhere at all.) This meant you got more of the story with the Dailies, but more spectacular art with the Sundays. I've never read FLASH GORDON Dailies, so I have no idea what went on back when, but I did read somewhere that early on, Alex Raymond dropped off the Dailies to focus entirely on the Sundays, which then became incredible works of ART.

From what I read, after Ming was deposed, Flash, Dale & Zarkov returned to Earth to fight the Nazis! About 2 years later, they made their 2nd trip to Mongo (when the movie FLASH had been in space 3 times already) and had a new adventure on the small continent on the opposite side of the planet from where all their previous adventures had been. (This I learned from Larry Ivie's MONSTERS & HEROES, which included a map of Mongo!) Midway thru the 2nd Mongo story, Alex Raymond dropped off the strip to focus on SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN (is that the right name?).

I know among his successors was Austin Briggs (I have one voilume of his strips) and Mac Raboy (who in an interview said he HATED the writing on FLASH GORDON-- I believe he only did it for th money!). I'd read that Al Williamson had a run on it as well, but recently something else I read contradicted that. (Anyone?) Sy Barry seems to have had the longest run in the strips history, but from things I've read recently, it seems a HUGE amount of his work on the strip was done by others, "ghosting" under his name. Barry's was the only version of FLASH I ever saw in the papers, and needless to say, I was NOT impressed.

posted March 09, 2003 03:10 AM               

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Originally posted by profh0011:
...I have the 5-volume set of FLASH GORDON that reprints the 9-year Mongo epic. It was 2 hardbounds and 3 thick paperbacks, vertical format, with the art (apparently) reformatted to fit the shape of the books. I'm guessing these may only be the Sundays...

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These are the Nostalgia Press volumes, right?
There are two other reprint versions that I think are superior (though there's always something to be said for seeing classic linework in black & white).
There's the 6-volume Kitchen Sink set, covering the whole Raymond run, which may still be findable at not too high a price. These are color, 11 x 8 1/2 horizontal format. Both hard and soft versions exist.
And there's the Pacific Comics Club set, done the same size as the half-page size of the original printed strip, a giant 16 x 12, in color, a year to a volume. have seven volumes--don't know if others exist or not. Paperback only. These may still be available from Tony Raiola.

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Originally posted by profh0011:
...
...I've never read FLASH GORDON Dailies, so I have no idea what went on back when, but I did read somewhere that early on, Alex Raymond dropped off the Dailies to focus entirely on the Sundays, which then became incredible works of ART.

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Flash Gordon was Sunday-only at first. Raymond never did dailies. Austin Briggs was therfore the first Flash dailies artist.

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Originally posted by profh0011:
...
...Midway thru the 2nd Mongo story, Alex Raymond dropped off the strip to focus on SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN (is that the right name?)

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It was Rip Kirby. Secret Agent X-9 (Goodwin & Williamson re-titled it Corrigan) was the strip Raymond did before Flash.

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Originally posted by profh0011:
...
I know among his successors was Austin Briggs (I have one volume of his strips) and Mac Raboy (who in an interview said he HATED the writing on FLASH GORDON-- I believe he only did it for th money!). I'd read that Al Williamson had a run on it as well, but recently something else I read contradicted that. (Anyone?) Sy Barry seems to have had the longest run in the strips history, but from things I've read recently, it seems a HUGE amount of his work on the strip was done by others, "ghosting" under his name. Barry's was the only version of FLASH I ever saw in the papers, and needless to say, I was NOT impressed.

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posted March 09, 2003 04:25 PM               

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Originally posted by Professor Zoom:
Alex Raymond created both Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim in 1934 for King Features but enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1944 and the syndicate put Austin Briggs under contract as his replacement. Briggs had ghosted some of the Sunday's previously for Raymond when rush deadlines made that necessary. When Raymond returned from the war Briggs was contractually locked into Flash until 1948 so the syndicate encouraged him to create his own strip which was the very successful and lucrative Rip Kirby. Austin Briggs produced the Sunday pages until 1948 when he was replaced by the talented Mac Raboy. Dan Barry and Harvey Kurtzman revived it in 1951.I'm not aware of Al Williamson having done any work on the syndicated strip (His friend and contemporary Frank Frazetta did,as you can see in Kitchen Sink reprint volume of the 51-53 Daily stips.) though he did do a handful of gorgeous King Features Flash Gordon comic books that are well worth finding.

Back to the Gold Key thread,Western publishing produced complete comics for DELL up until 1962 when they split off and formed Gold Key. Does anyone know if DELL retained the rights to their pre-62 art/characters? I'd have assumed that Valiant acquired only the rights to the post 1962 Gold Key material that Western produced but Turock premiered in December 1954 for DELL so it appears that Valiant somehow gained even the rights to the early DELL material?

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