Dell's Flash Gordon!

Flash Gordon had been such a powerful success in the comic strips and on big screen in serials starring Buster Crabbe that I'm sure getting the hero properly into the comic book fold was a big mission. But it seems it took quite a while with the first issue of Dell's version of the space hero not hitting stands until the late 40's.

In the first of the Dell Four Color issues Flash and Dale end up on the planet Opto where they battle some joker named Vango. It's all drawn by Paul Norris in a light breezy style that wanders on page after page after page with little or no momentum. Rarely have I read a comic which felt more like just some folks filling pages.

And sadly that's what happens in the next issue too. I hate sound like a basher, but I expected so much more from these comics. In this issue the planet dejeur is Misto and while this one does seek to make some hay with flying saucers it too ends up just being all about not much.

In the next one the planet is Orano and the Ming substitute is Torro the Terrible. The art is the same, not bad but hardly compelling.

In the next one we visit Atico to get into conflict with King Zero. There are other characters in these too, disposable allies and some venomous dames to spice up the proceedings, but failing to do so.

We jump forward a bit into the 50's and the style has changed. Now Flash is part of some larger space organization and his easy breezy cavalier days are gone. He's more soldier than bravo in these stories which reflect the cold war. The changes but doesn't get really any more exciting.

In the self-titled Flash Gordon #2 Paul Newman joins artist Frank Thorne to take Flash around the solar system to Mercury.

That same team is back in the Four Color world and so is Ming the Merciless. Zarkov has developed a defense line and Ming is trying to penetrate it with his forces. The parallels to the early defense warning systems in the Arctic and Canada during the Cold War immediately came to my mind. And that closes the Dell years. Flash would not appear in comics again for decades when King Features would bring him back. But having already looked at those issues, next time we take a glance at Charlton's turn with character.

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