Flash Gordon: Classic Collection Vol. 1: On The Planet Mongo (1)

My father-in-law loves Flash Gordon. My kids (4 & 6) have no idea who Flash Gordon is. I bought this to bridge the gap.The comics are a reprint of the originals and are a sign of the times. It's almost like a time capsule of ideas from the 30's. The gender roles are strong (Dale Arden's sole purpose is to be rescued), the pacing is tedious at times (although it picks up about 1/3rd of the way through), but it's the original Flash Gordon and you'll likely recognize many things you take for granted today which were new in this series. Oh, and the story makes almost no sense. But the kids are loving it and now they have something cool to share with their grandfather.

I have to be careful, because my wife bought this for me as a Christmas gift and it's not even Halloween yet. I told her I wanted to open it to make sure it was the right book and not damaged in any way. I got the right book and it's in good shape; a little curved but that will work out when it sits on my bookshelf.As I paged through a couple things jumped out at me:The printing of this volume is amazing. It's on a nice stock of paper and printed in full color. It probably didn't look this good when it was first printed!Alex Raymond's linework is sublime. His style and artistry is so good it doesn't matter if the story isn't scientifically spot on. Compare this to the more popular artists of the current era- even the best of them aren't this good. And, BTW, the best of the current era writes an introduction to this book. Alex Ross writes a nice piece for the front end. Very respectful and informative. Extra classy.One of my favorite things about this volume: it undercuts all the jerks that are charging ridiculous prices of previous volumes because they are out of print. The price and quality of this volume is terrific! I can now collect all of Raymond's stories and not have to mortgage my house again...

I would easily give this review 5 stars for the source material, however, the print is TINY! True, I wear glasses but my vision isn't THAT bad! Am I the only one struggling to read the print?

Enjoyable book. Very well restored. Interesting stories and the artwork is amazing.

I know that the fantastic imprint TITAN released Flash Gordon collections a few years ago in the UK. It appears to me (and I could be wrong) that MAD CAVE is now putting out the same material here in the US. Volume 1 is a glorious release. HIGHLY recommended for Flash Gordon fans. I used to read these strips in the library when I was a wee lad. Now I can revisit them as an adult as I assemble this library of the Mad Cave collections. I’ve included some photos to show what the strips look like. The book is beautifully designed and put together. The quality is there. The format of some of the strips is different so it varies as presented in the book. But these were sound design decisions based on how the strip was drawn in the early days, before it adopted what I call the “Hal Foster” format like Prince Valiant (which came later I think). Either way… buy this today!

Finally get to see where it all began.+Starts out simple but gains momentum!+Flash is a man of action. No navel gazing here!+Clear stakes!+A mishmash of space opera, sword and planet, + sprawling space fantasy!-Gotta wait for Vol 2!