Thursday, December 15, 2016

FLASH GORDON FACES A CULT OF FANATICS !!!


Sorry, my schedule has been a bit off lately, a couple of weeks ago we adapted a puppy and are going thorough the puppy training period. Her name is Zoey and she has been a handful. I am working on getting back into the flow of things.
Here she is, the little princess!

In the company of Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov, Flash Gordon embarked for the planet Mongo to encounter the menace of Ming the Merciless. 

That was in the Sunday funnies in a page drawn by Alex Raymond and written anonymously by former pulp-fiction editor Don Moore. This space opera became one of King Features Syndicate's most popular features, and Raymond's illustrative art was to have a strong influence on many of the young artists who began drawing for comic books in the late 1930s and the early 1940s—Tom Hickey, Sheldon Moldoff, Jack Lehti, George Papp, Mac Raboy, Dan Barry, etc.

Flash Gordon entered comic books early in 1936 by way of reprints in King Comics. His battles with the merciless Ming, a sort of galactic Fu Manchu, unfolded in the magazine from the first issue.








Flash Gordon #28
"Into the Cave Kingdom"
Deep within the bowels of Mongo, Flash, Dale and Zarkov run across a mysterious cult of cave dwellers.
Written by John Warner with art by Thomas Yeates, Carlos Garzon & Al Williamson.
Story told in two parts. 


According to Mark Schultz in Flesk Publications Al Williamson's Flash Gordon, A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic, this is one of Thomas Yeates' first professional assignments and that Al Williamson inked various panels. If you possibly can, you need to track this marvelous book down. It is a cherished book in my collection.








This issue was reprinted in the Flash Gordon Comic Book Archives Volume 5. This fine Dark Horse hardcover edition reprints Flash Gordon #28-#37, originally published by Whitman Comics.

Here are some of the ad pages from this issue.
Live Large My Friends!

Thank You!



Thursday, November 17, 2016

BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH'S BREATHTAKING GORBLIMEY PRESS CATALOGUE !!!


"...being a retrospective of one year's dauntless activities at the wonderful Gorblimey Press."  

One of my prized comic book collectibles is the magazine-sized Barry Windsor-Smith's Gorblimey Press Catalogue, from 1976. It's twenty three pages of simply amazing artwork! Needless to say, this was his own publishing company.
Gorblimey Press Catalogue 1975-76
Contents page.
1976.
Fine art prints and an article by Barry Windsor-Smith.
23 Pages.

His incredible piece, Britannia, was used as the frontispiece for The Gorblimey Press Catalogue 1975-1976. A slightly different version was used in a Gorblimey Press ad in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #7 in 1977.

















If you go to his web site, BarryWindsor-Smith.com, some of the prints are still available for sale! The catalogue can be found online as well, although it can be pricey! I was fortunate to find mine at a local comic book store at an affordable price. It was also the first time I'd even seen a physical copy of one before. 


The Barry Smith's Tuppenny Conan illustration, from the catalogue, was used as the front and back covers of the Marvel Comics Treasury Edition #4. My all time favorite of the treasury editions. 

Live Large My Friends!

Thank You!

Although not in this publication, the cover to Star*Reach #7 was a piece from Gorblimey Press.