Monday, April 14, 2008

Pulp Sci-Fi Week: Flash Gordon

Pulp Spotlight
Flash Gordon
Hello pulp-friends,

Welcome to the first edition of Pulp Sci Fi Week. I said first because we will get more sci-fi weeks in the near future, if you guys enjoy this one.
I couldn't start this edition without spotlighting the most famous sci-fi pulp hero of all: Flash Gordon!
Do I need to introduce him? Really? Ok, just a quick overview then ;) Flash Gordon is the "son" of Alex Raymond, one of the greatest artist of the american (and world wide) comics. Flash is athletic, tall, strong, and ready to action. He is "born" in 1934 to defend the men of Earth from the evil Ming (see below), emperor of planet Mongo, who wants to conquer the Earth and put it under his tyranny. The story and the characters were so strong that they jumped off the newspaper strips to become a radio show, a series of movies in the 40s, and to live until the modern days.

Ming
Some of the most recent "incarnations" of this character include the world famous De Laurentis big budget adaption for the big screen in the 80s and a tv series last year for the tv channel Sci-Fi. While a little cheesy in parts, the movie has lots to be enjoyed like the beautiful Ornella Muti as Ming's daughter, Ming himself played by a superb Max Von Sydow, the cool visuals and the rocking (pun fully intended) soundtrack by Queen. The tv show... well, that's completely another story ;)

Cheers,
Francesco

4 comments:

James Figueiredo said...

Hi, Francesco!

Man, how kick-ass does that Ming look?! AWESOME!

Can't believe it took me this long to comment on your blog, the header alone is worth visiting everyday!

Best,
J.

Francesco Francavilla said...

James, you are being too kind, my friend :)

Thank you!
Francesco

You Have Lost The Game said...

We (Pisces All Media) are doing an animated Flash show, based on the public domain material and our all-new 3d animations... Previews and eps will be on our YouTube channel Pisces2099, so please visit!

And also- your BLOG is AWESOME!

Francesco Francavilla said...

That's a cool news!

And thank you for digging the blog :)

Cheers,
Francesco