Cellulose
to Celluloid: Flash
Gordon on Paper and Film
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Chapter
Fourteen: Aura stirs up yet another round of turmoil
and trouble!
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Queen
Aura is married to King Barin when she reappears
in the Sunday strip. Out of misplaced loyalty to her
evil father, she betrays Flash Gordon and his army at
the start of Alex Raymond's War with Ming sequence
by sending a message via Space O Phone in 1935.
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Princess
Aura bugs the lab for her own purposes in 1936.
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(Above)
A year and a half of bad blood finally erupts as Dale
Arden confronts her nemesis -- this is the last panel
where Aura was a villainess, and their ONLY fight.
(Above Left) Aura drops a wire on the Earth People.
(Left) Flash, Zarkov, and Dale make contact with their
home planet on Universal Pictures' Art Deco version
of the Space O Phone. They try to get their Rocket Ship
ready for take-off, but Aura's spying nearly leads to
disaster. |
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As it finished, Flash
Gordon's 1936 Saturday serial departed from the
Sunday feature.
Princess
Aura unleashed one last act of catty perfidy.
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Raymond drew his Tigron as a beast of Planet
Mongo who resembled a beast of Planet Earth, like his
Ockaseck. |
Hollywood's
Princess Aura used a REAL tiger to hunt for Dale Arden
in the caves beneath Ming's palace.
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Princess Aura tried to frustrate the plans of the Earth
People to flee. She knew from eavesdropping that Dale
was hiding in the underground maze, and sought help.
Despite this placid moment, her Tigron was very unruly. |
Sensing
his prey, the Sacred Tigron broke free from his handler,
a priestess of Mongo's Great God Tayo.
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Any kind of tiger on the loose was a serious problem. |
Dale Arden stood up to her feline assailant.
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Flash Gordon jumped in, defeating the Tigron.
The two Earthlings managed to survive without a scratch.
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Prince
Barin convinced Princess Aura to help the Earth People,
and she pursuaded Ming to liberate them all.
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 Ming
had no intention of keeping any of his promises.
The Saturday serial's remaining plotline focused on
Zarkov, Flash, and Dale trying to return to Earth alive.
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The
Saturday Serial In Brief: After Princess
Aura befriended the trio from Planet Earth, Ming
treacherously tried to destroy them, and their
allies, but Prince Thun returned, just in time,
to successfully attack Ming's palace.
The frustrated Emperor retreated to his fiery
Temple of Tayo and appeared to perish.
Princess Aura wore Mongo's crown as our heroes
returned to Earth. |
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| In
the Sunday Pages: Ming battled the Earth People
on Planet Mongo for another half-decade. Flash,
Dale, and Zarkov didn't take off for home until
1941. |
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Universal
Pictures returned
the
intrepid trio to space in 1938 and 1940.
Charles
Middleton reigned supreme as Emperor Ming, but there
were
only a few scattered nods to Alex Raymond's strip,
compared to the inaugural classic of 1936. Return
to the Intro Page for links to the other two films.
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Flash
Gordon
is the property of it's copyright holders. All images
are used for scholastic purposes ONLY in the context of this
article.
Text and graphic design copyright by Michael R. Evans 2009
E-MAIL ME
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