Cellulose
to Celluloid: Flash
Gordon on Paper and Film
Chapter
One: As worlds collide, two young strangers parachute
into a madman's lab and Destiny.
Disaster
is approaching! Both movie and comic strip show images
from around the world. There is no newspaper page in
the first serial -- an observatory acts as Crisis HQ,
introducing Larry (Flash) Gordon via his movie-created
father.
Gordon and comely stranger Dale Arden
are forced to evacuate their aeroplane in a cosmic storm.
Dale's costume is plaid in both mediums,
with variations. Gordon does NOT wear johdpurs in the
movie.
Gordon
and Arden share a parachute in both versions.
Dale
uses the harness in the movie. Gordon hangs on.
Dale
Arden is a platinum blonde in the first serial only.
I suspect Jean Harlow's popularity for this departure.
Dr.
Zarkov has a gun, but puts it away in the movie. He's
a totally mad scientist for the first rocket flight
in the strip.
Flash
Gordon's very first rocket in the 1934 comic was
fairly streamlined and sleek, without Sci-Fi Roccoco
glitz.
The
1936 serial borrowed a rocket-ship prop used six years
earlier for a feature
film called Just
Imagine.
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 2008
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