In the early 1980s a segment of genre films was eclipsed by blockbusters like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but they were important and unique and genre fans loved them every bit as much as the box office winners. Films like Tron, The Dark Crystal, and Flash Gordon. Now after 40 years fans of Flash Gordon at last have a behind-the-scenes chronicle of the making of the film. John Walsh, author of Harryhausen: The Lost Movies (reviewed here at borg) unearthed concept artwork, original costumes, props, and sketches, and new interviews with the director, production staff, and cast members for the 40th anniversary tribute, Flash Gordon: The Official Story of the Film, the only comprehensive look at the art, promotional material, and music available for this classic sci-fi/fantasy favorite.
In the next inaugural TKO Studios series we’re reviewing here at borg, classic fantasy meets action-adventure in The Fearsome Doctor Fang. A modern update to early 20th century mystery stories like The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu,The Fearsome Doctor Fang blends elements from Doctor Strange, The Shadow, Tomb Raider, Allan Quatermain, Indiana Jones, and H.G. Wells’ sci-fi and fantasy novels. No relation to the DC Comics Doctor Fang, readers meet this Doctor Fang in San Francisco–he’s a mysterious Chinese hero cloaked as a masked villain in pursuit of the location of the legendary treasure of Kublai Khan, all to save the world from a deadly menace.
Writers Tze Chun(Gotham, Once Upon a Time) and Mike Weiss(The Mentalist) create a story mixing stylistic influences from the likes of Alex Raymond and Alan Moore. The Dr Fu Manchu comparison is obvious–the writers even incorporate the unusual character name Nayland from Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu stories). Artist Dan McDaid(Firefly) provides the Amazing High Adventure look to the story, with layouts and close-ups reminiscent of Neal Adams, full of turn of the (20th) century exotic locations and historically costumed denizens bustling among the city streets. Doctor Fang is a Zorro-esque hero for the people of China–and the world.
Readers will find great surprise twists and several funny scenes. Think the 1999 big-screen version of The Mummy–the male and female leads darting between Doctor Fang and the book’s arch-villain have much in common with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz in that film. Bright period color choices by Daniela Miwa (Shaft) and interesting lettering by Steve Wands(Batman) support a unique look for the new adventure series. Where the first two books from TKO Studios we reviewed feel more like standalone one-shots tales, this is a book you’ll no doubt want to see continued in subsequent series. (*Editor’s Note: Every time I type or say The Fearsome Doctor Fang, I hear the classic Dramatic Sound Effect).
If there was a Sergeant York or Audie Murphy on the Russian side of the fight in World War II and the soldier was a woman, you’d have the lead character in Sara, a new six-part graphic novel from TKO Studios, a new publisher for 2019 (more on that below). In Nazi-occupied Russia, the Russian forces are losing. A small band of skilled Russians snipers is making headway one kill at a time. The undisputed best of the bunch is Sara, an ex-college recruit reputed to have 300 kills. She soon becomes the target of Nazi Germany’s own best special military forces. From Eisner Award winning writer Garth Ennis(Preacher, War Stories and Battlefields, Fury) and artist Steve Epting(Velvet, Batwoman, The Winter Soldier, The Avengers), with color by Eisner and Harvey nominated artist Elizabeth Breitweiser and letters by Rob Steen, the gritty realism, badass protagonist, and top-level artistry is sure to make Sara a contender come award season.
If you’re a fan of Russia or Soviet-era stories like Doctor Zhivago, From Russia with Love, and The Hunt for Red October, or graphic novels Nevsky: A Hero of the People, Red Son, and The Death of Stalin, there’s something in the Saragraphic novel that you’re going to like. But that’s just the setting. The real fun will be the callbacks readers will experience along the way. With a Russian twist, expect the same kind of war experience from watching movie classics like Stalag 17, Sands of Iwo Jima, Memphis Belle, To Hell and Back, and Sergeant York. Ennis’s historicity and Epting’s adherence to detail anchors the story in a way that will have you feeling like you’re right there in the forest among the soldiers. This is the story many of us were hoping for when we heard of the Russian espionage movie Red Sparrow.
As with all new TKO Studios releases, the story is available as a graphic novel in a digital or print edition, or as six issues in a collectible box. The six issue/chapter shifts are well plotted: an introduction of key characters in the middle of activity and flashbacks to Sara’s military training are all nicely paced to a vintage 1940s war movie style, and the battlefield threat increases gradually culminating in a nicely planned cliffhanger, followed by a satisfying payoff–it has all the beats in the right places.
With the dozens of new titles from all the comic book publishers being released Wednesday, we thought we’d hone in on a few with the independent publishers you might miss. The first new Legenderry title featuring Vampirella is out tomorrow from Dynamite, as is a new Jungle Jim series and sci-fi series called Cluster. From the classic genre film world, BOOM! Studios is releasing new issues of Escape from New York and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Legenderry: Vampirella Issue #1 is packed full of great steampunk elements. It’s the first of three new series spinning out of the world created by Bill Willingham. King: Jungle Jim Issue #1 brings Flash Gordon creator Alex Raymond’s series to a modern audience. Great characters and artwork have the classic feel of Raymond’s original stories. BOOM! Studio’s new Cluster series is an interesting sci-fi story giving prisoners a chance to get out of life sentences if they’re willing to work in a futuristic military service.
Escape from New York, Issue #3 continues the BOOM! Studios adaptation of the further adventures of Snake Plissken. And Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Issue #3, also from BOOM!, follows the exploits of the apes from the successful reboot movie series.
The second volume in the high-quality restored hardcover library edition of the original The Complete Flash Gordon Library was released December 18, 2012, and it measures up in every way to the first volume, reviewed here at borg.com this past October. Volume 2, along with Volume 1, made the borg.comBest of 2012 for Best Comics Collected Edition.
The original weekly four-color comic strip series continues courtesy of restoration work by Peter Maresca. Continuing where Volume 1 left off, this volume, titled The Tyrant of Mongo includes strips originally published between April 1937 and January 1941, created by artist Alex Raymond and writer Don Moore.
Comic book and science fiction writer Doug Murray continues his essay setting the background for the times in which Flash Gordon was written. He includes interesting detail like the fact Raymond used life models for some of his work, much like that employed by artist Alex Ross today. Ross counts Raymond as a key influence in his own work.
Re-think all you know about Flash Gordon. Volume One of the eagerly awaited library edition of the original Flash Gordon color newspaper comic strip, Flash Gordon: On the Planet Mongo: The Complete Flash Gordon Library (Vol. 1), is now available and it will cause you to second guess what you think you know about science fiction and fantasy in its infancy. And question just how innovative George Lucas actually was with the Star Wars series.
Rarely can you so precisely identify the source of “the modern.” In science fiction film it is Georges Méliès’s 1902 French movie A Trip to the Moon, from 1902. For science fiction novels you much reach back further to its Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein all the way back in 1818. For the intersecting genre of “science fiction-fantasy”–our key focus at borg.com–you must turn to January 1934 and a detail-oriented artist with an eye toward realism named Alex Raymond, and his new character, Flash Gordon. Whether or not you are a fan like I am of the 1980 movie Flash Gordon with Timothy Dalton and a host of other cult favorite actors and an excellent soundtrack by Queen, or Alex Ross’s Dynamite Comics series Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist, or even a fan of the old black and white Buster Crabbe TV serials, you should check out the original source material.
was released December 18, 2012, and it measures up in every way to the first volume, 
, is now available and it will cause you to second guess what you think you know about science fiction and fantasy in its infancy. And question just how innovative George Lucas actually was with the Star Wars series.
