The 1980's film extravaganza called Flash Gordon
was able to unabashedly capture the essence of the original pulp books of the 1930's originally created by Alex Raymond. Fired by the astounding soundtrack of legendary rock band (and one of Alex Ross' favorites) Queen. The movie never updates, but seriously embraces the comic strip's quirky details of the sportsman Flash Gordon and friend Dale Arden who are kidnapped by mad scientist Dr. Zarkov on a rocket ship and taken to the distant and belligerent planet Mongo, that is attacking Earth following orders of its evil ruler, Ming the Merciless and his faithful servant Klytus. Alex loves this movie very much (no wonder both logos look similar) and he was extensively involved with the reissuing of this DVD as well as with the Action figure line. Check out this special from the DVD:
The Saviour of the Universe edition of this DVD sports a cool cover by Alex (see above), which is a great composition of the good and bad guys from the movie done in a color palette that resembles the one used in the movie. This DVD comes with a card (left) which shows a little bit more action and again, Ming looming in the back This was probably a rejected idea for the cover because it's not very heroic and the Ming image is almost identical on both. The other card (right) was an exclusive image, only available with the DVD purchased at U.S. retailer Best Buy. As you can see, it's another riff at James Montgomery Flagg's Uncle Sam poster.
ACTION FIGURES - SERIES 1: Bif Bang Pow!, an up-and-coming action figure company, took it upon themselves to transform Alex Ross' designs for the characters in this movie into three dimensional awesomeness. They started small as this series only contains Flash and Ming (pictured). But for action figure lovers there are some repaints, like a Ming with Black robes instead of red and a Flash with a gun instead of a sword (not pictured). I can't stress enough the level of detail in these 2 figures, they are so life-like and detailed. I have to say that this new company is giving its competitors such as McFarlane and NECA a serious run for their moneys.
ACTION FIGURES - SERIES 2: Series 2 is set to contain Prince Barin, Dale Arden and Klytus, along with the special edition Flash with a white t-shirt that was available at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con. These action figures will be released on July 2009 along with a set of variants to be unveiled at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Check out the images below.If you want to see Alex's designs for this series' action figures, check out the sketchbook here.
Also found at the Comic-Con but in 2007, were 2 litographs by Alex, which depict Flash Gordon in 2 very heroic poses.IN MY COLLECTION: The DVD with both cards, the series 1 action figures and the SDCC figure with its sketchbook.
UP NEXT! We will continue talking about DVDs that feature Alex Ross' art.
1 comments:
It's interesting that an artist who strives for realism in his own work can so easily discard the standard in his taste for other pop culture. There's a kind of dissonance there, don't you think? I would have expected Alex to prefer movies that strive for 'believability.' The silliness of that Flash Gordon movie doesn't fit somehow, yet he just gushes over it. Oh well. More power to him!
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