Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Charlton Conquers The Universe!


Flash Gordon #13 from Charlton sports a Pat Boyette cover and also contains a Boyette story inside.


But once again, when Charlton got the King Features license they inherited some material, this time work by longtime veteran Reed Crandall (which had been used in Flash Gordon #12) and more work by novice Jeff Jones. Here's a link to see the Crandall story, though the images are from an overseas reprint.


The story by Jones titled "Flash Gordon and The Monster Men of Tropica" ran in issue #13. Here's a link to read the complete story and more.


Apparently though Jones had prepared a cover for the work, but it was not used. Either Charlton did not get it, or more likely they preferred the Boyette cover for #13 since his story and his approach would come to define the character during the Charlton run.


Here's some original artwork from the story. And here's a link to a previous post with a cover gallery of Charlton's Flash Gordon run.


The story has been reprinted twice (sort of) to my knowledge, once by Avalon Publications under the ACG brand, but the story title was changed and the references to Flash Gordon and his friends were altered to make it a generic space opera adventure.


The cover of the reprint is by Dick Giordano, originally used as a cover for Space War.


Here's a wonderful bit of original artwork by Pat Boyette for Flash Gordon #15.


Boyette's take on Flash was of course distinctive, as was all his work. King Features might not have cottoned to it, but I sure do.


Charlton's Flash Gordon material including the Jones story in original form has been collected by Dark Horse. Here's the solicitation. I don't have a copy of this, but I yearn to have a one.

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