by Created by the American cartoonist Alex Raymond, considered an icon of popular culture and a pioneer among science fiction comics.
The King Features Syndicate press agency made the decision to produce a science fiction comic in view of the great popularity of the character Buck Rogers, noted as the first hero of comics.
King Features was a distributor of notable characters such as Betty Boop, Felix the Cat and Popeye the Sailor, however it sought to achieve the same commercial success as Buck Rogers by creating its own action comic.
For that, he entrusted the task to cartoonist Alex Raymond, one of the artists on his staff, who based himself on the science fiction novel “When Worlds Collide” to create scenes in outer space.
The comic follows the adventures of Steven “Flash” Gordon, a famous polo player who is forced to save the earth from an alien invasion.
Together with the heroine Dale Ardenán, he will face Ming the Ruthless, tyrant of the planet Mongo, finding friends and allies in the new world.
The comic was immediately accepted by readers and its success surpassed that of Buck Rogers, the launch of different products such as coloring books and toys appeared.
It was published in several countries and during 1945 it was part of the Argentine weekly Patoruzito.
Flash Gordon is pointed out as a source of inspiration for the Golden Age of stories, where the superhero archetype was created with the emergence of characters such as Superman, Batman and Captain America.
He also created a subgenre within science fiction known as “space opera”, or space epic, in which great successes such as Star Wars were developed.
Flash Gordon had different film and television adaptations, highlighting the 1980 film of the same name starring Sam Jones and with a soundtrack by Queen.
The film was a commercial failure but over the years it ended up becoming a cult film.
An icon of comics and science fiction, it is possible to trace traits other than the Flash Gordon comics in today’s most popular superheroes.
On January 7, 1934, the cartoon “Flash Gordon” made its first appearance.
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Voiceover by Pita Fortín and script by Nicolás Ziccardi.
