Television Flash Gordon fights evil again
Contrary to popular belief, a generation's first contact with the character of Flash Gordon was not with the iconic image of Sam J. Jones waving blond hair in the wind as he led an attack of hawkmen from a spaceship motorbike. . A little before the
1980
film
Flash Gordon
, always remembered more for the music of Queen than for its cinematographic quality despite the fact
that it has become a cult work for staging the excesses of that decade
, a series of cartoons appeared that was It was widely disseminated by the regional channels during the 80s. In this way, a generation discovered a character until then typical of American culture and of which only those interested in old comics were aware in Spain.
And it is that long before the appearance of the Star Wars universe itself and re-founding the fundamental principles of marketing there was already a long tradition in the United States of what was known as
space opera,
a science fiction genre in which
adventures are related mixing fantasy, futuristic technology and romance
. Flash Gordon was born from the pen of cartoonist Alex Raymond in January 1934 for the King Features Syndicate press agency as a Sunday page and his early adventures were inspired by Philip Wylie's novel
When Worlds Collide.
The character was then followed by other prominent screenwriters and cartoonists, such as Dan Barry, who gave it his personal touch in the 1950s. Although it competed with another cartoon about space and future travel,
The Adventures of Buck Rogers (
also converted in a cult television program in 1979), Flash Gordon enjoyed much more popularity thanks to its audiovisual diffusion in series and films.
However, the appearance on television of Star Trek and then Star Wars in cinema, in two irreconcilable antagonistic camps within science fiction fans, r
chose from the collective imagination the character of Flash Gordon
and all his companions on his visit to the planet. Mongo as the reporter Dale Arden, the scientist Hans Zarkov, the tyrant Ming and his daughter Princess Aura as well as their allies in their fight to save the Earth with Prince Thun from the lionmen, Prince Barin of Arboria or Prince Vultan of the floating city with his falcon men, among others.
For this reason, the recovery that the writer Alberto Moreno makes of the character is a whole formula to connect with the current public, returning to his essence. In the novel
Retroverso. The light that I leave behind
(Dolmen Editorial), the author transports us to a story in which Flash Gordon
is in command of a ship that must determine if the unknown object that has entered the solar system can constitute a threat to the human race
. A whole
reboot
of the Flash Gordon universe that allows the reader to be transported to clashes in distant galaxies with dying civilizations in which the characters, despite making hyperluminal trips, follow the
same archetypes of the classic adventure stories with good very good, humans in this case, and very bad bad, mainly aliens
.
A declaration of intentions.
Moreno's book cover
In an introduction to the book, Alberto Moreno states that he was fascinated with the character of Flash Gordon by Dan Barry's version of the comics of the 1950s and that it made him not an "epic hero who led revolutions against long-time tyrants. whiskers, or save his fiancée from the jaws of alien beasts "but was" a professional, a technician, a man of science "and" a citizen of great human quality, terribly responsible, always willing to sacrifice to help anyone that he was in trouble. With a reckless point, yes. "
For the author, it became a symbol of justice and a stimulus to overcome childhood fears, such as hanging from the railing in the hole of a sixth floor, or combating situations of inequality that were found on a daily basis, such as saving a cat from the stone throwing of some thugs. He
even associates the character's morale with the delay in his "entry into the most celebrated of adolescent pathologies."
For this reason, as an adult, he decided to novel one of the most famous stories of the space hero, who spent almost a year in comic strips published daily, to pay tribute to this classic science fiction character from admiration and respect, much more interesting than the self-parody that Sam J. Jones did in
Ted's
movie
,
in which the protagonist teddy bear reminds his human friend that "Flash Gordon was the most important influence of our formative years, he taught us to separate right from wrong, good from bad."
Thanks to his scientific technical training, Alberto Moreno wrote this Flash Gordon adventure that retains much of the "charm, drama and rhythm"
of the original comics but updated for the demanding palates of contemporary science fiction readers
.
For its publication, it had the complicity of Dolmen Editorial, which disseminates Flash Gordon material with a classic aesthetic in its
Sin Fronteras
collection
.
Sometimes, recovering a genre means being clear about its essence and being able to give it a touch of modernity appropriate to attract star travelers.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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