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<font size="4"><br>Flash Gordon</font>
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<br>DVD review by Grant Tracey & Gary Johnson</font>
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<p><font size="6" color="#FF0000"><b>U</b></font>niversal’s <I>Flash Gordon</I> (1936) extended the New Deal era’s aerial emphasis. The first great air serial was Mascot’s <I>Mystery Squadron</I> (1932), and following the smash successes of Universal’s<I>Tailspin Tommy</I> (1934) and its sequel <I>Tailspin Tommy and the Great Air Mystery</I>(1935), the studio decided to catapult the aviation cycle into outer space. Science fiction magazines had gained a strong foothold in the newstands of the early 1930s, <I>Buck Rogers</I> had appeared as a daily strip in 1929, and <I>Flash Gordon</I> (created in 1934 to compete with <i>Buck Rogers</i>) was just reaching its peak by 1936. Artist Alex Raymond (who also drew <i>Jungle Jim</i>, <i>Secret Agent X-9</i>, and <i>Rip Kirby</i>) provided fantastic drawings that evoked an action-filled world of strange beasts, winged men, lustful passions, and futuristic cities. Universal bought the rights to Raymond’s strip and armed with a $350,000 budget aimed to make a serial to top all others.
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