Mike Hodges 1932-2022

Mike Hodges, the director of Flash Gordon (1980), died on 17 December 2022. His contribution represents one of the highest achievements in Flash Gordon's history. May he rest in peace.

• Mike Hodges (IMDb.com)
• Mike Hodges (Wikipedia)

Gordon's Alive!

Today marks the 42nd anniversary of Flash Gordon, the 1980 film with the soundtrack composed and performed by Queen. I'll be watching it tonight.

Flash Gordon Inspiration: Action Figures 1978

In 1978, Mego released a set of four 10-inch action figures and a playset based on the Flash Gordon comic strips. The action figures included Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, Dr. Zarkov, and Ming the Merciless. I was unaware of them until this moment (the date being 28 November 2022 as I write this), so I am including this link to a short video on the subject produced by Mego Museum. More images are available here.

Flash Gordon Inspiration: Action Figures 1979-1980

The airing of the Flash Gordon animated series of 1979-1980 was accompanied by a line of action figures and two compatible vehicles manufactured by Mattel. Series one included Flash Gordon, Ming the Merciless, Prince Thun, and a Lizard Woman; series three included Dr. Hans Zarkov and a Beast Man; and series three included King Vultan and Captain Arak. (Notably absent were Dale Arden, Princess Aura, Prince Barin, and a Robot Soldier.) The vehicles included an inflatable Rocket Ship (with detachable plastic shuttle and weapon) and Ming's Space Shuttle (which was similar to the Rocket Ship's shuttle, but in green). A page from the Sears Wish Book of 1980 (above) was the closest I came to them as a lad, but I fantasized about owning the complete set. Had the animated series continued in the spirit of its first season, perhaps more toys would have been produced, such as Ming's ships, the electric mole, the beasts of Mongo, and the aforementioned missing characters.

The GROGNARD Files Interviews Christian Nommay

The GROGNARD Files podcast continues its exploration of Savage Worlds with special guest Christian Nommay in Episode 55 Pt. 2. Hear ye!

Flash Gordon/Savage Worlds Thought of the Day 2022-09-10

So far, Savage Arts & Sciences has been a blog with two separate personalities: half Flash Gordon and half Savage Worlds. In the future, I would like to merge these halves to a greater degree without sacrificing the blog's usefulness to those who are exclusively interested in one or the other. Can it be done? Only Tao knows, but I'll give it a shot.

I shall continue to post articles of Flash Gordon inspiration, which are free of game-related content, but I am thinking about writing follow-up articles that specifically address how they may be useful to those running or playing The Savage World of Flash Gordon for SWADE.

Meanwhile, today I shall be starting a rewatch of the second season of the Flash Gordon animated series. I have a feeling it will be a lengthier journey than my rewatch of the first season.

The GROGNARD Files Interviews Eric Lamoureux

The GROGNARD Files podcast (a personal favorite) finally dedicates an episode to Savage Worlds with special guest Eric Lamoureux in Episode 55 Pt 1. Listen, learn, and enjoy!

Flash Gordon Inspiration: The Comic Strips 1940-1942 (Dailies)

Flash Gordon: Radium Mines of Electra (Dailies 1940–1942) is the first volume in the collected Flash Gordon daily comic strips by Austin Briggs and Don Moore. The artwork by Briggs is strong, but the stories by Moore are not, and at times they border on self-parody. At one point Flash suffers a blow to the head, after which he becomes cold and cruel, only occasionally remembering his affection for Dale. Eventually, he snaps out of it after receiving another blow to the head, and he resumes a semblance of normalcy, but his encounter with the tempestuous Tigra, Queen of Forestia, results in a radical personality change for him. No longer an upholder of loyalty and chivalry, he transforms into the sort of stereotypical womanizer he would ordinarily chastise or fight. Perhaps the second volume of dailies will reveal that he is under the influence of another drug, spell, or hypnotic ray of Mongo and he will return to his senses, or that this is not the real Flash Gordon at all. Short of such a revelation, I fear that Moore himself might have been under the influence of something, and the dailies will be shown to have "jumped the flying shark" as it were.

Overall, I'm disappointed and a bit saddened by the comic strips in this volume. Flash Gordon's greatest appeal for me is his character: his courage, his ideals, his capacity for forgiveness, his open-mindedness, his ability to find and encourage the goodness in others, and his willingness to sacrifice himself to save others. To replace that with stock machismo and misogyny is a betrayal of the spirit of the Alex Raymond era of Flash Gordon. I will be relieved if he returns to normal in future installments, but I can't help feeling that it is a cheap and unimaginative plot device. If it isn't a plot device, but rather an intentional alteration of his character, then I regard it as a serious misstep (that was thankfully disregarded in the better adaptations). I await the next volume with trepidation.

Savage Worlds Thought of the Day 2022-06-26

As much as I appreciate the alacrity with which Pinnacle is working on the SWADE versions of the Fantasy Companion and the Super Powers Companion, I wish they had prioritized the Science Fiction Companion so I could use it with The Savage World of Flash Gordon (and post about it here). I have ideas for things I'd like to introduce for use with it, but I'm not sure if they've already been done or what the established parameters are rules-wise, and I'm not sure how useful the previous edition would be. I hope it won't be too long before it's released.

Flash Gordon Thought of the Day 2022-06-04

Flash Gordon has appeared in various forms in various media since first appearing in a Sunday newspaper comic strip in 1934, and many of these are fine, but some beg the question, "How dare you call this Flash Gordon?" followed by a slap in the face with a glove. The worst offenders are television bastardizations that bear little resemblance to the original characters and storylines. The 1996 animated series and the widely despised 2007 series are both execrable in their own ways, but the most egregious example might be the 1954 series. "Ah, Flash on television at last!" viewers might have said after his absence from movie screens for more than a decade. Alas, this is not the heroic and compassionate Flash Gordon who united disparate peoples to overthrow a tyrant. This is angry and hard-boiled Flash Gordon who works for the Galaxy Bureau of Investigation, a space G-man you might say, enforcing space laws and bringing space villains to justice. Granted, I have not seen more than a few episodes, and none to their conclusion, but as far as I can tell it has nothing in common with Flash Gordon — in any incarnation — other than the names of a few characters. The characters could have been renamed and the series retitled and no one would have ever connected it with the Flash Gordon legacy. Any television space opera of the period was superior to the 1954 Flash Gordon. Any! The rollercoaster that is the history of "reboots" goes on and on and on. Thank Tao we have the technology to preserve and enjoy the original Flash Gordon and the good reboots.