http://www.ardden-entertainment.com/upload/ardden/holdingpage.htm I picked up the new new new new Flash Gordon the other day and finally gave it a good read to see what sort of spin they would give this old chestnut... Former Olympic Athlete, Washed Out CIA Recruit and a History Professor at Yale... Um. OKay. Cool. But you know what I'm really thinking while reading this comic book? "Holy shit: It's Launchpadd McQuack!" Not to detract, but there's something about the huge chest and identical haircut, hell he looks like, and acts like a serious nonparodized (double negative? What?) version of Zap Brannigan? Ace Rimmer! The art is supercartoony, like Disneyish from back when they used to pay Americans to draw rather than electrocute child labour in Laos until they... But I digress, I like the art. I seem to like the story, of little there is between the first issue and the zero issue about Prince baron kicking ass on Mongo, but government conspiracies, Hans Zarkov building Weapons of Mass Destruction, it's fun and I look forward to seeing how they handle Ming in the next issue.
I'm kind of looking forward to this-- Flash Gordon has been one of my favorite characters for about forty years. Of course, that means it will be hard for them to get it right and easy to get it wrong. I like cartoony art, but this looks like it has a bit too much of that contemporary angularity that I find off-putting. It would have been better if they just went with the Bruce Timm look. Well, we'll see; I just went to the comic shop a couple of weeks ago, so it will be two or three more before I go back.