Tag Archives: Sunday comics

The Saturday Comics in The Rue Morgue

14 Jan

January 14, 2012

No, Edgar Allan Poe did not write newspaper comic strips, though if he did I bet this might be one of them.

Let me say right upfront that I love Poe. His short stories, his poems, if  you need me to introduce you to Edgar Allan Poe then what’s wrong with you? The Raven? The Tell-Tale Heart? Annabelle Lee?

And Murders in the Rue Morgue.

This is the story that is generally credited with creating the modern consulting detective. Sherlock Holmes, Nero Wolfe, even the Hardy boys owe their existence to this tale.

The story surrounds the baffling double murder of Madame L’Espanaye and her daughter in the Rue Morgue, a fictional street in Paris. Newspaper accounts of the murder reveal that the mother’s throat is so badly cut that her head is barely attached and the daughter, after being strangled, has been stuffed into the chimney. The murder occurs in an inaccessible room on the fourth floor locked from the inside. Neighbors who hear the murder give contradictory accounts, each claiming they hear the murderer speaking a different language. The speech was unclear, they say, and they admit to not knowing the language they are claiming to have heard.

Sounds great, right? It is, at least for a while, until the murderer turns out to be an escaped gorilla. Yes, an ape. Technically, an orangutan that jumped from a cargo ship.

I’d have warned you about spoilers upfront but let’s  be real, this story is 171 years old and is part of half the high school curriculums in the free world. This is hardly a spoiler. Not my fault if you never read it.

But yes, an ape. I fully understand that when this story was written apes had not yet become the cheesy B-movie clichés they are today but that doesn’t stop me from groaning every time I read that story. A really great locked room murder story and the killer is an ape? Sorry Edgar, you lose my respect with that one.

Which brings me back to The Saturday Comics.

“Wings and Winnie Winchester Help Capture Gorilla.” Allow me to put on my Mr. Grammar hat and complain that it isn’t “a” gorilla, it isn’t “the” gorilla, it is simply “help capture gorilla.” Is this such a famous ape the he is known as Gorilla? Is that his stage name? According to the headline his name is King, and that’s not original at all.

Anyway, not only does that gorilla look more scared of them than they are of him (which is not at all) but it only takes a trio of strangely unwrinkled policemen and a flimsy net to catch the ape. However, the ape seems to weigh no more than a couple of pounds, so maybe it really wasn’t such a big deal to catch him.

While the circus seems to be no great shakes, I’d have bugged my Mom to get me pair of those skates. What if there was an escaped gorilla in my neighborhood?

Sheesh, gorillas get no respect.

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The Saturday Comics: Flash Gordon by Alex Raymond

30 Dec

December 31, 2011

This is an undisputed classic character, in a classic strip, by a classic illustrator, Alex Raymond. Get the hint? This man CREATED Flash Gordon, among many other characters, and spawned legions of imitators, followers, and in fact nearly a whole genre.

I assume you know Flash Gordon. He has been constantly reinvented for every generation.

Alex Raymond’s “influence on other cartoonists was considerable during his lifetime and did not diminish after his death.” George Lucas has cited Raymond’s Flash Gordon as a major influence on his Star Wars films (which, cyclically, inspired the 1980 Flash Gordon film), while Raymond’s long shadow has fallen across the comics industry ever since his work saw print. Comics artists who have cited Raymond as a particularly significant influence on their work include Murphy Anderson, Jim Aparo, Frank Brunner, John Buscema, Gene Colan, Dick Dillin, José Luis García-López, Frank Giacoia, Bob Haney, Jack Katz, Joe Kubert, Mort Meskin, Sheldon Moldoff, Luis Garcia Mozos, Joe Orlando, John Romita Jr., Kurt Schaffenberger, Joe Sinnott, Dick Sprang and Alex Toth, among many others.

In particular, Raymond has been named as a key influence by many of the most influential and important comic book artists of all time. EC Comics-staple Al Williamson cites Raymond as a major influence, and is quoted as saying that Raymond was “the reason I became an artist”. Indeed, Williamson ultimately assisted on the Flash Gordon strips in the mid-1950s, and Rip Kirby in the mid-1960s (all post-Raymond). Key Golden Age artists credit Raymond with influencing their work. The artistic creators of Batman (Bob Kane) and Superman (Joe Shuster) credit him (alongside Milton Caniff, Billy DeBeck and Roy Crane) as having had a strong influence on their artistic development. Decades later, the herald of the Silver Age (and co-creator of most of Marvel Comics’s pantheon of heroes), Jack “King” Kirby also credits Raymond, alongside fellow strip artist Hal Foster, as a particular influence and inspiration.

I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that without this man, pop culture would be very, very different. Take for example the serials based on Flash Gordon. Their impact on films is almost as significant as the comic strip’s effect on that medium. By proxy, Alex Raymond is responsible for much of modern movie sci-fi.

Yet for someone whose impact is so far-reaching, his body of work is known more by reputation than actual first-hand knowledge. So in the name of education, enjoy this gallery of Alex Raymond’s work, focusing primarily on Flash Gordon.

Please click on the thumbnails to enlarge.

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