Here’s an interview I did when I first started doing Flash Gordon way back in 1996.
The pic is from a few years into my tenure,
and trying out the “artist goatee” look on for size.
Interview by Jerry Craft
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Tag: Flash Gordon
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Sally Forth – Hometown Reference
When a scene in Sally Forth calls for a specific locale (grocery store, movie theater, etcetera) I’ll often use spots around my hometown of Minneapolis for reference. Take the following…
Excerpt from Francesco Marciuliano’s script for 9/22/2016.
Scene: Exterior. Sidewalk. Right Outside Comic Book Store. Hilary and Faye exit the comic book store. Each has a bag showing a comic book purchase.
For the comic book shop I chose Comic Book College.
It holds a little nostalgia for me as it used to be called Comic City back in the day (and was located one store down from where it is now). For those interested in the history, check out the College of Comic Book Knowledge.
The two guys approaching the comic book store in the first panel are fellow Joe Kubert School classmates Brian Bilter and Mark McMurray.
They’ve snuck into the strip before – it usually happens when I’m not paying close enough attention.
Mark even went so far as to crash a Flash Gordon strip I did back in the day (when he had longer hair).
More on that at joikmeister.livejournal.com
Unabashed plug time!
If Sally Forth isn’t in your local paper you can check it out online at SallyForth.com, or get a subscription at…
A yearlong subscription to all of King Features’ comics (new and vintage) plus ten years worth of archives for every single strip is a pittance at $19.99 a year. Unsure? Try a 7 day trial subscription for free.
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Uncle Whit and Aunt Pat
You end up using a lot of friends and family as reference when drawing comics. Take the following Flash Gordon page from October 31, 1999.
Quick story synopsis: Ming’s attempts to conquer the Earth by means of a gigantic space portal in Boston linking Earth to Mongo has failed, but Flash and Dale are now literally worlds apart – Flash on Mongo and Dale on Earth. Lisa (a woman who befriended Flash) is one of the few on Earth left who knows what really happened…
Click on image to see larger.
Lisa’s character is based on a friend my wife went to school with who’s name is also Lisa.
The elderly couple are my Uncle Whit and Aunt Pat (they have since both passed away). This page was an homage to them as they always supported my comic art career. An artist herself, two of my Aunt Pat’s pieces of sculpture were chosen for juried exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My Uncle Whit was a poet and educator.
They faithfully picked up the Boston Herald each Sunday to see my work on Flash Gordon. This even though they subscribed to the much more “respectable” Boston Globe – my Aunt told me stories of my Uncle Whit sneaking out at first light on Sunday morning to go out and grab a copy, being careful not to be seen.
My Aunt Pat’s support of my comics/art career went farther back than that though. When I was a kid and my local Minneapolis paper stopped running the Spider-Man newspaper strip (which I had been diligently clipping out every day) she clipped them from her Boston paper and sent them to me every week for the next two years.
(More about that at this link.)
And even though she came from a Fine arts background, my Aunt Pat never differentiated to me between “high art” and the “low art” in regards to comic art (that I got later from teachers at the local art college). She just kept faithfully sending them to me so I wouldn’t miss out on any of the John Romita comic art I loved so much.
Best support I could have gotten and I’ll always be grateful for it.
Note: To see more of my Flash Gordon work, just go to FlashGordon.com
Today’s Flash Gordon strip (11/9/2014) originally ran on July 21, 2002.
The guest artist was Mr. Monster’s own Michael T. Gilbert.
Click on image to see larger.
Not enough you say?
Okay – next up is a Flash Gordon/Mr. Monster mash-up
Michael and I did for an article Michael wrote in Alter Ego #20
A Flash Gordon commission piece via Comic Art Fans
And last, but not least, here’s Mr. Gilbert with his
Comic-Con International 2014 Inkpot Award.
No better way to end it than that…
As mentioned in a previous post, the inspiration for King Vultan’s headstrong daughter Princess Tyree was Tionne Watkins – or T-Boz from TLC.
Thinking back, she wasn’t the first celebrity I had used for inspiration when it came to Flash Gordon supporting characters. When Flash needed help fighting werewolves, Kurt Russell was called in, cast as Thorne.
I brought him back a few times after that to team up with Flash. He ultimately met his demise due to a crooked arms dealer who had sabotaged their equipment…
Before Tionne Watkins, there was Tisha Campbell as the strong-willed hawkwoman, Teesha. See how I cleverly changed the name so it wouldn’t be obvious?
This last likeness wasn’t for the strip, but a request to weatherman Al Roker.
Back in 1998 the New York Daily News had dropped a bunch of their adventure strips, including Flash Gordon. As Al Roker was known for being a staunch supporter of the comics (having wanted to be a cartoonist when he was younger) I alerted him of the Daily News dumping Flash – and he generously wrote a nice piece on his blog lending his support.
Here’s the art I sent him (pre-weightloss I might add)…
That’s all I can think of for now as far as celebrities go. Friends and family making cameos are another matter – but that’ll have to wait…
A reminder that you can find my work on Flash Gordon online at…
A yearlong subscription to all of King Features’ comics (new and vintage) plus two years worth of archives for every single strip is a pittance at $19.99 a year. Unsure? Try a 7 day trial subscription for free.