Here, from 1940, are several unusual panels from Alex Raymond's classic Sunday FLASH GORDON strip. These panels feature our hero, Flash, dressed in an oddly familiar red and yellow costume...with a lightning bolt on it. Hmm... In the plotline, it's said to be a rubberized uniform for handymen (check the real utility belt) but note him being 
heroic...and running. Makes you wonder if Julie or Carmine or somebody, in the back of their minds, remembered this sequence when DC revived their hero, THE FLASH (also 1940) about 16 years later. For the record, it also strongly resembles the costume of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent Lightning albeit with somewhat inverted color.
That's from the storyline (just before he defeated Ming) where he joined the "Powermen".
ReplyDeleteIn the Nostalgia Press reprint of that storyline, the outfits were green, not red. I've only recently seen panels where they are shown as red. So did NP recolor them for some reason?
Carmine has said -- here, for instance -- the Flash costume came directly from his unsold pitch for a series called "Captain Whiz" which was a swipe/homage of Captain Marvel. And the Big Red Cheese would have first appeared at about the same time as this, no? But yes, it's pretty certain Infantino would have seen these Flash Gordon panels as well. Great find!
ReplyDeleteum... I don't see the resemblance
ReplyDelete