Flash Gordon: The Tyrant of Mongo review

December 11, 2012

Titan Books invites you on a thrilling trip back to the Golden Age of science fiction with their new collection, “Flash Gordon: The Tyrant of Mongo.”

For those of you unfamiliar with Flash Gordon beyond hearing the Queen song, a brief history is in order. With science fiction becoming increasingly popular in the 20s and 30s, King Feature Syndicates hired illustrator Alex Raymond and writer Don Moore to create a weekly comic strip to compete with the popular Buck Rogers in the 25th Century feature. The result was Flash Gordon, the story of three earthlings: Flash, Dale Arden, and Dr Hans Zarkov, who become trapped on the mysterious planet Mongo, ruled by Ming the Merciless. The comic was a great success, inspiring a radio show, several movie serials, a move remake in 1980, and a terrible SyFy television series.

“The Tyrant of Mongo” is Titan Books’ second volume in a series dedicated to reprinting the original Flash Gordon series in the manner that it deserves. The book itself is a gorgeous over-sized hardcover, printed on high quality paper. It features an introduction to the world of Flash Gordon by Doug Murray, and features short biographies of the creators and a timeline of plots that ran in the comic strip. The strips included in this volume cover the years 1937 thru 1941.

book review, Flash Gordon, science fiction, the tyrant of mongo, titan books — Sample interior page from The Tyrant of Mongo

The story kicks off in tropical forests of Mongo, with Flash Gordon and Dale Arden visiting their friend King Barin, leader of the forest people and enemy of Ming. Soon, treachery rears its ugly head, and Flash and his friends embark on a series of adventures that take them all over the strange world of Mongo. The story itself if quick and snappy, moving rapidly from adventure to adventure. The size and paper quality of this edition do an excellent job of highlighting Alex Raymond’s beautiful artwork. It is remastered and presented in its original format, allowing you to see Raymond’s detail and line work in all of its glory.

This book is a great look at a classic work of science fiction, and would make a wonderful gift for anyone who is a fan of SF, comics, or comic art.

Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned British publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London’s Bankside area. The books division has two main areas of publishing: film and television tie-ins, and cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics references and art titles. The company is a division of Titan Entertainment Group, which also owns Titan Magazines.