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King features characters united in an explosion of creativity by Dynamite Entertainment!
By The Editor
May 27, 2010 - 08:58
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Dynamite Entertainment, under license from
King Features Syndicate, returns Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician,
and The Phantom to comic books, and all under the Dynamite publishing
umbrella.
The Last Phantom was previously announced to
ship this August with Alex Ross at the creative helm, Scott Beatty
scripting and Eduardo Ferigato on art in the ongoing series.
But with this newest arrangement, the relationship between Dynamite
Entertainment and King Features becomes even further solidified with
Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician! The last time these three
iconic heroes were under one publisher was 43 years ago, during the
period between 1966 and 1967 under the King Comics
imprint. Through the years, different publishers have published each of
the characters, with none having all three prime heroes together.
Dynamite has changed that.
"Flash Gordon and Mandrake the
Magician are two great additions to the iconic characters we currently
publish: Green Hornet, The Phantom, Buck Rogers, Zorro, Project
Superpowers, The Black Terror, Death Defying 'Devil, Masquarade, The
Lone Ranger and all of the titles we are proud to publish," says
Dynamite President and Publisher Nick Barrucci. "We promise to devote
the same passion to these King Features properties as we have done so
consistently throughout our publishing history, beginning with The
Last Phantom".
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Flash Gordon is
the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by
Alex Raymond, which was first published on January 7, 1934. The strip
was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck
Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics
such as Dash Dixon (1935 to 1939) by H.T. Elmo and Larry
Antoinette and Don Dixon and the Hidden Empire (1935 to 1941)
by Carl Pfeufer and Bob Moore. The adventures surrounded Flash Gordon, a
handsome polo player and Yale graduate, and his companions, Dale Arden
and Dr. Hans Zarkov. Dynamite's comic book story begins as Earth is
bombarded by fiery meteors. Dr. Zarkov believes the meteors are from
outer space and invents a rocket ship to locate their place of origin.
Half mad, he kidnaps Flash and Dale, whose plane has crashed in the
area, and the three travel to the planet Mongo, where they discover the
meteors are weapons devised by Ming the Merciless, evil ruler of Mongo.
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Mandrake
the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by
Lee Falk, which began June 11, 1934 and has been distributed by King
Features Syndicate since its inception. Phil Davis soon took over as the
strip's illustrator, while Falk continued to script. Mandrake is a
magician whose work is based on an unusually fast hypnotic technique. As
noted in captions, when Mandrake "gestures hypnotically," his subjects
see illusions, and Mandrake used this technique in his battles with a
variety of gangsters, mad scientists, extraterrestrials and characters
from other dimensions.
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The Phantom made its 1936 debut as an
adventure comic strip also created by Lee Falk and syndicated by King
Features. Through the years, King Features adapted the popular feature
into many forms of media, including television, film and video games. It
stars a costumed crime fighter operating from the fictional African
country, Bengalla. The Phantom is the 21st in a line of
crime fighters that originated in 1536, when the father of British
sailor Christopher Walker was murdered during a pirate attack. The only
survivor of the attack, Christopher was washed ashore on a Bengallan
beach, and swore an oath on the skull of his father's murderer to
dedicate his life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty and
injustice, with his sons and their sons set to follow him. Making a
costume based on the image of an old jungle idol, he became the Phantom.
When he died, his son took over the role of the Phantom. So the mantle
would be passed down to new generations, leaving the people, who
believed him to be immortal, to give the mysterious figure nicknames
such as "The Man Who Cannot Die," "Guardian of the
Eastern Dark" and "The Ghost Who Walks." Unlike many fictional costumed
heroes, The Phantom does not have supernatural powers of any kind, but
relies on strength, intellect and his reputation of being an immortal
ghost to defeat his opponents.
Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12