The most successful of the Buck Rogers imitators, Flash Gordon began as a Sunday page early in 1934. It was drawn by Alex Raymond, written by erstwhile pulp magazine editor Don Moore, and syndicated by King Features. The strip commenced with handsome, blond Flash and lovely Dale Arden, destined to be his love interest for the life of the strip, taking off in a rocket ship with brilliant, bearded Dr. Zarkov. Due to a miscalculation, they ended up on the planet Mongo, a considerable stretch of which was ruled over by a ruthless dictator known as Ming the Merciless. A combination of all the terrible qualities of Fu Manchu, Hitler, and the villain of a Victorian melodrama, Ming became Flash's prime antagonist. Flash and his friends underwent a series of picaresque adventures that took them, often while aiding local guerilla activities, to dense jungles thick with monsters...