FLASH GORDON ADVENTURES!

Flash Gordon and friends set off on a space adventure in Baltazar and Franco’s children’s comic book.

After receiving a distress signal from another planet, Flash, Zarkov, and Dale race off to help. Once they arrive on the planet Lexray, they discover that the whole thing was a trap set up by the evil emperor Ming the Merciless. Ming keeps Zarkov as a prisoner but lets Flash and Dale go after giving them “cool space outfits.” This brief backstory is told in a comic Flash is creating himself, made up of crude, crayonlike drawings on notebook paper. While Flash’s new friends in Lexray critique his spelling and drawing abilities, Ming is bored in his palace and sets Zarkov the task of creating an evil goatee for him. During a town visit, Ming hears the populace call him names behind his back and worries they don’t like him. (What he calls his “adoring public” often greets his presence with hilarious responses of “boo” and “hiss.”) To win their favor, he asks Zarkov to turn him into a half-human, half-animal creature like the rest of the population. Meanwhile, Flash attempts to teach his new friends how to play football, shows off his luxurious, swoon-inducing hair, and gets challenged to a duel by Ming. It’s all brightly colored and whimsical, with drawings often extending beyond the lines of the panels to add a dynamic sense of fun. The comic is aimed at younger readers who may not be familiar with Flash Gordon (who debuted in a 1934 comic strip); those new to the world may be a little confused by the truncated backstory and frustrated by the lack of space set aside to introduce characters. Even so, the simplicity of the narrative ensures none of the storylines are hard to follow.

Funny and outlandish in all the best ways.