Flash Gordon is a hero of a comic strip adventure originally created to compete with the successful Buck Rogers adventure comic. The story follows the adventures of Flash Gordon who is a graduate of Yale and is a handsome Polo player as well as companions Dale Arden and Dr Hans Zarkov. The story starts as earth is being bombarded by fiery meteors. Dr Zarkov designs and invents a rocket ship to discover the location of origin of the meteors. As he turns out to be half mad, he kidnaps Flash and Dale when their aircraft has crashed in the area and all three travel to the planet called Mongol, which is indicated as being the place of origin of the meteors. Upon arrival they encounter Ming the Merciless, the evil ruler of Mongo.

For many years the three companions have many adventures on Mongo, travelling to Arboria the forest kingdom ruled by Prince Barin, Frigia the Ice Kingdom ruled over by Queen Fria, the jungle kingdom of Tropica ruled by Queen Desira, the undersea kingdom of the shark men ruled over by King Kala and the flying city of the Hawkmen ruled by Prince Vultan. Over time Ming is finally defeated and Mongo is ruled by a council of leaders which is led by Prince Barin. This means that Flash and his friends are free to return to earth, where they have many more adventures, before returning to Mongo and being reunited with Barin and the others.

The 1980′s film revived the story of Flash Gordon, but in this he is a Quarterback for the New York Jets instead of a Polo player. At its release this was not a major success but it soon developed a cult following, which seems to have been helped by the supporting cast and the musical score. Many notable actors were amongst the supporting cast and the most uttered single line ever quoted from a movie or actors career was uttered in this screenplay. That being the line “GORDON’S ALIVE?!” by Brian Blessed who played Prince Vultan. The Queen song “Flash’s Theme” is the most memorable song from the film, oft sung by aficionados or just others who have seen the film.

As noted by the cult status, various further remakes have been completed, including a television series in 2007. Many of these remakes were cartoons, one even turned Flash and Dale into hover boarding teenagers (Back to the future anyone?). In 2010 an archive reprint series began in hardback, starting with the original comic strip series and working forwards.

So you want to BE “Flash” even though you will never be a Quarterback or a Polo player? Easy, we have a choice of Flash Gordon outfits in our stock, all based around the 1980 film. Ladies, instead of being Dale, do you want to try your hand at saving the world as Flash? Again, not a problem, we have Flash outfits for you too.