Flash Gordon

Flash Gordon is the heroic space adventurer created by Alex Raymond, originally launched in newspaper comic strips in 1934. A champion athlete swept into interplanetary conflict, he battles the tyrant Ming the Merciless to defend Earth and the galaxy.

Few characters can claim the kind of staying power that Flash Gordon commands — a Golden Age hero whose American comics debut arrived in 1939's King Comics #34, brought to the page by Eddie Sullivan and Charlie Schmidt, and who has kept readers riveted across an extraordinary 87-year span of publication. With six key issues to his name and 162 catalog appearances spread across titles like Flash Gordon, Comics Revue, and The Menomonee Falls Gazette, this is a figure whose footprint in the medium is genuinely remarkable. He shares his adventures with an impressive roster of comics royalty — Dale Arden, The Phantom, and even Superman, Clark Kent, and Batman have graced the same pages — which speaks to the rarefied tier Flash Gordon has always occupied. Whether you're a Golden Age devotee or a collector chasing down key issues, this is one of comics' most enduring and essential names.