Flash Gordon, introduced as a Sunday newspaper comic strip by King Features Syndicate in 1934, remains, after more than 70 years, one of the best-known and most beloved epics of heroic fantasy produced in America. Initially envisioned and drawn by the brilliant Alex Raymond, the strips mlange of alien wonders, beautiful damsels, interplanetary evil and peerless derring-do remains potent today, even cited by George Lucas as a primary influence on Star Wars. Al Williamson is the foremost of Raymond's successive acolytes, a widely-acclaimed artist who exemplifies the original spirit of Raymonds creation. It encompasses Williamsons three stints of depicting Flash in comic book format: the legendary King Comics stories from the 1960s, the 1980 adaptation of the Universal Flash Gordon motion picture, and the Marvel Comics miniseries of 1994. Flash drawings done for commercial illustration and prints images reproduced directly from the artists original drawings
