Monday, August 20, 2012

FLASH GORDON Comic Cover Art by George Wilson

How gorgeous is this? Feast your Star Kid eyes on this beautiful cover painting by the extraordinary George Wilson for Gold Key Comics' Flash Gordon #20, published in late 1978. Wilson painted hundreds of comic book and paperback covers (including the Avon Flash Gordon novels I wrote about a week or so ago). I actually had this issue - by 1978 I was picking up any space-themed comics I could find.

I really love this kind of illustration, and really miss it in modern publishing.


Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

7 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 20, 2012 at 11:51 AM

    Kirk Douglas looking Flash Gordon.

    SGB

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 20, 2012 at 3:10 PM

    Love the looks of the citadel and the guards on the lizards. I'm with you. I find more and more that I prefer older covers to books - they just have so much more character than many current ones. If Dark Horse ever put out a collection of Gold Key covers, I'd snap it up at full price. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousAugust 22, 2012 at 6:01 AM

    Yeh, nice to see Kirk Douglas as Flash, there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownAugust 23, 2012 at 7:05 AM

    Stunning! You know for all the good that has come of Photoshop, I can't help but feel that it has been instrumental in depriving us of the sheer artistry that once adorned the entire spectrum of popular media products in the Space 1970 era, from novels to album covers and - particularly - movie posters. Take, for example, the latest wave of 007 theater posters, then compare them to the glory day posters of Sir Roger Moore's reign, and tell me I'm wrong!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Metal MarkAugust 23, 2012 at 9:51 AM

    I think I saw this being used as a cover of a collection of Flash Gordon comics not long ago on Amazon.

    ReplyDelete
  6. jasonAugust 24, 2012 at 6:32 PM

    I still have this issue in my basement! I don't begin to remember the storyline, but that cover art stays with me...

    Uncle Jash, I couldn't agree with you more. I used to collect movie posters, but my interest petered out about the same time the photoshopped "head montage" became the standard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownAugust 26, 2012 at 12:54 PM

      Same here, Jason! I have a cherished collection of about 200 UK quad posters in my converted attic space - all hand painted art, and truly pleasing to behold. Sadly, in the early 90s, the marketing of movies changed and the magic died. These days, the studios are even using photo montages to illustrate their catalogue releases on DVD and Blu-ray! I think it's to avoid shelling out for the licence on the original poster art, although I could be mistaken. Take the Star Wars DVD releases for example - Yuck!

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)