Friday, September 5, 2008

Flash!

A really nice modern illustration of Flash Gordon by an artist called Alexander Perkins that draws heavily on the imagery of the Alex Raymond comic.

Yes, I'm in a serious pulp sci-fi mode right now. Why do you ask?

7 comments:

  1. Is this offered as a good example of merging modern production values and ideas with old school themes? Because I can certainly agree with that.

    The clothes, the posing, the type used for the title, they really have an older fashioned feel to them. But the coloring and overall style of the piece makes me think of modern cel-shaded art that's used in a lot of video games today, and that I like personally.

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  2. Yes, I did intend it at least partially to be an example of what an "updated" old school style might look like. It's not a perfect example, but it's in the proper spirit and might serve as a model for the kind of thing I'd like to see.

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  3. To drift a bit: Does anyone have any thoughts on which current sci-fi authors (or fantasy authors, for that matter) are carrying on the pulp tradition? Not folks who write pastiches of old stories--or satirize genre conventions--but who create vital new work that has the old panache. Curious to see what people say!

    Take care,
    Rob

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    1. Flash Gordon was part of international superheroes in popular media worldwide.

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  4. Does anyone have any thoughts on which current sci-fi authors (or fantasy authors, for that matter) are carrying on the pulp tradition?

    There aren't a lot of them in my opinion, at least not that I've seen. David Gemmell is the only one who springs immediately to mind.

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  5. @ Rob

    Not sure if he counts as a *current* author, but Jack Vance was still writing up till a few years back -- he may have retired since. He hasn't revisited Dying Earth, but the Lyonesse books are beautiful, and his space tales have a remarkable consistency of tone throughout his long career.

    Is Glen Cook still writing? EGG was very enamored of the early Black Company books, but I don't know if Cook is still writing in that vein.

    Thomas Ligotti is probably too...pathological?...to qualify as pulp, but he's definitely one of the best of Lovecraft's successors. Really creepy stuff that avoids the canonical mythos entirely but powerfully evokes the sense of alienation and dread one often gets from Lovecraft.

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    1. Flash Gordon 90 years of epic adventures created by Alex Raymond serialized in TV films comics animation and media.

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