The Tyrant of Mongo (The Complete Flash Gordon Library)

I bought volume 1 a year ago. And it still looks great. It's in perfect condition after a lot of use. Titan produces great and durable books, the paper used and size is just the right. They decided to restore the strips in a way that they look as King Features would have intended them to look in the 30s newspapers. Praises to Peter Maresca for the restoration work.However great volume 1 was, specially starting with the Mongo Tournaments, I can say that Alex Raymond reaches his apex as artist here. Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon were the best drawn Sundays of its time, and probably ever. Starting with page 59, when I think he began using life models, his art jumps to amazing levels, and it was already fantastic before that point.Some people complain about a small image in the biographical section showing Raymond with a nude female model. Prudes. These niche products usually are not for children. Besides the naked woman appears in the background, not so clearly, nothing explicitly graphic appears . It is important because next to it appears the final panel as drawn by Raymond, so we can learn how he worked. Besides, kids see worse things every day using the internet or even visiting a museum. So, relax.Next holidays I am definitely getting volume 3, if it is still in print.Beautiful book.

Alex Raymond's Sunday strips are wonderful.... I was familiar with the Buck Rogers strips which ran about the same time but the quality of the layout and the skillful artwork is only matched by the great stories of Flash Gordon's adventures on Mongo and the never-ending battle against Ming's tyranny. This was the first book I have acquired but now I want them all!

Titan gets it right! I own the Kitchen Sink Press Flash Gordon books and yes they look very good, they have glossy pages and bright colors but that is not how they looked in the original newspapers. I love the way Titan has used a paper that is high quality that gives the colors and printing the look that the strips had back in their day. While at the same time making the strips look as good as or better than the day they were first printed. It is about time someone showed the love and attention these strips deserve and collect the entire run of Flash Gordon. I will be in line to buy every book of the series and I hope you will too. You will be glad you did.

I was disappointed by some of the shortcomings I saw in volume one. I am very glad I stuck around for volume 2. No problem with the spotty reproduction seen in the first book. The images here are sharper and the color is better, in my opinion. Additionally Alex Raymond’s visual imagination and maturity as an artist dovetail to make this 1937-1941 period a high point in the Flash Gordon strip. I am happy to say my copy arrived in perfect condition. Some of the cover flaking and marring reported by purchasers of the first volume are not in evidence. I recommend “The Tyrant of Mongo” without reservation and I am looking forward to Titan's next book in the series.

This is supposed to be a comic strip for children. I bought it as a gift for a child who is learning to draw and loves action hero stories. Unfortunately, the publisher thought it was a good idea to open with a photo of Alex Raymond working with a nude model. Nude artistic photos would be OK in a biography of Raymond meant for adults but the primary purpose of the book is to reproduce the historic comic strips so this really doesn't belong here. That's unfortunate because it mars an otherwise great book by making it unsuitable for young children. There is a reason the Sunday comics don't include full frontal nude photos but apparently this was lost on the publisher. It's a shame that comics, which used to be squarely aimed at a young audience, have been coopted by publishers and movie makers to target adult audiences instead. Let kids be kids and enjoy their comics.

...But rather with Amazon's packaging.This second volume of Titan's collection of AlexRaymond's FLASH GORDON is just as careful and faitfhul as the previous one, overall design and supplemental text pieces included.Pay no attention to the now usual "Item under review" notice. It has become the standard reaction from Amazon when they receive enough complaints about damaged items due to improper packaging, something that has become more and more frequent of late.The only thing "under review" here should be Amazon's packaging service and its alarming decline.

Raymond art is sure one of the classical things to have. A must have for any fan of comics. It's amazing how much effort He must have put to make it so beautiful, so close to perfection. This book is worth buying, has a beautiful hard cover and perfect paper to match it. The colors are bright not blur, or faint. It's really agood work of pressing an editing. Thanks for it.

Excellent and realist artwork, though its not detailed or have much definition of modern tech. The stories are wonderful and lovely. Im collecting all its volume.

Igual que los anteriores libros, este no desmerece en nada po el contrario aumenta mi interes por el trabajo grafico de Alex Raymond.Libro en excelentes condiciones, buen papel y buenas elecciones de tintas. Cubrira las expectativas de cualquier coleccionista del genero.

I grew up with my Dad telling me about Buster Crabbe and the Saturday Matinee serials. Then there was the comic books by Gold Key but rarely was I ever able to see the original works and now I have. Clear clean crisp printing and reproduction a joy to own

This has to be the best alex raymond flash gordon reprint, in terms of quality repros, surpassing even the 1970s nostalgia press hc editions. certainly better than the IDW super size hcs that came out about the same time because the former uses glossy paper quite like the checkers edition that does not bring out the essence of the story and art but this super beautiful deluxe hc edition uses archival matte paper that serves the material best for that classic oomph enjoyment for comics of this classic 20th century genre. And if there is one flash gordon book to keep in your personal library, it is this book's vol 1, doing alex raymond art justice. Followed by vol 2 and then vol.3. Nuff said.

Flash Gordon - long before my time, and not something I would normally consider reading.However, anybody with any love from the comic form should be picking up these library works - Alex Raymond was clearly ahead of the curve, artistically and imaginatively, and you can see the huge influence he must have had on the likes of John Buscema, Gene Colan, Bernie Wrightson and so on - there are touches of what they produced all here to see in plain sight. More importantly, this is a body of art that that can be viewed as an almost eternal standard of quality that others should be judged against.The stories themselves are entertaining, if obviously dated by modern standards. Flash gets out of seemingly impossible death defying situations with regular abandon, none of your Bendis-style extended storytelling, the pace is brisk, the characterisation absolute, the retribution for failure usually deadly. The standard of reproduction is higher than the first volume, all very clear. Just sit back and wallow in the luxurious artwork.

After seeing snippets of art from the original cartoon strips on Blu Ray extras I decided to buy the first two volumes; Alex Raymond’s art is phenomenal and shames most comic work produced over 60+ years later. Single page storytelling takes some time to get used to, but you can see why this work has such an influence on so many creators and science fiction itself.