FLASH! GORDON!

We’re taking a brief break from Sirens this week because it turns out that no matter how hard you try, you can’t get much work done in a hospital. But don’t despair! Layla will be back next week, and to make up for her absence, we’ve got a different comic for you…the very first comic Khary and I did together.

For Flash Gordon’s 40th anniversary, 40 creators were chosen to do weekly strips for ComicsKingdom.com. Here’s our offering, and a little background on how it came to be.

Feel free to use that last panel in all your Will Smith memes.

Let me tell you, the collaboration was easy. The execution was hard. Comic strips are so hard! If you’re learning to write, practice with 4- or 5-panel strips because it will very quickly teach you pacing and economy of words. There’s no room for pointless exposition. You can’t waste space.

So, why did we choose to go with the Defenders, which honestly made the job MUCH more difficult? So many characters…so few panels. Well, when I was a kid, my dad ALWAYS wore this shirt.

He had hundreds of t-shirts, stacks of them. But I’m pretty sure I only ever saw him wear three of them: Flaming Carrot, Lone Wolf and Cub, and that Defenders of the Earth shirt.

But someone is noticeably absent from the shirt: Lothar has been left out. He’s ALWAYS left out. Does Lothar get his own strip? No. Does Lothar get a movie? No. If you read about the origins of the character, it’s pretty grim. I knew I wanted to feature him, especially counter to Flash’s whole “white savior” schtick. I knew my angle for the strip: find a funny way for Lothar to point out what a useless d-bag Flash is.

Khary wanted to really showcase some action in there too. Well, I know from experience, you can gossip ANYWHERE. So I gave him a list of all the different settings and monsters that existed in the Flash Gordon universe and asked, “What do you want to draw?”

Khary: Yeah, Joanne hit it on the head. While I’ve seen the movie before, I had never actually read a Flash Gordon strip or knew any of the characters. I am a child of the 80s, however, and I HAD seen the Defenders of the Earth cartoon. Approaching from this animated angle really spoke to my natural artistic proclivities, and Joanne’s open-ended script allowed me to get in there and go crazy stylistically. Plus, who can forget that amazing theme song?

I have to say, we really appreciate King Features letting us have some fun with their classic characters and giving us the space for our own “unique” take. A special thanks to our editor Tea on this one!