Flash Gordon #4 (Ardden Entertainment – Deneen / Green)
I have been pulling for Ardden’s Flash Gordon. It started it out so strong, having the feel of the classic pulp, but with all the modern fixings to make it appealing to almost everyone. Issues #1 and 2 were great, #3 was pretty good and then this… Issue #4 tanked!
The story wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. It was all set-up and explanations of relationships. There was no action. A pulp story without action is like a lingerie catalog without pictures, it simply isn’t worth looking at.
But the story isn’t as bad as the art. Ardden does have some great digital art. I mean some really great, eye-popping, beautiful art. The kind where every frame could fill a whole page of a coffee top book and it would be gorgeous. But that’s the issue, it seems like every frame of art was designed as a whole page given the layout and level of details involved. And when a whole page of art becomes a single frame, the details are so tiny that it’s ridiculous and with a quite a few of the frames of this issue, they were out of ratio with the original art. The ill-matched ratios create a lot of pictures that are horizontally smooshed, sort of a comic version of “pan and scan”. Very wacked!
I hope this gets better, I would have a cover / art to share with you but the Ardden site is not updated.
Issue grade: D
Series Grade: B
