Mad Scientist Wannabe
Well, Flash is mostly set on the planet Mongo, where he leads a band of heroes in resisting the tyrannical rule of Ming. Following him from Earth is the lovely Dale Arden, and Dr. Hans Zarkov, formerly of NASA. Their chief allies are the rulers of various principalities suffering under Ming's rule; these include Vultan, Prince of the Hawk Men, Barin, Prince of the Tree Men, and Thun, Prince of the Lion Men.
Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great
cuter, cuddlier Edmond
One thing you might want to know is that Buck Rogers actually started out as a novel called "Armageddon 2419 A.D." Its out of print but is dirt-common and cheap, so you might want to pick it up (it is a DAMN good book).
The main difference I think is that Flash is set in obstensibly the present-day while Buck is a possible future. Also, there have been several reinventions of Buck over the years that have had wildly different premises, while Flash Gordon has always been about a sports star who goes to fight Ming on the Planet Mongo. The original Buck Rogers though could be thought of as basically Sonic Sat AM if Sonic was from 500 years in the past and Dr. Robotnik was Chinese.
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Okay, I've taken a good look at both series, including watching the 1979/1980 films. I've compiled a quick list so people who can't tell them apart, can.
Buck Rogers gets frozen somehow and re-awakens in the 25th century. How he was frozen and what the 25th century look like change radically from one iteration to another. In the original novel earth was a wasteland and america has been invaded by flying Chinese. In some serials Earth is ruled by a guy by the name of Kane and everyone who doesn't follow him hides in a secret city. In the 1979 movie and the following TV series earth was still devastated by a nuclear war but humanity is doing fine now by living in giant domed cities. The only real constant is that Buck' primary love interest is future girl Wilma. Duck Dodgers borrows specificaly from the 1980's rendition as his main antagonist in that series was Princess Ardala, a female alien dictator who wants Buck for herself. Also, Kane shows up again in this version as the main villanesses right hand man.
Flash Gordon always has Flash, his love interest Dale and the half mad Dr. Zarkov traveling to Mongo, one way or another, and becoming stranded there. (Except in the 2007 series where they aren't stranded). Most of Flashes stories focus on the politics of Mongo and the different kingdoms that exist on it. Lion-men, bird people and forest people are recurring factions in the majority of Flash's incarnations. Ruling Mongo with an iron fist is Ming the Merciless, the archetypical early sci-fi dicator. His notably less evil daughter Princess Aura is also a constant factor. She also has a thing for Flash. Dr Chaotica from Captain Proton is based off of Ming guy and in a lot of ways the Goa'uld are a more sophisticated take on this type of bad guy.
To those who helped make these distinctions, thank you. Granted this is incomplete and only scratches the surface but it's a start. If anyone ever needs a hand distinguishing one classic sci-fi series from the other send them this way.
edited 21st Mar '11 7:55:22 PM by WillKeaton
Might as well use this thread for this bit of news
The Flash Gordon licence is now with Mad Cave
. A new ongoing will be launched in May, and in August, Flash's iconic Avengers-esque team made up of other Kings Features heroes, Defenders of the Earth, will get a new eight issue mini-series, as well as a quarterly FG title in September.
The FG newspaper strip has even been relaunched with brand new material and is currently running in circulation and on the comickingdom website. A collection of the original FG newspaper comics will be coming in October this year.
Edited by Zarius on Feb 24th 2024 at 6:18:14 AM
It's kind of old news, but the last report I heard was that George Clooney had the rights to do a Buck Rogers film.
Interesting to note that, early on, Flash was entirely willing to make peace with Ming if Ming would leave him alone. Ming even gave Flash a kingdom to rule, telling him all he had to do was go and establish himself, hoping of course that Flash would get killed in the process.
Edited by Robbery on Feb 24th 2024 at 11:05:16 AM
I've been wanting to check these out using the comicskingdom.com site, but to get the older strips you have to get a Premium account, and it's maddening for not telling you what a subscription costs! It tells you that the "Winter Sale" means you get two months free, but not what they'll start charging you once those two months are over.
IDW came out with some really good Flash Gordon collections a number of years ago. They're pretty reasonably priced even now. Aside from that, you might check your local library for them
Both Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers are long running franchises that began as comic strips in the late 20's and early 30's. Both seem to have been the inspiration for a large portion of the science fiction that came after including Star Wars. I however know nothing about either franchise appart from the fact that Flash's arch nemeis is Ming the Merciless and that Buck got to the future the same way Fry did.
Is there a simple rule of thumb for a newbie to learn what makes Flash and Buck different from one another? To a veteran Star Trek and Star Wars are vastly different but to the uninitiated it all runs together. When I watch Tom Paris play his Captian Proton stories is that closer to Rogers or Gordon? Is Duck Dogers really more like Buck or did they only take the name? What is the defining feature of each series that makes it different from the other?
edited 17th Mar '11 2:55:24 PM by WillKeaton