This slim paperback is chock full of adventure. I've always been a fan of Flash Gordon, an early exposure to the character as being as part of the foundation of "Star Wars" and the 1980 film with the killer soundtrack. Now days "Star Wars" is fairly boring to me, but I still love Flash. Images of the old serials and the comic strips may flash (get it) in my head, but the foundation of my love of the character was the novels in the Avon paperbacks that were mostly written by Ron Goulart. They were fairly close adaptations of the comic strip itself, albeit with Goulart's own wild humor creeping in every now and then. I picked my incomplete collection at a my local library's big book sale, the kind where you fill up bags for a couple of bucks. I remember I got a big stack of Tarzan and Doc Savage novels at the same time. Then I spent a good chunk of a years worth of summer days blowing through the year after graduating high school and going to college reading them before and after work. I was THAT cool. So, the three characters are tied together in my mind.
Al Williamson is a damned good and The Ice Monster a full-throttle thrill ride. It basically comprises of three short tales that sort of strung together. After starting with a "previously on Flash Gordon" catch-up were plunged right into the adventure. Flash, Dr. Zarkov and Dale are on a mission to Mongo for the mineral Radium to use back on Earth. but so they go and have a mini-vacation while Barin has the radium loaded onto their ship. But surprise an Ice Monster pops up. Flash saves a princess and then gets involved in some castle intrigue involving an anti-aging serum. It's a solid little adventure but probably the least of the three in the book. "The Mole Machine" takes up the middle of the book and it's probably my favorite. Zarkov and Flash take a ride in his new mole machine to the center of the Earth which is wet and monster filled. But save another princess and is taken prisoner by the King, he's happy to have them but they can't return cause us top-dwellers ruin everything. But with some fisticuffs and after redirecting a river of lava they leave anyway. It was a fun "Journey of to the Center of the Earth" tale and I'm a real sucker for those. The final tale is "Death Trap on Mongo" and if your were wondering when Ming showed up its here (sorry to ruin the thin disguise) it's a neat little tale in the classic Flash mold. Dale gets zapped to Mongo and Flash and Zarkon rush to save her only to find the place is a madhouse after other prominent citizens are zapped away. Ming's behind it, there's some nice sword-fighting and swash-buckling and then it's over.
The whole paperback-sized graphic novel is something that takes a little getting used too. The format isn't the best and it's easy to see why it didn't last too long. It's simply not big enough. But I love 'em anyway, having burned through Dick Tracy and some of the Mighty Crusader reprints I guess I got used to it. It's a slim book and a SUPER fast read, seriously well under an hour but its' a lot of bang for you buck.
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