Years ago, when I was the new kid on Flash Gordon, I did a Sunday page where instead of the planet Mongo I drew upstate Minnesota – terrain and clothing.
A friend on staff at King Features, cartoonist Jerry Craft, pointed out the error of my ways – especially in the third panel where a guy with a dress shirt and sweater seems to have mistakenly wandered on to the Flash Gordon set.
Suffice it to say I tried to stay a little truer to the spirit of the strip Alex Raymond created after that.
Retelling Raymond’s first story so as to brush up on the strip’s basic elements.
Jump forward a decade or more later and I now purposely use the thought of a character mistakenly wandering on set whenever I draw Sally Forth’s Mother’s boyfriend, Gerald.
Here’s Francesco Marciuliano’s stage direction for Gerald from the September 22nd Sunday page.
“Gerald stares right at the reader with a glazed look and a slightly open mouth.”
If the panel was a sound stage I picture the director yelling, “CUT!” every time Gerald stumbles into a scene.
And last but not least…
So here’s to Gerald.
I’m not quite sure why – but neither is he…
