Alex Raymond

Alexander Gillespie Raymond Jr. (October 2, 1909 – September 6, 1956) was an American cartoonist who was best known for creating the '' Flash Gordon'' comic strip for King Features Syndicate in 1934. The strip was subsequently adapted into many other media, from three Universal movie serials (1936's ''Flash Gordon'', 1938's ''Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars'', and 1940's ''Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe'') to a 1950s television series and a 1980 feature film.

Raymond's father loved drawing and encouraged his son to draw from an early age. In the early 1930s, this led Raymond to become an assistant illustrator on strips such as ''Tillie the Toiler'' and ''Tim Tyler's Luck''. Towards the end of 1933, Raymond created the epic ''Flash Gordon'' science fiction comic strip to compete with the popular ''Buck Rogers'' comic strip. Before long, ''Flash'' was the more popular strip. Raymond also worked on the jungle adventure saga ''Jungle Jim'' and spy adventure ''Secret Agent X-9'' concurrently with ''Flash'', though his increasing workload caused him to leave ''Secret Agent X-9'' to another artist by 1935. He left the strips in 1944 to join the Marines, saw combat in the Pacific Ocean theater in 1945, and was demobilized in 1946. Upon his return to civilian life, Raymond created and illustrated the much-heralded ''Rip Kirby'', a private detective comic strip. In 1956, Raymond was killed in a car crash at the age of 46.

He became known as "the artist's artist" and his much-imitated style can be seen on the many strips that he illustrated. Raymond worked from live models furnished by Manhattan's Walter Thornton Agency, as indicated in "Modern Jules Verne," a profile of Raymond published in the Dell Four-Color ''Flash Gordon'' #10 (1942), showing how Thornton model Patricia Quinn posed as a character in the strip.

Numerous artists have cited Raymond as an inspiration for their work, including comic artists Jack Kirby, Bob Kane, Russ Manning, and Al Williamson. George Lucas cited Raymond as a major influence for '' Star Wars''. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1996. Maurice Horn stated that Raymond unquestionably possessed "the most versatile talent" of all the comic strip creators. He has also described his style as "precise, clear, and incisive." Carl Barks described Raymond as a man "who could combine craftsmanship with emotions and all the gimmicks that went into a good adventure strip". Raymond's influence on other cartoonists was considerable during his lifetime and did not diminish after his death.

Biography

Early life and career

Raymond was born in 1909 in New Rochelle, New York; his parents were Beatrice W. (née Crossley) and Alexander Gillespie Raymond, Sr. The boy was raised in the Roman Catholic faith.

His father was a civil engineer and road builder who encouraged his son's love of drawing from an early age, even "covering one wall of his office in the Woolworth Building" with his young son's artwork. Raymond's father died when he was 12, after which he felt that there was not as viable a future in art as he had hoped. He attended Iona Prep on an athletic scholarship. There, he played fullback on coach "Turk" Smith's 1926 football team.

Raymond's first job was as an order clerk in Wall Street. In the wake of the 1929 economic crisis he enrolled in the Grand Central School of Art in New York City and began working as a solicitor for a mortgage broker.

Approaching former neighbor Russ Westover, Raymond soon quit his job and by 1930 was assisting Westover on his ''Tillie the Toiler'' comic strip. As a result, Raymond was "introduced to King Features Syndicate", where he later became a staff artist,Horn, Maurice, editor. ''100 Years of American Newspaper Comics'' (Gramercy Books: New York, Avenel, 1996) . ''Flash Gordon'' entry by Bill Crouch, Jr., pg. 118 and for whom he would produce his greatest artwork.

Raymond was influenced by a variety of strip cartoonists and magazine illustrators, including Matt Clark, Franklin Booth, and John La Gatta. From late 1931 to 1933,Horn. ''Tim Tyler's Luck'' entry, by Horn, p. 375 Raymond assisted Lyman Young on ''Tim Tyler's Luck'', eventually becoming the ghost artist in "1932 and 1933 ... nboth the daily strip and the Sunday page", Horn, Maurice, "Alex Raymond" in Horn (ed.) ''The World Encyclopedia of Comics'' (Chelsea House Publishers, 2nd ed., 1999) , p. 641 turning it "into one of the most eye-catching strips of the time". Concurrently, Raymond assisted Chic Young on '' Blondie''.

In 1933, King Features assigned him to do the art for an espionage action-adventure strip, ''Secret Agent X-9'', scripted by novelist Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond's illustrative approach to that strip made him King Features' leading talent.

Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim and Secret Agent X-9

Towards the end of 1933, King Features asked him to create a Sunday page that could compete with '' Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'', a popular science fiction adventure strip that had debuted in 1929 and already spawned the rival ''Brick Bradford'' in 1933. According to King Features, syndicate president Joe Connolly "gave Raymond an idea ... based on fantastic adventures similar to those of Jules Verne".King Features' "Alex Raymond" in ''Famous Writers and Artists, 1949''
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Alongside ghostwriter Don Moore, a pulp-fiction veteran, Raymond created the visually sumptuous science fiction epic comic strip '' Flash Gordon''. The duo also created the "complementary strip, ''Jungle Jim'', an adventurous saga set in South-East Asia", a topper which ran above ''Flash'' in some papers Raymond was concurrently illustrating ''Secret Agent X-9'', which premiered January 22, 1934, two weeks after the two other strips.Horn. ''Secret Agent X-9'' entry, by Horn, p. 341 It was ''Flash Gordon'' that would outlast the others, quickly "develop ngan audience far surpassing" that of ''Buck Rogers''. ''Flash Gordon'', wrote Stephen Becker, "was wittier and moved faster," so "Buck's position as America's favorite sci-fi hero", wrote historian Bill Crouch Jr., "went down in flames to the artistic lash and spectacle of Alex Raymond's virtuoso artwork." Alex Raymond has stated, "I decided honestly that comic art is an art form in itself. It reflects the life and times more accurately and actually is more artistic than magazine illustration—since it is entirely creative. An illustrator works with camera and models; a comic artist begins with a white sheet of paper and dreams up his own business—he is playwright, director, editor and artist at once." A. E. Mendez has also stated that "Raymond’s achievements are chopped into bite-sized pieces by the comic art cognoscenti. Lost in the worthwhile effort to distinguish comics as an art form, the romance, sweep and beauty of Raymond's draftsmanship, his incomparable line work, is dismissed. To many, it's just pretty pictures. Somehow or another, it's OK for people like Caniff and Eisner to borrow from film. That’s real storytelling. But for Raymond to study illustrators, well, that's just not comics."

Debuting on January 7, 1934, Raymond's first ''Flash'' strip introduced the "world-famous polo player", improbably roped into a space adventure alongside love-interest Dale Arden and scientist Dr. Hans Zarkov. Transported by rocket to the planet Mongo, "which was about to collide with Earth", the trio "immediately became embroiled in the affairs of Mongo's inhabitants—particularly those of its insidious warlord, Ming", who would become Flash Gordon's nemesis throughout the franchise's many incarnations.

Early in 1935, Hammett decided to depart as writer of ''Secret Agent X-9'' in order to pursue a career in Hollywood. While it has been presumed that Raymond took on the writing duties of the strip until a replacement could be found, biographer Tom Roberts instead believes that the strip was written by committee during editorial conference, a view R. C. Harvey believes is supported by the strips themselves. ''Saint'' author Leslie Charteris