Official Press Release
IDW Announces
The Definitive Flash Gordon & Jungle Jim
The Ultimate Alex Raymond Collection coming in 2011
San Diego, CA (July 24, 2010) – IDW Publishing, a premier publisher of graphic novels and books, today announced the Ultimate Alex Raymond Collection: The Definitive Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim, offering two timeless series together for the first time. The Definitive Flash Gordon & Jungle Jim will include every Sunday by Raymond from both classic strips, remastered, restored, and presented in the oversized, 12” x 16” “champagne” edition format.
“Alex Raymond’s lush art deserves this oversized, remastered series,” says Greg Goldstein, IDW’s COO. Coming in late 2011 and announced today at San Diego Comic-Con, this is the latest offering from Raymond, the quintessential adventure comic strip creator, by IDW’s imprint, Library of American Comics. The artist’s post-war modernist detective series, Rip Kirby, is currently being collected.
Eisner Award-winner Dean Mullaney is editing and designing the deluxe editions. “Although Flash Gordon has been previously reprinted, this—finally—is the first meticulously remastered and restored edition that prints the strip in a large size and in Raymond’s original format that includes the Jungle Jim topper. We believe this will be the definitive edition for the ages.”
Created by Raymond in 1934, Flash Gordon is arguably the most famous science fiction comic strip of all time. It follows the adventures of the title character and his companions—Dale Arden and Dr. Zarkov—as they journey through space. Flash initially leaves Earth to discover the source of meteors that are threatening the planet, and get waylaid on the planet Mongo, where they meet the evil Ming the Merciless. Raymond’s lyrical artwork made the series a hit from the very beginning. Flash Gordon gained greater fame through several film serials in 1936 staring Buster Crabbe in the lead role. The serial followed the progression of the strip closely and helped inspire Star Wars many years later.
Jungle Jim was created as a strip topper for Flash Gordon, and followed the life of Jim Bradley, who fought pirates, slave traders, and assorted villains in the exotic Southeast Asia of the 1930s. This neglected Raymond classic also features Jim’s native cohort Kolu and femme fatale Lille DeVrille.
Raymond illustrated both series from January 7, 1934 through April 30, 1944.
Ultimate Alex Raymond Collection: The Definitive Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim will be available in stores in 2011.
Visit IDWPublishing.com to learn more about the company and its top-selling books.
About IDW Publishing
IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including: Hasbro’s The Transformers and G.I. JOE, Paramount’s Star Trek; Fox’s Angel; the BBC’s Doctor Who; and comics and trade collections based on novels by worldwide bestselling author, James Patterson. IDW is also home to the Library of American Comics imprint, which publishes classic comic reprints; Yoe! Books, a partnership with Yoe! Studios; and is the print publisher for EA Comics and ComicMix.
IDW’s original horror series, 30 Days of Night, was launched as a major motion picture in October 2007 by Sony Pictures and was the #1 film in its first week of release. More information about the company can be found at IDWPublishing.com.
About The Library of American Comics
The Library of American Comics, an imprint of IDW Publishing, was established in 2007 to preserve the long and jubilantly creative history of the American newspaper comic strip in archival, hardcover editions. To date, every LoAC release has been nominated for an Eisner or Harvey Award and the imprint’s inaugural series, Terry and the Pirates, won the Eisner in 2008. Creative and Editorial Director Dean Mullaney has been an influential force in the comics field since 1978, when he published the first graphic novel for the comics specialty market (Sabre by Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy). His pioneering efforts, as founder and publisher of Eclipse Comics, brought about many milestones to the field, including creator copyright ownership, the first line of Japanese manga in English translation in 1988, and the first digitally-colored comic book. More information about The Library of American Comics can be found on IDW’s website— www.idwpublishing.com—and that of the imprint itself—www.libraryofamericancomics.com.
To know of Jungle Jim in the modern age is to be truly a fan of comics, not only of every genre but from every era. With his introduction way back in 1934, the character maintained a following for a number of years. He was first linked with Flash Gordon, appearing as a topper in their original introduction, but the character while popular did not manage to find the same following, even though attempts to publish him continued up until Charlton last tried in the late 1960s. While tied to Flash Gordon in a creative and editorial sense, the characters could not have been further apart in the settings for their stories, Flash Gordon in a futuristic outer space and Jungle Jim as the Allan Quatermain of India.