Ming the Merciless and Dale

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Emperor Ming the Merciless and Dale from Flash Gordon. Back when I was just a little bugger (about 10 I think), I started getting into Star Trek. My grandfather said something along the lines about how he didn’t understand why I was into Star Trek, but then he followed it up by saying that “Flash Gordon” was the best outer space adventure series ever. Of course back then I didn’t know what Flash Gordon was, and I figured if it was something from that long ago it was probably lame. As I got older and more open minded, I started watching some of the old stuff too, and I acquired part of the old 1930’s Flash Gordon series that was released in movie theaters because people didn’t have TV’s back then. Granted it was kind of cheesy, but it was still fairly compelling, and so I became a fan. Flash Gordon was created in the 1930’s by Alex Raymond. Alex Raymond lost his job during the depression, and decided to go to art school to pursue a different kind of living. He created Flash Gordon for Newspapers (I believe) originally, but became pretty famous pretty quick. Since then a few different Flash Gordon series have been produced over time (at least 3, one being animated), and a movie. Now another Flash Gordon series is in the works with a more modern twist.

I decided to draw Emperor Ming because Ming is one of my favorite villains. So here is Ming, with his arm around Dale (Flash’s girlfriend), “Since your sweetheart is dead, it is only fair that I take his place.” Ming wants to marry Dale in the original Flash Gordon stuff. Of course I wanted to redesign the clothing, architecture and what not in a JMSnooks way so I could flex my creativity. I had to change Dale a bit because in the old Flash Gordon series she had the really short nappy hair that women had in the early 20th century, and an uninteresting costume. I wanted to make her look attractive, so that just wouldn’t do. That and she’s on an alien world, so I wanted to make it look alien. People back then had a harder time thinking outside the box, but the series was still fun.

Done with colored pencil and ink.