Raymond, Alex [Flash Gordon, Secret Agent X-9] *

THE GREATEST OF ALL COMIC ARTISTS! Alex Raymond has been my favorite comic artist for almost 50 years. The prices for his work, especially Flash Gordon Sunday page originals, have always been at the highest end for strip art, and usually beyond my reach. There was a short time in the early 2000s, however, when my income was such that I was able to buy a couple of Raymond Flash Gordons from my favorite years, 1938 and 1939. After (and even before) I bought the 1938 Flash/Jim at the 2003 San Diego ComiCon, word got back to me that a couple of people were saying that it was by Austin Briggs instead of Raymond. That was simply absurd, since the strips were both signed with Raymond's monogram and the artist only signed originals which he had drawn himself. Even without that indicia of authenticity, anyone familiar with Raymond's style could have easily seen that the set was not by Briggs -- I can literally go through some of the Italian reprint books on Flash Gordon strips, where the panels were rearranged to form continuous stories, and tell where the few Flash Sundays by Briggs end and where the ones by Raymond begin. Nonetheless, just to be sure about my new strips, I called Russ Cochran, who had auctioned the pieces in July 2001. Russ told me that he was also certain that they were by Raymond, since he had obtained the art directly from Raymond's widow. Russ was in a chatty mood, so he went on to tell where all the original Raymonds, other than the ones he bought from Mrs. Raymond, had come from. Apparently original Flash Gordons by Raymond were largely unheard of until around 1973. But one day, when Russ was at a comic book convention in Texas, a guy came in with a stack of originals. Russ tried to buy them all as a group, but the owner said he wanted to take them to the New York City con in July to see what offers he could get from all the dealers in attendance -- NY was a much bigger convention. Russ wasn't about to let any old free market determine who got what and for how much, so he contacted most of the likely competitors before the convention began. They agreed that none of them would show interest in the strips or make offers. Russ could then buy the group for low prices and, at a later date, each participant in the scheme, including Bruce Hamilton, Burrell Rowe, and a couple of others, would divvy them up among themselves. It worked, but, over time, Russ ended up selling most of the strips from the hoard through his Graphic Galley direct sale catalogues from about 1973 to 1977 and later through his monthly auctions of comic art. The seller of this fabulous group of Raymond Sundays also told Cochran where they came from. Apparently William Randolph Hearst liked Raymond's work so much that he instructed King Features Syndicate in NYC to send a bundle of the originals to him at his "castle" in San Simeon, CA. For some reason, the package never made it out of the local post office, either being lost for years there or taken by someone who may have known about the treasures inside. If not for Hearst's desire for Raymond's art and for that desire being frustrated, there would have been very few Flash Gordon originals on the market over the past fifty years. And if I hadn't called Russ in connection with unfounded rumors about my recent purchase, I'm not sure that anyone alive would know that Hearst himself is to thank for many of the originals that are now in many collections of comic strip art.