For those of you not familiar with Mongo or it’s ruthless ruler Ming the Merciless, let me fill you in. Mongo is not a forsaken ex-European colony clinging to its past and Ming shares no lineage with the former ruling dynasty of China. In fact, strictly speaking neither Ming nor Mongo exist. They’re part of the science fiction/fantasy world of Flash Gordon.
Flash Gordon began life as a comic strip in 1934 as a response to the very popular Buck Rogers. The strip was so successful that it found its way into radio and serial movies. Over the next 80 years adaptations included several full length films, live-action television, animation, comic books, and even the stage. The soundtrack from the 1980 movie was recorded by Queen with a few orchestral pieces by Howard Blake. In a bit of a controversy it was released as a Queen album rather than a movie soundtrack and despite critical acclaim didn’t sell particularly well. The movie, which was done in a campy 1960s Batman style, didn’t fare particularly well either, but is now something of a cult classic.
My first exposure to Flash Gordon was the Buster Crabbe serial short films (18-20 minutes) from the 1930s. While I am old, I’m not quite that old. The shorts served as Sunday morning fare on one of our local TV channels. While it’s origins changed throughout the life of the series, in these shorts Mongo was a rogue planet that wondered into our solar system. Mongo was particularly dense; so despite being only half the Earth’s diameter its gravity was only slightly weaker. This difference helped explain some of Flash’s athletic prowess.
The map below was created by Arlene Williamson. In addition to the human inhabitants Mongo’s inhabitants included winged hawkmen who lived in a floating sky city; lion-men who had tails and flew “Space Gyros”; shark-men, giants, blue-skinned cannibal tusk-men, and brown dwarfs. A forest of trees similar to California’s redwoods, giant snowbirds, dinosaur-like reptiles make up some of the other lifeforms on Mongo. The landscape features the Magnetic Mountains, extensive underground caverns, huge deserts, and a land with nearly constant eruptions.
Here’s a YouTube link to the first of the 13 serial shorts. While the “special effects” seem pretty weak by today’s standards, as a kid I was mesmerized by them. Dinosaurs, spaceships, rebellions, fantastic monsters, bizarre landscapes – pretty exciting stuff for a youngster on a Sunday morning.
Today’s Map
I hope you enjoyed this imaginary excursion. If you have any suggestions for future trips to unreal locations please feel free to leave them in the comments section.
As always thanks for reading.
Armen