Flash Gordon was created in 1933 by Alex Raymond, and is a serial of science-fiction comics. It was first published in 1936 in Robinson's diary, and at the after-war period in Donald Duck.

In the comics, Flash Gordon has one mission : save the troops of the emperor Ming coming from the Mongo planet. To do so, he is helped by the professor Hans Zarkov and Dale Arden.

In 1933, Joseph Connolly, one of the King Features Syndicate's CEO is looking for a sci-fi hero able to compete with Buck Rogers (who is also a spatial hero). He called Alex Raymond, who, taking his source in a novel of Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, created Flash Godon character, a kind of superhero before Superman and tarzan. It was a weekly comics.
The so kitsch Art Deco style, the old fashioned references, the wild rhythm of the story inspired Georges Lucas, a fan of the serial, when he wrote Star Wars.