There are two birthdays today, October 2, I want to bring attention to.  The first is Alex Raymond (1909-1956), the creator of Flash Gordon.  The other is a nearly forgotten writer named Jack Finney.

Alex Raymond is best known as the creator of Flash Gordon, but he also created the strips Jungle Jim, Secret Agent X-9, and after serving in the armed forces in World War II, the private detective Rip Kirby.  I’m not very familiar with other strips, but Flash Gordon hits all the right notes for me.

You’ve got a giant planet filled with a number of races and cultures (and beautiful, scantily clad women), a deliciously evil villain, and lots of action and scheming.  And did I mention beautiful, scantily clad women.

Flash Gordon would probably be seen as highly politically incorrect today.  Which is why we need him more than ever.

Raymond filled his creation with all sorts of pulpy goodness.  Hi influence on artists such as Al Williamson, Jack Kirby, and Bob Kane.  George Lucas has credited Alex Raymond with his influence on Star Wars.  We could use a return of that influence.

Fun adventure is why I read what I read.  Alex Raymond and Flash Gordon delivered.

The other birthday is Jack Finney (1911-1995).  Finney has fallen into obscurity these days.  If he is remembered at all, he’s known for writing The Body Snatchers, which has been filmed more than once under the title Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Finney also wrote enough short stories to fill a collection.  Many of his short stories deal with time travel, often tinged with nostalgia for the past.  He also wrote two novels along those lines, Time and Again and From Time to Time. I read them in my teens and early twenties and quite enjoyed them.

One of his novels, The Woodrow Wilson Dime, concerns a man who discovers a means of traveling to an alternate timeline by spending a dime from the other world.  He sets up a double life with a beautiful woman in each timeline.  When he begins to get tired of one, he goes and spends time with the other.  I read the novel nearly 30 years ago, and while I don’t remember much about it, I don’t think things turned out to be the sweet deal the main character thought it was..