Explore the vast range of titles available.

Long before Batman, Flash Gordon, or the Lone Ranger were the stars of their own TV shows, they had dedicated audiences watching their adventures each week. The difference was that this action took place on the big screen, in short adventure serials whose exciting cliffhangers compelled the young audience to return to the theater every seven days.Matinee Melodramais the first book about the adventure serial as a distinct artform, one that uniquely encouraged audience participation and imaginative play. Media scholar Scott Higgins proposes that the serial's incoherent plotting and reliance on formula, far from being faults, should be understood as some of its most appealing attributes, helping to spawn an active fan culture. Further, he suggests these serials laid the groundwork not only for modern-day cinematic blockbusters likeStar WarsandRaiders of the Lost Ark, but also for all kinds of interactive media that combine spectacle, storytelling, and play.As it identifies key elements of the serial form-from stock characters to cliffhangers-Matinee Melodramadelves deeply into questions about the nature of suspense, the aesthetics of action, and the potentials of formulaic narrative. Yet it also provides readers with a loving look at everything fromZorro's Fighting LegiontoDaredevils of the Red Circle, conveying exactly why these films continue to thrill and enthrall their fans.

La industria del entretenimiento ha promovido la expansión de contenidos de éxito en universos transmedia como una estrategia de rentabilización y atracción de públicos. Si bien estas narrativas están viviendo su máxima expresión gracias a la convergencia de medios y formatos, la expansión de una historia a través de diversas plataformas y lenguajes no constituye un fenómeno nuevo. El presente trabajo tiene por objeto analizar el universo Flash Gordon desde la perspectiva de la arqueología transmedia y, más concretamente, dentro de las franquicias basadas en el personaje.

This is the stunning new Honda Civic NGTC that Fife race ace Gordon \"Flash\" Shedden hopes will win him this season's British Touring Car Championship.

Example: In Ming's realm, certain voluptuous babes earn the title and job of \"Avid,\" performing special duties for the emperor. But when [Dale Arden] suspects one voluptuous babe of being a phony, she tells Flash, \"If she's an Avid, then I'm Costello.\" Ha ha ha ha ha. Both [Ming]'s name and mustache do carry unfortunate racist overtones reflecting \"yellow peril\" prejudices of the era (even as, curiously, Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto simultaneously prevailed as highly superior snoops in many a B-movie). The serials were really exercises in the now-popular art of pop collage, patched together with discarded shots from other movies (including a ridiculous 1930 musical, \"Just Imagine\"), hokey special effects, recycled sets and music from such pictures as \"Bride of Frankenstein\" and stock footage of storms, riots and other catastrophes supposedly wreaked by Ming. Yet, it was a wacky wow then, returning for multiple reruns on TV during the early years of the medium (the first serial was renamed \"Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers\"). And the original \"Flash\" remains fascinating to watch today, especially the first serial with its undercurrents of sadomasochism and erotic imagery. Flash, played by Olympic swimming star Buster Crabbe with his hair colored Aryan-blond, was forever falling into torture traps that tended to render him shirtless and sweating; and Ming's daughter, instantly hit with the hots, lusted after his Olympian bod with eyes aflame and bosom a-heave.

Truth be told, I have a soft spot for \"Flash Gordon\" -- I have fond memories of watching the 1930s Buster Crabbe serials on TV with my dad. Even at age 4, I could see the string that held Flash's space ship aloft, and I remember calling out, \"Fake!\" Yet I still enjoyed the earnestly made \"Flash\" serials, because the tale of the valiant Flash, who battles evil without recourse to superpowers, has always had all the makings of classic sci-fi escapism.

(Sci-Fi Channel, Aug. 10, 9 p.m.): This may be one of the most remade serials in pulp history, appearing in comic books, radio, TV, and film.

  If you need a symbol for everything that's wrong with Flash, John Ralston's lifeless [Ming] will serve. Obviously, the traditional, insensitive quasi-Asian take on Ming would be a hard sell these days, but that doesn't explain the transformation of Mongo's once grandly flamboyant emperor into a penny-ante deluded dictator, and a dull one to boot. Offending viewers is always a mistake, but so is putting them to sleep.

Gordon Flash Werley, 78 years, of New Tripoli, died Thursday, November 9, 2006 in Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury Township. He was the husband of Dorothy M. (Braim) Werley. The couple celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary on August 25. Born in Allentown on September 9, 1928, Flash was the son of the late Earl H. and Emma E. (Neff) Werley. He worked in the maintenance department of Northwestern Lehigh School District, New Tripoli, primarily as a painter, since 1996.

Gordon Flash Werley, 78 years, of New Tripoli, died Thursday, November 9, 2006 in Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury Township. He was the husband of Dorothy M. (Braim) Werley. The couple celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary August 25. Born in Allentown on September 9, 1928, Flash was the son of the late Earl H. and Emma E. (Neff) Werley. He worked in the maintenance department of Northwestern Lehigh School District, New Tripoli, primarily as a painter, since 1996.

Blockbuster cinema offers the audience an opportunity to experience awe and the sublime by taking them on a rollercoaster ride of action-adventure highlighted by stunts and special effects. Such films appeal to a wide range of audiences while also upholding the dominant ideology's status quo. In addition to their political nature, blockbusters typically tackle broken or dispersed families, punctuated by the creation or recreation of a social unit as well as father–son relations. George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola were largely associated with the blockbuster movies of the 1970s. Irvin Kershner's Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980) ends with a cliffhanger, but all other blockbusters had upbeat and reassuring, rather than amphicatastrophic, conclusions. This chapter examines the blockbuster films THX 1138 (1971) and the Star Wars trilogy, along with the first two Superman films and Mike Hodges's Flash Gordon (1980).