Blogging Dan Barry’s Flash Gordon, Part Seven

“Circea” by Dan Barry was serialized by King Features Syndicate from March 22 to May 29, 1954. This lighthearted story begins with Zarkov encouraging Flash to propose to Dale. Just as he starts to ask her to marry him, the gravity of the area around them is thrown off and Flash and Dale find themselves hurtling past the clouds while the oxygen grows rapidly thinner. They recover consciousness to find themselves in a rocketship hurtling through space. They leave our galaxy and pass through a comet unscathed before entering the atmosphere of an unknown planetoid in a far distant galaxy. They are brought to rest through the skylight of a large installation perched high on a cliff. They find themselves facing a beautiful woman named Circea who has observed Flash from afar and become infatuated with him. Circea’s dangerous obsession with Flash has gone far beyond abducting him from Earth. Jealous of her rival, she sends Dale to her death by pitching her off the edge of the building into the sea of fire below. An anguished Flash jumps off to either die with Dale or save her. Distraught at losing the object of her desire, Circea operates an enormous asbestos net to captures Flash and Dale just before they plunge into the sea of flames. TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE VISIT THE BLACK GATE NEXT FRIDAY.