Inspiration for a concept always comes from somewhere, and a 1940 Flash Gordon comic strip provides some possible insight into the inspiration behind the Silver Age costume for the Flash. The King Features Flash Gordon comic strip was first started in 1934 by famous cartoonist Alex Raymond. The specific strip in question is from the arc “Power Men of Mongo” and features a suit very similar to Barry Allen’s costume.
This particular comic strip was published on Sunday, June 23, 1940, which places it sixteen years before Showcase #4 (Oct 1956), the first appearance of Barry Allen, who was created by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino. The story of the strip shows Flash Gordon trying to save his love interest Dale Arden from his evil nemesis, Ming the Merciless. Flash’s main rescue tactic is to disguise himself as a “Power Man,” a sort of electrical engineer, dressed in the very Flash-looking costume, who is hired to install a death ray field outside of Dale’s cell.
The Flash and Power Man outfits aren’t exact matches of each other, but the red and yellow color-schemes (including yellow belts and shin-high boots), full cowls, and lightning bolt emblems are all fascinating visual links between them. It is entirely possible that Infantino’s Flash costume was conceived in isolation, but it also makes sense that he might have been inspired in-part by this comic strip. After all, the Flash has always employed electricity imagery due to the nature of his powers, and Flash Gordon is so iconic that it is only natural that Infantino’s costume for a character called “the Flash” may have taken some cues from Raymond’s work.
Of course, it’s essential to mention that this logic also works in reverse. Remember, this strip was published sixteen years before Showcase #4, but also five months after the first appearance of Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert’s character Jay Garrick – the Golden Age Flash – in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940). In fact, the lightning emblem on Jay Garrick’s costume actually looks more like the lightning on the Power Man suit than Barry’s insignia. It’s entirely possible that Raymond’s concept for the electrician uniform could have been playing off of Lampert’s design for the Flash from that origin story issue.
Ultimately, this is all speculation – not an accusation that any of these characters’ creators plagiarized each other or were being too derivative. And even if they did inspire one another in some way, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it’s intriguing to gain some insight into how these artists took influence from the works of their contemporaries. Whether Flash Gordon inspired Barry Allen’s costume, or Jay Garrick inspired Flash Gordon, or neither, discovering little notes of what would become the most definitive look for the Flash in a classic Flash Gordon adventure is a wonderful treat.
