Vintage Flash Gordon strip shills Union Carbide products

According to this vintage Flash Gordon strip by Alex Raymond, Union Carbide's chemical and plastic empire had already spread its sticky polymer tentacles as far as the planet Mongo by 1936. "We sure could use some rocket carloads of BAKELITE polyethylene in Frigia, Flash," Ronal casually remarks to the shirtless beefcake during an exciting escape from a patrol of murderous alien giants. An ironic wish, considering the fact that Union Carbide was eventually to be forced off of Mongo after what is commonly referred to as the Frigian Catastrophe, a thermonuclear explosion of BAKELITE brand rocket car fuel that was, in itself, a dire foreshadowing of Earth's own 1984 Bhopal Disaster.

Product Placement, Flash Style [Core77, strip via io9]

[#1 posted by chicagojohn , June 18, 2008 1:51 PM]

"spread its sticky polymer tentacles as far as the planet Mongo by 1936. "

Buck Rogers takes place 500 years in the future, it was not present day---- and it mentions Union Carbide's address as NYC, there is no mention that Union Carbide is on Mongo, only that the Buck and Ronol wished they had some UC products while on Mongo.

[#2 posted by elfajio , June 18, 2008 2:41 PM]

#1 Buck Rogers?

[#3 posted by buddy66 , June 18, 2008 8:34 PM]

Phony. That's not Alex Raymond's work.

[#4 posted by buddy66 , June 18, 2008 9:52 PM]

And the selection is from the 1980s, I'll bet.

[#5 posted by devophill , June 22, 2008 6:46 PM]

I don't know if it's from the '80s, or if Alex Raymond drew it, but I do know that ZIP codes weren't around in the '30s.

Also, #1? Reading comprehension=fail.