This week on The Penny Men, Tom, Greg, and Ben broadcast live from the newly-renamed Artist Formerly Known as Ben’s Apartment (formerly Skywalker Ranch II: Special Edition, formerly Ben’s Apartment)! The boys nod politely, kiss a baby, and immediately fall apart!

What follows is a heroic attempt to explain Flash Gordon that derails into:

• A crash course in newspaper comics
• A heated debate about whether newspapers ever truly existed
• A tour of every museum in Ohio
• A Jack Cole appreciation hour
• The Teapot Dome Scandal???
• The Pennsylvania Avenue song making an encore nobody asked for!

Meanwhile, Tom tries to outline the entire 1930s Flash Gordon plot:

• Rogue planet Mongo shows up to wreck Earth
• Zarkov pulls a gun on strangers, as scientists do
• Flash (polo player, not space guy, not yet) gets kidnapped into space
• Ming is here. He is merciless.
• Every society on Mongo hates each other AND Ming, which is honestly impressive!

By the end, you’ll learn:

• Why Flash Gordon is basically Hercule Satan in space
• Why every planet is somehow divided into Bird People, Tree People, and Fish People
• Why Star Wars quietly owes Flash Gordon about 40% of its personality
• Why comic strip fans in the 1930s were built different!

Come for the history! Stay for the derailments! Leave knowing way too much about the MSU comic archives!