Brothers by Another Mother....and Father as Well by Dave Goode

Brothers Of The Spear was a comic book feature that first appeared as a back up in Dell's Tarzan No.25 (Oct. 1951). Created by writer Gaylord Du Bois and artist Jesse Marsh it told the story of Dan-El (no relation to Kal-El) and Natongo. They were two African kings whose kingdoms had been usurped. The two swear an oath of brotherhood and the first years of the series is spent with the heroes trying to reclaim their respective kingdoms. Russ Manning would take over the art chores on the feature in Tarzan No.39 (Dec. 1952) and stayed til the run in the back of Tarzan in 1966.

What made this jungle adventure series so unique was that Natongo and Dan-El were a pair of black and white adventurers who were equal partners. Something you readily find in today's popular culture. But was special for it's day. This remember was a time in American history when the Civil Rights movement was just beginning. In adventure flicks of the period you might find a black man. But he was regulated to sidekick status. A few years earlier it was as a comic sidekick embodying just about every negative minstrel show stereotype you could find about black people.

Some time back someone suggested to me a casting for a Brothers Of The Spear movie in the 60s. Ron Ely as Dan-El. And as Natongo, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali. I thought that inspired casting as that Ali had a similar physique to that of Russ Manning drawn heroes Tarzan and Magnus, the Robot Fighter.

Another good choice for Natonga would have been Rafer Johnson who was on the same United States Olympic Team (1960) as Ali then known as Cassius Clay. Decathlon champion Johnson was no stranger to jungle adventure movies having played the villain in the Mike Henry Tarzan movies TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER (1967) and TARZAN AND THE JUNGLE BOY (1968).

Below is a new Golden Adonis comic by Dave Goode and Vance Capley featuring Pharaoh Love, the Bronze Hercules.