IT WASN'T JUST HYPERBOLE by Dave Goode

 

I came to the Marvel Age of Comics a little late. My first Marvel Comic was Tales Of Suspense No. 67 (July 1965) where I was introduced to Iron Man and Captain America , who would become my all time favorite comic book hero. A short time later I traded for Fantastic Four Annual No. 3 (Oct. 1965). It was pure magic to this young comic book fan. I started buying the FF and later Marvel Collectors Item Classics for its reprints of early Fantastic Four stories. On the cover of FF No. 3 ( March 1962 ) there was a blurb that declared it "The Greatest Comic Magazine In The World!!". Beginning with No. 4 (May 1962) the blurb would read "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!". And as far as I was concerned this wasn't just hype. It really was. And this comic was one of my must buys of the Silver Age.

 

 

The early issues were pure fun. Start with the name the Fantastic Four. As comic book historian Fred Hembeck said it sounded like the name of a circus act. Even their code names sounded like those of circus performers. Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) , the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), the Invisible Girl (Sue Storm), and the Thing (Ben Grimm). But it worked. Something else that worked were the stories. The FF had adventures like you'd find in DC Comics Challengers of The Unknown title. The Challengers was a Fantastic Four prototype as was DC's Sea Devils. The difference being that neither one of those teams possessed super - powers. Though the Fantastic Four didn't get superhero costumes (uniforms?) until their third issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite parts of the early FF stories  were the little "bits of business". The team breaking up and starting separate careers. Reed as a corporate research scientist. Sue as a B-Movie actress in a sci-fi flick. Johnny as a circus performer. And Ben as a professional wrestler. Another favorite of mine was Fantastic Four No. 9 (Dec. 1962) when the team went bankrupt. To recoup their losses they take an offer from a mysterious movie producer to make a Fantastic Four movie. Hopefully it was better than the Fantastic Four movies we got in the real world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My buddy Vance Capley always wanted to illustrate the FF. And this week he does just that with a faux Fantastic Four cover featuring the Red Ghost's Super-Apes. Enjoy.

 

 

The Bigger They Are.... by Dave Goode

 

 

One of the things that made the Mexiluchahero flick Los Campeones Justicieros a.k.a The Champions of Justice such over the top fun are the midget minions of the movies mad scientist villain. The most memorable scene in the movie remains when he charges them with a ray that gives them super - strength. And they use it to toss the muscular heroes like a salad. There are midget (actually dwarf ) protagonists in all three of the Champion of Justice movies. Los Campeones Justicieros , Vuelven Los Campeones Justicieros and Triunfo De Los Campeones Justicieros. Watching the trilogy this past weekend made me realize how much I miss "midget wrestling". I guess it's something that's not considered politically correct.

 

 

Also watching these three flicks got me to thinking about Cecil B. De Mille's epic spectacle Samson & Delilah (1949). Just before the movie's climax, where Samson literally brings down the house, the blinded strong man is tormented by the "Spider People". A group of pygmy warriors armed with spears and tridents. Thank goodness their skin wasn't darkened. In a previous De Mille spectacular The Sign Of The Cross (1932) the director had Nordic Amazons fighting African pygmies in the Colosseum. In this case white actors in blackface and wearing afro wigs. Cringe. It's probably why my favorite scene in the arena is the one where legendary fan dancer Sally Rand (uncredited) is bound to a post and threatened by a wild gorilla. Sorry to say there was no strength hero like Ursus or Maciste to save her.

 

 

There have been Tarzan and Jungle Jim movies featuring pygmy warriors. But none with Tarzan taking on a dozen of them at one time. And in several sinew & sandal flicks Hercules has a dwarf sidekick. But he doesn't fight an army of them. Too bad. It would have made for a striking visual. Just like the Mr. Incognito comic book cover below by Vance Capley.

 

 

 

 Super cool t-shirt (and other merch) designs available at:

 

https://www.teepublic.com/user/vancecapleyart1972

MIDWOOD MELODRAMAS by Dave Goode

 

Back in junoir high school I was introduced to " adult paperbacks " by way of Midwood Books. A neighbor's older sister had a collection of these books from the 60s and he would lend them to me.Of course any teenage boy would be attracted to these books with their titillating covers of sexy women in various stages of undress in sexual situations. But I imagined it was the back cover copy with their lurid come ons that got the readers to purchase the books.

 

 

Later I would find out the publisher of Midwood Books was Harry Shorten. Shorten had been a collegiate and professional football star who had become a writer. Working at MLJ Comics as an editor and writer he helped to create such Golden Age characters as the Shield and the Black Hood. The Shield who predated Captain America is regarded as the first patriotic comic book hero. He would also create the award winning syndicated single panel comic There Ought To Be A Law. The Midwood Publishing House was active for over a decade from 1957 to 1968.

 

 

But back to the books themselves. By no means were they pornographic. A guilty pleasure of mine was the television miniseries SCRUPLES starring Lindsay Wagner. I liked it so much I bought a copy of the novel by Judith Krantz that the series was based on. I'm here to tell you that book was closer to porn than anything I ever read from Midwood. The stories inside were titillating. But not dirty. They were lurid melodramas along the lines of Hollywood potboilers like The Chapman Report (1962) and The Carpetbaggers ( 1964 ). They also had a series of lesbian books. Strangely enough they seemed to be written for straight men.The covers of course featured two or more half - dressed women. And the stories usually ended with the heroine in love with a man. So maybe it wasn't so strange straight men were a huge part of the audience for these books. A lesbian friend once told me she and her girl friends stopped reading these books before they got to the last ten pages when the heroine was " converted ".

 

 

Reading these books as a teenager I imagined some of these books being made into Hollywood movies after being cleaned up a little. If it could be done with The Carpetbaggers it could be done with the Midwood Books. On the other hand they could  probably have been more easily turned into grind house flicks.

 

 

 Love the comic cover below? You can grab this image on a t-shirt, poster, mask, sticker, magnet, etc: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/12959303-alligator-man?store_id=140005 

 

ALLIGATOR MAN by Dave Goode

 

Frank Merrill ( born Otto Adolph Poll ) was the 5th actor to portray Edgar Rice Burroughs literary hero Tarzan of The Apes. He had doubled for the original screen Tarzan , Elmo Lincoln , in the serial The Adventures Of Tarzan ( 1921 ). Later he was cast as Tarzan in Tarzan The Mighty ( 1928 ) and Tarzan The Tiger (1929 ). The latter movie was partially filmed in sound. And Merrill became the first screen Tarzan to deliver the victory cry of the Great Apes. Merrill had been a national gymnastic champion specializing in the Roman rings , high bar and rope climbing. Famously Merrill was a runner - up to legendary bodybuilder Charles Atlas for the title of " The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man ". At 6 ' tall he was a bit taller than your average gymnast. And he had a 44 inch chest , 16 and a half inch bicep , 14 inch forearm , 22 inch thigh with 15 inch calves at a bodyweight of 185 pounds.

 

I first learned of Merrill when DC Comics began publishing a Tarzan comic book in the 70s. In the early issues there were features on the Tarzan movies. One of these had a brief bio of Merrill that said after his career playing the Lord of the Jungle was over he performed exhibitions wrestling alligators. I however never saw any reference to this second career anywhere else. But it got me to thinking about the idea of an alligator wrestler playing the role of a Tarzan - like jungle hero.

My buddy Vance Capley and I were talking on the phone the other day about introducing a character for an upcoming GOLDEN ADONIS comic we've been working on. Here's a first look of Amos Moses , The Alligator Man.

 

Love the comic cover below? You can grab this image on a t-shirt, poster, mask, sticker, magnet, etc: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/12959303-alligator-man?store_id=140005

 

 

 

SILVER AGE MYSTERY ARTIST by Dave Goode

As a preteen during the Silver Age of Comics there was this one artist at DC who really caught my eye. But I had no idea what his name was. I only saw his work in back - up stories. Reprints from the 1940s and 1950s. Or at least that's what I surmised by the archaic clothing and hairstyles the characters sported. And at time credits were rarely given on stories. The stories were different as well. No superheroes. They were crime dramas , mysteries and tales of suspense. Sometimes with science fiction or supernatural overtones. I would later find out this mystery artist was Ruben Morira also known as Rubimor.

Ruben Moreira ( 1922 -1984 ) was born in Puerto Rico and moved to New York City with his mother when he was four. Artistically gifted he began working for Fiction House where among other things he drew the adventures of Kaanga , an ersatz Tarzan. This would serve as an excellent training ground. From 1945 to 1947 he would take over the art chores on King Features' Tarzan comic strip from legendary illustrator Burne Hogarth. And illustrated it under the name Rubimor while continuing to work in comics of the Golden Age.

It's hard to describe Moreira's work. Except to say it's reminiscent of Reed Crandall's. Or to say it looks like Curt Swan's. But with more detail. Like Swan he was a master of facial expressions. Something that helped make him a great story teller. And that's what being a comic book / strip artist is all about. Being able to tell a story. Not just drawing pretty pictures.

KENT TO THE RESCUE by Dave Goode

 

One of the cool things about growing up in the Silver Age was that you not only had Superman comic books. But you had reruns of The Adventures of Superman starring the great George Reeves. One  of my favorite episodes was JUNGLE DEVIL from the second season. The episode written by Peter Dixon and directed by Thomas Carr featured your standard B - Jungle Movie plot with intrepid heroes in search of a lost scientific expedition in a hostile jungle. In this case it was Daily Planet reporters Clark Kent ( George Reeves ) , Lois Lane ( Noel Neill ) and Jimmy Olsen ( Jack Larson ). And it's one of those episodes that shows just how cool George Reeves as Clark Kent was. Sure Superman gets to fight the " jungle devil " of the title. A runaway gorilla played by veteran ape - suit actor Steve Calvert. But Kent also gets all the best lines and scenes. 

It was also in this episode that Superman performs a super stunt that has became a major part of the Superman mythos since Action Comics No.115 ( Dec. 1947 ) where the Man of Steel squeezes a piece of coal into a diamond. I can say without hesitation that this is the first place that I saw this trick performed. Also in the cast of this episode are Damain O'Flynn as Dr. Ralph Harper and Doris Singleton as his wife Gloria. If you are a fan of 50s television than you'll recognize Doris Singleton as Caroline Appleby , the Ricardo's neighbor on I Love Lucy. Specifically from the episode where George Reeves appears as Superman.

 

During my 20s and 30s I had this recurring dream of riding the subway to a comic book shop in Brooklyn where they sold rare old comics that you could only dream of. One of those comics that I remembered most vividly was a Sheena Of The Jungle comic that featured photo covers of Irish Mc Calla in a leopard bikini. Sort of like the Dell Comics Tarzan comics with photo covers of Lex Barker and Gordon Scott. The other was an Adventures of Superman comic that was based on the Superman from the television series. With the characters drawn to resemble the actors who portrayed them on the series. Plus you got stories featuring alien invasions and monsters created by mad scientists. Indeed the stuff that dreams are made of.

 

 

From the fertile imagination of super-creator Dave Goode and the super-pen of Vance Capley comes this retro comic cover...

Do remember when our hero met Lucy? We do! Artist Vance Capley goes wild on this design now available at https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/2450490-my-hero-2018?store_id=140005