Introducing Pharaoh Love by Dave Goode

 "I want the most beautiful.I'll take the big black one." My mom chuckled when Joanna Barnes delivers that line in the gladiator movie classic SPARTACUS. Miss Barnes and Nina Fochs were playing a pair of decadent Roman noblewomen who were choosing gladiators to fight to the death for their entertainment. I'm sure that line and the look of ..er.. admiration in the eyes of Miss Barnes for the black gladiator played by Woody Strode was quite titillating for movie audiences back in 1960. Interracial sex was still considered taboo by many. Heck! Interracial marriage wouldn't be legal in all 50 states in America until 1967.

Muscular black men could be found in peplum movies from the very start. Usually as gladiators or slaves. Remember Maciste was originally a black man. Though he was played by white actor/strongman Bartolomeo Pagano with his skin cosmetically darkened. His first screen appearance was in the 1914 silent film epic CABIRIA based on the historical novel Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert. In all subsequent films he was portrayed as caucasian. And that would be the case in all the Maciste movies from the sinew & sandal movie cycle from the 50s and 60s.

In gladiator movies you might find a black man playing the hero's best friend and confidant as William Marshall did in the 1954 Hollywood epic DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS. In the muscleman flicks like the SON OF HERCULES VS. THE MOLE-MEN you might find a black man as the hero's sidekick. Former Mr.Universe Paul Wynter filled the bill in that flick. Harry Baird played a similar role in the flicks TAUR THE MIGHTY and THOR AND THE AMAZON WOMEN. And then there was Serge Nubret.

Serge Nubret was one of the all-time great body building champions. Competing for 25 years and winning numerous titles. He would appear in a number of European movies and television series. His two best known films from the sinew & sandal genre were MY SON MY HERO and GOLIATH THE REBEL SLAVE in which he appeared with former movie Tarzan Gordon Scott. I really wished Nubret had the chance to star in a gladiator movie of his own. BLACK GLADIATOR would have been the most logical title. But then I don't think audiences in the early 60s would have been ready for scenes with Serge and some Euro-starlet performing like Steve Reeves and Sylvia Lopez had in HERCULES UNCHAINED.

Below are two new characters my buddy Vance Capley and I have been working on. Pharaoh Love and Miss Ginger Snaps. Those of you who have bought JUDO COMICS from Lulu.com may recognize the photographer from THE GOLDEN ADONIS strip.