TV's Teen Jungle Star by Dave Goode

One of my favorite ersatz Tarzans was Bomba,the Jungle Boy. The character appeared in 12 movies beginning in 1949 with Bomba , The Jungle Boy and ending in 1955 with Lord Of The Jungle. The series was loosely based on books by the Stratameyer Syndicate. As loosely based as the MGM and RKO Tarzan movies starring Johnny Weissmuller were based on the books of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Strangely enough the actor who portrayed Bomba was the same actor who played Tarzan's son opposite Weissmuller. Johnny Sheffield didn't play John Clayton a.k.a Korak. Instead he played "Boy" , the adopted son of Tarzan and Jane. A creation of the MGM studio. Sheffield would be written out of the Tarzan series after the Tarzan series after the movie Tarzan And The Huntress (1948) from RKO. He simply grew to large to play a character called "Boy".

 

I remember watching and enjoying the Bomba movies on television as a boy. The stories played like something out of Fiction House's Jungle Comics. And Sheffield was believable as the athletic Bomba. Built along the lines of a high school running back.

In 1962 WGN-TV repackaged the Bomba movies as a prime-time Summertime TV series.* DC COMICS would publish 7 issues of Bomba , the Jungle Boy comic book from 1967 to 1968 and for the first two issues sub-titled it TV's Teen Jungle Star. Seriously? Repackaged B-Movies from the 40s and the 50s aired on TV in 1962 and you're marketing the comic book as if the "television series" was still being run. No wonder they dropped that " TV's Teen Jungle Star " tag by the third issue.

* "WGN in Chicago started running them once a week in the early evening under the umbrella title “Zim Bomba,” with the films cut from their original 65- to 70-minute lengths to fit a one-hour timeslot with commercials. The huge reaction from viewers caused Allied Artists, the successor to Monogram, to recut the 12 pictures into 13 TV episodes also designed to run in one-hour timeslots with commercials. This “Zim Bomba” package remained in syndication through the 1970s" - 2010 Johnny Sheffield obit

Want to know about Zim-Bomba?: 

 

 Speaking of jungle fun...let's see what the Golden Adonis is up to...

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King Tut's Gorilla by Dave Goode

Of all the Bat-Villains that were created specifically for the Batman television series of the swinging sixties my favorite was King Tut. I could easily picture the character in the comic books. Actually I would have loved to have seen him in the comics. A King Tut would be added to the list of Bat-Villains in the comics. But that would be decades after the series was canceled. And that Tut had very little to do with the over the top character portrayed by Victor Buono on the 60s TV show. That of schizophrenic William Omaha McElroy,professor of Egyptology at Yale who when conked on the noggin imagines himself the reincarnation of King Tut.

Buono's leering and lecherous Tut set a new standard for scenery chewing on a series that was known for over the top performances. I personally thought he would have been great playing Nero or some other decadent despot in an Italian costume melodrama.

One of the things that I found sorely missing from the Batman series was a gorilla. Think about it. This show was aired during the Silver Age of Comics. But it never featured one of the Silver Age's most popular tropes. Now I'm not suggesting that there should have been episodes that featured Karnak,the Living Beast-Bomb from Detective Comics No.339. But one of the Bat-Villains could have owned a pet gorilla. The logical choice would have been the bad guy who thought himself the reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh. The only question would be who would play the beast. George Barrows or Janos Prohaska?

 

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I CAN! I MUST!! I WILL!!! by Dave Goode

 

A couple of years back I came across an article debunking that old chestnut about how humans only used 10% of their brain power. And that if we could unlock that unused 90% we would be able to perform super-human mental and physical feats. Say it ain't so! That theory was the basis for any number of comic book heroes. Including one of my Silver Age favorites Peter Cannon...Thunderbolt.

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Peter Morisi (aka PAM)

Created by moonlighting NY City police officer writer/artist Peter Morisi under the pseudonym PAM , Thunderbolt's origin told the story of Peter Cannon the son of two American missionaries in Tibet. Combating the Black plague in a Himalayan monastery Peter's parents succumb to the disease themselves. Taken in by the monastery's High Abbot he is taught the knowledge of the " Sacred Scrolls " which teach him how to utilize the dormant portion of his brain. By the time he reaches manhood he achieves mental and physical perfection. Returning to America with his boyhood friend Tabu, the pacifistic Peter reluctantly uses his powers to fight for justice while costumed in his training outfit from the monastery with a mask attachment.

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Years later when Marvel Comics introduced the martial arts hero Iron Fist I couldn't help but notice how similar his origin was to that of Thunderbolt's. Later I would find that Morisi borrowed a bit from the origin of the Golden Age hero Amazing Man created by Bill Everett. And Thunderbolt's costume was reminiscent of the Golden Age Daredevil*.

One of the coolest things I found about the feature was how Morisi would subtly display Thunderbolt's powers through a series of workouts between Peter and Tabu. For instance they have a judo randori session where Peter beats his companion 6 ippons to 5. Reading the dialogue you learn Peter spotted Tabu 5 points. On another occasion Peter knocks Tabu out in a boxing match with one arm literally tied behind his back.

 

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Thunderbolt made his first appearance in January 1966 taking over the numbering of the discontinued Son of Vulcan title from Charlton Comics and ran from issue No.50 to No.60. Writing this blog installment I started to think who I would cast as Peter Cannon in a 60s Thunderbolt movie. I'm throwing a change-up here. Instead of Ron Ely I'm going to go with 60s "teen idol" Troy Donahue. From the neck up Donahue looked like quite a few blond comic book heroes. Unfortunately from the neck down he looked like Jimmy Stewart. But hey! Get him into the gym and give him a steady diet of T-Bone steaks and protein shakes and you'd have your Peter Cannon.

*Morisi, who'd done work for Lev Gleason Publications in 1940s, reported in Comic Book Artist #9 (August 2000) that he had attempted to buy the rights to 1940s superhero Daredevil in the early 1960s. Gleason gave him his okay, but the character's primary writer-artist, Charles Biro, balked, requesting a percentage of future profits. Morisi declined and went on to create Thunderbolt in a scaled-down version of that Daredevil's symmetrically divided, red-and-blue costume. - Wikipedia

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Elvis,The King of...Karate! by Dave Goode

Faux poster by Vance Capley

   
 Though you can make the argument pro or con that Elvis Presley was the "King of Rock & Roll. There is no denying that he was a pioneer. Nor should there be any doubt that he was a pioneer of the martial arts in America. Elvis was using karate in his movies long before Bruce Lee became a household name in the United States.

 Elvis was introduced to the martial arts via a judo demo at Ft. Hood , Texas shortly after he was drafted. While stationed in Germany he discovered karate through a book that many believe to have been written by kyokushin karate master Mas Oyama. Tales of Oyama's feats of strength and stamina must have seemed like having super-powers to Presley who had been a member of the first generation of comic book fan-boys. No doubt part of what inspired him to study the martial art.




 

After leaving the service and reentering show business he began incorporating martial arts moves into the fight scenes in his movies. This began in the movie BLUE HAWAII (1961). And still later when he went back to performing on stage he would punctuate a number of his songs with a quick karate kata.

  Though he never starred in a martial arts movie during the era of "kung fu-mania" he was involved in a martial arts movie project during this period. In 1973 he helped to finance a karate documentary titled THE NEW GLADIATORS. Unfortunately it wouldn't be released during his lifetime. And the footage that was filmed was believed to have been lost. In 2001 the footage was found and THE NEW GLADIATORS was released on video in 2002. In 2009 Elvis Presley Enterprises released a version of the film that included footage of Elvis training. If you're a fan of Elvis or the history of American martial arts you should seek this documentary out.

-Dave Goode

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