THE OTHER HERCULES by Dave Goode

One of the best remembered off-shoots of the peplum movie cycle was the syndicated cartoon series THE MIGHTY HERCULES. Created in 1962 it premiered on September 1, 1963. The series was the brainchild of Joe Oriolo. DC Comic editors George Kashdan and Jack Miller also worked on the series. Maybe that's why the beardless Hercules of the cartoon resembled the Superman of the Silver Age. If you remember the show it's probably for the catchy theme song written by Win Sharples and sung by pop singer Johnny Nash. There were 128 stand alone episodes that ran five and a half minutes.

In the very first episode Hercules is competing with his buddy Theseus, another Greek hero for some sort of Olympian championship. Hercules bests his buddy in a foot race and wrestling match. As a reward for his victory Hercules is granted a request from Zeus. Hercules wants to go to Earth and fight the forces of evil and injustice. Zeus reminds the man-god that he would lose his godly powers on Earth. But gets around this by giving him a magic ring that will amp up his strength when putting it on. And this was the formula for each episode. Hercules would take on some threat. He would hold his own against the menace for awhile. But would eventually have to put on the ring to defeat the threat. I always wondered why he just didn't keep the ring on when he came to Earth. Supporting characters were Helena , his love interest and  Newton a centaur. Villainy was provided by Daedalus , an evil wizard , Wilhemine , a sea sorceress and Murtis who wore the Mask of Vulcan.

 

What I hadn't been aware of was in Detroit, Don Kolke a former football player for the University of Detroit hosted a MIGHTY HERCULES show where he wore  the Hercules costume from the cartoon. He introduced the cartoons to the television audience and taught exercises to them. Cool beans. There was also two Gold Key comic books based on the cartoon series.

And speaking of Hercules, one of my favorite scenes in a Silver Age Spider-Man story occurred in Amazing Spider-Man No.27. He breaks chains that he's been bound with through muscle expansion while exclaiming "I feel like Steve Reeves in one of those Italian costume movies!". The funny thing is that though this is a feat of strength associated with the heroes in sinew & sandal flicks it's rarely used in these movies. There's plenty of chain breaking. Just not a lot through chest expansion. Below you can find a Golden Adonis cartoon illustrated by Vance Capley with Brad King performing the strength feat associated with carnival strongmen and gladiator movie stars.

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MONSTER MAGAZINE NO.2 Creature Creature Feature