"I've Heard The Natives Mention Him. He's Quite A Guy According To Them." by Dave Goode

 

Back when I first discovered "men's sweat mags" as I was entering puberty my favorite stories found within were the jungle adventures. Probably because they reminded me of Jungle Jim. The Johnny Weissmuller movies based on the Alex Raymond comic strip from King Features and not the comic strip itself. They were two different animals. Of course the stories in the sweat mags featured very a little bit more violent. And had a lot more sexual content. But the stories were more or less like the ones you found in the Weissmuller flicks produced by Sam Katzman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite flicks from the series was THE LOST TRIBE (1949). It stars Weissmuller, Elena Verduga, Myrna Dell, Ralph Dunn, and Ray "Crash" Corrigan as Simba the Gorilla. The screenplay is by Arthur Hoerl and Don Martin.

 

It's a formula jungle adventure revolving around a lost city and it's hidden treasures. Plenty of stock footage and cheesy dialogue. It's a wonder that the  MSFT3K crew never got a hold of this. Former Olympic swimming champ Weissmuller fights a lion, a shark, an alligator, and a gang of modern day pirates. Weissmuller is at his two-fisted best in this one. He even gets tied up and worked over the bad guys. Not great art. But a lot of fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funny thing is I was re-reading the Frank Frazetta - illustrated jungle romance tale "Untamed Love" when it struck me that the "great white hunter" in that story reminded me of Victor Mature in the jungle adventure SAFARI (1956). Made me think that Mature might have made a good Jungle Jim in a big budget production. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another actor I can see playing the jungle adventurer was Rory Calhoun. Calhoun had played big game hunter Jonathon Kincaid on an episode of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND that spoofed The Most Dangerous Game, Richard Connell's classic short story.

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ATLANTIS,THE LOST CONTINENT by Dave Goode

When I was a young fan-boy back in the early 60s I was fascinated by the legend of lost Atlantis found originally in Plato's writings Timaeus and Critias. Atlantis was a highly advanced island-nation that was sunk beneath the waves by the gods for the hubris of it's rulers. I of course learned of Atlantis from it's image in comic books. That of an advanced metropolis protected beneath the ocean depths by a huge glass dome. As always the continuity in DC Comics left me a bit flustered as that there were two different underwater cities called Atlantis in their Silver Age comic books. The one found in Superman family comics featured mer-people. While the Atlantis Aquaman ruled over was populated by bi-pedal humanoids. Over at Marvel Comics , Prince Namor ruled over an Atlantis populated by bi-pedal humanoids. Albeit with blue skin.

However most movies about Atlantis don't deal with underwater civilizations. Instead they deal with the destruction of Atlantis. Of these my favorite was ATLANTIS,THE LOST CONTINENT (1961). This sci-fi peplum movie was produced and directed by George Pal with a script written by Daniel Mainwaring and Gerald Hargreaves. The movie starred Anthony Hall as a Greek fisherman named Demetrious and Joyce Taylor as Princess Antillia of Atlantis. Useless trivia time. Anthony Hall was songwriter Sal Ponti who wrote Fabian's first recorded song " I'm In Love ". The storyline followed the events leading to the sinking of Atlantis. This was a good Saturday matinee type film. And I enjoyed it in my youth. I still enjoy it. But I think it would have been even better as a sinew & sandal flick starring Ed Fury and Bella Cortez.

And speaking of sinews & sandals Edgar Rice Burroughs would contribute to the Atlantis mythos with the Lost City of Opar in his Tarzan stories. I've said in the past that a lot of Burroughs' Tarzan tales came across like Maciste stories. These are some of them. In these stories Opar was an outpost of lost Atlantis now populated by beautiful women and ape-like men. Opar and it's beautiful high priestess La would appear on both the movie and television screen going back as far as the silent age of movies. But I always thought a perfect casting of Tarzan and La might have been Mike Henry and Martine Beswick. Which leads to our new Golden Adonis comic.

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ITEM: JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN!! IT'S MONSTER MAGAZINE! GRAB OUR FIRST ISSUE AND OUR 2ND ISSUE, CREATURE CREATURE FEATURE WITH BUTCH PATRICK, DR. PAUL BEARER, AND RICOU BROWNING! Remember the Creature this Halloween along with Spider Island Slim Carody, Joseph I. Cosby, Dave Goode, David Walker, Johann Schmidt, Will Keppel, and Vance Capley. With a "fang"tastic Creature cover by artist Ricky Blalock! You can read more here:

http://www.vancecapleyart.com/2018/10/04/monster-magazine-no-2/

BEWARE OF...POISON IVY! by Dave Goode

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most imagined episodes of the Batman television series was an adaptation of a story that appeared in Batman No.181 (June 1966). Beware of Poison Ivy was a 12-pager written by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Sheldon Moldoff (pencils) and Joe Giello (inks) "ghosting" for Bob Kane. This was the first of two Silver Age appearances of the villainess Poison Ivy. The character had no origin story back in the 60s. She was simply a comic book seductress. The embodiment of "Comic Book Cliche No.8"... the temptress that attempts to seduce the stalwart hero into a life of crime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the reason so many Silver Age fan-boys wanted to see an adaptation of this story is because the actress we imagine playing Poison Ivy is the one and only Ann-Margaret. One of the most famous sex symbols of the 1960s , Born Ann-Margaret Olsson in Sweden she came to America with her parents at age 6. She would study at Northwestern University before heading to Las Vegas to begin a career as a singer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discovered by George Burns she would go on to a triple threat career as a singer , dancer and actress. She would become a Top 10 Box-Office star appearing in movies like BYE, BYE BIRDIE, VIVA LAS VEGAS and KITTEN WITH A WHIP. Oddly enough Poison Ivy's creator Robert Kanigher reportedly modeled the character's look after legendary pin-up and fetish model Bettie Page.

Kanigher's original story was just as campy as anything that appeared on the television series. I can see it easily adapted to the small screen with a few minor tweaks. One of the things that needed to be kept in the story was the inclusion of Poison Ivy's rivals Dragon Fly, Silken Spider, and Tiger Moth. They could have been portrayed by Edy Williams, Marilyn Hanold, and Sivi Aberg who played Liberace's henchwomen in the Batman episodes The Devil's Fingers and Dead Ringers.

I myself imagine Burt Ward's second wife Kathy Kersh playing the Tiger Moth character. Miss Kersh would appear on the series in the episodes The Impractical Joker and The Joker's Provokers. Hmmm. Batman might have had to take Robin's advice from the comic book to "take a cold shower".










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ITEM: DR. JUDO ISSUE NUMBER ONE!!!! CLICK THE PIC TO ORDER YOURS TODAY!!!!

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ITEM: DR. JUDO #1 ON A T-SHIRT!!! GET IT HERE:
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ITEM: GET YOUR JUDO ON!!! "WHO IS DR.JUDO?!" is available on shirts, cups, bags, and much much more! All on vancecapleyart1972's Teepublic page!

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/3333819-who-is-dr-judo

 

ITEM: JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN!! IT'S MONSTER MAGAZINE! GRAB OUR FIRST ISSUE AND OUR 2ND ISSUE, CREATURE CREATURE FEATURE WITH BUTCH PATRICK, DR. PAUL BEARER, AND RICOU BROWNING! Remember the Creature this Halloween along with Spider Island Slim Carody, Joseph I. Cosby, Dave Goode, David Walker, Johann Schmidt, Will Keppel, and Vance Capley. With a "fang"tastic Creature cover by artist Ricky Blalock! You can read more here:

http://www.vancecapleyart.com/2018/10/04/monster-magazine-no-2/

THE SPAWN OF ATLAS

If you're a comic book reader of a certain age then the name Charles Atlas is as familiar to you as Superman or Batman. Looking very tarzanic in his trademark leopard-skin Atlas was the  master of dynamic tension , the secret training regimen that gave the former 97 lb. weakling the physique of an Olympian demi-god. There are many fans of heroic pulp who believe that Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze used a similar training program. And his comic book ad " The Insult That Made A Man Out Of Mac! " was as well known to comic book fans as that of any superhero. It was sheer brilliance to advertise his exercise program in comics whose readers were fantasizing about being physical supermen. It only made sense then that there were three comic book heroes during the 1950s that seemed to be inspired by the " World's Most Perfectly Developed Man "

First up was MR. UNIVERSE (July 1951) from Media Publications. This title ran
for five issues and featured the adventures of athlete Tommy Turner who wins the Mr.Universe title and then becomes a pro wrestling star. The series was written by Harry Kanter and illustrated by the tag-team of Ross Andru (pencils) and Mike Esposito (inks).

There was a movie titled MR. UNIVERSE also from 1951 that starred Vince Edwards, Jack Carter, Janis Paige, Bert Lahr, and Maxie Rosenbloom. Supposedly the film and the comic book have nothing to do with each other. But it's an amazing coincidence that in both the comic book and movie the wrestler's manager is named Jeff Clayton. By the way the winner of the 1951 Mr.Universe competition was Reg Park who would go on to star as Hercules in the movies.

Then there was Magazine Enterprises' STRONG MAN by Bob Powell.The 1st
issue was cover dated March-April 1955 and ran for 4 issues. Interestingly Powell's father was the manager of several pro wrestlers. Strong Man , who was never given any other name , was exactly that. A professional strongman complete with a leopard-skin and Roman sandals who was also a bodybuilding instructor who fought crime in his spare time. The coolest thing about this feature was that the Charles Atlas-like hero performed feats of strength that were based on actual feats performed by professional strongmen.There were also physical fitness and strength building features where Strong Man taught the readers to build themselves up.

And then there was MR. MUSCLES from Charlton Comics. There were only two issues of this title. The first issue appeared in March of 1956 and the second in August. Ben Carson uses bodybuilding to overcome polio. He then becomes a physical culture instructor and pro wrestler who again fights crime in his spare time. He has two sidekicks , Kid Muscles and Miss Muscles. This feature was created by Jerry Siegel , the co-creator of Superman. The first issue was illustrated by Bill Fraccio and had a pretty neat cover illustrated by a young Dick Giordano. Later issues were illustrated by Charles Nicholas ( pencils ) and Vince Alascia ( inks ). The stories weren't great. They weren't too awful either. But the art really took away from them.

Aside from these three comic book characters the Charles Atlas comic strip ad was parodied dozens of times. And The Golden Adonis comic strip that sometimes appears in this blog spot was inspired in part by Charles Atlas.

Originally presented in Judo Comics

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Hope you enjoyed this weeks' blog! Help support us by buying cool items!!

ITEM: DR. JUDO ISSUE NUMBER ONE!!!! CLICK THE PIC TO ORDER YOURS TODAY!!!!

-------------------------------------------

ITEM: DR. JUDO #1 ON A T-SHIRT!!! GET IT HERE:
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/3416142-dr-judo-and-the-monsters

------------------------------------------

ITEM: GET YOUR JUDO ON!!! "WHO IS DR.JUDO?!" is available on shirts, cups, bags, and much much more! All on vancecapleyart1972's Teepublic page!

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/3333819-who-is-dr-judo

 

ITEM: JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN!! IT'S MONSTER MAGAZINE! GRAB OUR FIRST ISSUE AND OUR 2ND ISSUE, CREATURE CREATURE FEATURE WITH BUTCH PATRICK, DR. PAUL BEARER, AND RICOU BROWNING! Remember the Creature this Halloween along with Spider Island Slim Carody, Joseph I. Cosby, Dave Goode, David Walker, Johann Schmidt, Will Keppel, and Vance Capley. With a "fang"tastic Creature cover by artist Ricky Blalock! You can read more here:

http://www.vancecapleyart.com/2018/10/04/monster-magazine-no-2/