"THIS BOLD RENEGADE CARVES A " Z " WITH HIS BLADE." by Dave Goode

This isn't going to come as a surprise. But I'm a huge fan of masked heroes. Comic book heroes. Pulp heroes. Movie serial heroes. And of course Mexiluchaheroes. My first masked hero however was el Zorro. I was introduced to the character through the Walt Disney television series that ran from 1957 to 1959 on ABC. You know. The one with the catchy theme song. It starred Guy Williams in the dual roles of the foppish Don Diego Vega and the masked avenger el Zorro... the Fox.

TV's Zorro, Guy Williams, meets Zorro creator Johnston McCulley

The character first appeared in the swashbuckling  adventure THE CURSE OF CAPISTRANO written by Johnston McCulley , as a five - part serial in the pulp magazine All - Story Weekly in 1919. The story would be adapted to the silver screen as a vehicle for America's first great action hero star Douglas Fairbanks under the title  THE MARK OF ZORRO ( 1920 ). In 1924 when McCulley's story was novelized it would be under that title. It was Fairbank's movie Zorro that served as a partial inspiration for Batman.

 

 

 

 

 

MARK OF ZORRO 1920 with Douglas Fairbanks

 

El Zorro is probably best known for his appearances in movies. The character has appeared in a number of feature films and serials. Interestingly enough Don Alejandro Vega ( Zorro's father ) on the Disney television show was played by actor George J. Lewis who appeared in two Zorro serials. ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP ( 1944 ) starring Linda Stirling as a character called The Black Whip. And THE GHOST OF ZORRO (1949 ) starring Clayton Moore who would later go on to portray the Lone Ranger. In the former he was a hero. In the latter he was a villain. Both of these films from Republic were more western than swashbuckler.

 

 

 

To most fans the best Zorro movie was THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940) starring Tyrone Power as the foppish Diego and dashing Zorro. He's equally good in both roles. Especially memorable is the climatic sword duel between Power and the movie's villain played by Basil Rathbone. As another character says to Diego after he vanquishes the villain, " You handle a sword like a devil from Hell." Fun stuff.

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Masks, Muscles, and Myth by Dave Goode

Just the other day I was marveling on the overall coolness of posters from the sinew & sandal and masked wrestler movie genres. Illustrations from either would make great comic book covers. Flicks from both genres can rightfully be considered superhero movies. And then I got to thinking once again why there was never a team - up between say el Santo and Maciste. After all if you can have a movie starring el Zorro and el Maciste you can have one between Maciste and Santo or one of the " Man in the Silver Mask's " ancestors. What I really wonder about is why Mexico never had many entries in the peplum film genre.

The most notable exception was THE RAPE OF THE SABINES ( 1962 ). The movie is a retelling of the story of the Sabine women and stars Wulf Ruvinskis as Romulos , the same character that Steve Reeves portrayed in the sinew & sandal flick DUEL OF THE TITANS ( 1961 ). Ruvinskis , the wrestler turned actor , is probably better known to some of you as the star of the Neutron movie series where he played the black - masked crime-fighter.

I was thinking about a mash - up movie featuring Mil Mascaras. Heck! Mascaras had the physique to star in a Mexican - made Hercules movie himself. But here he would have played himself. With say Alan Steel as the immortal Maciste. The plot would involve Maciste in the 20th century taking a job as a pro wrestler , like Arnold did in HERCULES IN NEW YORK ( 1970 ). In between bouts the two musclemen would have several comic book adventures. To give you some idea how that might look my buddy Vance Capley has provided a faux comic book cover featuring the Man of a Dozen Masks, Mr. Incognito and Brad King the Golden Adonis.

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MASTERING TIME IN THE SILVER AGE by Dave Goode

 

Just how many pre-Fantastic Four quartets did DC Comics have? Of course there were the Challengers of the Unknown. And then there were the Sea Devils. And sandwiched between these teams was Rip Master and his team of time - traveling adventurers who made their first appearance in Showcase No.20 (May 1959). Hunter and his quartet would have the same team dynamic of the later Sea Devils and Fantastic Four. The stalwart leader, his best friend, female love interest and the love interest's kid brother. Rip Hunter, Time Master would appear in Showcase 21, 25, and 26 before graduating to his own comic book series that ran for 29 issues from 1961 to 1965. The series was cool comic book psychotronica. But I sort of lost interest after the heroes started wearing costumes/uniforms with the sixteenth issue. Obviously the editorial staff at DC thought the time travelers needed costumes to boost sales in the superhero crazy 60s. But I thought it took something away from the feature. I also thought the first story, Prisoners of 100 Million B.C, would have made a good B-Movie. And that story came pre-costumes. When Rip dressed like Doc Savage.

The characterizations of the heroes are razor-thin. They all could have come out of central casting.

I see Rip played by Troy Donahue whose blandness would not have worked against him in this case.

Mark Goddard could have been his best friend Jeff Smith.

Annette Funicello would have been Rip's girl friend Bonnie Baxter.

And for Bonnie's younger brother Corky Baxter I'd cast Billy Mumy. Hmmm. That's two actors from the cat of 60s sci-fi series Lost In Space.










As far as the story itself the quartet used their "time spheres" go back to the Mesozoic Age. A perfect time setting for a comic book about time travel. Nothing was cooler to Silver Age kids than stories featuring dinosaurs Well except for stories featuring intelligent gorillas or robots.

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