As someone who "likes movies about gladiators" I've imagined for years comic book adaptations of Hercules and Maciste movies with cover art by Frank Frazetta and interior art by Wally Wood. An alternative to Frazetta paintings for the covers would have been the posters from the movies themselves. In fact the poster for the Steve Reeves flick HERCULES UNCHAINED was used as the cover for the Dell comic book adaptation of that movie.
One of my favorite sinew & sandal sagas was the movie best known to American audiences as ATLAS IN THE LAND OF THE CYCLOPS (Maciste nella terra dei ciclopi). The flick stars Gordon Mitchell and the incredible Chelo Alonso. Sadly it's one of the few films from the genre where La Alonso doesn't perform an exotic dance.
In any case several posters for the movie would have made great comic book covers. MACISTE EL COLOSO reminds me a bit of one of those Will Eisner splash pages where he incorporates the logo into the illustration.
These posters would have made great covers for novelizations of these movies as well. Or even for new stories. I'm surprised there weren't more paperbacks about gladiators during the peplum movie cycle. Considering the implied sexual going ons in these films, it's remarkable how Midwood Books never published a paperback or two on the subject.
No comments:
Post a Comment