Can't Always Tell A Book By It's Cover! by Dave Goode

 

You often hear about how DC comic book stories back in the Silver Age were built around the images on the cover. I don't know how often this was done. You would think it would be easier to take a strong image from a story and use it on the cover. But the editors at DC decided it was a comic's cover that sold the book. And that made it the most important part of the comic. And in truth the cover was the selling point. It was the cover that induced the reader to part with their ten or twelve cents. So the editors , writers and artists came up with a striking cover and then wrote a story to go with it. Sometimes the story had very little to do with the cover. That quite wasn't the case with Superman No. 174 (January 1965). Though it could have used the disclaimer that read, "No Scene Like This To Be Found Inside!".

The great Curt Swan/George Klein cover is followed by an equally great splash page by the same artistic tag team. And of course I had wished the whole story was illustrated by them. But Al Plastino does a more than competent job on the story written by Edmond Hamilton. Some might consider that after Swan, Plastino was the definitive Silver Age Superman artist. The story has Adam Newman, a previously unknown character, visiting Clark Kent at the Daily Planet. He reveals to the mild mannered reporter that he and not Kent is Superman. The rest of the story revolves around Kent trying to prove that he's the Man of Steel. And failing miserably.

You know that Clark Kent is Superman. But gosh darn it until those last pages you really start to believe he's suffering from an incredible delusion. And then Hamilton reveals how the hero has been tricked. Sorry no spoilers.Just let me say it's an interesting story. One that doesn't rely on Superman being super. And you even get a cameo by Batman. As a Silver Age kid I for one miss the days When Superman and Batman were best friends. And shared their every secret.

 

MIDWOOD MELODRAMAS by Dave Goode

 

Back in junoir high school I was introduced to " adult paperbacks " by way of Midwood Books. A neighbor's older sister had a collection of these books from the 60s and he would lend them to me.Of course any teenage boy would be attracted to these books with their titillating covers of sexy women in various stages of undress in sexual situations. But I imagined it was the back cover copy with their lurid come ons that got the readers to purchase the books.

 

 

Later I would find out the publisher of Midwood Books was Harry Shorten. Shorten had been a collegiate and professional football star who had become a writer. Working at MLJ Comics as an editor and writer he helped to create such Golden Age characters as the Shield and the Black Hood. The Shield who predated Captain America is regarded as the first patriotic comic book hero. He would also create the award winning syndicated single panel comic There Ought To Be A Law. The Midwood Publishing House was active for over a decade from 1957 to 1968.

 

 

But back to the books themselves. By no means were they pornographic. A guilty pleasure of mine was the television miniseries SCRUPLES starring Lindsay Wagner. I liked it so much I bought a copy of the novel by Judith Krantz that the series was based on. I'm here to tell you that book was closer to porn than anything I ever read from Midwood. The stories inside were titillating. But not dirty. They were lurid melodramas along the lines of Hollywood potboilers like The Chapman Report (1962) and The Carpetbaggers ( 1964 ). They also had a series of lesbian books. Strangely enough they seemed to be written for straight men.The covers of course featured two or more half - dressed women. And the stories usually ended with the heroine in love with a man. So maybe it wasn't so strange straight men were a huge part of the audience for these books. A lesbian friend once told me she and her girl friends stopped reading these books before they got to the last ten pages when the heroine was " converted ".

 

 

Reading these books as a teenager I imagined some of these books being made into Hollywood movies after being cleaned up a little. If it could be done with The Carpetbaggers it could be done with the Midwood Books. On the other hand they could  probably have been more easily turned into grind house flicks.

 

 

 Love the comic cover below? You can grab this image on a t-shirt, poster, mask, sticker, magnet, etc: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/12959303-alligator-man?store_id=140005 

 

THE STEVE REEVES MOVIE YOU NEVER SAW! by Dave Goode

 

I was watching the Gordon Scott sinew & sandal flick Goliath Vs. The Vampires again the other day. Also known as Maciste Contra Vampiro ( 1961 ) this is my favorite of the former Tarzan's peplum pictures. The hilight of the flick is arguably the battle between Goliath / Maciste and the villain who has taken the hero's form. For years it was rumored that the evil Goliath in long shots was portrayed by Steve Reeves himself. Not the case. But an understandable mistake. The actor was in fact Giovanni Cianfriglia who had worked as Reeves' body double in a number of costumed melodramas beginning with the landmark Hercules ( 1957 ). He would also appear as an extra and stuntman in other genre flicks. Most notably in Hercules The Avenger ( 1965 ) where he portrayed the Earth giant Antaeus to Reg Park's Hercules.

 

Of course Cianfriglia was better known to genre movie fans as the star of the masked wrestler movies Superargo Vs. Diabolicus ( 1966 ) and Superargo And The Faceless Giants ( 1968 ). I got to thinking again about a masked wrestler movie starring Steve Reeves. I've always said that such a movie starring Reeves , Gordon Scott or Mark Forest would be a great deal different from the masked wrestler movies of Mexico ( Mexiluchahero movies ). Where the heroes of those flicks are never seen without their masks. Any movie starring Reeves would have the hero going maskless for over half the film.

 

So imagine if you will a masked wrestler movie starring Reeves where body double and stuntman Cianfriglia portrayed the hero with the mask on. Reeves would play the hero in romantic scenes and such. Also maybe in scenes in a gym showing him training to show off Mr. Universe's physique. Which was the reason you went to a Steve Reeves movie to begin with. " Something visual that's not to abysmal. " This would make such a move similar to the classic Republic serial The Masked Marvel ( 1943 ). In that chapterplay stuntman Tom Steele portrayed the hero. No one else would wear the mask. He also did stunts for other actors throughout the movie. But strangely enough he received no screen credit. Not even as a stuntman.

 

 

ALLIGATOR MAN by Dave Goode

 

Frank Merrill ( born Otto Adolph Poll ) was the 5th actor to portray Edgar Rice Burroughs literary hero Tarzan of The Apes. He had doubled for the original screen Tarzan , Elmo Lincoln , in the serial The Adventures Of Tarzan ( 1921 ). Later he was cast as Tarzan in Tarzan The Mighty ( 1928 ) and Tarzan The Tiger (1929 ). The latter movie was partially filmed in sound. And Merrill became the first screen Tarzan to deliver the victory cry of the Great Apes. Merrill had been a national gymnastic champion specializing in the Roman rings , high bar and rope climbing. Famously Merrill was a runner - up to legendary bodybuilder Charles Atlas for the title of " The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man ". At 6 ' tall he was a bit taller than your average gymnast. And he had a 44 inch chest , 16 and a half inch bicep , 14 inch forearm , 22 inch thigh with 15 inch calves at a bodyweight of 185 pounds.

 

I first learned of Merrill when DC Comics began publishing a Tarzan comic book in the 70s. In the early issues there were features on the Tarzan movies. One of these had a brief bio of Merrill that said after his career playing the Lord of the Jungle was over he performed exhibitions wrestling alligators. I however never saw any reference to this second career anywhere else. But it got me to thinking about the idea of an alligator wrestler playing the role of a Tarzan - like jungle hero.

My buddy Vance Capley and I were talking on the phone the other day about introducing a character for an upcoming GOLDEN ADONIS comic we've been working on. Here's a first look of Amos Moses , The Alligator Man.

 

Love the comic cover below? You can grab this image on a t-shirt, poster, mask, sticker, magnet, etc: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/12959303-alligator-man?store_id=140005