KENT TO THE RESCUE by Dave Goode

 

One of the cool things about growing up in the Silver Age was that you not only had Superman comic books. But you had reruns of The Adventures of Superman starring the great George Reeves. One  of my favorite episodes was JUNGLE DEVIL from the second season. The episode written by Peter Dixon and directed by Thomas Carr featured your standard B - Jungle Movie plot with intrepid heroes in search of a lost scientific expedition in a hostile jungle. In this case it was Daily Planet reporters Clark Kent ( George Reeves ) , Lois Lane ( Noel Neill ) and Jimmy Olsen ( Jack Larson ). And it's one of those episodes that shows just how cool George Reeves as Clark Kent was. Sure Superman gets to fight the " jungle devil " of the title. A runaway gorilla played by veteran ape - suit actor Steve Calvert. But Kent also gets all the best lines and scenes. 

It was also in this episode that Superman performs a super stunt that has became a major part of the Superman mythos since Action Comics No.115 ( Dec. 1947 ) where the Man of Steel squeezes a piece of coal into a diamond. I can say without hesitation that this is the first place that I saw this trick performed. Also in the cast of this episode are Damain O'Flynn as Dr. Ralph Harper and Doris Singleton as his wife Gloria. If you are a fan of 50s television than you'll recognize Doris Singleton as Caroline Appleby , the Ricardo's neighbor on I Love Lucy. Specifically from the episode where George Reeves appears as Superman.

 

During my 20s and 30s I had this recurring dream of riding the subway to a comic book shop in Brooklyn where they sold rare old comics that you could only dream of. One of those comics that I remembered most vividly was a Sheena Of The Jungle comic that featured photo covers of Irish Mc Calla in a leopard bikini. Sort of like the Dell Comics Tarzan comics with photo covers of Lex Barker and Gordon Scott. The other was an Adventures of Superman comic that was based on the Superman from the television series. With the characters drawn to resemble the actors who portrayed them on the series. Plus you got stories featuring alien invasions and monsters created by mad scientists. Indeed the stuff that dreams are made of.

 

 

From the fertile imagination of super-creator Dave Goode and the super-pen of Vance Capley comes this retro comic cover...

Do remember when our hero met Lucy? We do! Artist Vance Capley goes wild on this design now available at https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/2450490-my-hero-2018?store_id=140005

THE MONSTER , THE GIRL, AND PHILLIP VAN ZANDT by Dave Goode

 




When I created the Phantom Gorilla with Vance Capley a major inspiration for the character was the 1941 Paramount B-Movie THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL. Produced by Jack Mass and directed by Stuart Heisler THE MONSTER AND THE GIRL was a 65 minute time killer that I liked as a kid. But as an adult...well it seems like it's a lot longer than 65 minutes. It drags in a lot of spots.

The screenplay by Stuart Anthony plays like a grind house exploitation flick. When Susan Webber played by Ellen Drew is tricked into a life of prostitution her brother played by Phillip Terry comes to the big city to rescue her. The small town church organist is instead framed for murder, tried, and executed. This is where the flick gets interesting. Dr. Perry played by the never to be forgotten George Zucco transplants the young man's brain in the body of a gorilla (ape- suit actor Charles Gemora). From there he wrecks vengeance on the men who ruined his sister and caused his death. If this wasn't a superhero origin story I don't know what is.

Any movie automatically becomes better with the inclusion of an ape-suit. You can also say the same about any movie that features actor Phillip Van Zandt. Before I knew his name I knew his face. Van Zandt appeared in over 200 movies including CITIZEN KANE (1941). But I first knew him for his roles on THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN. And in 3 Stooges shorts. It was Vance Capley who decided to make the mad scientist in the Phantom Gorilla origin story look like Van Zandt after we discussed the 3 Stooges short SPOOKS (1953).

Produced and directed by Jules White the screenplay for this short that ran just under 16 minutes , was by Felix Adler. The story has Moe, Larry, and Shemp as private detectives hired to rescue the kidnapped Mary Bopper (Norma Randall) from mad scientist Dr. Jeckyl (Phillip Van Zandt) and his assistant Mr. Hyde (Tom Kennedy). Another plus for this one was ape-suit actor Steve Calvert as Dr. Jekyll's pet gorilla. A mad scientist, a damsel in distress and a gorilla. My kind of movie. Now if only the Stooges were playing masked wrestlers.

CHRIS CASTEEL IN HIS GORILLA SUIT...THANK CHRIS!

Thank you again, Chris

Who's the Phantom Gorilla?! Get JUDO COMICS today and find out!

http://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-goode/judo-comics/paperback/product-22908356.html

THE GORILLA AND THE GIRL by Dave Goode

When I was a kid I couldn't get enough of movies with gorillas in them. Or should I say movies with "ape-suit actors" in them.Be it a mad scientist movie , sinew & sandal flick , jungle adventure , comedy or horror/mystery programmer. If there was an ape in the movie said movie became that much better in my eyes. Remember I grew up in the Silver Age of Comics. One of my favorite actors from the ape-suit cinema was Emil Van Horn.

Not as large a man as some other ape-suit actors. For instance B-Western star Ray " Crash " Corrigan stood over 6' 4" tall. But Van Horn in his gorilla suit was no less frightening when threatening a serial heroine or other damsel in distress. And besides real gorillas were rarely taller than 5' 9". I'm also a big fan of his costume's elongated arms. Built no doubt to replicate a gorilla's arm length. If nothing else it gave him a unique look.

Aside from appearing in movies like KEEP 'EM FLYING with Abbott & Costello and THE APE MAN with Bela Lugosi Van Horn worked burlesque revues and night clubs performing gorilla and girl acts. These acts were variations of the damsel in distress being threatened by a monster theme found in B-Movies with some adagio dance moves added to the mix.

 When I came up with the Phantom Gorilla idea that Vance Capley and myself used in Judo Comics we gave the judoka who had his brain surgically implanted in the body of a gorilla a secret identity as an ape-suit actor in a gorilla and girl act. We also had the Mr.Incognito character face off against a gorilla on a couple of occasions. Largely because there were too few Mexilucha movies that featured the hero going up an enraged ape. Then watch us answer questions and have lots of fun. Finally, go to lulu.com and buy JUDO COMICS by Dave Goode and Vance Capley...you'll be glad you did.

Nyoka Returns? by Dave Goode

When I was a kid back in the early 1960s I got to see a lot of old movie serials on after school television. The Masked Marvel , Scouts To The Rescue , the Flash Gordon trilogy. One of my very favorites was The Perils Of Nyoka starring Kay Aldridge as Nyoka Gordon. There was an earlier serial Jungle Girl in which beautiful Frances (no relation to Frank) Gifford portrayed Nyoka Meredith. The first serial was based on a book by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs. And Nyoka Meredith was a sort of female Tarzan. Nyoka Gordon was more like a female Jungle Jim.



  


The cast for The Perils Of Nyoka was outstanding. The 15 chapter serial featured Tristram Coffin playing Torrini , a double-dealing double agent of Vultura the film's beautiful villain played by luscious Lorna Gray. Charles Middleton who gained film immortality as Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon trilogy plays Vultura's right-hand man Cassib in this one. This one also features a pre-Lone Ranger Clayton Moore as stalwart hero Dr. Larry Gordon.



Dr.Gordon could have been one of the models for Indiana Jones. Vultura was portrayed by sultry Lorna Gray. And in her turban , slit skirt with snake emblem and platform shoes she was one of the sexiest serial villains ever. Plus she had a pet gorilla named Satan played by ape-suit actor the great Emil Van Horn.

And then of course there was Kay Aldridge as heroine Nyoka Gordon. As an adult I wonder how she got her thick Southern accent raised in Africa. And regret that she didn't have the opportunity to wear the outfit that Frances Gifford wore in Jungle Girl. The outfit she's given fairly covers the former swimsuit model's outstanding figure. But the seven year old fondly remembers the character. She wasn't some helpless damsel in distress like other serial queens. She rode , shot and fought as well as her male comrades. She had moxie. She was girl next door pretty. But she had a tomboy feel to her. She was the girl you could play sports with. Or talk about comics to. And speaking of comics. The Nyoka serial proved so popular that there was a spin-off comic book series.First from Fawcett which adapted The Perils of Nyoka to the 4-Color page. And later by Charlton Comics.

Monsieur Mallah,Silver Age Simian by Dave Goode

Silver Age kid that I am I've always had a strange fascination for the intelligent apes of the era. I love the Super-Ape minions of the commie comic book villain the Red Ghost. And what Silver Age kid wasn't a fan of Gorilla Grodd,arch-enemy of the Flash? My personal favorite intelligent ape of the 60s however was Monsieur Mallah. A six feet three inch 400 lb. French speaking gorilla.

 

Created by Arnold Drake (writer) and Bruno Premiani (illustrator) Monsieur Mallah first appeared in the pages of THE DOOM PATROL No.86  (March 1964) from DC Comics. He was the subject of an experiment of a scientist. The scientist raised a captured gorilla's I.Q. through shock treatments and other methods to the genius level of 178. The scientist who would later become the super-villain the Brain after losing his own body. One of those disembodied brains that you find so often in pulp fiction and B-movies. He would name the beast Monsieur Mallah and educated him for the better part of a decade training him as his assistant. The pair would become charter members of the Brotherhood of Evil and sworn enemies of the super-hero team the Doom Patrol.

Of course as a gorilla Mallah was a physically formidable foe. Standing 6' 3" he was quite a bit taller than an average gorilla.But just as strong. Silverback gorillas are 6x as strong as humans per kilo bodyweight. So a silverback gorilla (220 kg.) weighs about twice as much as a large human. So a silverback is about 12 times as strong as a human athlete. And even more impressive is the fact that they can run between 20 to 25 mph. To put that into perspective Usain Bolt ,the 3-time Olympic champion has been clocked at 23.25 mph.

In the Silver Age before CGI if you were making a Doom Patrol movie featuring Monsieur Mallah or a Flash movie featuring Gorilla Grodd you would be using an actor in an ape-suit. But we Silver Age kids were so use to men in ape-suits from repeated viewings of serials and monster movies from the thrilling 30s and fabulous 40s we wouldn't have cared. We had our own super-power. We had the ability to suspend belief.

 You can read the Phantom Gorilla's first action packed adventure in the pages of JUDO COMICS! Get yours today! Wanna watch Dave Goode and Vance Capley discuss ape suit cinema, comics, and the Phantom Gorilla? Click here for the VIDEO!