DOUBLE DUTY PEPLUM POSTERS by Dave Goode

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.

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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