Mightier Than The Mastodon! Swifter Than The Cheetah by Dave Goode

During the Silver Age of Comics my favorite Tarzan imitation was Marvel Comics' Ka-Zar. There was a Ka-Zar who appeared in a pulp magazine of the same name published by Martin Goodman's Manvis Publishing for three issues. October 1936 , January 1937 and June 1937. In 1939 the Ka-Zar character was adapted to the comic book page for Timely Comics also published by Martin Goodman. And he made his first comic book appearance in Marvel Comics No.1 alongside the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. The character like the one that Buster Crabbe played in the movie KING OF THE JUNGLE (1933) was raised by lions and not apes.

 

The Silver Age Ka-Zar was a pretty one-note character (as were most Tarzan imitators). He premiered in X-MEN No.10 (March ,1965) and was more or less a Tarzan ala' Weissmuller in the Savage Land, a Pellucidar or Pal-Ul-Don type of lost world beneath Antarctica. Where Tarzan had his golden lion Jad-bal-ja , Ka-Zar had a pet sabretooth tiger Zabu. So if you liked Tarzan vs. Dinosaur stories you might think Ka-Zar was pretty cool. I myself especially liked when he would cut loose against an enemy while exclaiming "Mightier than the Mastodon! Swifter than the Cheetah! Mighty is Ka-Zar, Lord of the Jungle!" or some variation of that phrase.

Ka-Zar would guest star in Daredevil, Spider - Man, and The Hulk. And would get his own features in Astonishing Tales and Savage Tales. He would eventually receive a comic book title of his own. All of these titles were eventually canceled. As I said before Ka-Zar was pretty much a one-note character. And just how many times could you watch a television show about a jungle hero fight a dinosaur before you changed the channel? But then something remarkable happened with the premiere of the comic book KA-ZAR, THE SAVAGE (April 1981).

 

In KA-ZAR,THE SAVAGE No.1 we're introduced to a Ka-Zar that we've never seen before. One who is less "savage". Like Tarzan, Marvel's jungle king was an English lord who grew up in the wilds. Here he's been Americanized to the point that he resembles Ron Ely's Tarzan from the 1960s television series. Only wittier. He and Shanna, the She-Devil (Marvel's answer to Sheena of the Jungle) banter like William Powell and Myrna Loy in THE THIN MAN. This was a much more fun take on the character. And a much better read. The only problem I had with the new take on the character was how to reconcile it with what came before.

I had my own theory. Unlike Tarzan, Ka-Zar didn't come to the Savage Land as a baby. He was a preteen. One who probably watched Weissmuller, Lex Barker, and Gordon Scott movies. He might have read comic books starring Kaanga, Ki-Gor and Thun'Da. In short he was playing a role. Acting out how he thought a "King of the Jungle" would act.

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And now...the Golden Adonis!

For old school comic fans who dig a giant t-rex...

And for younger fans who prefer their

t-rex size to be a more accurate size...

THE TARZAN THAT WASN'T by Dave Goode

When pole-vaulter Don Bragg won the gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome he thought he was on his way to fulfilling a lifelong dream. That of playing Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes on the silver screen.


After all swimming
champions...

Johnny Weissmuller



















and Buster Crabbe

 used their gold medal victories
as a springboard into the role.

And Herman Brix

 who was the world record holder in the shot-put and won the silver medal at the 1928 Olympics was handpicked by Tarzan's creator Edgar Rice Burroughs to play the Lord of the Jungle in a movie he produced.


And then there was Glenn Morris

who won the decathlon at the 1936 Olympics earning the title of the "world's greatest athlete". Something Burroughs often described Tarzan as being.

It was while in Rome for the Olympics that LIFE magazine did a photo shoot of Bragg clad only in a loincloth among the Roman ruins. And if anyone looked like Tarzan it was the 6' 2" , 200 lb. Bragg. Growing up Bragg watched Johnny Weissmuller movies and played Tarzan climbing and swinging on ropes near his home. He also was blessed by great genetics. His father had done some professional wrestling. And Bragg grew into an all-around athlete who specialized in pole-vaulting.






In 1964 Bragg was given the chance to portray the king of the jungle in
TARZAN AND THE JEWELS OF OPAR produced by Sandy Howard and filmed in Jamaica. But almost as soon as filming started the production was shutdown. ERB Inc. won an injunction against Jamaica Pictures Ltd. headed up by Sherman S. Krellberg and Sandy Howard. I wonder what the finished product would have looked like? Would the script have had Bragg "aping" Weissmuller? Who would have portrayed La of Opar? Who would have played Jane? It's too bad that the film wasn't completed. Maybe changing the hero's name to Tyger or Zantar or something else. Just looking at pics of Bragg you can see he would have made a great jungle hero of some sort.


  Speaking of low budget jungle flicks, let's see what the Golden Adonis is up to in this brand new strip by Dave Goode and Vance Capley:

See more of the Golden Adonis' exploits in Judo Comics! Available at lulu.com

Watch artist Vance Capley draw a Golden Adonis strip!

The Olympian and The Burlesque Queen by Dave Goode

I'm a huge fan of low-budget jungle adventure movies.The kind with potted plant jungle sets and tons of decades old stock footage.I think I developed this particular flick fetish in my pre-teen years watching the syndicated Ramar of the Jungle and Jungle Jim television shows.

I also loved PRC jungle programmers. The ones starring Buster Crabbe were special favorites.As I've said before Crabbe in safari togs and a pith helmet was a dead ringer for Doc Savage. My favorite of these was Nabonga.Where you not only have Crabbe fighting a crocodile and delivering the line "Those crocodiles can sure give you a work-out." But you also get the ape-suited Ray Corrigan. Plus a teenage Julie London. 

But another Crabbe jungle flick I've come to enjoy is Jungle Siren. Directed by Sam Newfield and written by George Wallace Sayre and Milton Ralson this flick stars legendary burlesque queen Ann Coriro in the title role playing Kuhlaya a Sheena-type who helps Crabbe fight Nazis in the wilds of Africa. Buster plays Captain Gary Hart and Paul Bryar is his comic relief sidekick Sgt. Mike Jenkins.

Bryar has the flick's funniest line. He wakes up one morning and starts flexing his muscles while commenting "Another 10 days of this and I'll have a physique like Buster Crabbe."

And I suppose this was the purpose of casting the former Olympic swimming champion opposite Coriro the ecdysiast.The PRC producers probably thought putting two such perfect physical specimens in the the same movie as romantic leads would be good box office.

The Mighty Thun'da...King of the Congo by Dave Goode

In 1952 serial king Buster Crabbe would make his last chapter-play. He starred as Thun'da,King of the Congo in a serial based on the comic book of the same name from Magazine Enterprises.The Tarzan-like Thun'da appeared in 6 issues during the Atom Age of Comics in 1952 and 1953. The first issue is completely illustrated by legendary artist Frank Frazetta and scripted by Gardner Fox. Issues 2 to 4 were ably illustrated by Bob Powell. Produced by "Jungle" Sam Katzman and directed by Spencer Bennett and Wallace Grissell the serial has the distinction of being the last chapter-play based on a comic book property.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But as much as I love Buster Crabbe I can't help but imagine Gordon Scott in the role. For one thing he looks almost exactly like Frank Frazetta's original drawings of the "Congo King". Of course Scott wouldn't make his first of six Tarzan movies until 1955. Two years after after the Thun'da comic book ceased publication. But then the Sheena,Queen of the Jungle television series starring Irish McCalla didn't appear until after the Sheena comics stopped publication. So I can imagine a big-budget Thun'da flick with Scott based on the first issue drawn by Frazetta that initially had Thun'da adventuring in a Pellucidar-like lost land in Africa. Complete with dinosaurs and tribes of cavemen. And yes the dinosaurs would be brought to life by the special effects wizardry of Ray Harryhausen.

And speaking of "jungle kings" below is another comic panel drawn by Vance Capley of the Tarzan of the Squared Circle...Brad King,the Golden Adonis.For more of Brad as well as Dr.Judo,Mr.Incognito and the Phantom Gorilla purchase JUDO COMICS from lulu.com.

 

 

If you think this is cool, you can hear us talking about it on DRAW TV!

The Hero To Several Generations of Boys (and Girls as well)! by Dave Goode

 

When I was a youngster Buster Crabbe was my hero. That's probably not news to most of you. If you're of a certain age then he was most likely your boyhood hero as well. Born Clarence Linden Crabbe he literally swam into the movies by winning the 400 meter event at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.

 

Signed to a movie contract almost as soon as he left the pool he was cast as Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan in the serial TARZAN THE FEARLESS. Most likely to capitalize on the success of the movie TARZAN THE APE MAN that starred Crabbe's one-time swimming rival Johnny Weissmuller. However TARZAN THE FEARLESS was one of the worst Tarzan movies ever made. And Crabbe's "ape-man" made Weissmuller's monosyllabic Tarzan seem like a Rhodes Scholar in comparison. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He was far better as Kaspa,the Lion Man in KING OF THE JUNGLE. That movie had a plot that mirrored that of KING KONG. But of course the role that would bring him screen immortality was that of Flash Gordon.

Crabbe was perfectly cast as Alex Raymond's science-fantasy comic strip hero. With his hair bleached blond for the role he looked like Flash Gordon come to life. He would play the character in three serials... FLASH GORDON,FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS and FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE from 1936 to 1940. He portrayed two other comic strip heroes in serials during this period. Undercover detective RED BARRY and science fiction icon BUCK ROGERS. During the 1940s he worked steadily for PRC playing various jungle adventurers and western hero Billy Carson. During the 50s Crabbe would make his final serial starring as THUN'DA  a Tarzan-like comic book hero who was originally drawn by Frank Frazetta. (Click here to read Thun'da)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crabbe's popularity as a movie hero led him to getting his own comic book 

series during the 1950s. Two actually. Eastern Color Printing published Buster Crabbe Comics from 1951 to 1953 for 12 issues in total. Lev Gleason published 4 issues of The Amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe in 1954. (Click here to read this classic comic)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from these comics Crabbe also appeared ( uncredited ) on the covers of a couple of Gold Key comic books. Gold Key during the Silver Age of Comic Books was known for their beautiful painted covers that gave their books a wonderful pulp magazine feel. There were several issues of Korak,The Son of Tarzan where Tarzan's offspring resembles Crabbe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then there was the first cover to Magnus,Robot Fighter 4000 AD. The resemblance is unmistakable. Just check out that jawline and chin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buster Crabbe as the Man of Bronze?! The masterminds behind the smash hit Judo Comics, Dave Goode and Vance Capley, send you back to the bijou to see the faux movie serial, The Man of Bronze!! Grab your posters today: MAN OF BRONZE POSTERS

Eva Lynd..The Girl on the Sweat Mag Cover by Dave Goode

Born Eva Von Fielitz on Sept.2,1937 in Orgyte,Sweden,Lynd posed for glamour girl pin-up pics and appeared as eye-candy on television shows and in movies. She was best known however for her appearances on the covers of "men's sweat magazines". She was a favorite model of Norm Eastman,Al Rossi and Bruce Minney. She was recognizable as the lingerie-clad victims of Nazi brutality. Other times she'd be a sexy resistance fighter battling alongside American GIs and British commandos. And on still other occasions she was the SS She-Wolf torturing a captured P.O.W. If there was more than one woman in the scene look carefully. Chances are it was Eva with different hair coloring.

I was watching the camp classic

SHE DEMONS again the other day and was struck by how

much the story resembled something

out of a sweat mag. Only with more of a sci-fi/horror bent. 

Then I began to imagine

this flick starring Eva Lynd

and Steve Holland instead

of Irish McCalla and Todd Griffin.

Hmmm. Irish McCalla might have

made a good model for Pat Savage

as well. Tarzan actors like Buster

Crabbe, Herman Brix, Lex Barker

would have been great

portraying Doc Savage. Heck

TV's Tarzan of the 1960s Ron Ely

actually did play Doc in a

70s flick.So it's not hard to

imagine McCalla, the definitive

Sheena Queen of the Jungle

portraying Pat Savage..

the Girl of Bronze.

Written by Dave Goode

Layout and graphics by

Vance Capley

Smashing Robots in 4000 A.D. by Dave Goode

 My favorite Silver Age sci-fi comic book was Gold Key's Magnus Robot Fighter 4000 A.D. That first issue stood out from everything else on the stands. That fantastic cover that featured what appeared to be, serial & B-Movie star, Buster Crabbe smashing a robot with a "karate chop" defending an Ann-Margaret lookalike cowering in the background. 

 Over the decades since it's first appearance back in 1963 the Robot Fighter feature has become a cult favorite. I attribute this to three things...

 First and foremost was the art. Not only did you have Russ Manning, one of the all time great comic book/strip illustrators drawing the stories ,but you also had wonderful painted covers that gave the title the look of science fiction paperbacks.

 

 Secondly you had robots. Nothing, except for dinosaurs and gorillas on a comic book cover,  was guaranteed to sell a mag like robots. And with a title, like Magnus, Robot Fighter, you were sure to have plenty of robots.  

 Thirdly, there was karate. It was that karate stuff that we had been seeing more and more of in movies and on television. It was never stated that Magnus was using karate, but the reader had little doubt.  I imagined the Robot Fighter was using the form of karate developed by the legendary Mas Oyama - kyokushin.

 Interestingly, Magnus' creator, Russ Manning, didn't originally conceive of Magnus destroying robots with shuto blows. That idea came from his wife. However she originally suggested the idea of Magnus leaping up on the shoulders of robots and unscrewing their heads.

 Manning originally imagined his "Tarzan of the Future" using a stone hammer and not tameshiwari techniques to turn robots into scrap metal. After reading about that. I re-imagined Magnus wearing something different than the "red mini-skirt and white go-go boots". Like something out of a gladiator movie. Even with the stone hammer, it's impossible not to think of Magnus using karate, if only as a back-up.

Faux fun by Vance Capley

For years fan-boys have imagined a live-action Magnus movie. Today, with CGI, that's even easier to imagine. But back in the 60s, we could only imagine Ray Harryhausen and a team of stop-motion animators bringing Magnus' robot antagonists to life. That or you'd have to trade down and use the type of robots seen in Target Earth. Casting the leads for the Robot Fighter movie might have proved a bit easier. Someone once told me, when casting a hero, just go with Ron Ely.

In this case, that was more than just good advice. Ely, who would star as Tarzan on television, would have been spot-on as Manning's "Tarzan of the Future".

 

Connie Stevens or Mimsy Farmer could have played his love interest Leeja Clane.

THE MAN OF BRONZE SERIAL by Dave Goode

If you're a fan-boy like me there probably hasn't been a time while watching a Buster Crabbe jungle adventure from PRC that you haven't imagined the former swimming champion playing Doc Savage.Clad in sport shirt, jodhpurs and riding boots Crabbe pretty much looked like one of illustrator Walter Baumhofer's pulp magazine covers come to life.Though the artists at Street & Smith were told to make Clark Savage Jr. look as much like Clark Gable as possible. As popular as the Doc Savage pulps were I'm sure that a serial would have been just as popular.

I imagine the serial starring Crabbe would feature the likes of Reed Hadley, Ben Weldon, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and other serial and B-Movie regulars as his companions the Amazing Five. A fifteen chapter serial from Pre-Republic Mascot that would begin with the "The Man of Bronze" in New York for the first three chapters. In the next three chapters he and his men would end up in Asia. Chapters seven through nine would find our heroes in the jungles of Africa. And the final chapters would find them back in New York where they would thwart the villain once and for all.

The serial wouldn't be based on any particular Doc novel. And it would feature a villain specifically created for the chapter-play. More importantly the serial would have had Doc going up against a gorilla in one of the chapters. Something that the Man of Bronze, as far as I know, never did in any of  the original 181 published stories. Something this fan boy would have loved to have seen on the cover of one of the pulps. Or illustrated on one of the paperback re-issues by James Bama.