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

"THIS BOLD RENEGADE CARVES A " Z " WITH HIS BLADE." by Dave Goode

This isn't going to come as a surprise. But I'm a huge fan of masked heroes. Comic book heroes. Pulp heroes. Movie serial heroes. And of course Mexiluchaheroes. My first masked hero however was el Zorro. I was introduced to the character through the Walt Disney television series that ran from 1957 to 1959 on ABC. You know. The one with the catchy theme song. It starred Guy Williams in the dual roles of the foppish Don Diego Vega and the masked avenger el Zorro... the Fox.

TV's Zorro, Guy Williams, meets Zorro creator Johnston McCulley

The character first appeared in the swashbuckling  adventure THE CURSE OF CAPISTRANO written by Johnston McCulley , as a five - part serial in the pulp magazine All - Story Weekly in 1919. The story would be adapted to the silver screen as a vehicle for America's first great action hero star Douglas Fairbanks under the title  THE MARK OF ZORRO ( 1920 ). In 1924 when McCulley's story was novelized it would be under that title. It was Fairbank's movie Zorro that served as a partial inspiration for Batman.

 

 

 

 

 

MARK OF ZORRO 1920 with Douglas Fairbanks

 

El Zorro is probably best known for his appearances in movies. The character has appeared in a number of feature films and serials. Interestingly enough Don Alejandro Vega ( Zorro's father ) on the Disney television show was played by actor George J. Lewis who appeared in two Zorro serials. ZORRO'S BLACK WHIP ( 1944 ) starring Linda Stirling as a character called The Black Whip. And THE GHOST OF ZORRO (1949 ) starring Clayton Moore who would later go on to portray the Lone Ranger. In the former he was a hero. In the latter he was a villain. Both of these films from Republic were more western than swashbuckler.

 

 

 

To most fans the best Zorro movie was THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940) starring Tyrone Power as the foppish Diego and dashing Zorro. He's equally good in both roles. Especially memorable is the climatic sword duel between Power and the movie's villain played by Basil Rathbone. As another character says to Diego after he vanquishes the villain, " You handle a sword like a devil from Hell." Fun stuff.

Hope you enjoyed this weeks' blog! Help support us by buying cool items!!

 

 

THE ICONIC HERO by Dave Goode

Art by Vance Capley - 11x17 posters are available for $15 - Vance Capley Arts

 

"With his faithful Indian companion Tonto , the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early western United States. Nowhere in the pages of history can one find a greater champion of justice." I sometimes wonder if Fran Striker was creating The Lone Ranger for George W. Trendle and WXYZ Radio back in 1933 that he was creating one of America's iconic pop culture heroes.

 

The hero's origin is as much a part of Americana as real-life western legends of the Siege of the Alamo and the Gunfight at the OK Corral. Six Texas Rangers in pursuit of the Butch Cavendash gang are led into an ambush. Only one man survived. The younger brother of ranger captain Dan Reid. Found and nursed back to health by Tonto , a Native-American the surviving ranger makes a mask from his murdered brother's vest to hide his identity and the fact that one man had survived the massacre. He makes a vow to bring a hundred outlaws to justice for each one of his fallen comrades. As he begins his new life as a masked crime-fighter he adopts the silver bullet as his sign.The Lone Ranger is much like the masked wrestling heroes of Mexican cinema in that once he dons his mask he ceases to have any other identity than that of the Lone Ranger. No changing in phone booths for this character.

 Many actors have portrayed the Lone Ranger over the years. On the radio the most notable were George Seaton ,Earle Graser and Brace Beemer. Lee Powell played the character in Republic's 1938 serial THE LONE RANGER. Republic followed that up with the 1939 serial THE LONE RANGER RIDES AGAIN starring Robert Livingston. On television from 1949 to1957 the character was portrayed by two actors. Clayton Moore began playing the role in 1949. John Hart took over the role for one season while Moore sat out the year in a contract dispute. On television Tonto, the Ranger's faithful Indian companion was portrayed by Jay Silverheels, a Mohawk Indian born in Ontario, Canada. Moore is considered by many to be the definitive Lone Ranger. And aside from his playing the character on television he portrayed him in two feature movies THE LONE RANGER (1956) and THE LONE RANGER AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1958). Both of these movies are pretty entertaining B-westerns. And if you haven't seen them you should search them out.

And Who Disguised As Clark Kent.... by Dave Goode

Born at the tail-end of the "baby boom" I grew up on reruns of The Adventures of Superman.As such there really isn't any other Superman to me other than George (no relation to Steve) Reeves. Long before the Ilya Salkind produced movies Reeves made us all believe that "a man could fly". And more importantly he taught us to believe in "truth , justice and the American way". But as great as he was as Superman, Reeves may have been even cooler as Clark Kent. 

 

As a kid you watch a show titled The Adventures of Superman to see the titled hero fly, smash through walls, have bullets bounce off him and punch out bad guys. It was as I grew older I began to appreciate Reeves performance as Kent. It was Kent who carried the show. He did the leg work. And he was private eye cool doing it.No one looked quite as casual cool as Reeves acting with his hands in his pockets. Watching Reeves as the investigative reporter you could easily imagine him starring in a series of detective movies for Monogram.

The Clark Kent as written for Reeves was respected by the police , who in the form of Metropolis police inspector William Henderson , often sought out his advice. His employer Perry White , editor of the Daily Planet completely trusted and respected him as well. Someone else who respected Kent were the members of the underworld who feared that he would figure out and expose their nefarious schemes. The only person that didn't seem to respect Kent was fellow Daily Planet reporter portrayed by Phyllis Coates in the shows 1st season. In subsequent seasons when the character was played by Noel Neill she respected Kent as much as everyone else. Though they were rivals.

George Reeves was far from the Clark Kent created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster for the comics. But you have to remember they created him at a time when comic books still had a comic quality. Many adventure features had comic relief sidekicks. The Superman comic books had Superman as his own comic relief in the form of Clark Kent. Kirk Alyn and Christopher Reeve portrayed Kent in that manner. But as for myself and the millions who grew up with George Reeves we prefer our Clark Kent mild-mannered not wimpy.