The Man Who Never Dies by Dave Goode

 

When you talk about mythic comic book/strip heroes the discussion has to begin with Lee Falk's iconic the Phantom. Each new comic strip serial began with a recap of the hero's origin. "For those of you who may have come in late..."

I knew the Phantom from the comic strip. And from the Gold Key comic books
with the wonderful painted covers by the likes of George Wilson.

 In 1966 at the height of Batmania Warren put out a one-shot magazine titled On The Scene Presents Super-Heroes. The mag reprinted articles from Screen Thrills Illustrated on the Batman serials, Flash Gordon, the Superman serials, the Captain America and Captain Marvel serials ,the new Batman movie and the 1943 Phantom serial. From the photos that accompanied the Phantom article I knew I needed to see this serial. And I would years later when it was released on VHS.

Reportedly Lee Falk ,the Phantom's creator ,wasn't crazy about the serial. For the life of me I can't understand why. The chapter-play featured all the requisite thrills you'd expect from a jungle cliffhanger. The hero gets caught in quicksand. There's an avalanche/rock slide. There's a collapsing bridge. And best of all (to me at least) the hero fights a gorilla. There are chapters that seem to be lifted from the comic strip itself. And just might have been. The bits with the Tartar chief and the Fire Goddess for instance.

 

Tom Tyler is picture perfect as the mysterious

masked avenger. Though he's not the wisecracking hero that the character is in the comic strip. And Kenneth MacDonald is outstanding as the villainous Dr. Bremmer. It isn't perfect by any means. The "jungle natives" look like Native-Americans. In fact one of them was played by Jay Silverheels. And the Phantom's pet wolf is portrayed by German shepherd Ace,the Wonder Dog.

  My biggest beef though is that the Ghost Who Walks is seldom referred to as the Ghost Who Walks. Instead he's referred to as the "Man Who Never Dies". Maybe that's the problem Falk had with the serial.

Love old school comics? Do you miss the Bronze and Silver age action packed strips of yesterday? Then you need to read JUDO COMICS written and created by Dave Goode and illustrated by Vance Capley! Grab yours today!!

JUDO COMICS!

Swinging 60s Saturday Morning Space Opera by Dave Goode

When I was a kid I would wake up early on
Saturday mornings to catch the sci-fi series

FIREBALL XL-5. The show originated in the U.K. AND was syndicated here in the U.S from 1963 to 1965. It had a catchy theme song and was set in the far-flung future of the 21st century. It was the 3rd "Supermarionation" show (the 1st was FOUR FEATHER FALLS, 2nd  SUPERCAR) produced by the husband and wife team of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and followed the Flash Gordon-like adventures of Col.Steve Zodiac and his crew Dr.Venus,Robert the Robot and Prof.Matthew Matic.

The show was hugely popular. And with it's success there came a slew of Fireball XL-5 spin-off products. One of the coolest products was a lunchbox/thermos set designed by comic book artist supreme Wally Wood. Wood was a master illustrator and his work in the space opera genre is considered some of his finest and made him perfect for this job.

There was also a one-shot comic book from Gold Key in 1964 with a way-out cover by George Wilson.* Of course in that alternative universe that sometimes runs through my mind there was a live-action FIREBALL XL-5 movie starring Steve Holland and Eva Lynd. In fact the Steve Zodiac marionette looked quite a bit like Steve Holland. And I wouldn't at all be surprised if Holland had posed for the cover of that Gold Key comic book cover.After he and Wilson had worked together to produce some other striking comic book covers.

* In Britain, a two-page black-and-white Fireball XL5 comic strip appeared in the weekly TV Comic between 1962 and 1964 before moving to the newly launched weekly TV Century 21 comic in January 1965 for another five years. The strips that appeared between 1965 and 1968 were in color only reverting to black-and-white in 1969. Four hard cover Annual books were published in Britain by Collins between 1963 and 1966 featuring color and black and white comic strip and text stories.