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
