KI - GOR , THE JUNGLE KING by Dave Goode

 

Ki -Gor was one of the more popular of the

Tarzan imitations. He was featured in

about 60 stories appearing in the Jungle Stories pulp magazine from 1938 to 1954. At first glance you might confuse him for Kaanga. And not because both looked like Charles Atlas and could be played by Buster Crabbe in a movie. But because both heroes adventures were published by Fiction House.

Ki -Gor as mentioned in the pulp magazine Jungle Stories.And Kaanga in the comic book Jungle Comics. And there were a few covers of Jungle Comics featuring Kaanga that were " swipes " of

Jungle stories starring Ki - Gor. In any case Ki - Gor was the original appearing first in Jungle Stories ( Winter 1938 ) in a story written by John M. Reynolds.

As origins go Ki - Gor's was pretty cliche. The son of a missionary killed by the fierce Wunguba tribe the boy survives in the jungle with the help of his elephant friend Mamo. Later growing to manhood he rescues American aviatrix and socialite Helene Vaughn who has crashed in the jungle  and been captured by slavers. The two fall in love after sharing several adventures and she forsakes America to marry Ki -Gor and remain in the jungle with him. Like I said pretty cliche. But the stories wouldn't remain that way. They would become down right psychotronic with the hero facing dinosaurs , mad scientists , glowing zombie men , vampiric flying squirrels and witch women with actual supernatural powers.

I'm sure another reason for the hero's popularity stemmed from the wonderful Jungle Stories magazine covers. Aside from Ki -Gor wrestling with crocodiles , lions and gorillas on his way to discovering lost cities in the jungle , you also found his wife Helene in a two - piece leopard swimsuit. Sometimes in bondage. Sometimes she would be in the foreground looking like she was posing for a pin - up calendar while he swung to her rescue or fought the bad guys in the background. The Fiction House editors certainly knew how to catch the attention of pulp reading young men.

________________________________________________________________________________

And as we close this weeks blog, I'd like to congratulate Dave Goode on having written his 200th blog. His knowledge of pop culture, psychotronica, martial arts, and wrestling far exceeds many of the so called "experts" posting on the world wide web. He claims that much of his knowledge has slipped away...I disagree...once you get him talking about some nostalgic moments of yesteryear, the gears begin to turn and Dave Goode's built in pop culture dynamo is back to full power. Dave's a fantastic writer and a better friend. Congrats, bud.

Vance Capley

artist

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

JUST ABOUT EVERYONE'S IMAGINARY TARZAN by Dave Goode

It always amused me while watching the television western series CHEYENNE starring Clint Walker how the writers would find ways to get the star's shirt off. I'm sure those scenes got female viewers to tune in every week.

Standing 6 ' 6 " tall and weighing 245 lbs. with a 48 " chest he was built like a basketball power forward. But like the pulp magazine hero Doc Savage he was so perfectly proportioned that you didn't realize how big he was unless he stood next to something of size to give him scale. That's why I've included pictures of him with Mr. Universe Steve Reeves and NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown.

I've said jokingly for years that Walker, physically at least, would have been an impressive Superman. But you could never disguise his traps and shoulders with a pair of glasses. I could also see him playing the biblical hero Samson. But the character most people imagine Walker playing on screen was Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan Of The Apes.

At 6' 6" he was quite a bit taller than Burroughs described the "Ape Man". But otherwise he'd be a perfect fit. And he was cast more or less as Tarzan in his very first screen role. Under the name Jett Norman he appeared in a leopard-skin in a scene in the Bowery Boys comedy JUNGLE GENTS (1954).

Fans weren't the only people that imagined Walker as Tarzan. I've no way of confirming it. But I'd say that noted comic book/strip artist Gray Morrow channeled Walker when he illustrated the Tarzan comic strip from 1983 to 2001.

A VERY GUILTY PLEASURE! by Dave Goode

A VERY GUILTY PLEASURE! by Dave Goode

One of my favorite Grade Z "guilty pleasures" is SHE DEMONS (1958). Starring Irish Mc Calla, Todd Griffin, Victor Sen Yung, Rudolph Anders, Gene Roth, and the Diane Nellis Dancers this is a fun little time killer that I first caught on television during a rain-out theater.

Produced by Arthur A. Jacobs and Marc Frederic ,the flick was directed by Richard Cunha who co-wrote the story with H. E. Barrie. The 77 minute movie made for an estimated 65,000 dollars was the stuff of men's sweat magazines. Or with the story's sci-fi/horror slant it could have come from a 40s pulp magazine.

During a hurricane a pleasure yacht is shipwrecked on an uncharted tropical island populated by beautiful women (the Diane Nellis Dancers) who periodically change into deformed monsters.

The results of experiments conducted by mad scientist and Nazi war criminal Col. Karl Osler (Rudolph Anders). The stock survivors of the shipwreck beautiful spoiled rich girl  Jerrie Turner (Irish Mc Calla), wooden hero Fred Maklin (Tod Griffin), and ethnic comic relief sidekick Sammy Ching (Victor Sen Yung) struggle against Col. Osler, his Nazi minions and the "She Demons".

The movie is a lot of fun. especially for a preteen who was a reader of comics and Famous Monsters of Filmland. Over the years this flick has gained a cult status. But over the years I've also started to think how this low-budget movie production would have made a great vehicle for Steve Holland and Eva Lynd who posed as the hero and heroine on numerous men's sweat mag covers.

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

NOW...DIM THE LIGHTS.....IT'S SHOWTIME!!

 1950s TV sci-fi hero returns in a brand new 92 page graphic novel by Vance Capley...read more here: https://captainzro.blogspot.com/

TARZAN UNCHAINED!!! by Dave Goode

 TARZAN UNCHAINED!!! by Dave Goode

It's a funny thing. I know Mike Henry only made three Tarzan movies. TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD ( 1966 ) , TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER (1967 ) and TARZAN AND THE JUNGLE BOY ( 1968 ). But in my mind it seems like he made four. It doesn't matter how many times I look it up and see he made only these three. I still think he made four. If there had been fourth Tarzan movie starring Henry I would have liked to have seen it feature one or two characters from the Edgar Rice Burroughs' books. Specifically Jane and La of Opar. I'd  also liked to have seen the untamed ape - man of Burroughs.

Henry, the former NFL linebacker, comes close to matching the primal ferocity of Tarzan in his fights with Rafer Johnson in TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER and TARZAN AND THE JUNGLE BOY. And the climatic battle between his Tarzan and the cyclopean martial arts master played by Don Megowan in TARZAN AND THE VALLEY OF GOLD is another standout. In that one he break's his opponent's neck with a full-nelson. Tarzan's signature wrestling hold. But if you really want to see Henry cut loose check him out in THE GREEN BERETS (1968).

Okay we have Mike Henry cast as Tarzan again. But who to cast as Tarzan's mate Jane and La? Well for Jane I'd go with either Barbara Bouchet or Celeste Yarnall. And for La , the high priestess of the lost city of Opar, Hammer scream queen Martine Beswick.

ZAN...THE FORGOTTEN TARZAN by Dave Goode

One of my favorite ersatz Tarzans was Zan, King of the Jungle (1969). The star of this European production known alternately as Tarzan En La Gruta Del Oro (TARZAN IN THE GOLDEN GROTTO) and KING OF THE JUNGLE the movie's star Steve Hawkes claimed the film company that produced the flick couldn't pay the licensing fee to the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate for the use of the Tarzan name. And so they simply cut the jungle hero's name in half. 

In any case the production was a fairly entertaining flick that was filmed in Africa, Florida, Italy  Spain, and Suriname. And it featured something that was rarely seen in a Tarzan movie since MGM's TARZAN THE APE MAN (1932). Tarzan in mortal combat with a gorilla.

The movie's star Steve Hawkes was born Stepjen "Steve" Sipek in Croatia and relocated to Canada in 1959. I've read interviews with Hawkes where he claimed to be a champion swimmer (Johnny Weissmuller was his boyhood hero) and the winner of the Mr.Canada bodybuilding title before becoming a professional wrestler. The latter was pure "kayfabe". There is no record of him winning the Mr. Canada championship. There have been any number of well - built pro wrestlers who billed themselves as Mr. America or Mr. Universe without having won those titles. Or even having competed in those contests.

There was a sequel to KING OF THE JUNGLE, TARZAN AND THE BROWN PRINCE (1972) that had a similar plot to the Jock Mahoney movie TARZAN'S THREE CHALLENGES (1963). Hawkes played the lead in this flick and his co- star from the first movie Kitty Swan returned as well. 

 

Swan had starred in a jungle movie of her own as GUNGALA, VIRGIN OF THE JUNGLE (1967). An accident on the set of TARZAN AND THE BROWN PRINCE left Hawkes and Swan both horribly burned when they were tied down for a scene and a fire got out of control. A lion on the set who was trained to free the actors from their bonds for the scene actually saved them.Hawkes would relocate to Loxahatchee, Florida where he opened an animal sanctuary. News services of course wrote him up as a real life Tarzan. But in 2012 he was arrested and his animals confiscated for "non regulatory compliance in regards to animal permits".