IT WASN'T JUST HYPERBOLE by Dave Goode

 

I came to the Marvel Age of Comics a little late. My first Marvel Comic was Tales Of Suspense No. 67 (July 1965) where I was introduced to Iron Man and Captain America , who would become my all time favorite comic book hero. A short time later I traded for Fantastic Four Annual No. 3 (Oct. 1965). It was pure magic to this young comic book fan. I started buying the FF and later Marvel Collectors Item Classics for its reprints of early Fantastic Four stories. On the cover of FF No. 3 ( March 1962 ) there was a blurb that declared it "The Greatest Comic Magazine In The World!!". Beginning with No. 4 (May 1962) the blurb would read "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!". And as far as I was concerned this wasn't just hype. It really was. And this comic was one of my must buys of the Silver Age.

 

 

The early issues were pure fun. Start with the name the Fantastic Four. As comic book historian Fred Hembeck said it sounded like the name of a circus act. Even their code names sounded like those of circus performers. Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) , the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), the Invisible Girl (Sue Storm), and the Thing (Ben Grimm). But it worked. Something else that worked were the stories. The FF had adventures like you'd find in DC Comics Challengers of The Unknown title. The Challengers was a Fantastic Four prototype as was DC's Sea Devils. The difference being that neither one of those teams possessed super - powers. Though the Fantastic Four didn't get superhero costumes (uniforms?) until their third issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite parts of the early FF stories  were the little "bits of business". The team breaking up and starting separate careers. Reed as a corporate research scientist. Sue as a B-Movie actress in a sci-fi flick. Johnny as a circus performer. And Ben as a professional wrestler. Another favorite of mine was Fantastic Four No. 9 (Dec. 1962) when the team went bankrupt. To recoup their losses they take an offer from a mysterious movie producer to make a Fantastic Four movie. Hopefully it was better than the Fantastic Four movies we got in the real world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My buddy Vance Capley always wanted to illustrate the FF. And this week he does just that with a faux Fantastic Four cover featuring the Red Ghost's Super-Apes. Enjoy.

 

 

I KIND OF LIKED THE ORIGINAL COSTUME by Dave Goode

 

I've always been a fan of comic book heroes who didn't posses " powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal man ". I found inspiration in costumed athletes like Daredevil from Marvel Comics. Especially from Daredevil. His origin got this former underweight asthmatic exercising. Which led me to lettering in three sports in high school. And making a couple of All - City teams in both track & field and wrestling.

 

Today , as a fan of masked wrestler movies I get a chuckle out of how when Daredevil first confronts the villain's hired thugs in Daredevil No. 1 ( April 1964 ) they mistake him for a costumed wrestler.  

 

 

 

 

The thing is the Man Without Fear's original costume resembled the one worn by acrobat / aerialist Jules Le'otard. Le'otard was the inspiration for the popular 19th century song The Flying Trapeze a.k.a The Man On The Flying Trapeze. And oh yes the leotard was named after him.

After taking over the art chores in Daredevil with issue number five , Wally Wood would redesign Daredevil's costume in Daredevil No.7 ( April 1965 ). This would be the iconic costume that the Man Without Fear wears to this day. But I kind of like the original costume. I'm not saying I prefer it. But it is after all something a circus acrobat , or if you will a daredevil , would wear.

 AND NOW ANOTHER AMAZING ADVENTURE OF MR. INCOGNITO!

THE UNMOVABLE AND THE UNTOUCHABLE by Dave Goode

THE UNMOVABLE AND THE UNTOUCHABLE by Dave Goode

 

 

I've been ribbed for years by a buddy, independent comic book artist William Murchinson, about being a fan of the original team of X-Men. Or as he jabs "the team with Frosty the Snow Man"... Of course he's just joshing. Like most Lee & Kirby created comics from the beginning of the Marvel Age the early X-Men stories were magic. Two of my favorites were X-Men N0.3 (Jan. 1964) and X-Men No. 8 (Nov. 1964).

 

 

I've been a fan of carnival and circus themed movies for as long as I can remember. The colorfully costumed performers of the big top reminded me of comic book heroes. And of course Superman's original costume was inspired by circus performers. But that's a story for another day.

In Beware Of The Blob (X-Men No. 3) the uncanny X-Men face off against the massively built Blob, a sideshow attraction who imagined being played in a movie by pro wrestler Haystacks Calhoun. The highlight of the story is the X-Men's headquarters being attacked by carnival performers led by the indestructible and immovable Blob.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five issues later the X-Men would face an adversary from a different kind of circus when they battle The Uncanny Threat Of Unus, The Untouchable (X-Men No. 8 ). In what remains my favorite story from the original X-Men series Hank Mc Coy a.k.a the Beast leaves the team briefly for a career as a professional wrestler. There he meets wrestler Unus, the Untouchable a mutant with a personal force field.

The highlight of this story to me is the Beast's foray into the grunt & groan racket. His ring entrance is something that Vince McMahon could only dream of.

Audie Murphy: Real and Reel American Hero by Dave Goode

Audie Murphy

Real and Reel American Hero

by Dave Goode

For years I've referred to Audie L. Murphy as "The real Captain America. Hold the Super-Soldier Serum". But I knew him first as a western movie star. It was in high school while telling a friend about an Audie Murphy flick that I had just seen. And he mentioned that the slightly built, baby-faced cowboy star was the most decorated combat veteran of World War Two. I would later see the movie TO HELL, AND BACK where Murphy would play himself in the Universal movie production based on his best selling autobiography. I learned how he was rejected by the Marines, the Navy, and the Paratroopers before the Army accepted him. He wasn't old enough to vote. Three years later he still wasn't able to vote. But when he was discharged from Uncle Sam's service he had been awarded every medal the United States of America gives for bravery and valor. Including the Congressional Medal of Honor. Still I'll always remember him as a western movie hero.

There really is no such thing as a less than entertaining Audie Murphy western. He really wasn't a great actor. But Universal Pictures put him in movies that played to his strengths. Five of my favorites were RIDE CLEAR OF DIABLO (1954), RIDE A CROOKED TRAIL (1958), DESTRY (1954), GUNSMOKE (1953), and DUEL AT SILVER CREEK (1952).

I always thought that last film should have been titled SHOWDOWN AT SILVER CREEK. It would have given it a more western feel. In it Murphy plays a gunfighter known to friends and enemies alike as the "Silver Kid". Watching this movie back when I was twelve or thirteen it got me to thinking that Murphy might have been good playing Marvel Comics western hero the Rawhide Kid. What do you think?

The Judo League of America needs YOU to grab our latest t-shirt!

Speaking of cowboys, Vance Capley is drawing a cowboy! 

ATLANTIS,THE LOST CONTINENT by Dave Goode

When I was a young fan-boy back in the early 60s I was fascinated by the legend of lost Atlantis found originally in Plato's writings Timaeus and Critias. Atlantis was a highly advanced island-nation that was sunk beneath the waves by the gods for the hubris of it's rulers. I of course learned of Atlantis from it's image in comic books. That of an advanced metropolis protected beneath the ocean depths by a huge glass dome. As always the continuity in DC Comics left me a bit flustered as that there were two different underwater cities called Atlantis in their Silver Age comic books. The one found in Superman family comics featured mer-people. While the Atlantis Aquaman ruled over was populated by bi-pedal humanoids. Over at Marvel Comics , Prince Namor ruled over an Atlantis populated by bi-pedal humanoids. Albeit with blue skin.

However most movies about Atlantis don't deal with underwater civilizations. Instead they deal with the destruction of Atlantis. Of these my favorite was ATLANTIS,THE LOST CONTINENT (1961). This sci-fi peplum movie was produced and directed by George Pal with a script written by Daniel Mainwaring and Gerald Hargreaves. The movie starred Anthony Hall as a Greek fisherman named Demetrious and Joyce Taylor as Princess Antillia of Atlantis. Useless trivia time. Anthony Hall was songwriter Sal Ponti who wrote Fabian's first recorded song " I'm In Love ". The storyline followed the events leading to the sinking of Atlantis. This was a good Saturday matinee type film. And I enjoyed it in my youth. I still enjoy it. But I think it would have been even better as a sinew & sandal flick starring Ed Fury and Bella Cortez.

And speaking of sinews & sandals Edgar Rice Burroughs would contribute to the Atlantis mythos with the Lost City of Opar in his Tarzan stories. I've said in the past that a lot of Burroughs' Tarzan tales came across like Maciste stories. These are some of them. In these stories Opar was an outpost of lost Atlantis now populated by beautiful women and ape-like men. Opar and it's beautiful high priestess La would appear on both the movie and television screen going back as far as the silent age of movies. But I always thought a perfect casting of Tarzan and La might have been Mike Henry and Martine Beswick. Which leads to our new Golden Adonis comic.

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

ITEM: DR. JUDO ISSUE NUMBER ONE!!!! CLICK THE PIC TO ORDER YOURS TODAY!!!!

-------------------------------------------

ITEM: DR. JUDO #1 ON A T-SHIRT!!! GET IT HERE:
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/3416142-dr-judo-and-the-monsters

------------------------------------------

ITEM: GET YOUR JUDO ON!!! "WHO IS DR.JUDO?!" is available on shirts, cups, bags, and much much more! All on vancecapleyart1972's Teepublic page!

https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/3333819-who-is-dr-judo

 

ITEM: JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN!! IT'S MONSTER MAGAZINE! GRAB OUR FIRST ISSUE AND OUR 2ND ISSUE, CREATURE CREATURE FEATURE WITH BUTCH PATRICK, DR. PAUL BEARER, AND RICOU BROWNING! Remember the Creature this Halloween along with Spider Island Slim Carody, Joseph I. Cosby, Dave Goode, David Walker, Johann Schmidt, Will Keppel, and Vance Capley. With a "fang"tastic Creature cover by artist Ricky Blalock! You can read more here:

http://www.vancecapleyart.com/2018/10/04/monster-magazine-no-2/

BURLESQUE COMICS by Dave Goode

I've mentioned in the past that I've been a fan of old-time burlesque and striptease since I saw the movie GYPSY as a preteen back in the 1960s. In my early twenties I started collecting mags like CABARET and MODERN MAN that featured articles and pictorials on burlesque and nightclub performers. It was also about this time that I started collecting SHERRY THE SHOWGIRL and SHOWGIRLS comics from Atlas Comics in the 1950s. As most comic book fans know Atlas was the name of the company that would become Marvel Comics in the 60s. I'm sure that the target audience for these Atom Age comics were adolescent boys. I mean the stories were just flimsy excuses to draw the female characters in cheesecake poses by legendary comic book artist Dan De Carlo.De Carlo was best known for his work at Archie Comics in the 1960s. 

 

And just how many comics were there out there in the 50s had a lead character who was a cabaret performer / showgirl ? Hmm. Just what was Torchy's occupation ?

A little while back my buddy Vance Capley and I introduced a character Miss Ginger Snaps. We put her in a strip with a character we called Pharaoh Love, a black bodybuilder. We then put her in two one - pagers of her own. We then decided to build a comic around her. Below is the first page of that comic. Give us some feedback on what you think. Is the world ready for a retro cheesecake comic strip?

Did you enjoy this weeks blog? Share it on social media with your friends or better yet, show your gratitude buy purchasing our fine products:

Tired of modern comics? Then click >>>>>HERE<<<<<< and buy ours!

Buying cool T-shirts and what not help support this blog!

Click >>>HERE<<< to see our latest designs!