Masks, Muscles, and Myth by Dave Goode

Just the other day I was marveling on the overall coolness of posters from the sinew & sandal and masked wrestler movie genres. Illustrations from either would make great comic book covers. Flicks from both genres can rightfully be considered superhero movies. And then I got to thinking once again why there was never a team - up between say el Santo and Maciste. After all if you can have a movie starring el Zorro and el Maciste you can have one between Maciste and Santo or one of the " Man in the Silver Mask's " ancestors. What I really wonder about is why Mexico never had many entries in the peplum film genre.

The most notable exception was THE RAPE OF THE SABINES ( 1962 ). The movie is a retelling of the story of the Sabine women and stars Wulf Ruvinskis as Romulos , the same character that Steve Reeves portrayed in the sinew & sandal flick DUEL OF THE TITANS ( 1961 ). Ruvinskis , the wrestler turned actor , is probably better known to some of you as the star of the Neutron movie series where he played the black - masked crime-fighter.

I was thinking about a mash - up movie featuring Mil Mascaras. Heck! Mascaras had the physique to star in a Mexican - made Hercules movie himself. But here he would have played himself. With say Alan Steel as the immortal Maciste. The plot would involve Maciste in the 20th century taking a job as a pro wrestler , like Arnold did in HERCULES IN NEW YORK ( 1970 ). In between bouts the two musclemen would have several comic book adventures. To give you some idea how that might look my buddy Vance Capley has provided a faux comic book cover featuring the Man of a Dozen Masks, Mr. Incognito and Brad King the Golden Adonis.

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THE SPAWN OF ATLAS

If you're a comic book reader of a certain age then the name Charles Atlas is as familiar to you as Superman or Batman. Looking very tarzanic in his trademark leopard-skin Atlas was the  master of dynamic tension , the secret training regimen that gave the former 97 lb. weakling the physique of an Olympian demi-god. There are many fans of heroic pulp who believe that Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze used a similar training program. And his comic book ad " The Insult That Made A Man Out Of Mac! " was as well known to comic book fans as that of any superhero. It was sheer brilliance to advertise his exercise program in comics whose readers were fantasizing about being physical supermen. It only made sense then that there were three comic book heroes during the 1950s that seemed to be inspired by the " World's Most Perfectly Developed Man "

First up was MR. UNIVERSE (July 1951) from Media Publications. This title ran
for five issues and featured the adventures of athlete Tommy Turner who wins the Mr.Universe title and then becomes a pro wrestling star. The series was written by Harry Kanter and illustrated by the tag-team of Ross Andru (pencils) and Mike Esposito (inks).

There was a movie titled MR. UNIVERSE also from 1951 that starred Vince Edwards, Jack Carter, Janis Paige, Bert Lahr, and Maxie Rosenbloom. Supposedly the film and the comic book have nothing to do with each other. But it's an amazing coincidence that in both the comic book and movie the wrestler's manager is named Jeff Clayton. By the way the winner of the 1951 Mr.Universe competition was Reg Park who would go on to star as Hercules in the movies.

Then there was Magazine Enterprises' STRONG MAN by Bob Powell.The 1st
issue was cover dated March-April 1955 and ran for 4 issues. Interestingly Powell's father was the manager of several pro wrestlers. Strong Man , who was never given any other name , was exactly that. A professional strongman complete with a leopard-skin and Roman sandals who was also a bodybuilding instructor who fought crime in his spare time. The coolest thing about this feature was that the Charles Atlas-like hero performed feats of strength that were based on actual feats performed by professional strongmen.There were also physical fitness and strength building features where Strong Man taught the readers to build themselves up.

And then there was MR. MUSCLES from Charlton Comics. There were only two issues of this title. The first issue appeared in March of 1956 and the second in August. Ben Carson uses bodybuilding to overcome polio. He then becomes a physical culture instructor and pro wrestler who again fights crime in his spare time. He has two sidekicks , Kid Muscles and Miss Muscles. This feature was created by Jerry Siegel , the co-creator of Superman. The first issue was illustrated by Bill Fraccio and had a pretty neat cover illustrated by a young Dick Giordano. Later issues were illustrated by Charles Nicholas ( pencils ) and Vince Alascia ( inks ). The stories weren't great. They weren't too awful either. But the art really took away from them.

Aside from these three comic book characters the Charles Atlas comic strip ad was parodied dozens of times. And The Golden Adonis comic strip that sometimes appears in this blog spot was inspired in part by Charles Atlas.

Originally presented in Judo Comics

Get your copy of Judo Comics here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/dave-goode/judo-comics/paperback/product-22908356.html

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