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.

 

 

WILLIAM SMITH...VAMPIRE-SLAYER by Dave Goode

 

For years I've imagined some American movie producer back in the 1960s making masked wrestler flicks. The heroes portrayed most likely by the stars of the European sinew & sandal movies.The American bodybuilders who traveled from Muscle Beach to Italy to play Hercules, Maciste, and Ursus. Actors like Steve Reeves, Rock Stevens (Peter Lupus), and Mark Forest. But especially Gordon Scott, Dan Vadis, and Brad Harris.

 

 

Recently I was watching GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1972) again and thought the perfect name taking, butt kicking answer to Mexico's Blue Demon could have been "Big" Bill Smith, King of the Biker Flicks, who would play a professional wrestler in the 1978 sports drama BLOOD AND GUTS. But without a mask.

 

 

 

 

GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE directed by John Hayes from a screenplay by Hayes and David Chase (Kolchak) has gained a cult following over the years. The story has actor Michael Pataki playing Caleb Croft a rapist/murderer who rises from his grave a vampire after being electrocuted 30 years earlier. He brutally attacks a young couple who are making out in a parked car in a grave yard. And maybe it's just me. But can you think of a less romantic place to make love than in a grave yard? Killing the man the vampire rapes the woman in an open grave.

 

 

The woman gives birth to a strange gray hued baby. It of course is the child of her undead attacker. But she is a bit unhinged after her attack. And believes the baby to be the child of her murdered boy friend. This is the reason she continues to carry the child after she is told the baby is a parasite draining her of blood from within. After giving birth she continues to feed him with her own blood. Sending her to an early grave. There is one very eerie seen that shows the child watching from the shadows as other children play in the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

The grown son James Eastman played by William Smith tracks down his vampiric father who is now teaching night courses in the occult under the name Professor Lockwood. The climax of the movie has father and son throwing down against each other in a battle of good vs. evil. Not quite as good as the fight Smith had in the movie DARKER THAN AMBER (1970). But then what is? And it does make you think of Smith opening a can of whup @#$$ on other supernatural menaces. 

 

 

 

 

Art by Vance Capley

 

 

 

THE GREATEST TAG-TEAM MATCH IN MEXILUCHAHERO MOVIE HISTORY by Dave Goode

Of Universal's classic monsters my favorite was the Wolf Man. Lon Chaney Jr. starred in a series of films during the 1940s beginning with The Wolf Man (1941). This was followed by Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943), House Of Frankenstein (1944), House Of Dracula (1945), and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). These films have come to be known as the "Larry Talbot Saga".

There was also a novel by Jeff Rovin titled Return Of The Wolf Man that continued Talbot's story. It begins where Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein left off. And if you're a fan of classic horror movies I can't recommend this book enough.

Werewolves are also popular in Mexico's Cinema of the Psychotronic. No where so much as in flicks featuring Mexiluchaheroes. Blue Demon's first starring role was in Blue Demon, El Blue Demonia (1965). It featured the blue-masked luchador battling a scientifically created wolf man. Blue Demon would take on another werewolf in Santo & Blue Demon vs. Dracula & The Wolf Man (1972).

Santo y Blue Demon contra Dracula el Hombre Lobo directed by Miguel Mi Delgado from ascreenplay by Alfredo Salazar is a favorite of fans of the genre. Largely because it's one of the few team - ups where Blue Demon isn't playing second fiddle to a steel guitar. In this one the two anonymous adventurers stand on equal ground. The same can't be said of the relationship between Dracula (Aldo Monti) and Rufus Rex, the Wolf Man (Augustin Martinez Solares). It reminds me of the one between Armand Telsa (Bela Lugosi) and Andreas Orby (Matt Willis) in Return Of The Vampire (1944). With the wolf man as the vampire's slave.

There's plenty of action in this flick. Especially between Blue Demon and the Wolf Man in the movie's climax. But the best remembered scene is the one where the two masked heroes, dressed like the Men from U.N.C.L.E., play a game of chess while standing guard over the movie's heroines.

For this week's blog my buddy Vance Capley and myself did a Mr. Incognito mash-up page featuring some characters that may be recognizable to fans of Universal Studio's movies of the 1940s.

Dig the art?
Then get it on a t-shirt, cup, magnet, and more:
https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/8658884-luchador-vs-wolfmen

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

THE VAMPIRE GIRLS by Dave Goode

THE VAMPIRE GIRLS by Dave Goode

The first Mil Mascaras movie that I ever saw was Las Vampiras (1969). Directed by Federico Curiel from a screenplay co-written by Curiel and Adolfo Torres Portillo this may have been Mascaras' best known film to American audiences due to it's constant showings on UHF stations here during the 70s and 80s.The movie is pure psychotronic fun. But with a coven of beautiful female vampires and their muscular henchmen this flick can't help remind one of Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiro (1962) , the Gone With The Wind of Mexiluchahero movies.

This one features John Carradine who portrayed Count Dracula in House Of Frankenstein (1944), House Of Dracula (1945) and Billy The Kid Vs. Dracula (1966). Here he plays Count Branus, the vampire king deposed by Aura (Marta Romero) and Veria (Maria Duval) to shapely green-skinned vampire girls. You fans of the masked wrestler movie genre might recognize Miss Duval as the damsel in distress from the previously mentioned Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiro a.k.a Samson Vs. The Vampire Women. This time around the damsel in distress is played by beautiful Maura Monti.

This is everything you would expect from a superhero vs. vampires movie with masked wrestler Mil Mascaras teaming up with reporter Carlos Mayer played by Pedro Armendariz Jr. to track down and destroy the living dead. Mascaras is great in this. Nobody is better at playing Mil Mascaras than Mil Mascaras. Built like the lead in a gladiator movie he moves like we imagined a comic book hero would move before the advent of CGI. Maybe not the greatest actor. But like Steve Reeves and Arnold Schwarzenegger he has a presence. I've imagined for years about getting the rights to the Spanish language movie and re-dubbing it into English ala' What's Up Tiger Lilly?.

To along with this week's blog is a comic book cover imagined by Dave Goode and illustrated by Vance Capley featuring the poor man's Mil Mascaras.

 Grab a t-shirt of this fantastic art: https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/6085394-mr-incognito-meets-the-amazon-devil-queen

ARTISTS, MODELS, & COMICS by Dave Goode

ARTISTS, MODELS, & COMICS by Dave Goode

If you started reading comics at a very young age. Say before the age of six. More likely than not you imagined putting on a costume and going out to fight the forces of evil in the name of "truth, justice, and the American way". Then sometime when you were a little older you imagined being a comic book creator. You probably created your own comics from the very beginning. Self written and drawn pastiches of your favorites. I've got some very fond memories of elementary school and making comics with fellow fan-boys. And there were various episodes of television shows and movies that were cartoonist-themed.

 

I remember the short-lived television series HE AND SHE from the era of Batmania that starred Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss about a cartoonist and his wife. 

 

Also from the Batmania era was The Winged Avenger episode of the cult British television series THE AVENGERS that had Steed and Peel matching wits with a deranged comic book artist.

My favorite comic book creator movie was ARTISTS & MODELS (1955) directed by Frank Tashlin, who also helped to write the screenplay. It starred the comedy team of Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis who had been appearing in their own comic book series from DC since 1952. The movie also stars Dorothy Malone and Shirley MacLaine. Both Martin and Malone play comic book artists. MacLaine plays Malone's roommate who also doubles as the model for the comic book character the Bat - Lady. Interestingly enough the movie was released nearly a year before Batwoman made her debut in Detective Comics No. 233 (July 1956). It should also be noted that Dean Martin, the coolest member of the Rat Pack, was a huge comic book fan.

 

I'm also a fan of the comedy HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE (1965) that starred Jack Lemmon , Terry - Thomas , and the stunning Virna Lisi. Lemmon portrays a syndicated comic strip artist who uses models ( just like real life cartoonists Alex Raymond and Milton Caniff ) and researches his comic strip to the last detail. Acting out scenes for his strip. He also lives a swinging bachelor lifestyle that Hugh Hefner would have been envious of. 

Woodrow Wilkins, the comic book artist that Michael Crawford portrays in CONDORMAN (1981) does pretty much the same. I've given my buddy Vance Capley grief over this flick for years now. But the truth is that I find this movie based on Robert Sheckley's book THE GAME OF X very entertaining. 

I also like an episode of the television series SIMON & SIMON titled "Almost Completely Out of Circulation". In this episode from the show's fourth season detectives Rick and A.J. Simon investigate the murder of a comic book artist. Prop comic book art for this episode is provided by Will Meugniot and Bruce Timm. With coloring and color seperations by Jo Meugniot and Murphy Anderson.

When I created the comic book character Mr. Incognito, the American Luchador I used photo references of an old teammate from my high school wrestling days who wrestled semi-professionally as the model for the "poor man's Mil Mascaras". I found it was also a cool way to meet hot models. The ones that posed for the damsels in distress in my various comics.

On my last trip to Columbia, Tennessee my buddy Vance Capley and I posed for photo reference for our Dr. Judo comic.