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.

 

 

The Bigger They Are.... by Dave Goode

 

 

One of the things that made the Mexiluchahero flick Los Campeones Justicieros a.k.a The Champions of Justice such over the top fun are the midget minions of the movies mad scientist villain. The most memorable scene in the movie remains when he charges them with a ray that gives them super - strength. And they use it to toss the muscular heroes like a salad. There are midget (actually dwarf ) protagonists in all three of the Champion of Justice movies. Los Campeones Justicieros , Vuelven Los Campeones Justicieros and Triunfo De Los Campeones Justicieros. Watching the trilogy this past weekend made me realize how much I miss "midget wrestling". I guess it's something that's not considered politically correct.

 

 

Also watching these three flicks got me to thinking about Cecil B. De Mille's epic spectacle Samson & Delilah (1949). Just before the movie's climax, where Samson literally brings down the house, the blinded strong man is tormented by the "Spider People". A group of pygmy warriors armed with spears and tridents. Thank goodness their skin wasn't darkened. In a previous De Mille spectacular The Sign Of The Cross (1932) the director had Nordic Amazons fighting African pygmies in the Colosseum. In this case white actors in blackface and wearing afro wigs. Cringe. It's probably why my favorite scene in the arena is the one where legendary fan dancer Sally Rand (uncredited) is bound to a post and threatened by a wild gorilla. Sorry to say there was no strength hero like Ursus or Maciste to save her.

 

 

There have been Tarzan and Jungle Jim movies featuring pygmy warriors. But none with Tarzan taking on a dozen of them at one time. And in several sinew & sandal flicks Hercules has a dwarf sidekick. But he doesn't fight an army of them. Too bad. It would have made for a striking visual. Just like the Mr. Incognito comic book cover below by Vance Capley.

 

 

 

 Super cool t-shirt (and other merch) designs available at:

 

https://www.teepublic.com/user/vancecapleyart1972

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