I remember discovering "men's sweat magazines" at thirteen. The
perfect age. The attraction to these mags ,with their covers that looked
like posters for B-Movie action flicks was immediate. Illustrated by
artists like Norman Eastman, Norman Saunders, Al Rossi, Mort Kunstler, and James Bama they were like Sgt. Rock and
Sgt. Fury comics on steroids. But with the added ingredient of sex.
These covers and the illustrations inside showed vivid examples of Nazi
brutality. To be sure there were plenty of examples
of villainous Japanese. But it turns out the ones with Nazis are the
most collectable. Nazis have been pop culture's No.1 villains for over
80 years. They've appeared in movies, television series, and comic
books. For years they were "heels" in wrestling
arenas across America.
The covers for these mags were the inspiration for grind house
flicks like ILSA, SHE-WOLF OF THE SS (1975) starring Dyanne Thorne.
Captured American GIs were stripped to the waist and tortured by
sadistic Nazi she-wolves. Other covers featured damsels
in distress at the mercy of brutal Nazi torturers and deranged
doctors. Steve Holland and Eva Lynd are the two best known models for the
characters on the cover of these mags. Both were equally adept at
playing the hero/heroine or villain/villainess. Sometimes
they would appear in the same illustration as both. But of course there
were other actors and models who appeared in these illustrations. In
her auto-biogaphy Sleeping With Bad Boys (2007) Alice Denham
mentions posing for such illustrations.
When I created the character Miss Ginger Snaps with Vance Capley, I
had the idea that "America's Foremost Burlesque Queen" would have
posed for a few of these illustrations too.
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.
THE STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD? REALLY? by Dave Goode
My 2nd favorite giant ape movie , after the original
King Kong of course, is MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1948). A fun flick to be
sure. But my favorite scene is when the giant gorilla, as part of a
nightclub act, has a tug-of-war with ten professional strongmen/wrestlers. The strongmen, all dressed in leopard skins and Roman
sandals, perform feats of strength before they compete with the
gorilla, who appears to be twice the size of an average gorilla. But
there is no mention of Joe's abnormal size. Still a
normal 5' 8", 450 lb. gorilla is about as strong as 12 men.
In order
the strongmen were Sammy Stein who breaks a chain. "Killer" Karl Davis
bends a crowbar. Rasputin, the Mad Russian breaks a pair of manacles. "Bomber" Kulky lifts a heavy barbell with
one hand. Sam Menacker tears a telephone book in half. Mac Batchelor
bends a railroad spike. "Wee" Willie Davis bends a steel rod. Man
Mountain Dean bends a horseshoe. The Swedish Angel breaks a 4x4 over
his head. And the former heavyweight boxing champion
of the world Primo Carnera snaps metal bands on his arms by flexing his
biceps. Sadly no one breaks a chain through chest expansion.
All of these feats of strength had been performed in carnivals and
circuses by professional strongmen who billed themselves as the "Strongest Man In The World". When Sam Menacker tears the phone book in
half it reminds me of an episode of The Adventures
of Superman. In The Girl Who Hired Superman (Season 4 Episode 7)
Superman is performing at a dinner party for charity. At one point he
tears a phone book in half. One of the guests is unimpressed remarking
that he has seen other strongmen perform the same
trick. Superman then takes the two halves , puts them together and
tears them in half. The guest then says he has never seen anyone do this
before because it's impossible. Another guest tells him the Man of
Steel just did it. But he says he doesn't care. It's
still impossible. Which brings up something I've pondered for years.
How do professional strongmen in a comic book universe bill themselves
as the Strongest Man In The World? Especially when the world they live
in might have someone who can literally "change
the course of mighty rivers" among the populace. Or even someone who
just has the proportionate strength of a spider?
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.
For my money the best Superman feature film made was
the first. SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN was released on November 23, 1951
and starred George Reeves as the caped crusader from Krypton and
Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane. This flick led to production of THE
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN television series. A series that holds a special
place in the hearts of many a Silver Age fan boy. With the success of
the television series there was some talk of a sequel to SUPERMAN AND
THE MOLE MAN. But it wasn't to be. Instead
after the second season of the series, in which Noel Neill replaced
Phyllis Coates as reporter Lois Lane there were several compilation
movies made from episodes of the series with new bridging segments. Of
course Noel Neill was the first live action Lois
Lane appearing in Columbia's two Superman serials SUPERMAN (1948) and
ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN (1950). Both serials starred Kirk Alyn as the
Man of Steel and his alter ego mild mannered reporter Clark Kent.
The cool thing about ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN is that it featured
Superman's arch enemy from the comic books, Lex Luthor portrayed by
character actor Lyle Talbot. Sadly Talbot never got a chance to reprise
the role on the television series. More's the pity.
But the truth is the television show's half hour format was too
limiting for a villain of Luthor's magnitude. And I'm sure no one wanted
to see Luthor just appearing as someone working for a crime boss. But
what if that sequel to SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN
had been made. Might not criminal scientist Lex Luthor have been
Superman's antagonist in such a movie? Just last week I had a dream in
which I was watching such a flick with Luthor performing experiments on
gorillas. Increasing their strength a hundred fold and outfitting them with mind control helmets to do his bidding.
Insert your own story line to fit your tastes.
CLICK THE PIC TO CHECK OUT OUR "SUPER" SHIRTS^^^^^
Brothers Of The Spear was a comic book feature that first appeared
as a back up in Dell's Tarzan No.25 (Oct. 1951). Created by writer
Gaylord Du Bois and artist Jesse Marsh it told the story of Dan-El (no relation to Kal-El) and Natongo. They
were two African kings whose kingdoms had been usurped. The two swear
an oath of brotherhood and the first years of the series is spent with
the heroes trying to reclaim their respective kingdoms. Russ Manning
would take over the art chores on the feature
in Tarzan No.39 (Dec. 1952) and stayed til the run in the back of
Tarzan in 1966.
What made this jungle adventure series so unique was that Natongo
and Dan-El were a pair of black and white adventurers who were equal
partners. Something you readily find in today's popular culture. But was
special for it's day. This remember was a
time in American history when the Civil Rights movement was just
beginning. In adventure flicks of the period you might find a black man.
But he was regulated to sidekick status. A few years earlier it was as a
comic sidekick embodying just about every negative
minstrel show stereotype you could find about black people.
Some time back someone suggested to me a casting for a Brothers Of
The Spear movie in the 60s. Ron Ely as Dan-El. And as Natongo, World
Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali. I thought that inspired
casting as that Ali had a similar physique to that
of Russ Manning drawn heroes Tarzan and Magnus, the Robot Fighter.
Another good choice for Natonga would have been Rafer Johnson who was on
the same United States Olympic Team (1960) as Ali then known as
Cassius Clay. Decathlon champion Johnson was no stranger
to jungle adventure movies having played the villain in the Mike Henry
Tarzan movies TARZAN AND THE GREAT RIVER (1967) and TARZAN AND THE
JUNGLE BOY (1968).
Below is a new Golden Adonis comic by Dave Goode and Vance Capley featuring Pharaoh Love, the Bronze Hercules.
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!
In order
the strongmen were Sammy Stein who breaks a chain. "Killer" Karl Davis
bends a crowbar. Rasputin, the Mad Russian breaks a pair of manacles. "Bomber" Kulky lifts a heavy barbell with
one hand. Sam Menacker tears a telephone book in half. Mac Batchelor
bends a railroad spike. "Wee" Willie Davis bends a steel rod. Man
Mountain Dean bends a horseshoe. The Swedish Angel breaks a 4x4 over
his head. And the former heavyweight boxing champion
of the world Primo Carnera snaps metal bands on his arms by flexing his
biceps. Sadly no one breaks a chain through chest expansion.
