Happy 60th Anniversary, Zorro!

Sixty years ago today...

...Walt Disney unleashed his version of the already-legendary Zorro on America, creating a phenomenon equal to Davy Crockett-mania several years earlier!

Check out his premiere in both comics and tv HERE!

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Walt Disney's Zorro

Complete Season 1

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Complete Season 2 (plus Specials)

Captain's Library: BROKEN ARROW "Kingdom of Terror" Part 1

Actor Michael Ansara passed away last week...

...and, while most of the obits mentioned his guest appearances on three Star Trek series (Classic, Deep Space 9, and Voyager) as Kang, few listed his breakthrough role as the real-life Apache chief Cochise on the 1950s TV series Broken Arrow, based on the novel Blood Brother by Elliot Arnold.

Will Jeffords and Cochise help "Serafina" to escape?

Can they escape?

And what of Chala, still held captive and enslaved?

Visit our "brother" blog Western Comics Adventures™ later today for the answer!

This story from Dell's Four Color Comics  #855 (1957) was adapted from the script of the TV episode of the same name broadcast Jan. 14, 1958...and was published a couple of months before the episode aired.

Captain's Library & Theatre LONE RANGER "He Finds Dan Reid" Conclusion

When Last We Left The Masked Man and His Indian Companion...

(Don't worry, you didn't miss an entry!
The first part of the story appeared HERE at Western Comics Adventures™!)
After a wagon train is ambushed by Apaches, The Lone Ranger learns his sister-in-law and her infant son have gone missing.

The Ranger infiltrates the Apache camp, but doesn't find any prisoners.

The Army arrives and the Ranger joins forces with them to capture the Indians, but the raid turns deadly and the Ranger is forced to fire, off-balance to save the unit commander...

Adapted from a radio show episode of the same name, this story from Dell's Lone Ranger Golden West #3 (1955) was pencilled by Tom Gill, but the inking looks a lot like John Severin, not Gill himself.
Here's a link to the actual radio show!
Besides being The Lone Ranger's nephew, Dan Reid is also The Green Hornet's father and appeared in both characters' radio shows and comic books, making Dan one of pop culture's first "crossover" characters?
(Thus, the Green Hornet is the Lone Ranger's grand-nephew!)
An older Dan Reid appeared on several episodes of The Green Hornet radio series.
Dan was a feature player in a four-episode arc (also adapted into comics form) where he learned his son was The Hornet as shown HERE and HERE.
Remember, The Green Hornet was set in the "present" of the 1930s-1940s, making the adult Dan Reid (in his late 60s-early 70s) a teenager in the late 1880s, the time of the Lone Ranger!)

This entry is part of our Retroblogs™ Masks Marathon, celebrating the new Dynamite comic series Masks which combines, for the first time, the major masked mystery men of pulps and comics including The Green Hornet, The Shadow, The Spider, Zorro, The Black Terror, The Green Lama, and Miss Fury (ok, a masked mystery woman), among others.
Though The Lone Ranger hasn't been listed as participating, The Green Hornet (and by extenssion, Dan Reid), are in the story.
(Besides, Zorro is making an appearance, so there's always a possibility...)

We'll be presenting more stories featuring these characters throughout the month of December.

Captain's Library & Theatre: STAGECOACH

Nobody personified Western movies like John Wayne.

Stagecoach (1939) was his breakout film, after a series of roles in b-movies and serials.

This landmark flick was immortalized in print with a unique fumetti-style adaptation in DC Comics' Movie Comics #2 (1939).

Stagecoach was even the cover feature with a picture of star...

 ...Andy Devine???
 (Who also got top billing in the adaptation)

Movie Comics ran for six issues, adapting everything from Westerns to romances to science fiction.

Using photographs was certainly one way around the problem of getting an exact likeness of the actors (as we showed you HERE with Movie Comics' adaptation of Phantom Creeps which used the same fumetti-format)!

The design/compositing/additional art was done by Jack Adler, a production artist/illustrator who rose thru the ranks and eventually became DC Comics' Production Manager/Vice President of Production, innovating a number of techniques that became standard comics practices.
The writer of the adaptation is unknown.

Here's a fascinating piece called Screen Scoops featuring tidbits about the actors from the various movies adapted in that issue of Movie Comics...

Art and script by Walter Galli

Remember, there was no Internet, DVDs, VCRs, or even TV, so the only way to see these movies was in the theater, and once they finished their runs, they were gone! until they were re-released, usually every 4-5 years after their premiere showings.

Adaptations in other media, including radio and comic books were used to promote the movies and were released either just before the movie opened for its' initial run, or when it was re-issued to second-run theaters.

Besides this comic, there was a radio adaptation done for the Screen Directors Playhouse in 1949, during the movie's re-release.

Reprising their roles on radio were John Wayne (Ringo Kid) and Claire Trevor (Dallas), along with Ward Bond (Doc Boone, played in the movie by Thomas Mitchell)

You can play that radio show by clicking HERE!

Plus, you can compare the adaptations with the film itself...

Catch the flick on TCM, August 1st at 9:15 am (ET)!

There's lots more John Wayne (and other stars) stuff during the  

2012 TCM Summer Under the Stars Blogathon!

For a plethora of posts (and info on how you can participate) check out ScribeHard on Film and/or Sitting on a Backyard Fence for details!

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Western Comics online store...

 ...for duds and provisions!

Captain's Library: ZORRO "Presenting Senor Zorro" Part 1

Besides The Green Hornet, another multi-media masked hero was Zorro...

...but we'll go into more detail after the story unfolds...

Having successfully appeared in prose (a series of pulp novels and novellas), movies (both several features and a series of serials, some of whom feature a "Zorro" in name only), and comic books, Walt Disney adapted the character in a half-hour dramatic tv series, starring dynamic Guy Williams as Zorro / Don Diego.
Plotwise, the series did four 13-episode story arcs, each with a complete plotline involving a different villain. (This was dropped in the second season in favor of 3-5 episode storylines.)
The character's debut on October 10, 1957 had a similar pop-culture effect as Disney's earlier hero adaptation, Davy Crockett; Zorro-Mania spread thru the country!

Film historian Leonard Maltin and Guy Williams, Jr with just a few of the many products created during the show's run!

The ratings stayed solid for both seasons of the show's run, with little sign of cancellation in sight, when a dispute occurred between Disney and ABC, who broadcast the show!
As a result, Disney pulled all it's programming (including Zorro, Mickey Mouse Club, and DisneyLand), from ABC, sending a revamped version of DisneyLand (retitled Walt Disney Presents) to NBC, where it ran (under various names) from 1961 to 1981!
Walt Disney presents aired four NEW hour-long Zorro episodes!
Ironically, today Disney owns ABC!

To get back on topic, instead of doing new stories based on the tv series, the comic did adaptations of tv show scripts for the first few issues, all illustrated by Alex Toth, including this re-telling of the character's premiere episode!

To Be Continued, Tomorrow!

But not here!

Go to

Western Comics Adventures™

for the exciting conclusion
and click HERE for an absolutely amazing website about the Walt Disney Zorro tv series!

Check out our 

Western Comics online store...
 ...for duds and provisions!

Captain's Library: MOON ZERO TWO Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Hero...

Clementine Taplin arrives on the Moon and hires down-on-his-luck, former hot-shot space pilot Bill Kemp to find her space-miner brother, Wally.
Kemp considers doing it while he completes another job: diverting an asteroid composed primarily of sapphire to crash on an unoccupied area of the moon so it can be mined.
He succeeds, barely surviving the perilous task.
Returning to the Moon, the pilot is warned not to help Clementine.
Not the sort to bow to threats, Kemp takes the job and he and Taplin go in search of her brother. They find him at his remote mining location...dead!

It's actually a pretty good film with a lot of kool elements including...

A real differentiation between "old style" 1970s-1999 tech used by the poor hero and 2020 tech used by rich villains!

Set and costume design motifs that proved so popular that they popped up for more than a decade on shows from UFO to Space:1999 to Starlost to Star Maidens to Blake's 7.

A nice snarky action-hero performance by extremely-underrated actor James Olsen, whose main fault seems to be having a receding hairline at a time when a full head of hair was more important than acting ability in film.

For lots more background and pix from the film, there's an absolutely amazing site covering all things MZ2 HERE!  Check it out!

and a special bonus...
Moon Zero Two: the Music Video!

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