Number 2528: “...or if you want something visual that’s not too abysmal, we could take in an old Steve Reeves movie.”

Hercules here is the Hercules whose movies were made in Italy, starring the American body builder Steve Reeves. They were dubbed into other languages, including English, from the late '50s into the sixties. I never saw any Hercules movies in theaters, with an explanation why in the next paragraph.

I saw some of the movies on television, long ago. What I remember most about Italian muscle movies dubbed into English is that producer Joseph E. Levine, who was an exploitation specialist, bought the rights to the Italian production Hercules for $120,000 (a lot more money, obviously, in the late ’50s than it would be today), after it was turned down by American studios. Levine put up a massive advertising campaign on television, got his name in newspapers a lot and the movie became a box office hit. My mother had a saying, “The more a movie is advertised the worse it is.” That would explain why she didn’t drive me into town to the theater playing the film.

I don’t have the Dell Comics version of the original Hercules, but I have the follow-up, Hercules Unchained. Forgetting all of the hyperbole and Joseph E. Levine’s selling of the movie in many TV commercials, the comic book is exceptional because of the artwork of Reed Crandall and George Evans. Crandall is credited with penciling, and both Crandall and Evans are given credit for inking. The adaptation of the screenplay of Hercules Unchained was done by Paul S. Newman, and is Dell Four Color #1121, from 1960.

Number 2418: The dark side of Captain Video

Captain Video and his ranger pal known only as Ranger take their rocketship to the moon, tracking a flying saucer which has left radiation on Earth. On the moon the intrepid earthmen meet little green men from the flying saucers.

Back here in the real world, on January 3, 2019 the Chinese landed a Chang’e spacecraft on the far side (commonly called the "dark side") of the moon. You can read about it in an article from Cosmos magazine online. There are no little green men, or none the Chinese have revealed yet to the rest of the world.

Art by George Evans and Martin Thall. From Captain Video #5 (1951).