HERCULES battles CONAN!

I'm going to start a new feature here on the blog. HERCULES vs...some other HERO..I.E. In this case CONAN the BARBARIAN...Do you remember in the 1960's-70's...HERC'S POP was always stripping him of his GODLY powers...well in this scenario that's what happened. Here he is wandering around the HYBORIAN age and CROM don't like it one bit. ( sounds familiar right? ) Anyway..he has to go toe to toe , blade to blade against the Mightiest warrior ever to wander the shining kingdoms that lay spread across the land in an age undreamed. Hope you like it. I plan on working it up in color too. If all goes well...we'll see it soon! Any requests? I'll see what I can do as time allows. ~ Thanks Mikey.

Happy birthday Jack " KING " Kirby

The modern versions of THOR and HERCULES in MARVEL comics as we know them. Thank you Jack. Happy Birthday to the LEGEND whose work lives on!

Ryan Gosling ~ Young Hercules

Ya know the most successful actor to come out of the HERCULES thing? Ryan Gosling. Ian Bohen is nowhere to be found these days. Where is Kevin? What's going on with Lucy? She gets naked and does lesbian scenes on cable ( Nothing wrong in that ) but she is no mainstream star anymore. Buy Ryan Gosling seems to have taken off and become a real Movie star. I believe he has two big movies coming out right now....and there are sure to be more on the way.

Just another example we can thank HERCULES for!

The incredible Wonder Woman....

We seem to forget that the character of Wonder Woman is a powerhouse with strength to rival Hercules...in the DCU anyway. I think in the 90's crossovers Marvels Herc and WW were going toe to toe...but knowing him they went tongue to tongue in no time as we all know he's a charmer with the ladies. BUT...as you see here in this clip from an old WW comic book ( Can anybody tell me where this is from? I want to go find that issue! ) She's strong enough to toss ole HERC around ( DCU's HERC known sometimes as Herakles) like nobodies biz! All I have to say is WOTTA WOMAN! Then check out the convention drawing paying Homage to an all but too familiar Steranko drawing from somewhere...just can't place it right now but...ENJOY!

" HERCULES 3D " BRING IT !!!

With CONAN the barbarian 3D coming out there are bound to be a group of followers. Just like back in the 80’s. After 82’s Barbarian pic Lou Ferrigno came out with a couple of HERCULES films no doubt to be an answer or even a Barbarian bandwagon jump. The movies themselves were horrendous but Lou’s physique was no doubt simply incredible.
I think ( Back in the day ) Lou and Arnie should have taken their tremendous heroic proportion physiques back to competition. I can’t really say for certain who’d win that time around but in my humble opinion…Louie had the better build. But I digress….ANYWAY…I came across this poster for a HERCULES 3D film soon to be released no doubt with the advent of the release of the new CONAN movie. Who plays HERC in this upcoming Heroic spectacle? I do not know but the more the merrier I say. There will always be a place for Heroic fantasy adventures in Hollywood. Everyone loves a super hero looking all tremendous and powerful . Granted there have been and still are films coming out left and right…IRONCLAD , CENTURION , The EAGLE and SEASON OF THE WITCH ( A Solomon Kane knockoff ) just to name the most recent ( I have to include SOLOMON KANE in here too as I loved that movie ) and there will be several more in the coming years. GOOD!
There is something to be said for a stalwart hero battling baddies with naught but his fists and a sword. What I am waiting for now is…TARZAN starring Hugh Jackman….that’s gonna be good. But first….BRING ON THE BARBARIAN!

HERCULES Obscurities!

As a collector it's fun to come across rare finds to add to your collection of obscura and what not. While I was a student at the Joe Kubert school back in 1989 there was a little flea market up the road and inside there was a little comic shop called "Big Dave's" while scouring Dave's bins ( Dave passed away from a heart attack later that year. RIP Dave..) I came across a weird oddity it was a HERCULES b/w magazine put out by Charlton comics the same month they put out their regular monthly comic. Why and for whatever reason they published it in this format I can not say. Perhaps it was an experiment to compete with WARREN magazines who was doing so well with CREEPY and EERIE and Vampirella...no one can say for sure. But I certainly got a kick out of it and I only paid 50 cents!

I found a neat bunch of posts in "RIP JAGGERS DOJO" pertaining to the Charlton HERC's...I love reading other peoples thoughts on the subject. Rip runs a damned fine blog there!

Anyway...here are the 2 versions of HERCULES # 8 by Charlton comics.

Even yet one more STERANKO HULK HOMAGE!

I think this piece by Michael Avon Oeming is more of a parody though...but still it's cool.

Getting back to STERANKO

Jim drew the covers for the Indie mini..HERCULES the Thracian wars....like I said. He's better than ever.

HERCULES comics from BRAZIL

Thank you to RIP DAGGER'S DOJO for providing me with some cool covers to BRAZILIAN editions of Charlton comics' HERCULES. As RIP states in his own post on his own blog...seeing material you love and collect in another format from some place else gives it that fresh new and exciting feel all over again. One of the 1 million reasons why I love HERCULES and the legend surrounding him. !!!

Jim Steranko pencils - HOMAGE

Recently in the pages of the incredible HULK and the HERCULES spin off of the HULK in the pages of the HULK...Marvel reused the iconic image of a cover made famous by JIM STERANKO....clearly you can see the 3 images together and then The Radical publishing image of a Reinterpretation of HERCULES by STERANKO. This guy has been at it for 50 years and has never even lost a bit of his talent. What a legend Jim Steranko is...what an Icon.

Disney's Plans for Marvel...

Well if HERCULES and Jerkules are gonna have some brews and share with each other the gift of combat...I'm down with it. This is a cool piece. I'd actually like a wall size poster of the thing.

SUPULES unchained

Earlier on in one of the first postings I'd ever put here on the blog I put up a full page ad from the comics journal of Superman by George Perez. The story involved Supes being far out in space and losing his powers little by little and being thrown into gladiatorial combat ( and looking a lot like HERCULES with his cape as a sash and sporting a beard.) against big strong baddies and of course Supie triumphed and found his way back to earth and of course regained his Man of steel powers of Superness. It was a great storyline. This cover I believe was drawn by Kerry Gammill and Jerry Ordway. The interiors were by Gammill and Dennis Janke. EPIC stuff man!

A very sad statistical chart

This is a list of the performers from WRESTLEMANIA 1 that are no longer among the living.

Rest in peace Macho Man -

Rest in peace MACHO MAN...I watched WWF wrestling religiously throughout the entirety of the 80's. Randy along with Hogan and Steamboat were the biggest heroes that world had to offer. As time wore on and Randy and the WWE parted ways amicably...I still missed the Macho man's presense. He was a force of nature. A man of infinite character. I miss him, I miss his presense and I miss his character.

Randy battled baddies like Rick the MODEL Martel...who has also passed away...and The BIG BOSS man...who also passed on. He also matched ring wits with MR PERFECT Curt Hennig who has also left us. In fact very few of the WWE Superstars I remember as being the best HEELS have left this world. Randy even locked up with the Mighty HERCULES , Ray Fernandez.

It's kinda sad...when your childhood is falling off the map right behind you. These Superstars were not just TV personalities...they were Characters in a world of good and evil in it's most basic format. The SQUARED CIRCLE!

The illustrations are by JOE JUSKO

John Buscema HERCULES vs the Nemean lion...

a clip from the DELL four color art by John Buscema. The Legend on the legend.