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[Andrew999]

For Zorro fans like me, any new output is welcome - but this one seems more interesting than most:

https://www.dublininquirer.com/2020/05/06/a-new-comic-book-explores-the-life-of-irish-adventurer-william-lamport

So, was William Lamport the real Zorro - about two hundred earlier than most would say?

I guess it doesn't really matter - but most would say Don Diego de la Vega (Zorro) was based on Joaquin Murrieta, the semi-fictional California bandit, or Salomon Pico or Toburcio Pico - the mid-1800s in California were a time of banditry and anti-American resistance.

Johnston McCulley's original 1919 Mark of Zorro is in the public domain:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/37927

Johnston left us in 1958 so all of his work enters the public domain on Jan 1st, 2029 for those countries with a seventy-year rule - although anything he wrote up to and including 1924 is already PD in the States.

[Andrew999]

Full marks to American Mythology for keeping classic characters alive for new generations.

My top two picks of the current crop would be the Eternal Thirst of Dracula with the evil count hiding in plain sight in the Philippines and Zorro with flashing sword taking on the horrors of the Land that Time Forgot.

By the way, if you've never read the Filipino comic Trese about a young girl who is also a demon hunter, you are missing out on something - it's like a road map of Filipino mythology in which monsters hide behind shadows even darker than the west.

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/zorro-enters-the-land-that-time-forgot-in-american-mythology-crossover/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trese

[Andrew999]

Today is the 100th anniversary of the release of The Mark of Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks.

Leads me to ask - who was the best Zorro?

I remember Guy Williams in the 1957 TV series often repeated throughout my childhood but I also enjoyed the 2005 movie with Antonio Banderas and the charming Catherine Zeta-Jones. My father fell in love with Linda Darnell in the Mark of Zorro (1940), so much so, that he named my sister after her. (Just as I was named after Gary Cooper because of High Noon - it's my middle name - but it could have been worse, he was also a big fan of Dumbo)

Weirdest Zorro movie? I'd go for Hercules v Zorro, an Italian peplum from 1963.

Finally, a quick word in favour of Lady Zorro, a comic book from the 1980s that was pretty good.

[profh0011]

I'm pretty sure my introduction to Zorro was the Guy Williams TV series.  Probably, in syndicated reruns in the late 60s.  I believe sometime in the early 70s, I also saw a 3-episode compilation film as the "warm-up" special feature to one of Disney's reissues.

Somewhere in the late 60s-early-70s I saw the Tyrone Power version. I found it amusing, decades later, reading how when he faced off against Basil Rathbone, it was as Don Diego, NOT as Zorro!  Also, Rathbone was considered the BEST swordsman in all of Hollywood. Yet, in the 3 swordfights he had on screen, he got killed all 3 times.  Tsk!

And then sometime in the early 70s, my PBS station, as part of a series of silents, ran the Douglas Fairbanks film. WOW.  In the last 20-some years, somehow, I wound up with 2 separate videotape copies of that, both recorded off of TCM.  I would love to get my hands on the Guy Williams series at some point, but at the moment, Fairbanks is my FAVORITE... and of the 3 Fairbanks films I currently have-- the others being "THE THIEF OF BAGDAD" and "THE IRON MASK" (I've watched all 3 in recent months as part of a swordfighting marathon), "ZORRO" is my favorite of his.

Some years back, I was inspired to borrow a bit from the film for one of my own stories, when 2 people are sword-fighting, and the villain's weapon gets broken... the hero hurls his into the ceiling, and the fight continued HAND-TO-HAND.   


I've also enjoyed Don McGregor's "ZORRO" comic-books and newspaper strip (I only have the first half of that in a collection).

[The Australian Panther]

I grew up watching the Guy Williams Zorro. 

https://www.zorro.com/zorro-comics/

ComicsWize, the Dell Alex Toth Zorro is the benchmark.
American Mythology have been doing a good job bringing some of the older adventures  and European versions of Zorro to a new audience in their Zorro:Legendary Adventures title.
But they have exploited the character in their new titles in several ways.
First, by teaming him up with other characters.
I passionately hate ludicrous team-ups that show the character no respect at all.
Zorro and the Lone Ranger is bearable, Zorro and Django, less so. 

Zorro alongside The Green Hornet, The Shadow, Black Bat, Miss Fury and more. 

 
furgedaboutit!
Second, by associating Zorro with the Supernatural.
So,

a legion of supernatural swordsmen attack Los Angeles, led by a monstrous jaguar brujo 

Zorro: Sacrilege features Zorro taking on human corruption and a supernatural evil that rises in a remote mission in the wilds outside of Los Angeles.   

The sea holds many dark secrets, but when the horrors of the deep invade the surface realm, only Zorro stands between them and the grueling future of the risen old gods! Swashbuckling adventure meets Lovecraftian terror in a series that pits Zorro against the unrelenting hordes of Cthulhu.

Zorro and Lovecraft. The mind boggles!
Three:- Putting Zorro in pointless unrealistic scenarios.
Zorro in the land that time forgot.
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/zorro-in-the-land-that-time-forgot-1/4000-814223/

Hey, we have the rights to Zorro! Great, lets exploit the hell out of it. Who's going to object?
Don McGregor? When he came up with Lady Zorro and Lady Rawhide, he lost me. Not because I object to female heroes, I just lose my ability to believe when they behave and dress in a manner that would be unacceptable in that place and time. Which makes it disrespectful to women. That's lazy and disrespectful writing. 
And then there is this

New Zorro TV Series with Female Lead in Production with NBC.A new, female-led Zorro TV series is being developed at NBC by Propagate, with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and writer-director Rebecca Rodriguez co-writing, and Rebecca Rodriguez directing. The creative team also includes multi-award nominee Sofia Vergara. The drama will see a contemporary female Zorro in the form of an underground artist who fights for social justice 

It bothers me that no American modern comics creators can write straight stories. Everything has to have the Supernatural, alternate universes, Aliens and you name it, but nothing that could happen in the real world. Are they afraid of reality? One reason why I find European comics so refreshing.   

[crashryan]

Whew! I hadn't heard of Zorro in the Land That Time Forgot, so I took a peek at your link. Even after reading the breathless description the concept seems like a joke! Right up there with Zorro meets Lovecraftian horror and Zorro foils raiders from Atlantis.

It's a great example of what I've kvetched about before, writers dumping all of a character's defining characteristics and plugging him/her into the story the writer would rather be telling. Consider what makes Zorro Zorro. (1) Old California setting (2) Mysterious night-riding figure dressed in black (3) Defender of the oppressed and the helpless against a cruel military authority (4) Swordfighting and swashbuckling (5) Dual identity allowing him to move amongst the very people he combats as Zorro (6) Secondary gimmicks: cave headquarters, mute servant/assistant, Batmobile--I mean, a cool horse.

The covers displayed in the puff piece show nothing from this list beyond a masked guy with a black suit and a sabre. In the daytime, surrounded by dinosaurs. Looking up at a pre-steampunk balloon. Don't get me wrong. I like dinosaurs, daytime, and pre-steampunk balloons. But what have they to do with Zorro? By the way, even as a kid I found it hard to believe Turok and Andar could stop the honkers with arrows. Zorro's sword seems even less useful a weapon, unless an allosaur should decide to fence with him.

Anyway, I grew up with the Guy Williams Zorro and when I think of Zorro he's the first thing that comes to mind. I haven't seen any episodes since the early 1960s, so I have no idea how they'd hold up today. I resisted the Banderas Zorro but after my son pressured me into watching it, I rather liked it. I admit Catherine Zeta-Jones (on whom my son had a powerful crush) helped warm me to the film. The Tyrone Power Zorro was fine, but Fairbanks was better. Zorro Rides Again serial--pah! (Zorro warbling his theme song didn't help). In comics Alex Toth was definitely the king, at least before he lost interest in the series. Alberto Giolitti did a terrific Zorro in the Four Color series. Though I know Kinstler worked on Dell's Zorro I don't recall seeing any of his books. Warren Tufts' Zorro was okay, but his version of Sgt. Garcia was one of the best. It's funny how over the decades comic book versions of Don Diego, Bernardo, and Captain Monastario varied quite a bit, but Sgt. Garcia always looked like Henry Calvin.

A good friend was so taken with the Guy Williams TV show that he wheedled his mother into sewing him a complete Zorro costume. A nice one, too! My friend swung into action but every time he tried buckling a little swash he'd trip over his cape. He darn near broke his neck. The cape was set aside and afterward my friend could never abide a costumed hero who wore a cape.