4Gemworks Zorro Comic Book Emporium
Four Color 228

COMIC DETAILS

Comic Description: Four Color #228 Universal
Grade: 9.0
Page Quality: CREAM TO OFF-WHITE
Certification #: 0917718008
Owner: 4GEMWORKS

SET DETAILS

Winning Set: 4Gemworks Zorro Comic Book Emporium
Date Added: 8/14/2017
Research: See CGC's Census Report for this Comic

Owner's Description

The Mark of Zorro # 1 05/1949 Some copies of this issue were given away as premiums with subscriptions to Dell's The Lone Ranger comic in late 1949-early 1950. See subscription ad in Lone Ranger, The (Dell, 1948 series) #20 (February 1950).

Really tough book to find in higher grade. Copies come up infrequently in any grade.

Cover Art: Bill Ely
Script: Johnston McCully (original story);
Pencils & Inks: Bill Ely (signed)


Table of Contents
1. 0. The Mark of Zorro
Zorro
2. 1. [Characters in the Story]
Zorro
3. 2. The Mark Of Zorro
Zorro
4. 3. [no title indexed]
Zorro

Zorro was quite a hit in the early 1900’s. The comic was based on the movie, originally released in 1920 and remade in 1940. Wikipedia offers the following information on the 1940 movie, most likely used for this comic book.

The Mark of Zorro is a 1940 American adventure film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th Century Fox. The action movie stars Tyrone Power as Don Diego Vega (Zorro), Linda Darnell as his love interest, and Basil Rathbone as the villain. The cast also includes Gale Sondergaard as the scheming wife of the corrupt local governor, Eugene Pallette as Zorro's local friar, and J. Edward Bromberg as the governor, along with Montagu Love, Janet Beecher, Robert Lowery, and Chris-Pin Martin. Diego's mute servant, Bernardo is absent in this film adaptation.

The film was Nominated for Academy Award for the Best original score in the 1941 Academy Awards. In 2009, it was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant and will be preserved for all time.[3]

Plot
The film is based on the story The Curse of Capistrano written by Johnston McCulley, originally published in 1919, which introduced the masked hero Zorro. The story is set in Southern California during the early 19th century. The plot deals with Don Diego Vega (Tyrone Power), the apparently foppish son of wealthy ranchero Don Alejandro Vega (Montagu Love), who returns to California after his education in Spain. He is horrified at the way the common people are mistreated by Alcalde Luis Quintero (J. Edward Bromberg). Don Diego adopts the guise of El Zorro ("the fox"), a masked outlaw who becomes the defender of the common people. Meanwhile, he romances the Alcalde's beautiful niece, Lolita (Linda Darnell). He simultaneously flirts with the Alcalde's wife Inez (Gale Sondergaard), filling her head with tales of Madrid fashion and culture and raising her desire to move there with her corrupt husband. In both his guises, Don Diego has to contend with the governor's ablest henchman, the malevolent Captain Esteban Pasquale (Basil Rathbone).

Original version
The movie is a remake of the lavish 1920 smash hit silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Noah Beery, Sr.. The 1920 film introduced Zorro's iconic all-black costume, subsequently incorporated into Johnston McCulley's later Zorro stories. The 1920 film was the first in a popular array of swashbuckler action pictures starring the acrobatic Fairbanks, who had previously appeared mainly in comedies.

Cast
• Tyrone Power as Don Diego Vega/Zorro
• Linda Darnell as Lolita Quintero
• Basil Rathbone as Captain Esteban Pasquale
• Gale Sondergaard as Inez Quintero
• Eugene Pallette as Fray Felipe
• J. Edward Bromberg as Don Luis Quintero
• Montagu Love as Don Alejandro Vega
• Janet Beecher as Senora Isabella Vega
• George Regas as Sergeant Gonzales
• Chris-Pin Martin as Turnkey
• Robert Lowery as Rodrigo
• Belle Mitchell as Maria
• John Bleifer as Pedro
• Frank Puglia as Proprietor
• Eugene Borden as Officer of the Day
• Pedro de Cordoba as Don Miguel
• Guy D'Ennery as Don Jose

Batman connection
In the DC Comics continuity it is established that The Mark of Zorro was the film which the young Bruce Wayne had seen with his parents at the movie theater, moments before they were killed in front of his eyes by an armed thug. Zorro is often portrayed as Bruce's childhood hero and an influence on his Batman persona. There are discrepancies regarding which version Bruce saw: The Dark Knight Returns claims it was the Tyrone Power version, whereas a story by Alan Grant claimed it to be the silent Douglas Fairbanks original. Bob Kane was himself inspired by Fairbanks' Zorro, including similarities in costumes, the "Bat Cave" and Zorro's cave, and unexpected secret identities, especially since the Batman character predates the Tyrone Power remake by a year. The posters for The Mark of Zorro and the 1981 film Excalibur were used for a scene in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,[4]
In the animated series Justice League Unlimited, a flashback of the fateful night establishes that for DCAU continuity Bruce and his parents were attending The Mark of Zorro but does not indicate which version. In earlier episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, the fictional character Gray Ghost—a pulp fiction hero inspired by The Shadow—is the inspiration to young Bruce Wayne.

Home media
The film has been released twice on DVD. The first was released on October 7, 2003 and featured the movie in its original black-and-white, as part of 20th Century Fox Studio Classics Collection. The second was released on October 18, 2005 as a Special Edition, and featured both a new restored black-and-white version and a colorized one, prepared by Legend Films. Both versions contain "Tyrone Power: The Last Idol" as seen on Biography on the A&E Network, and a commentary by film critic Richard Schickel.


Some data courtesy of the Grand Comics Database under a Creative Commons Attribution license. http://www.comics.org/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode
http://www.comics.org/issue/7369/
 
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