Allan Abstract The Mighty Hercules (Translux)

Arlene Allan

The Mighty Hercules Cartoon Series in Conversation with Steve Reeves’ Hercules, Super-Hero Comics and 1960s Societal Concerns

Perhaps encouraged by the success of the Hercules movies of the late 1950s and early 1960s, in 1963 a children’s cartoon series was launched on television stations across Canada and the United States: The Mighty Hercules (TransLux). This starred a very ‘ripped’ Hercules, who spent each five-and-a-half-minute episode rescuing someone from imminent danger – including the stereotypical damsel in distress.

This chapter offers the first focused study of the influence that the so-called peplum movies and the Super-hero of comics appear to have had on the depiction of The Mighty Hercules’ namesake and offers an analysis the storylines in relation to the mores governing social behaviour and societal concerns in the early-to-mid 1960s.