King Leonidas The Sub-Mariner Following Captain America

Here's a bit of fun for you.

Did you know that, in 1962, there was a movie tilted The 300 Spartans?  Oh yes, long before Frank Miller and co. we kids had a really good heroic movie to watch which had no weird mutated giants or...well, all the stuff that was in the Miller movie.

Who had the lead role as King Leonidas?  Richard Egan.  That's him below!

  

And the movie had one of those Dell Comic spin-offs.  Don't believe me?  Word.

  
Now, Dicky -it's okay. He said as we were such good friends I could call him that- was one of the Hollywood beefcake action stars -Westerns, War movies and so on.  How the girls -no doubt a few boys, too- swooned!

Egan had a great physique and was, by all accounts, a great swimmer soooooo -can you guess the connection between the Sub-Mariner comic and Egan?
  
 Yes, in the 1950s -as George Reeves became Superman- there were serious plans for a Sub-Mariner movie/series starring Egan as....Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner!

Below is NOT a movie still. I found it on a disc and I belie that it originates with Roy Thomas' Alter Ego magazine.  Looks quite nifty, huh?
 
  And there would have been none of this over the op plastering of the Marvel logo everywhere.  You see, in case you are THAT young, back in the 1950s Marvel did not exist---

Calm down. Deep breath.  Yes, Marvel was known as Timely Comics....listen, kid -take a deeeep breath that look ain't good for you!  Nope. He's stuck like that.  It would have been nice to have a Sub-Mariner TV or even movie/serial since Captain America already had a serial....are you going to doubt me on that, also?  Okay -dig it!




 
 

You kids notice something? Yep, in the serial posters Cap has a winged cowl...in the serial Dick Purcell's Captain America had no winged cowl -just a gun and fists of fury.

Uhhh, and isn't the red star a bit sorta, you know...Commie???  Damn -no true blooded American kid seeing that red star would even know about Communism -right?

So, there you go. How Spartan King Leonidas almost became the Sub-Mariner but after the unwinged Captain america hah his own movie serial.

There's more of this in my brain but I don't want that kid popping up everywhere!!!

Just to show you...Timely then Marvel...BUT look at the indicia at the bottom of the Sub-Mariner Annual #2 (1972) "Magazine Management"and from a 1968 issue of the Sub-Mariner #7: "Atlas Magazines"

 awww, no. Not again!!!!!!!!!!!!