GHOST RIDIN’ FROM COMICS TO FILM by Mark L. Miller
F as
or 40 years, Marvel’s Ghost Rider has been an iconic image, barreling down the road of supernatural adventure with a blazing skull lighting up the night and a monster motorcycle covering the distance. When creators Gary Friedrich, Roy Thomas, and Mike Ploog collaborated to create the character in 1972, they couldn’t have known that Ghost Rider would become the popular phenomenon he is today.
The character was originally conceived a
villain for Daredevil. Writer Gary
Friedrich, who had created a motorcycle villain called The Stuntmaster, came up with another motorcycle-riding monster he called The Ghost Rider to take on the dynamic blind superhero that was rising in popularity at the time. Marvel Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas thought the idea was much more interesting than a single appearance would indicate, and believed the character had the legs to support his own title. Mike Ploog created The Ghost Rider’s costume by lifting elements of Elvis’s 1968 Special jumpsuit (minus the sequins) and the traditional comic book Western snap- front motif. Although who came up with the visual of the flaming skull is up for debate, it appears that many hands were responsible for the Spirit of Vengeance we now know and love.
First appearing in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #5, The Ghost Rider took over his own title a year later in 1973 that ran for over a decade and proved
quite popular with readers. Circus motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze makes a deal with Satan, offering his soul to save his stuntman Crash Simpson, from death’s
stepfather,
clutches after a stunt gone wrong. Once the deal is made, Crash ends up dying again, and Satan (who later turns out to be Marvel’s equivalent of the
fallen angel Mephisto)
compromises by saddling Blaze with a demonic entity named Zarathos. Blaze finds himself cursed with a demonic alter ego that sears away his flesh to become the Ghost Rider when faced by criminals—both
and non—as he rides America’s highways. At the
time of
Ghost Rider’s creation, anti- heroes and
supernatural across
the
genre comics were all the rage at Marvel. Much of what was popular in cinema was reflected in comics throughout the seventies. Because of the growth in popularity of Bruce Lee films, the seventies saw the rise of the SHANG-CHI: MASTER OF KUNG FU and IRON FIST comics. Subgenres such as “Blaxploitation” influenced LUKE CAGE: HERO FOR HIRE and POWER MAN. And with horror films continuing to bring in big box office numbers, Marvel responded with TOMB OF DRACULA, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, MOON KNIGHT, SON OF SATAN, and—of course—GHOST RIDER. Demonic subject matter was especially popular in film,
with THE EXORCIST and THE OMEN terrifying theater-goers worldwide. Many of
Rider’s origins stem the unholy themes permeating
those cinematic horror milestones show up throughout the GHOST RIDER series. Ghost
from
FAUST, a tale of a man in search of great knowledge who makes a deal with the devil in exchange for his soul. Much like Johnny Blaze’s tale,
this gift comes
back to haunt him once granted—although in the Faustian legend, the lead character’s intentions are more selfish. Johnny Blaze makes his deal with the noble intentions of saving his mentor, thus fitting him better into the template of the superhero and making him appropriately flawed, a standby characteristic of the Marvel Universe.
40 FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND • MAR/APR 2012
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