Today in Comics History, September 23: Happy birthday, El Santo!

Born on this date in 1917: probably the greatest Mexican hero and masked wrestler (luchador enmascarado) the world has never known: Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta! Hmm, that name not ringing a bell with you? That's because for decades he kept up a secret identity and and disguised himself with a silver mask, becoming known around the globe as the mighty El Santo! El Santo was not only a folk hero and wrestling icon but also a major movie action star who starred or co-starred in 52 movies between 1958 and 1982, only a handful of have been "discovered" by the general public of North America. (I myself was introduced to the Silver Maskman thanks to Mystery Science Theater 3000, which riffed Santo [aka Samson] vs. the Vampire Women in its original incarnation, and more recently, Santo in the Treasure of Dracula on the revamped Gizmoplex series.


excerpts from Mystery Science Theater 3000 season six, episode 24: "Samson vs. the Vampire Women" (best Brains, March 25, 1995), riffed by Michael J. Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, and Kevin Murphy



Santo was also the subject of the Cartoon Network animated micro-series Santo Contra Los Clones which ran in Latin American countries.


Santo Contra Los Clones (Cartoon Network Latin America, 2004), with the voice of Alberto Pedrel as Santo
And he appeared as one of the honored dead in the Disney/Pixar movie Coco!


El Santo makes a cameo appear aiding (Adam West) Batman against...who else?...the masked Bane!



from Batman '66 #27 (DC, November 2015); script by Jeff Parker; pencils, inks, and colors by Scott Kowalchuk, letters by Wes Abbott
Santo didn't, as far as I can tell, appear in any other American comics. (Comment in the credits if you know of any?) Really, Dell or Charlton shoulda given him his own series in the 1960s and 1970. That's your loss, American comics! But the Silver Maskman was well represented in four colors: in 1952, artist/editor Jose G. Cruz started a Santo comic book which ran 35 years, turning Santo into the first and foremost character in Mexican popular literature. And from Colombia, over 250 issues of Santo El Enmascarado de Plata were distributed through Latin America. Here's just a handful of insanely wonderful covers from that series.


covers from Santo El Enmascarado de Plata (Editorial Icavi, Ltda. (Colombia), 1976-1985)
Happy birthday, big guy! Viva El Santo! May you ever fight for the wrestling belts, justice, and the common man!