Count Dante was the bearded guy in the small ads at the back of comics who promised the Dim Mak during the Kung Fu craze.
Appearing next to ads for X-Ray specs and real soil from Dracula's castle, the Count nearly jumped out of the page dim makking the lot of us.
The Dim Mak was the Death Touch, a secret technique infamous in the murky worlds of Kung Fu fighting. The Count, who appeared in the ads with clawed hands and beard, also offered an ominous booklet called Worlds Deadliest Fighting Secrets.
I loved staring at these adverts and pondering the true deadliness of the so-called Dim Mak. Being consumed by all things Kung Fu I'm surprised I never sent off for his booklet seen in the comics. Did you?
Alas, Dante's fighting life was really not the stuff of comics at all. One of his friends died in a battle with a rival karate dojo in 1965.
Count Dante himself died very young in 1975 at the age of 36.
The fascination with his life and the Dim Mak continues though and you just need to google his name. One of the more interesting online things is this 10 minute documentary about his life on You Tube.
Do you remember the Dim Mak? If you do your'e still alive.
I do remember these eye-catching comic adverts, but I'd no idea Count Dante was such a martial arts pop culture figure. Crazy times. Great youtube find, Woodsy :)
ReplyDeleteha ha, ta Tone. Yep, our comic background was full of great characters like Count Dante wasn't it!
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