Cirsova returns with a neopatronage nod to the sword and sandals epics of 1950s cinema – now in an all-new fantasy anthology:
Long ago, in ages past… there were men who travelled the world, seeking adventure. Fighting injustice, defending the weak and the helpless, looking to right wrongs wherever they are found: these were the Mighty Sons of Hercules!
Cirsova Publishing invites you to join eight of the Mighty Sons of Hercules on their daring adventures! You’ll be amazed by their impressive feats of superhuman strength. You’ll be dazzled by the exotic and dangerous beauties who would seek their downfall. You’ll cheer as they save the innocent from peril and mete out justice to dastardly villains.
Wherever righteousness must have a champion, there you will find the Mighty Sons of Hercules! Whenever there is need and no mortal man can suffice, a Mighty Son of Hercules shall appear!
Sword & Sandal adventure, also known as Peplum, experienced a cinematic boom beginning with the 1958 Hercules starring Steve Reeves. In this new wave of costume epics, the mythic strongman was king. Between characters like Hercules, Ursus, Maciste, and countless others, there were hundreds of silver screen stories of demigods, gladiators, and swashbucklers fighting bandits, evil viziers, and cunning queens to save the good and innocent from slavery and oppression.
The Sons of Hercules was created by Embassy Pictures to package and sell these films in bundles for syndication. They took a handful of Maciste movies and several other unrelated films, redubbed them, and gave them a cool cowboy western theme song. Each week, viewers could tune in to see a new installment featuring the adventure of a new Son of Hercules.
This fiction anthology particularly pays homage to this TV series. Cirsova Publishing approached several of its very best writers with a challenge to either create original standalone adventures or rework existing unpublished stories that would fit the strongman theme. In addition to several original characters, this anthology includes both J. Manfred Weichsel and Misha Burnett’s takes on Maciste and Mark Mellon’s adventuring Phoenician merchant, Melkart, who has already appeared twice in the pages of Cirsova Magazine.
