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Dec 12, 2017

Dorno of the Herculoids, Grown Up and Tied Up


These are The Herculoids, Zandor (middle), Tara (left), and Dorno (right), protectors of the planet Amzot in a Saturday morning cartoon series that ran 18 episodes from 1967 to 1969.  A few more episodes were aired in 1981-1982.

They were barbarians with sci-fi powers and a lot of cool pets: a space dragon; a giant ape; a rhinocerous with a laser cannon for horns; and two blob-beings.









Most episodes involved one of the three getting captured by Bird Men, Mole Men, Spider Men, Bubble Men, Electrode Men, Sun People, Crystallites, Reptons, Monkey People, and so on. 

Dorno, of course, ignores the orders to "stay here where it's safe" and either initiates the action or stumbles upon a way to perform a daring rescue.

Although it's been 35 years since we saw any new episodes, the Herculoids have not been forgotten. They've appeared on Harvey Birdman and Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and in various comic books, including DC Comics' Future Quest (2016).




And there's a lot of fan art of Dorno tied and threatened.
















Usually he's aged into young adulthood and buffed up a bit, to appeal to adult sensibilities.

















Sometimes he is threatened by villains from the show, and sometimes by new characters.  There's a whole series of Dorno fighting Freddie Kruger.
















Here Jonny Quest and Hadji gang up on the barbarian hero.













Jonny and Dorno have some romantic moments, too.










But there's not much time for romance when every monster, pirate, and villain in the galaxy wants a piece of you.







And the rule in the Villain's Code about hurting kids no longer applies.

All pictures are copyrighted by their respective owners on deviantart.com.

See also: Saturday Morning Muscle

5 comments:

  1. KorakJune 28, 2020 at 7:13 AM

    Thanks for remembering the television series "The Herculoids" and especially for your appreciation of the character Dorno. I loved seeing the athletic, shirtless young adolescent boy in peril. While the series ended way too early, it will always live on in my memory and in my imagination.

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    Replies
    1. NYSocBoyJune 28, 2020 at 2:12 PM

      I wonder why almost all of the fan art is about Dorno, and not much on his father. I guess because the artists were kids when they saw the show, so they were more interested in the child character. Or maybe because he was the real star of the show, initating all of the action.

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    2. KorakJuly 3, 2020 at 1:59 PM

      While the 9 pictures of Dorno on this page were drawn by 4 different artists, 8 of the images were commissioned by me. Since the 1960s Batman series, I tended to prefer youthful, danger-prone boys in distress to the older, more capable, adult heroes. The fact that women tended to prefer the latter made the former even more attractive to me.

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    3. NYSocBoyJuly 3, 2020 at 2:52 PM

      Thanks for sharing. I've seen a lot of your work on Deviant Art. I like the pictures of Jonnny Quest, since i"m familiar with him from his tv series.

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  2. AnonymousDecember 17, 2022 at 8:22 AM

    As a boy I liked Dorno, a lot!! I love your deviant art as I always liked Jonny Quest. The thought that Dorno and Jonny were lovers certainly appeals to me

    ReplyDelete

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