Reader discussion: The mark of Zorro

Public reader discussion about The mark of Zorro in the WeRead Catalog by Johnston McCulley.

The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley -the book that created the zorro

By quillwrites

Honestly, I went into The Curse of Capistrano mostly curious where Zorro really came from. It’s a 1919 novel by Johnston McCulley and apparently it’s the first one with Diego Vega, the masked guy people know as Zorro (which is just Spanish for “fox”). It started out as a five-part magazine thing, then got turned into the silent movie The Mark of Zorro in 1920. Later it showed up in book form in 1924, and that edition also used the title The Mark of Zorro. What I wasn’t expecting is that even though McCulley made the character, Douglas Fairbanks is the one who helped it get to the version we recognize now. And yeah, the book feels different from later versions—there aren’t any secret passages, and Zorro’s uniform is different too. The whole “Z” part on the outfit sounds like it was Fairbanks’ idea and got added later by the author. Anyway, reading it feels like you’re piecing together the real starting point of Zorro—the kind of hero/cape/sword/mask that basically shaped a lot of childhoods, even if it’s not exactly the same as what you remember.

First image for Batman Azteca: Choque de imperios (translation: Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires) The film follows a young Aztec boy who uses the temple of Tzinacan, the bat god, as a lair to confront the Spaniard invasion and avenge his father’s death.

By Lone_Summer1979

I’m not sure what to make of this Batman movie, but that first official image is pretty intriguing. The Aztec clash setup sounds like a lot, though, so I’m curious how it’ll all come together.

Anyone knows if Zorro is public domain?

By Lake_Frog

I’ve been thinking about writing a script using the whole Zorro legacy, but I wanted to check if it’s public domain first since I kind of assumed it was. I went down the rabbit hole with a few articles and now I’m honestly not sure at all. I’m hoping someone else knows more about the actual legal/public-domain status and can point me in the right direction.