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Doc Savage is a fictional character, one of the pulp heroes of the 1930s and 1940s. He was created by writer Lester Dent.
Doc Savage Magazine was printed by Street and Smith Publications from March 1933 to the summer of 1949. In all, 181 issues were published. All of the stories were reprinted by Bantam Books as paperbacks, beginning in 1964, that were not in order of original publication, except for the very first, as Bantam was unsure of how the books would be received.
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Encyclopedia
Doc Savage is a fictional character, one of the pulp heroes of the 1930s and 1940s. He was created by writer Lester Dent.
Overview
The Doc Savage Magazine was printed by Street and Smith Publications from March 1933 to the summer of 1949. In all, 181 issues were published. All of the stories were reprinted by Bantam Books as paperbacks, beginning in 1964, that were not in order of original publication, except for the very first, as Bantam was unsure of how the books would be received. The company picked some of the best adventures, and did not bother about chronology. Bantam also published a heretofore-unknown story, The Red Spider, which featured an older and more subdued Doc, a man, rather than superman, which was how the stories trended during the war years and after. However, fans wanted more of the original Doc, so Bantam commissioned an additional eight novels (based on notes or outlines left by the author most identified with the series, Lester Dent). Will Murray produced seven novels from Dent's original outlines. Four more novels were announced, but not published. Bantam also published a new novel by Philip José Farmer, Escape From Loki (1991), which told the story of how Doc met the men who would become his five compatriots, in World War I.
Doc has appeared in comics and a movie, on radio, and as a character in numerous other works, and continues to inspire authors and artists in the realm of fantastic adventure.
The basic concept of a man trained from birth to fight evil was inspired by Philip Wylie's 1932 novel The Savage Gentleman. (Spinning further, Philip Wylie's Gladiator and Doc Savage helped inspire Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.) Doc's name is a dichotomy in itself: "Doc" for Doctor, the highest profession of a civilized man + "Savage" for a brute. The name "Savage" may have been inspired by Richard Henry Savage, explained below.
Doc Savage Magazine was created by Street and Smith Publications executive Henry Ralston and editor John Nanovic to capitalize on the success of their other pulp hero magazine success, The Shadow. Ralston and Nanovic wrote a short premise establishing the broad outlines of the character they envisioned, but Doc Savage was only fully realized by the author chosen to write the series, Lester Dent. Dent wrote most of the 181 original novels, hidden behind the "house name" of Kenneth Robeson. (Will Murray also used the Robeson pseudonym .) Doc was a reverse spinoff of The Shadow, his opposite in every way. The Shadow was an urban legend who worked by night and killed freely with his .45s. Doc Savage lived in the sky above the city, was a public figure, never killed (as of the third adventure), and never carried a gun.
Doc Savage, whose real name is Clark Savage, Jr., is a physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, researcher, and musician — a modern version of a renaissance man. A team of scientists assembled by his father deliberately trained his mind and body to near-superhuman abilities almost from birth, giving him great strength and endurance, a photographic memory, a mastery of the martial arts, and vast knowledge of the sciences. Doc is also a master of disguise and an excellent imitator of voices, though he admits to having trouble with women's voices. "He rights wrongs and punishes evildoers." Dent described the hero as a mix of Sherlock Holmes' deductive abilities, Tarzan's outstanding physical abilities, Craig Kennedy's scientific education, and Abraham Lincoln's goodness. Dent described Doc Savage as manifesting "Christliness." Doc's character and world-view is displayed in his oath, which goes as follows:
His office is on the 86th floor of a New York City skyscraper, implicitly the Empire State Building, reached by Doc's private high-speed elevator. Doc owns a fleet of cars, trucks, aircraft, and boats which he stores at a secret hangar on the Hudson River, under the name The Hidalgo Trading Company, which is linked to his office by a pneumatic-tube system nick-named the "flea run." He sometimes retreats to his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic—which pre-dates Superman's similar hideout of the same name. All of this is paid for with gold from a Central American mine given to him by the local Mayans in the first Doc Savage story. (Doc and his assistants learned the little-known Mayan dialect of this people, allowing them to communicate privately when others might be listening.)
Doc's greatest foe, and the only enemy to appear in two of the original pulp stories, was the Russian-born John Sunlight. Early villains in the "super-sagas" were fantastic schemers bent on ruling the world. Later the magazine was retitled Doc Savage, Science Detective, with a more realistic detective feel where Doc broke up crime rings. With a new editor, the last three magazines returned to the super-saga, then was canceled, as were most other pulp magazines.
A keynote of Doc's adventures is that no matter how fantastic the monster or menace, there was always a rational scientific explanation at the end. A giant mountain-walking spider was revealed as a blimp. A scorching death came from super-charged electric batteries. A "sea angel" was a mechanical construct towed behind a submarine. Navy ships sunk by a mysterious compelling force were actually sabotaged. And so on. Until the last odd story, Up from Earth's Center, where Doc Savage descends into deep caves and meets a stranger who may be the Devil and his ghoulish companions. Doc, for the first time in his life, screams and runs in terror and collapses the cave behind him with a grenade.
In early stories some of the criminals captured by Doc received "a delicate brain operation" to cure their criminal tendencies. The criminals returned to society fully productive and unaware of their criminal past. A non-canonical comic book series published in the 1980s states these were actually lobotomies. In the 1975 film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, Doc uses acupuncture. It is referred to in Truman Capote's book, In Cold Blood, as an older Kansan recalls Doc's "fixing" criminals he had caught.
Dent, the series' principal author, had a mixed regard for his own creations. Though usually protective of his creations, he could be derisive of his pulp output. In interviews, he stated that he harbored no illusions of being a high-quality author of literature; for him, the Doc Savage series was simply a job, a way to earn a living by "churning out reams and reams of sellable crap." In Jim Steranko's History of Comics, it was revealed that Dent used a formula to write his Doc Savage stories, so that his heroes were continually, and methodically, getting in and out of trouble.
Some of the gadgets described in the series became reality, including telephone answering machines, the automatic transmission, night vision goggles, and hand-held automatic weapons.
Fictional Character Biography
Clark Savage Jr. was born on November 12, 1902 on a small schooner in a shallow cove at the north end of Andros Island, Bahamas.
Clark Sr. and his exploration partners Hubert Robertson and Ned Land had been searching for sunken treasure in the area. The rough seas of a storm made the birth more difficult for Doc's mother, Arronaxe. Clark Sr. had named the vessel the "Orion". It is fitting that Doc was born on a vessel named for the great hunter of mythology. Doc would go on to become a fearsome hunter of men who had become like animals. The storm got worse, and shortly after Doc's birth, in the darkness of night, the schooner was dashed on a reef and began to break up.Clark Sr, Robertson and Land struggled to get Doc and his mother to safety. The sea was too violent, and in the darkness Doc's mother was separated from the group. Arronaxe, weakend by childbirth was lost. Doc was to be born into a world where he would be raised by men.
At the age of fourteen months, Clark Savage Jr. was entrusted to a board of scientists to begin the rigorous training which would prepare him for a very special purpose in life. The elder Savage held the belief that with the best training science could offer, his son could be molded into a higher level of human being. A man of the highest morals with a mind and body developed to the greatest degree humanly possible for the purpose of bringing good to the world. Clark Savage Jr. would be that man. With the loss of his dear wife, his son was now all the family Clark Sr. had. He was determined to leave this world a legacy of hope.
For nearly twenty years various specialists trained and taught the young, Clark. The boy was gifted with a maturity that was well beyond his years.
By the time he was seven, he was able to understand the purpose for his life.
He studied and trained with determination. He developed a sense of self image that was inspiring to his mentors. The boy had a genius mind, and by the time he was eleven he was ready to begin college level material.
Since the age of fourteen months, physical trainers worked with him daily. His diet was scientifically regulated to achieve optimum performance.
He received training in various forms of athletics and self defense from experts in these areas.
He was routinely pitted against two or three larger boys, then taught how to overcome them. Each time he succeeded, he was then given a greater challenge by being bound first or some other means of disadvantage.
Clark loved to fight. He lost many, but he learned fast. With practice he learned to control his fear and also urges to be cruel. He was taught acrobatics by circus professionals.
He become creative in the way he handled opponents. By the time he was twelve he was 5"-6" and 150 lbs. He could whip 8 out of 10 grown men.
From the age of thirteen to nearly seventeen, he was traveling the globe.
From one master to another he learned the skills he would require to meet his purpose. This is just some of what his boyhood travels included-
Winter survival techniques from fur trappers in the Canadian snow country.
Animal tracking and woodcraft from an Amazon indian tribe.
Flying instruction from the best pilots in the world at the time.
Diving and sea lore from Polynesians in the South Seas.
In India and Tibet he studied yoga, hypnotism, emotional control and how to block his mind from the affects of pain. He also trained extensively in the martial arts of personal combat. It was here that he picked up the unique habit of unconsciencously making a peculiar trilling noise during moments of stress or concentration.
In Indochina he learned how to prowl through the jungle with stealth by observing the movements of the great jungle hunters the Jaugar and Tiger.
In Africa he met his cousin, The Seventh Earl of Greystoke, who trained him in the art of using trees to travel above the jungle floor.
Learned vocal imitations and ventriloquism from the Great Lander
To develop his other senses, Doc spent several weeks in a school for the blind, eyes bandaged except for daily exercise periods.
He attended a school for the deaf & dumb where he learned sign language and lip reading.
Jimmy Valentine and Arsene Lupin taught him how to pick locks and open safes.
Concurrent to his training, he was studying the flora, fauna, geology, archeology, history, culture and languages of all these regions.
Doc's training was interrupted in April of 1917 when the U.S. declared war on Germany and entered what was being called "The Great War". Due to his size and maturity, and faked papers, he was able to pass himself off as sixteen and join the Army. His mentors went into a frenzy when they learned of what Doc had done. Secretely however, they were as ready as Doc was to put his training into practice on the great evil of the Huns. Doc's father yielded considerable influence with certain diplomatic figures in Washington, D.C. and was able to see to it that Doc was assigned to an air squadron, where he flew a Spad fighter. Clark Savage Sr. had been keeping track of his son's progress and was confident in Doc's remarkable abilities.
Doc reported to his squadron in France in late fall of 1917, just after his 15th birthday. In March of 1918, after six successful combat missions he was shot down over Germany during a balloon-busting sortie.
After returning from the war in 1919, Doc entered medical school at Johns Hopkins University. He graduated and received a M.D. in 1925. He spent the following two years studying in Europe under the greatest neurosurgeons and psychiatrists. In the fall of 1927 he returned to New York and began his experiments in brain surgery. After six months of intensive work he discovered what he called the "Crime Gland". By the fall of 1928, Doc had developed a method to counter-act the imbalance in this gland, which causes anti-social and criminal behavior. The Crime College was then secretly built in Upstate New York. It opened for "business" in 1930.
In early 1933, all of the major preparations were complete. Doc was nearly ready to embark on the career he had spent his whole life training for. He had only to solidify everything in his mind. He spent considerable time at the Fortress Of Solitude, involving himself in both meditation and final preparation for the battles to come. In March of that year, everything galvanized in his soul. He was mentally, physically, emotionally, morally and spiritually ready! Doc was 30 years old.
Arriving back in New York, Doc was ready to assemble is group of friends and declare that the time had come. Instead, when he returned, he was informed of his father's death. The news was an unexpected blow. Doc had counted on his father living to see his work, work the elder Savage had made possible. There was nothing to do but gather his men and give his small speech anyway. Monk, Ham, Renny, Johnny and Long Tom were ready too. They had been waiting for this moment for many years- To go here and there, to the far ends of the earth with Doc, helping those who needed it and punishing those who deserved it.
Doc and his men launched themselves into the mystery Clark Savage Sr's demise from the Red-Fingered Death.
The average person on the street has heard of Doc Savage, but knowns very little about him beyond what can be read in newspapers and magazines. It is no mystery that Doc Savage keeps his office on the 86th floor of the most impressive skyscraper in mid-town Manhattan in New York city. To the public Doc is a remarkable personage always shrouded in mystery. One thing that is widely known about Doc Savage is his unique profession of righting wrongs, aiding the oppressed and meting out justice to evildoers. The general public tends to view him as a sort of modern knight in armor.
Doc shuns publicity for several reasons. Foremost, he does not want his actions and movements to become common knowledge, lest a villain learn of them and gain an advantage. Mystery works to Doc's advantage. His foes are legion. Because of this, the element of suprise is essential to his survival. Also, Doc is a genuinely humble man. If he wanted to toot his horn he would have plenty to toot about. It just is not in the big bronze guy's nature.
Doc's periodic disappearances also lend an aura of mystery about him. So far as anyone (except his aids) knows, he has vanished from the face of the earth. He cannot be reached by any mehod, nor by his aids. His is frequently gone for months. He returns just as mysteriously as when he vanished. Almost always he brings with him some sort of scientific breakthrough. It could be anything from a new theory of electricity to a pioneering new method of surgery. Doc's knowledge of science is vast. When asked where he has been, Doc exercises his somewhat aggravating habit of seeming not to hear a question that he does not desire to answer. It is during these periods of disappearance that Doc retreats to his Fortress Of Solitude in the arctic circle for periods of intense study.
Another of Doc's mysterious hangouts is his secret warehouse and hanger on the Hudson River. Operated under the name of the Hidalgo Trading Company, Doc uses this facility to house the armada of air and water craft he uses in his work.
Perhaps Doc Savage's most guarded secret is the source of his fabulous wealth. If the truth were to be known, it would undoubtedly be at risk. Doc's wealth is the legacy left to him by his father and the King of a vanished race of Mayan royalty. Safe from discovery by civilization in The Valley Of The Vanished Doc can call for it as needed.
This fabulous wealth has enabled Doc to do great work. His enterprises are vast and largely kept in secret. If one was to do some serious investigating they would find that Doc has holdings in a staggering number of corporations and charitable organizations. On several occasions in order to obtain an employee's assistance, Doc has had to merely make a phone call and the employee is informed by an irate boss that Doc nearly owns the company. It pays to own stock.
Powers And Abilities
During the course of his research into the mysteries of the human brain, Doc discovered that certain nerve centers in the neck can be manipulated to "short-circuit" brain impulses. Using this knowledge and after long practice, Doc developed a method of rendering a man temporarily incapacitated. This technique involved seeking out certain nerve centers in the neck and pushing down forcibly. The effect is an immediate muscular paralysis which renders the victim unable to move or speak for some time. Doc's skill as a physician enables him to safely apply this technique. With another manipulation, Doc removes the nerve paralysis. The victim is left fearful and confused but no long term damage is done. This trick has helped Doc on countless occasions when stealth is desired over brute force.
In keeping with his rule not to take life if it can be avoided, Doc developed a supermachine pistol for use by his aids. The weapons resemble oversized automatics with a cartridge of coiled "mercy bullets" that when fired at a villain breaks on contact, releasing an anaesthetic that renders the criminal unconscious. Doc and Monk have also devised cartridges for other purposes. Each type of cartridge is color coded to indicate its purpose. For instance, one type of cartridge is charged with a chemical which forms a vapor that when drawn into an aircraft engine's carburetor, makes the engine's fuel mixture noncombustible, thus causing the engine to quit.
Doc also devised and uses an ultra-violet projector and goggles to allow him to see in the dark. He invented a wrist-watch type television receiver with a range of several miles. These are just a few of the thousands of inventions used by Doc and his men in their battles against evil. Doc is always ahead of the technology of the day with the numerous gadgets he uses.
Doc was raised from the cradle to be a new type of man. He received physical training since the age of fourteen months. Since that time he has always maintained a daily regimen of exercise. Only rarely has he missed a day. This is the secret of his incredible abilities and musculature.
The exercise routine consists of pitting one muscle against another. Each muscle is individually worked in this manner.
Doc uses several pieces of scientific apparatus designed to test his hearing and sight.
Several cards are used for reading braille to highten the sensivity of touch.
A case with several vials holding small samples are opened and smelled to enhance the olfactory system.
To challenge his mental capacity Doc juggles several numbers in his head, multiplying, taking cube roots and integrals.
In all, the routine takes about two hours. According to Monk, it will make you break into a sweat just watching Doc do his workout.
Doc Savage is a criminal's worst nightmare. He is a walking fortress festooned with innumerable weapons. Even when stripped to his underwear and scrubbed clean he is as dangerous as nitroglycerin.
It is Doc's practice to never carry a gun, although he is an excellent marksman. He believes that the man who carries a gun develops a psychological dependence on it and soon becomes helpless without one. He prefers instead to rely on his wits and the various scientific gadgets he commonly uses.
Doc and his men routinely wear a light-weight bulletproof union-suit of wire mesh mail that gives protection from the neck to just below the knees. This body armor can stop a slug from anything less than a high powered rifle. Over this Doc wears a strange looking under-vest. The vest contains numerous pockets that hold various gadgets and small vials of chemicals. The pockets are nested between padding to conceal their presence. Here is a sample of what Doc packs in the vest-
Glass-walled anestetic gas grenades the size of robin's eggs
High power explosive grenades the size of ball bearings
Lock-picking tool set
Silk line & rubber-coated grappling hook
Hypodermic kit including truth serum vials
Smoke grenades
A pouch which contains a pencil-thin collapsible periscope which can be converted into either a telescope or a microscope by switching accessory lenses. With lenses removed it also can be used as an underwater snorkel.
Fog bombs that deposit a dust that emits a green glow when exposed to ultraviolet light.
Chalk that writes invisibly, but becomes visible when exposed to ultraviolet light.
A vial of red solution that resembles blood.
In addition to these items Doc's clothing is equally as dangerous. Various buttons can be crushed and combined to produce such things as high explosives or flash powder which causes temporary blindness. The lining of Doc's necktie holds two chemical strands that when twisted together burn with the terrific heat of thermite. The heel of his shoes can be dislodged to rapidly create a thick black smokescreen.
Doc also carries in two false molars a 2-part explosive. He also wears a wig with an interior lining of the same light mesh as the body armor. Attached to the inside liner are two flat sheets that when rolled together create a powerful explosive.
Appearance
In the text of the pulp novels Doc Savage is described as a giant (although his initial height is given as 6'), so well proportioned that this is not apparent unless he is standing next to an object that can be used as a reference. Doc's skin is bronzed "by tropical suns" with dark bronze, hair of bronze hue, and hypnotic gold-flecked eyes. The effect is summed up by his epithet "The Man of Bronze." In fact, in the first issue (The Man of Bronze, March 1933), a sniper observing through a window initially mistakes Doc for a bronze sculpture. His height and weight varied, with later books listing his height as 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m).
The covers of the Street and Smith Pulp magazines, initially painted by Walter M. Baumhoffer, depict Doc as an athletic man with the standard hair style of the period (a side part and wayward lock of hair on the right). Doc is usually described as wearing a normal suit but no hat. He wears a special waistcoat underneath his shirt in which he carries an assortment of gadgets. He is shown in various states of dress but a shirt and khaki trousers are common. This look was based on film actor Gary Cooper, or perhaps Clark Gable.
The covers of the Bantam Books paperback reprints, by illustrator James Bama, depict Doc as a slightly older muscular man with bronze skin and a crew cut with a very pronounced widow's peak, probably based on a metal skull cap Doc occasionally wore when expecting an attack. On the reprint covers is usually shown wearing jodhpurs and a shirt in tatters. Bama used model/actor Steve Holland, TV's Flash Gordon, for depicting his version of Doc Savage.
A Real Doc Savage?
While visiting John L Nanovic, the editor of the Doc Savage magazine, writer-researcher Will Murray learned that Doc Savage may have been, in part, based on a real-life person named Richard Henry Savage (1846–1903). Like his fictional namesake, Savage was a true renaissance man — a soldier, an engineer, a diplomat, a lawyer, a novelist, a civic leader, and a war hero.
Richard Henry Savage was born on June 12, 1846, in Utica, New York, the son of Richard Savage and Jane Moorhead Savage (née Ewart). His grandfather, a civil engineer, arrived in America around 1805. His ancestors were English, Scottish and Irish. ,
Savage graduated from West Point in 1868, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He joined the Egyptian army as a major in 1871. He subsequently served as U.S. vice-consul in Marseilles and Rome. On January 2, 1873, he married Anna Josephine Scheible of Berlin, Germany.
Later, Savage served on the Texas-Mexico frontier, and as a chief engineer on a railroad in California, retiring in 1884. Following his retirement, Savage traveled extensively, visiting Turkey, Japan, China, Russia, Asia Minor, Korea, and Honduras.
Returning to the United States in 1891, as a confidant of President Ulysses S. Grant Savage was given several diplomatic appointments around the world. Savage could talk of all the wild spots in the world that he had visited and had many personal mementos of his strange life.
Savage wrote his first novel, My Official Wife (1891), which proved to be his most popular. Savage eventually wrote over 40 books, including Our Mysterious Passenger and Other Stories (1899), which was published by Street and Smith a year after a 17-year-old Henry W. Ralston, the future co-creator of Doc Savage, joined the firm.
Savage became senior Captain of the 27th U.S. Volunteer Infantry, and was appointed Brigadier General and Chief Engineer of Spanish War Veterans in 1900.
After living such an adventurous life, Savage was run over by a horse-drawn wagon while crossing Sixth Avenue in New York City, on October 3, 1903, dying eight days later at the age of 57.
The Fabulous Five and Pat
Doc's companions in his adventures (the "Fabulous Five") were:
- Industrial chemist Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair and his pet pig, Habeas Corpus (a jab at Ham's profession). Monk got his name from his simian appearance, notably his long arms, and was covered with red hair.
- Lawyer Brigadier General Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks and his pet monkey, Chemistry (a counter-jab aimed at Monk's field of expertise). Ham (the shyster, as Monk referred to him) got his nickname after teaching Monk some French swear words to innocently use on a French general. Shortly afterwards, Brooks was framed for stealing a truckload of hams. He was never able to prove Monk was behind this, and the name stuck. Ham was considered one of the best-dressed men in the world, and as part of his attire, carried a sword cane whose blade is dipped in a fast-acting anesthetic.
- Construction engineer Colonel John "Renny" Renwick. Renny was a giant of a man, with fists like buckets of gristle and bone which no wooden door could withstand. He usually had a gloomy expression, which deepened as he grew more happy.
- Electrical engineer Major Thomas J. "Long Tom" Roberts. "Long Tom" got his nickname from using an antiquated cannon of that nick-name in the successful defense of a French village in World War I. Long Tom was a sickly-looking character, but fought like a wildcat.
- Archaeologist and geologist William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn. Johnny used long words ("I'll be superamalgamated!" was a favourite saying). Johnny wore a monocle in early adventures (one eye having been blinded in World War I). Doc later performed corrective surgery that restored his sight in his eye, but Johnny retained the monocle for use as a magnifying glass as well as a memento.
The men were never called the "Fabulous Five" within the novels, only on the back covers of the reprints, perhaps an echo of Marvel Comics' recent hit, "The Fantastic Four."
In later stories, some of the aides might be working elsewhere, and so could not go on adventures, and finally it was just Monk and Ham who accompanied Doc. There was always banter between the two of them, particularly when they sparred over the attentions of a pretty young girl.
Doc's cousin Patricia "Pat" Savage, who has Doc's bronze skin, eyes, and hair, also was along for many of the adventures, despite Doc's best efforts to keep her away from danger. Pat chafes under these restrictions, or indeed any effort to protect her simply because she is female. She is also able to fluster Doc, even as she completely charms Monk and Ham.
Publication history
See the List of Doc Savage novels for a complete bibliography.
All of the original stories were reprinted in paperback form by Bantam Books in the 1960s through 1990s. About 60 of the paperback covers were painted in extraordinary monochromatic tones and super-realistic detail by James Bama, whose updated vision of Doc Savage with the exaggerated widow's peak captured, at least symbolically, the essence of the Doc Savage novels. The first 96 paperbacks reprinted one of the original novels per book. Actor and model Steve Holland who had played Flash Gordon in a 1953 television series was the model for Doc on all the covers. The next 15 paperbacks were "doubles," reprinting two novels each (these were actually shorter novellas written during paper shortages of World War II). The last of the original novels were reprinted in a numbered series of 13 "omnibus" volumes of four to five stories each. It was one of the few pulp series to be completely reprinted in paperback form.
The Red Spider was a Doc Savage novel written by Dent in April 1948, about the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The story was killed in 1948 by new editor Daisy Bacon, though previous editor William de Grouchy had commissioned it. It was forgotten until 1975, when Doc Savage scholar Will Murray found hints of its existence. After a two-year search, the manuscript was located among Dent's papers. It finally saw print in July 1979 as Number 95 in Bantam's Doc Savage series. Philip José Farmer wrote the book Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, which summarized the series with the idea that Doc actually existed and the novels chronicled his exploits.
The Blackmask eBook and POD website offered large numbers of Doc Savage books for download up to early 2006, when the owner was sued by Condé Nast, resulting in the site's closure (it reopened in 2008 as Munseys, without the Doc Savage novels).
There is an active market for used Doc Savage books in all formats, on eBay and elsewhere. There are also dozens of fan pages and discussion groups on the Internet.
Nostalgia Ventures began a new series of Doc reprints (starting November 2006), featuring two novels per book. Several editions came with a choice of original pulp style or more modern cover, and most include new essays as introductions and afterwords.
Radio
Two Doc Savage radio series were broadcast during the pulp era. The first, in 1934, was a 15-minute serial which ran for 26 episodes. The 1943 series was based not on the pulps but on the comic book version of the character. No audio exists from either series, although some scripts survived. In 1985, National Public Radio aired The Adventures of Doc Savage, as 13 half-hour episodes, based on the pulps and adapted by Will Murray and Roger Rittner.
See the List of Doc Savage radio episodes for a complete playlist.
Comic books
Golden Age
Street & Smith published comic book stories of Doc both in the The Shadow comic and his own title. These started with Shadow Comics v1 #1–3 (1940), then moved to Doc Savage Comics. Originally, these stories were based on the pulp version, but with Doc Savage Comics v1 #5 (1941), he was turned into a genuine superhero when he crashed in Tibet and found a mystical gem in a hood. These stories had a Doc who bore little resemblance to the character in the pulps. This lasted through the end of Doc Savage Comics in 1943 after 20 issues, and briefly with his return to Shadow Comics in v3 #10 (Jan 44). It was apparently dropped by his second story. He would last until the end of the Shadow Comic, v9 #5 (1948), but did not appear in every issue (not in V5#5;V6#10-12;V8#4). He also appeared in at least one issue of Supersnipe Comics (V1 #9, June 1943).
Modern Age
Post-Golden Age, there have been several Doc Savage comic books:
- Gold Key Comics, 1966, one issue. Adapts The Thousand-Headed Man to tie-in to a proposed Doc Savage movie starring Chuck Connors of The Rifleman. The cover painting, copied from James Bama's original, resembles Connors.
- Marvel Comics. In 1972, eight standard color comics with four adaptations of books - The Man of Bronze, Brand of the Werewolf, Death in Silver, and The Monsters - and one Giant-Size movie adaptation. In 1975, eight black-and-white magazines published by the Marvel imprint Curtis Magazines as a movie tie-in. All are original stories by Doug Moench and Tony DeZuniga with a mature, realistic bent. Villains have motives, Monk and Ham get their comeuppance from canny women, and Renny falls in love.
- DC Comics, 1987–90, a four-issue miniseries tryout, then 24 issues and one Annual, most written by Mike W. Barr. Original adventures, including a reunion with Doc's Mayan sweetheart/wife Monya and John Sunlight, adventures with Doc's grandson "Chip" Savage, and back story on Doc's parents and youth. Included a four-issue crossover with DC's current run of The Shadow. Sidenote: As evidenced by a DC house ad, the original DC plan had Doc's preserved brain implanted in the body of a Native American detective, but Conde Nast rejected the idea.
- Millennium Publications, 1990s, published several mini-series and one-shots, including Doc Savage: The Monarch of Armageddon, a four-part limited series from 1991 to 1992. Written by novelist Mark Ellis and penciled by Green Lantern artist Darryl Banks, the Comics Buyer's Guide Catalog of Comic Books refers to their treatment as the one "to come closest to the original, capturing all the action, humanity, and humor of the original novels." Other miniseries were "Doom Dynasty", "Curse of the Fire God", "Devil's Thoughts", and one-shots Pat Savage: Woman of Bronze, and a Manual of Bronze.
- Dark Horse Comics, 1995, two miniseries: a two-issue miniseries "The Shadow and Doc Savage" and four issue "Doc Savage: Curse of the Fire God".
Motion picture
A campy Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze movie was made in 1975, starring Ron Ely as Doc who confronts smuggler Captain Seas. It was the last film produced by George Pál. It is unfortunate that the movie was made during the then-standard trend to minimalize or ridicule heroes, a result of the post-Vietnam miasma that affected the nation. After "Star Wars," it was fashionable again to admire heroes, and while Philip Jose' Farmer tried mightily to get another movie made (supposedly the sequel, a more serious take on Doc, penned by Farmer, was already in the works and featured as a preview at the end of the movie, but canned with the failure of the original), nothing came of it.
In 2007, a fan edit called "Doc SaLvageD: The Fan-Edit of Bronze" was created to minimize the campiness of the original film.
In 1999, there was an announcement that another Doc Savage movie, to feature Arnold Schwarzenegger, was in the works, but it never materialised.
According to long-time Batman producer Michael E. Uslan, a new Doc Savage film is set to be produced, hopefully for 2009/2010 release. Uslan delivered the news at Comic-Con '08.
Cultural references
- Lin Carter wrote a series of books featuring Zarkon - Lord of the Unknown, a thinly disguised version of Doc and his companions.
- Doc Savage and his brain modification technique are suggested as a possible outcome to the trial in Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood.
- In Philip José Farmer's sexually explicit A Feast Unknown (1969), the "Ultimate Nature Man" (Tarzan, called Lord Grandrith, confronts his urban counterpart and younger half-brother (Doc Savage), called Doc Caliban). "Ham" Brooks (called "Porky" Rivers) and "Monk" Mayfair (called "Jocko" Simmons) also appear in the story, which continues in the novels The Mad Goblin and Lord of the Trees. The concluding story in the series has yet to appear.
- Doc Wilder, a more risque and slapstick homage, and team appeared in a series of Thomas Fortenberry fan novels in the 1990s, beginning with The Green Dragons.
- Doc Brandon, protagonist of Operation Longlife by E. Hoffmann Price, is a version of Doc Savage confronting strange societal changes in the modern world.
- In his book Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Farmer lays out Savage's key role in the fictional Wold Newton family, linking Doc to Tarzan and numerous other fictional heroes and villains from popular and classical literature. Farmer theorizes Doc is the grandson of Wolf Larson, master of the Sea Wolf, in the novel of the same name, by Jack London.
- Doc Savage has influenced the creation and development of other fictional heroes, including Superman, Batman, and Buckaroo Banzai. Both Alan Moore's Tom Strong and Warren Ellis's Doc Brass are closely modeled on Doc Savage. The case for a Doc-Superman connection are well-chronicled: Man of Bronze/Man of Steel; Clark Savage/Clark Kent; and Superman's Arctic Fortress of Solitude is a direct steal from Doc's original hideaway, invented years earlier.
- Doc has teamed up with The Thing and shared an adventure with Spider-Man in a couple of issues of Marvel Comics, during the time Marvel was publishing a Doc comic.
- In the original Rocketeer comic book mini-series, a tall, handsome scientist who bears an uncanny resemblance to Doc is the inventor of Cliff Secord's rocket pack. In the novelization of The Rocketeer movie by Peter David, the characters speculate that perhaps Doc Savage invented the rocketpack and his boys ("probably Ham and Monk") are due to come any moment. However in the Rocketeer movie, the inventor was changed from Doc to Howard Hughes.
- A character resembling a young Doc Savage named Doctor Francis Ardan (or Hardant) was created by writer Guy d'Armen for his novel La Cité de l'Or et de la Lčpre, serialized in the French magazine Science et Voyages Nos. 453 (May 1928) to 479 (November 1928). This novel was translated in 2004 under the title Doc Ardan: City of Gold and Lepers by Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier and published by . Doc Ardan has also appeared in several stories written for the anthology Tales of the Shadowmen.
- A pair of fantasy novels by Aaron Allston, titled Doc Sidhe (1995) and Sidhe-Devil (2001), focus on the exploits of a "Doc Sidhe" and his "Sidhe Foundation" in a parallel world which links to our own world, containing humans, elves, dwarves, et al., in a 1930-ish technological setting. The title character, his surroundings, environment, and exploits, and the writing style of the novels are all modeled after and pay homage to the original Doc Savage series.
- A now-aged "Senator Ted Brooks" appears in the comic book Liberty Girl, about a World War II-era superheroine who reappears in the current times. A unidentified picture is shown of Doc and his associates, and there may be a connection between the bronze Liberty Girl (real name Elena Hunter) and Doc, most likely she being his daughter.
- Ted White, later assisted by Marv Wolfman, wrote two adventures of a character clearly meant as an homage to Doc Savage. This character was named Doc Phoenix, The Man Who Enters the Mind. He appeared in several volumes of the Byron Priess-produced series, Weird Heroes.
- The song "Dial a Hitman" from the Big Audio Dynamite album "No. 10 Upping St." contains the line: "At the Continental, Doc Savage pays the bill."
- In issue #10 of Paul the Samurai, The Tick demonstrates his allegiance to Crime Cannibal by saying, "We're good guys! If you don't believe it, check out this Doc Savage-shirt ripping action!" while tearing off his T-shirt.
- In the first issue of Warren Ellis' Wildstorm comic Planetary, a character in jodhpurs and safari shirt named Doc Brass (formerly mentioned) and his five aides, who suspiciously resemble Tarzan, The Shadow, and Fu Manchu, fight off an invasion from an alternative reality. In this story Doc Brass goes up against an alternative universes' Justice League, destroying them to save the earth, with Doc as the only survivor, who has been guarding the rift until he is found almost 70 years later. In later issues, an alternative book history is given in pulp form. The main characters all relating with certain abilities due to their birth date, January 1, 1900.
- Lester Dent, the writer of Doc Savage, is a protagonist in The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, a 2007 novel by Paul Malmont.
- Grant Morrison creates a possible Doc analogue in The Filth under the name Max Thunderstone. The tanned giant hopes to use his amazing wealth and team of crack therapists and lawyers to free all humanity from oppression through a better understanding of applied neurology.
- Doc Savage was a clear inspiration for Tim Byrd's Doc Wilde, a modern-day hero who adventures with his kids in Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom, the first in a series of novels.
Footnotes
External links
- All 182 books reviewed
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- by Brian M. Kane. All the Doc Savage covers painted by James Bama
- "Remember The Doc Savage Movie Disaster?" by Will Murray. The Bronze Gazette (Vol. 1, No. 1) March 12, 1992.
- "The Doctor is in! Doc Savage" by Michael A. Beck. Baby Boomer Collectibles (April 1996)
- "The Bronze Age" by Will Murray from James Van Hise, ed., Pulp Heroes of the Thirties, 2nd edition (Yucca Valley, California: self-published, 1997).
- Philip José Farmer. Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (New York, New York: Bantam Books, 1975).
- Rick Lai. The Complete Chronology of Bronze (Indianapolis, Indiana: ACES Publications, 1999)
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