Doc Savage

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Doc Savage Magazine #1 (March, 1933)

Doc Savage was a fictional character published in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. He was created by publisher Henry Ralston and editor John Nanovic at Street and Smith Publications, with additional material contributed by the series' main 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.

Doc Savage became more famously known when Bantam Books began reprinting the individual novels from the magazine in 1964, this time with more garish covers that included a blond, golden-skinned Doc Savage with an exaggerated widows' peak, usually wearing a torn khaki shirt. The stories to be reprinted were not taken in chronological order as they were published during the Great Depression, but were chosen for quality—though they did begin with the first adventure, The Man of Bronze. By 1967 Bantam published one a month until 1990 when all 181 original stories (plus an unpublished novel, The Red Spider) had run its course. Author and scholar Will Murray produced seven more Doc Savage novels from Lester Dent's original outlines for Bantam Books. Four more novels were announced, but not published. Bantam also published a 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 Savage 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.

Doc Savage Magazine was created by Street and Smith Publications executive Henry Ralston and editor John Nanovic to capitalize on the success of Street and Smith's pulp character, 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. The basic concept of a man trained from birth to fight evil was not new. In 1932, Philip Wylie wrote The Savage Gentleman. Whether Nanovic or Ralston were inspired by Wylie's writings is not known since Lester Dent seems to have begun writing The Man of Bronze in November 1932 for a March 1933 publication date.

Doc Savage's real name was Clark Savage, Jr.. He was a physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, researcher, and, as revealed in The Devil Genghis, a musician. 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. "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:

"Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man."

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 language of this people, allowing them to communicate privately when others might be listening.)

Savage is accompanied on his adventures by up to five other regular characters (referred to in marketing materials from the Bantam Books republication as "The Fabulous Five"), all highly accomplished individuals in their own right.

• Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair, an industrial chemist. Monk got his nickname from his simian build, notably his long arms, and he was covered with red hair.
• Brigadier General Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks, an accomplished attorney. 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.
• Colonel John "Renny" Renwick, a construction engineer. 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.
• Major Thomas J. "Long Tom" Roberts, an electrical engineer. "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.
• William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn, an archaeologist and geologist. 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.

In later stories, Doc's companions became less important to the plot as the stories focused more on Doc himself. The "missing" characters were explained as working elsewhere, too busy with their own accomplishments to help. Toward the end of the series, only Monk and Ham appeared with Doc.

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.

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.

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. It is referred to in Truman Capote's book, In Cold Blood, as an older Kansan recalls Doc's "fixing" criminals he had caught.

Some of the gadgets described in the series became reality, including flying wing, answering machines, television, automatic transmission, night vision goggles, and hand-held automatic weapons.

Dent, the series' principal author, had a mixed regard for his own creations. Though usually protective of his own work, 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. Dent was paid $500 per story during The Great Depression, and was able to buy a yacht and vacation in the Caribbean.

Publication history

See the List of Doc Savage novels for a complete bibliography.

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James Bama's covers featuring Steve Holland as the Man of Bronze on many of the Bantam reprints defined the character to a generation of readers.

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. 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

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Doug Wildey's cover for Millennium's Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze shows a Doc that is a cross between the Bama paperback design and the pulp version.

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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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" and "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".
• Recently, DC Comics posted art of the character on their website, with other classic characters, such as The Spirit, Blackhawks, Rima the Jungle Girl and The Avenger in a project called First Wave attached are writer Brian Azzarello and artist Rags Morales. The series will feature no superpowered characters although non-powered DC superheroes may appear. There will be a DC published Doc Savage crossover with Batman written by Azzarello with art by Phil Noto and a cover by JG Jones.

Motion picture

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The cast of Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975)
Ron Ely as Doc Savage (foreground), with (background, left to right) Eldon Quick as Johnny, Darrell Zwerling as Ham, William Lucking as Renny, Michael Miller as Monk, and Paul Gleason as Long Tom

In 1967, TV Guide ran an article claiming that talks were underway to have Chuck Connors, of The Rifleman fame, play Doc Savage in a possible television series. Nothing came of that particular project, but in 1975, producer and director George Pal did produce a Doc Savage movie: Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze which starred Ron Ely as Doc Savage. The movie was a critical failure and did poorly at the box-office. Several articles—and a later interview with George Pal himself—have documented that the movie's failure had much to do with its loss of funding during filming when the studio changed heads and Pal was forced to cut costs wherever he could. Nevertheless, he is generally blamed for the film's campy feel. An original soundtrack was commissioned, but when Pal lost his funding, he resorted to a patriotic march from John Philip Sousa which was in the public domain. Science fiction writer, Philip Jose Farmer tried to get another movie made, but nothing came of it.

In 1999, there was an announcement that another Doc Savage movie, to feature Arnold Schwarzenegger, was in the works, but it, and several other Schwarzenegger projects (Sgt. Rock and an epic about the Crusades) were shelved when Schwarzenegger ran for Governor of the state of California.

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

• 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.

• 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, James Bond, and Buckaroo Banzai.

• Doc Savage makes a cameo appearance in the Roger Zelazny novel Roadmarks.

• 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.

• Doc Savage is mentioned in Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2001 book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

• Lester Dent, the writer of Doc Savage, is a protagonist in The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril, a 2007 novel by Paul Malmont.

References

• Doc Savage Organized
• Doc Savage Information
• Doc Savage:The Supreme Adventurer
• The 86th Floor
• ThePulp.Net's Doc Savage page
• PDF of a 1987 article on Lester Dent

External links

• Doc Savage at the Internet Movie Database
• Dr. Hermes Reviews All 182 books reviewed
• Paul Cook's Doc Savage Images
• Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze at the Internet Movie Database
• Doc Savage wiki
• Anthony Tollin's Doc Savage Reprints