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Doc Savage is a fictional character, one of the most enduring pulp heroes of the 1930s and 1940s.

Overview

Doc Savage is one of the archetypal hero figures of the twentieth century, and his popularity and influence has extended far beyond his initial pulp origins. Doc Savage Magazine ran for 181 issues, 1933 to 1949, and then all the stories were reprinted in paperback form, beginning in the early 1960s. An additional eight novels were then commissioned, based on notes or outlines left by the series author, Lester Dent. Doc has appeared in comics and movies, on radio, and as a character in numerous other works, and continues to inspire authors and artists in the adventure and fantasy realms.

The basic concept of a man trained from birth to fight evil was created by Street and Smith Publications executive Henry Ralston and editor John Nanovic, to further 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.

Doc Savage, whose real name is "Clark Savage, Jr.", also known as "the Man of Bronze", is a physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, researcher and musician — a renaissance man. A team of scientists (assembled by his father) trained his mind and body to near-superhuman abilities almost from birth, giving him great strength and endurance, a photographic memory, mastery of the martial arts, and vast knowledge of the sciences. "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 actually described Doc Savage as manifesting "Christliness."

He resides on the top floor of a New York City skyscraper, implicitly the Empire State Building. 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. He sometimes retreats to his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic. All of this is paid for with gold from a Central American mine the natives gave his father and his father left to him.

Dent based the look of Doc Savage on the film actor Clark Gable. His height and weight varied, with most of the books listing his height as 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m). Reprint book covers by illustrator James Bama depict Doc as a muscular man with bronze skin and a crew cut with a pronounced widow's peak, usually wearing a partially ripped shirt. Bama based his version of Doc on model/actor Steve Holland.

Doc's companions in his adventures (the "Fabulous Five") are:

Doc's cousin Patricia "Pat" Savage also joins Savage for many of his 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.

Doc's greatest foe, and the only one to appear in more than one of the original pulp stories, was the Russian-born John Sunlight. Early villains were bent on ruling the world, but a late change in format had Savage operating more as a private investigator breaking up smaller crime rings.

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.

Dent, the series' creator and 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."

All of the original stories were reprinted in paperback form by Bantam Books in the 1960s through 1990s. The first 96 paperbacks reprinted one of the original novels per book. The next 15 paperbacks were "doubles", reprinting two novels each. 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. There is an active market for used Doc Savage reprints in all formats, on eBay and elsewhere. There are also dozens of fan pages and discussion groups on the Internet.

A camp Doc Savage movie was made in 1975, starring Ron Ely as Doc who confronts smuggler Captain Seas. It was the last film produced by George Pál. A sequel, Doc Savage: The Arch-Nemesis of Evil, was announced but was never filmed.

Also notable is that 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.

Novels

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

Other media

Street & Smith published comic book stories of Doc both in the The Shadow comic and his own. 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 not quite the same as the pulps. This lasted thru 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. He also appeared in atleast one issue of Supersnipe Comics.

At least two radio series were done with Doc during the pulp era. One in 1943 was based on the mystical gem wearing version from the comics. More recently, National Public Radio did two serials based on Doc pulps adapted by Will Murray.

Post-Golden Age, there have been Doc Savage comic books from Gold Key Comics (1966, one issue), Marvel Comics (1970s, both standard comic books and larger, black-and-white magazines), DC Comics (1987-90), Millennium Comics (1991-92), and Dark Horse Comics (1995, including a two-issue pairing with the Shadow).

Doc Savage was featured in Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, a 1975 movie starring Ron Ely.

Cultural references

  • Doc Savage and his brain modification technique is suggested as a possible outcome to the trial in Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood.

  • Doc Savage has starred in a number of comics adaptations, dating back to the 1940s, put out by numerous publishers. However, The Monarch of Armageddon, a four-part limited series released by Millennium Publications in 1991-92 is generally considered to be the best and most faithful of the many comic adaptations of the character. 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."

  • In Deus Ex (a first-person shooter/role-playing computer game) Dr. Gary Savage leads the group X-51

  • In the original Rocketeer Mini-Series a tall handsome scientist who bears an uncanny resemblance to Doc is the inventor of Cliff Secord's rocket pack.

  • 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 current world, containing humans, elves, dwarves, etc in a 1930-ish technological setting. The title character; his surroundings, environment, and exploits; the writing style of the novels; etc all are modelled after and pay homage to, and are reminiscent of, the original Doc Savage series.

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External links

Series of books | Fictional detectives | Fictional scientists | Wold Newton | Pulp heroes and villains | Doc Savage characters | Superheroes without aliases | DC Comics titles | Marvel Comics titles | Gold Key Comics titles

Doc Savage | Doc Savage | Doc Savage

 

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