At the end of this article’s first segment, I suggested that the core of what the character Doc Caliban offered was a literary opportunity: to explore, using techniques of adult storytelling, a whole range of compelling human drives…from ethics and morality right down through atavistic behaviors of sexual hunger and need, and their link toContinue reading “Splintered Mirror: Doc Savage and Doc Caliban – Part 2 of 2”
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Splintered Mirror: Doc Savage and Doc Caliban – Part 1 of 2
Much has certainly been written about the literary and publishing decisions that resulted in the creation of Philip José Farmer’s character Doc Caliban. The character, who first appeared in 1969’s A Feast Unknown, has certainly endured. For a character that for all intents and purposes has appeared in two books (if you consider the doubleContinue reading “Splintered Mirror: Doc Savage and Doc Caliban – Part 1 of 2”
Magnificent Anger: Princess Monja in the Doc Savage comics – Part 4 of 4
In the first three parts of this look at the character of Princess Monja in her comics incarnations, we saw her as beautiful, courageous and dutiful in Rare Orchid (her Marvel Comics appearance)…strong and doomed in Courage and Tragedy (her DC comics story)…and modernized but cold in Paris and Pistols (in her Dynamite Entertainment persona).Continue reading “Magnificent Anger: Princess Monja in the Doc Savage comics – Part 4 of 4”
Golden Age Doc Savage Comics – Part 3
The first two appearances of Doc Savage in the comics — as a backup feature in Street & Smith’s Shadow Comics in 1940 — were short in page count and questionable in quality, but they were only the beginning. By the time Shadow Comics #3 appeared, Street & Smith was moving forward to spin DocContinue reading “Golden Age Doc Savage Comics – Part 3”
Golden Age Doc Savage Comics – Part 2
The first Doc Savage comic story, presented in Shadow Comics #1, had a very thrown-together feel to it, but by the second issue (also published in 1940), the storytelling had become more ambitious. The artwork, though still primitive, had more detail, and the story was actually an adaptation of what was then a recent novelContinue reading “Golden Age Doc Savage Comics – Part 2”
Golden Age Doc Savage comics – Part 1
With the various Doc Savage comics incarnations since the revival of Doc by Gold Key to tie in with a proposed film in the ’60’s, it’s easy to forget that the Doc from the Golden Age of comics was not limited to the bizarre mystical Doc with the red ruby gem. There were also manyContinue reading “Golden Age Doc Savage comics – Part 1”
Talos Fan Fiction Contest Entry #9 – The Professor
Note from Doc Talos author/contest judge R. Paul Sardanas: Daryl Morrissey, creator of the huge Refractions in Bronze project, displays his virtuosity in the world of a renowned 20th century adventurer, as well as his fascination for the untold stories from the youth of the man who would come to be known as Doc. InContinue reading “Talos Fan Fiction Contest Entry #9 – The Professor”
Talos Fan Fiction Contest Entry #8: Mad Eyes Donovan and the Wolf in Ape’s Clothing
Note from Doc Talos author/contest judge R. Paul Sardanas: This tale by Brooklyn Wright, featuring the wildest of the Kenneth Robesons and a certain apelike chemist brainstorming a Doc Savage yarn one night in 1935, made me smile from its beginnings in a Queens trainyard to its ending in the company of a madam whoContinue reading “Talos Fan Fiction Contest Entry #8: Mad Eyes Donovan and the Wolf in Ape’s Clothing”
Returning to the roots of the graphic novel: Doc Talos and the illuminated Books of William Blake
In our May 8 Forbidden Pulp blog, we explored the process of creating a new kind of novel/graphic novel hybrid. Instead of the sequential panel art format of most graphic novels, the Talos Saga was created using a fusion of traditional narrative book-style text formatting, and fully painted art. While strikingly different from the visualContinue reading “Returning to the roots of the graphic novel: Doc Talos and the illuminated Books of William Blake”
When a character comes to embody hope: Doc Savage and society
Characters in heroic fiction are often products of their time, and because they are commercial properties, their creators make an effort to tap into the zeitgeist of that time. As a result, the vast majority of such characters fade when the themes at their core shift in society around them. Much of the advertising thatContinue reading “When a character comes to embody hope: Doc Savage and society”
Doc Talos 