Showing posts with label Doc Savage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doc Savage. Show all posts

Monday, January 15, 2024

Monday Madness DOC SAVAGE COMICS "Polar Treasure"

Our current arctic blast reminded me of the setting of an early Doc Savage novel...
...which was condensed into the shortest comics adaptation of any of the Man of Bronze's "supersagas" (as Phillip  Jose Farmer refers to them) we've ever seen!
Two notes:
1) the flying man on the cover is Ajax the Sun Man, who had his own strip in the book.
(Ajax is not in the Doc Savage tale.)
2) the story may be NSFW due to racial stereotypes common to the 1940s.
The first few issues of the 1940s Doc Savage Comics condensed and adapted Doc pulp novels.
This issue (#3 from 1941) took the 1933 pulp tale "Polar Treasure" and fit it into only eight pages!
Both writer and artist of the adaptation and cover are unknown.
Lester Dent wrote the original novel under the "Kenneth Robeson" house pen-name.
Trivia: both the original and paperback editions of the novel are #4 in their respective series.
Cover by Walter M Baumhaufer
Cover by Lou Feck or James Avati or Frank McCarthy
(After the first novel, "Man of Bronze", Bantam Books reprinted the stories out of original publication order, going with what they felt were the most exciting tales first.)
Bookmark us (if you haven't already) since we have a lot of cool never-reprinted material coming up this year!

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

CoronaVirus Comics GIANT-SIZED DOC SAVAGE "The Man of Bronze" Conclusion

Art by John and Sal Buscema
Learning of his father's death due to a rare disease, adventurer/scientist Doc Savage returns to his headquarters in New York City, where he is greeted by his five associates, each an expert in a different science or discipline.
Suspecting foul play, they are about to read the elder Savage's personal papers to ascertain clues, when an assassination attempt is made on Doc.
The group (except for lawyer Ham, sent on another assignment) now goes in pursuit of the gunman...
To Be Continued...Tomorrow,
back where it began, at...
Hero Histories!
Please Support Atomic Kommie Comics!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Have No Fear! The Man of Bronze is Here...

In a related note to our Shadow post yesterday...
...with Dynamite Entertainment reviving the Man of Bronze's checkered comics career, and a series of pulp reprints from Nostalgia Ventures selling well, we'd just like to remind you about a number of long out-of-print (and never-reprinted) tales presented at our "brother" RetroBlog™, Hero Histories, including the 1970s team-ups with The Thing and Spider-Man, the Gold Key one-shot (and the almost-made 1960s movie it was supposed to tie-in to), the Marvel tie-in to the 1975 flick, and a classic 1940s comic adventure involving...television!
Enjoy!

Monday, March 11, 2013

Noted Fantasy Artist Bob Larkin Needs Our Help!

The perils of being a freelance artist are numerous...including not having medical insurance!
Bob Larkin, who’s done hundreds of paintings for Marvel, DC, Fleer and numerous others, is in desperate need of help.
Bob’s wife, Fran, has been battling various forms of cancer for the past 12 years and the endless medical bills have put an incredible financial strain on the family.
Fran is currently recovering from her latest surgery and Bob has become her caregiver 24/7 leaving him unable to take on new work.
To help pay the bills Fantom Press is offering numerous items for sale...including a new sketchbook (see cover above) of Larkin's art featuring never-seen roughs, prelims, and sketches!
The books are square bound, 8 ½ x 11″ 48 black and white pages and each one is individually signed and numbered by Bob. The paperback edition is $20.00 and there are two deluxe hard cover editions available that are in short supply. 100% of the sales from this book, as well as anything else that might interest you on site are going directly to the Larkins.
So, if you can, pick up a kool collectible and help one of our own in the process!
Talk about a win-win proposition!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Tony DeZuniga (1932-2012)


The first Filipino artist to work for American publishers, Tony also served as a broker/agent for other Pacific island artists.
Penciler/inker who was expert in every genre from romance to sci-fi to horror.
Co-created Jonah Hex and the Bronze Age Black Orchid.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Happy 45th Birthday, Star Trek

It was 45 years ago today...
NBC promo art by Doc Savage artist James Bama
...that Star Trek debuted on NBC with the fifth episode filmed "The Man Trap", chosen by NBC execs because it had a "monster"!
(These were the same network executives who rejected the first pilot "The Cage", because it was "too cerebral"!)
"Too cerebral?"  Let's watch LOST IN SPACE!
With five spin-off tv series, eleven movies (and a twelfth in pre-production), innumerable books, comics, toys, and other paraphernalia, and a still-dedicated (some say obsessed) fanbase (one of the largest in science fiction/fantasy), Trek has become a permanent part of pop culture.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Doc Savage and Spider-Man...the Team-Up that ISN'T a Team-Up!

Click on the art to enlarge
Currently-running over at our "brother" blog Hero & Heroine Histories™ is a never-reprinted Doc Savage comic story from 1975's Giant-Size Spider-Man #3.
Yes, Spider-Man and Doc Savage!
Together.
Sort of.
Want to know what we're talking about?
Click HERE!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Shadows by Berni Wrightson and Jim Steranko

In 1972, both DC and Marvel acquired comics rights to classic Street & Smith pulp characters whose paperback reprints were selling well. (and The Shadow's reissued radio shows were among the best-selling spoken-word record albums and cassettes.)
Marvel nabbed Doc Savage and DC picked up both The Shadow and The Avenger. (although Marvel initially claimed to have The Shadow as well...)
Immediately, many big-name artists, as well as up-and-comers, vied for the coveted assignments.
Alex Toth, Jim Steranko, Gene Colan, Berni Wrightson, and Mike Kaluta were among those who submitted test pieces.
Here's two of them.
Wrightson's piece was used as a house ad by DC, and Berni inked an entire issue over Kaluta's pencils, as well as assisting on a couple of other Kaluta stories.
Steranko's pencil piece was reused as the envelope art for his Shadow Secret Society licensed fan club.
This version was inked by the late, great, Dave (Rocketeer) Stevens.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Have NO Fear! The Man of Bronze is...THERE!

Currently running at our brother RetroBlog™, Hero & Heroine Histories™, is the never-reprinted Movie Edition of Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze.
It's not even included in the new trade paperback from DC reprinting Marvel's Doc series from 1972!
Miss it at your peril!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

YouTube Wednesday: The Man of Bronze IS the Man of Steel!

The recent Doc Savage posts have produced some of the biggest hit counts this blog has ever seen!
So, for this week's videos, we're going with The Man of Bronze and Ron Ely as two Clarks, one Bronze, one Steel!
First up, the rarely-seen behind-the-scenes featurette from the 1975 movie...

UPDATE: It's been deleted! Damn!
Then, the original theatrical trailer...Have no fear! The Man of Bronze is HERE!

Ron Ely reciting the Code of Doc Savage
(C'mon, admit it! He did a damned good job!)

UPDATE: That's been deleted, too!
Well, to make up for the deletions, here's the two major fight scenes in the flick in one clip!

And a very special treat: Ron Ely as the Golden Age Superman!
 From The Adventures of Superboy third season finale; "The Road to Hell Part II"
Don't worry, the opening synopsis gives you all the background you need...


Coming soon: The Doc Savage stories from Marvel Two-in-One and Giant-Size Spider-Man, as well as the Giant-Size Doc Savage one-shot, none of which are included in DC's trade paperback reprint! PLUS: the text features and pin-ups from the Marvel comics and b/w magazines!
Note: the Reading Room posts for all superhero (and superheroine) stories in the future will appear in our brother blog Hero & Heroine Histories, where previous entries have been "rerunning" several days later.
Bookmark it, or go to it and load the rss feed to keep up with, among other things...
The Shadow's Silver Age run from Archie Comics!
The COMPLETE Fox/Farrell Phantom Lady by Matt Baker!
The Green Hornet (Golden AND Silver Age)!
The SECOND Captain Marvel! (The one between SHAZAM! and Mar-Vell!)
Jet Dream and Her StuntGirl CounterSpies: the Complete Saga!
..and much MORE superhero(ine) stuff from 1938-1978!
The sci-fi/fantasy, horror, humor, Western, and romance stories (or genre combinations like Space Western) will continue here, so keep us bookmarked as well!

Monday, April 11, 2011

DOC SAVAGE: The Movie That ALMOST Was

Comic cover cropped from the paperback art by James Bama
In 1966, with both Bond and Bat-manias at their peak, producers Mark Goodson and Bill Toddman intended to begin a film franchise based on the hot-selling Doc Savage pulp novels being reprinted by Bantam, starting with The Thousand-Headed Man
1966 Newsweek article about Doc Savage and the movie. Click to enlarge.
 They contracted Chuck Connors, who had recently finished a successful run on the RifleMan tv series to play Doc, and began pre-production.
Then, things stopped dead in their tracks.
It seemed that Conde Nast, who now owned the Street and Smith library, including Doc, The Shadow, and The Avenger, didn't own the ancillary media rights to the Man of Bronze!
Those rights had been retained by co-creator Lester Dent, who had written most of the novels (including Thousand-Headed Man) under the "Kenneth Robeson" house name.
(Dent, had previously licensed a short-lived radio version of the character, but had been unable to develop a movie or tv version.  When he passed away, his widow inherited the rights.)
Mrs. Dent was more than willing to negotiate, but time was not on the producers' side.  They had already scheduled the production, and had to start shooting something or lose their investment and the cast (most of whom had commitments scheduled after the Thousand-Headed Man shoot!
To recoup, the producers switched to an already-existing Western script called Night of the Tiger, and shot it as Ride Beyond Vengeance.  (Westerns at that point were still an "easy sell" to theatres and tv.)
Looking at the Ride Beyond Vengeance cast, it's fairly easy to guess who would've played whom...
Claude Akins as Monk
William Bryant as Renny
Jamie Farr as Johnny
Bill Bixby as Long Tom
Gary Merrill or Paul Fix as Calvin Copeland
Kathryn Hays as Lucille Copeland
Not sure who would've played Sen Gat
The cast also included Frank Gorshin and James MacArthur.
In the early 1970s, the character's rights were sold to legendary movie producer George Pal, who produced Man of Bronze in 1974.
The Thousand-Headed Man was eventually dramatized...but as a radio mini-series for NPR, who had scored great ratings with radio versions of the original Star Wars Trilogy.
Here's the original pulp cover...
 ...the rarely-seen British paperback, published at the same time as the 1975 Ron Ely feature film, and, oddly enough, based on the James Bama art for #14, The Fantastic Island...

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Reading Room: DOC SAVAGE in "Thousand-Headed Man" Conclusion

When Last We left our Heroes...
James Bama cover for the paperback of the pulp novel. It was cropped and reused as the Gold Key comic's cover.
Doc Savage and his men are drawn to Cambodia to find a missing explorer and investigate a fabulous lost city and rumors of a "Thousand-Headed Man" who rules it.
Upon arriving, they are strafed by an aircraft owned by Sen Gat, who also seeks the lost city, and it's treasures...
The End of The Thousand-Headed Man.
But Doc Savage Will Return...
At least, that was the intent of the movie producers, who wanted to create a James Bond-level franchise, beginning with this novel.
Tune in Monday for that tale!