Many pulp characters were turned into comic book characters. Many of the pulp publishers also had ties with (or owned) comic book publishers, so this was easy to happen. It’s like recycling!
This is one of the rare examples of a comic book character becoming a pulp character!
The Black Hood is a Golden Age comic book hero (though most probably know of him from the later versions of the character) published by MLJ Comics (better known today as Archie Comics).
He debuted in 1940, and was popular enough to get a radio show, and a short-lived pulp magazine, published by Columbia (which was the pulp magazine arm of MLJ. Or perhaps MLJ was the comic book arm of Columbia. Or perhaps it was a matter of some of the owners of MLJ had ownership of Columbia).
The Black Hood was really rookie cop Kip Burland, framed and left for dead by a villain known as The Skull. He is decked out in a yellow outfit with black gloves, boots, and hood. (That sort of thing “works” in comics, as they need the color, but doesn’t work in the pulp. A yellow outfit?)
Pulp author G.T. Fleming-Roberts (pseudonym of George Thomas Roberts (1910-1968)) wrote the three pulp novels, which came out in 1941 (pretty soon after the comic), for Black Hood Detective (September 1941), and Hooded Detective (November 1941 and January 1942). Roberts also created The Green Ghost and a few other classic pulp heroes.
Some concessions where made in turning The Black Hood into a pulp character, such as giving him a black cape. He also had some standard characters in these stories, and I am not certain they were in the comics: a girlfriend, and a rival who often got in the way. In each of the three stories, The Black Hood goes up against a different criminal. The first one he faces is The Skull, his main arch-rival in the comic, who framed him and whom he hunted through many comics. Here he defeats him, but it doesn’t clear his name. A standard element is that the cops usually think The Black Hood is involved in the crime and chase him.
Altus Press has put out a complete collection of the series, “The Pulp Adventures of the Hooded Detective.” The cover is based on one of the original pulp covers. All three covers are shown on the back. But only one piece of original interior artwork is shown in the collection. Were there no other pieces in the original pulps?
So check out this unusual matter of a comic book character turned pulp hero.
