After the pulp era ended, the next appearance of Doc Savage in comic books came in 1966, after the Bantam paperback reprints took off.
Talk of a movie soon started, with Goodson-Todman’s planned production to star Chuck Connors. To tie in with the movie, an adaption of “The Thousand-Headed Man,” a comic-book version was done.
This came from Western Publication’s Gold Key Comics, which did a lot of movie adaptions at the time. It had a cropped version of the James Bama cover used on the Bantam reprint. Interior artwork was by Jack Sparling, and it’s probably the largest failing. Sparling does a workman-like job, nothing spectacular. The script was by Leo Dorman.
It’s clear that the Bama covers and the vision of his aides we see on the back cover were used as the models for Doc and his men in the comics. We get almost copies of those, plus Monk‘s pet pig, Habeus Corpus. In fact, I almost wondered if a few panels didn’t trace the original Bama artwork, it was so close. Monk is misnamed “Monk” Blodgett, and “Ham” is referred to as a “Toff” when they arrive in the U.K. Due to the limits of Western’s printing process, Doc is shown as blond with orange skintone, and Asians all have a light yellow skintone. They also updated some technology, having jet planes, though the cars look old fashioned.
They do give Doc several gadgets, including a jet powered VTOL plane. Thankfully, they never had Doc in jodhpurs and ripped shirt. They gave him a white shirt and tan pants, with the sleeves rolled up.
The script is decent. It’s been awhile since I read the story, but the adaption was good. The let-down is the artwork.
Sadly, it would be about a decade before we’d get more Doc comics, this time from Marvel. More on them in another posting.
If you don’t have a copy of the comic (I don’t), you can read scans online at Atomic Kommie Comics blog here:
And if you’re not familiar with the planned movie, there is an article at the same blog.
Check it out.
