A series of books for Doc Savage fan that I previously reviewed are the (sort of) annual “The Big Book of Bronze.” Now, the latest volume, number 6, is out, and we look at this one.
Published by Jay Ryan‘s Solace of Fortitude Publications, the books are done in conjunction with the Doc Cons. After skipping a year, this volume ties into the recent Doc Con XVII in 2014. Clocking in at 242 pages, this volume isn’t the biggest, but is among the bigger ones.
We get a variety of articles in this issues. There is a nice article looking at Ham, Will Murray gives a retrospective on 50 years with Doc, Jay gives a overview of 60 years of Doc, and a few others.
For the larger articles, we first get the second part of a deeper look into the first Doc novel. This part looking finding the real elements behind the story, such as figuring out where Hidalgo and the Valley of the Vanished really are. Sometimes as fans, we forget that many pulp writers like Lester Dent based their stories on real world places, events, and objects.
The “heart” of this issue, taking up about half the volume, is an exhaustive look at the various Doc Savage pastiches, imitators, parodies, inspirers and others by Daffyd Neal Dyar. (I have covered several of these characters in prior postings, and will be covering more of these in future postings.)
In Dyar’s article, we learn of some of the forerunners of Doc, such as Nick Carter and Frank Merriwell. We get an overview of the various pulp characters inspired by or copied from Doc such as The Skipper, The Avenger, Secret Agent X, Captain Hazzard, and others. We also get the many post-pulp pastiches and inspired characters such as Doc Atlas, Doc Wilde, Prince Zarkon, Doc Caliban, and many more.
Because The Avenger is inspired by Doc, we also get mentions of various Avenger-inspired characters as well.
In addition to a good overview of these characters, we get information on where we can read their stories. It’s a very exhaustive survey.
I did note a few typos, and I didn’t agree with a few of the views expressed (such as about Doc Ardan). There are probably a few obscure characters that are overlooked. The only one I felt should have been included is “The Old Man.”
If you haven’t gotten these series of books, check them out. This is a great addition to this series, and all are available on Lulu.com. I look forward to the next volume, and hope it’s not another two years.
A clarification is in order with regard to Dent’s role in The Skipper. I didn’t mean to imply that Dent had a hand in writing any of The Skipper novels, much less the first three. What I meant to convey was that Dent had pressed for a more “savage” Doc Savage and got his wish when S&S created The Skipper along the lines that he’d long suggested.
The confusion arises from a single paragraph:
“Created by Lester Dent (12 Oct 1904–11 Mar 1959), The Skipper was essentially Doc Savage the way that Dent would have preferred to write him — and did in the first three novels — a grittier, tougher and more fearsome figure who dispensed rough justice.”
“Created” is the wrong word — it should have been “suggested” — but Dent’s influence on The Skipper character is directly traceable to ideas that he had bandied about with his editors throughout his tenure at S&S, only to have them shot down because they didn’t jibe with editorial views about which character elements made Doc Savage popular.
The “three novels” referenced here are not the first three Skipper novels, but the first Doc Savage novels, which features Doc dispensing rough justice and mayhem right and left, cutting a bloody swath trough his opponents. This would become the hallmark of The Skipper.
Ironically, both Dent and the S&S editors would feel vindicated by The Skipper, Dent because the character developed enough of a following that it could continue as a back-up feature and S&S because it wasn’t strong enough to carry its own title.
My apologies for this jumbled bit of writing. The ABCs of writing are Accuracy, Brevity & Clarity and this passage fails all three.
Thanks for the correction. Part of the problem is that I always knew the first “two” Doc Savage novels had the more ‘rough and tumble’ version of Doc, so the comment made me thing, incorrectly, that you were speaking of The Skipper. I will probably edit the posting to make it more clear, as people might not read our comments.
Also, one wonders what input, if any, Dent gave on The Skipper. We know that both Gibson & Dent gave input to Paul Ernst when he was creating The Avenger, who merged the 2 pulp heroes. One wonders what input Dent and Gibson may have given on the creation of The Skipper and The Whisperer.