The Savage Dyaries is a new collection of articles saved from pulp fanzines. In this case, Doc Savage articles written by Dafydd Neal Dyar that ran from 1979 to 1984.
Many of these fanzines are now hard to find, and so it’s great they are brought together for a new generation to enjoy. Dyar has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Doc, and can be counted on to provide such info in on-line discussions on Facebook.
All the articles here have been extensively footnoted (in a few cases the footnotes are longer then the articles themselves). As this is marked “Volume 1,” so hopefully at some point we’ll see a volume 2, maybe a volume of his non-Doc articles or later Doc articles?
So what does DND have for us?
• A couple of articles on John Sunlight that speculate on his parentage.
• An interesting idea that a folk song may give an answer as to the fate of one of Doc’s aides.
• When Philip José Farmer did Tarzan Alive, he also wrote an “interview” he had with “Tarzan.” In this style, we get an interview with “Doc Savage” at the age of 75, and another at age 80.
• What does Doc look like? Well, the discussion is more than just James Bama vs Walter Baumhofer, as we look at the various interpretations of Doc in pulps (inside and out), comics, books, etc. (I wish this one had been accompanied by samples of artwork.)
• While Doc had a successful pulp run, unlike other characters he never got a successful radio show and never got into comic strips, movie serials, and the like. So what we got and what might we have gotten is the subject of another article. However, I do have to point out that Dan Spiegle did not do the artwork on the Gold Key Doc comic. That was Jack Sparling. I actually think that had Spiegle had done the comic it would have been better art-wise. I believe this will be corrected in the print on demand version.
• One of the highlights of Dafydd’s articles is to look for the real-life inspirations behind the Doc novels, something I never thought when I was reading them. So we get one article that looks at the possible real-life basis of Doc’s roadster, tri-motor, and dirigible. Another looks at the source of Dent’s info on the Mayans.
• Other articles look at Pat Savage, how Doc and his associates came together, and his Fortress of Solitude.
• Dafydd did a long work on Doc pastiches recently. Here we get a short article that looks briefly at a couple of characters I’ve looked at before: Gold Key Comics’ Magnus, Robot Fighter and Thunder Jim Wade. I need to note that Wade did not have adventures in the Inner Earth. And while Jack Sparling is correctly noted here as the artist of GK’s Doc comic here, I don’t get the slam on Dan Spiegle. He only did one issue of Magnus, and while not at the same level of Russ Manning (few are), he is a pretty good artist in his own right.
• Dafydd also created several letters “from” Doc Savage mailed to fanzines of the time. These make interesting reading, along with some of Dafydd’s own letters to fanzines.
Now, I got the limited edition that includes a bonus article. This one is a kind of autobio-bibliography that Dafydd outlines his life in relationship to his reading Doc Savage and creating his various articles, as well as focusing on an article that has gone missing. We also learn about his Doc pastiche stories, first appearing as “Doc Wildman,” later renamed “Doc Hazzard,” and which has become the basis of Dare Devlin, the first novel published by PULPlications as well (see my review from last week).
I do hope that PULPlications will put out a regular edition of this work as well. If you are a Doc fan, get this.
I’ve noted Dafydd’s recent articles in the various Big Books of Bronze (since issue 4), and I encourage people seek those out, which are still available for purchase.
Now, not to distract from this collection or Dyar’s work, I really want to see more works like this. There are too few collections of the excellent articles found in various pulp fanzines by many folks that need to be “rescued.” The prolific Will Murray has had only one collection of his works, and only from his many Doc articles. What about his many other works? Or the works of other great writers and researchers such as Robert Sampson, Nick Carr, Link Hullar, and others. Altus Press? PULPlications? Black Dog Books? Bold Venture? Please help us!!!
If you are a Doc fan, get this book. You might not agree with some of his conclusions, but his level of knowledge is impressive. And check out Dare Devlin as well.
[Posting #400!]
