An interesting series that reprints a “penny dreadful” story from the U.K. is Penny Dreadful Press’s Vol. 2: Spring-Heeled Jack: Man or Fiend, which reprints the first issue of Aldine Publications’ 1904 series. But who is Spring-Heeled Jack and what the heck is a “penny dreadful”?
I’ve previously posted about “dime novels,” the cheap popular fiction publications that preceded the pulp magazines in the late 1800s. The dime novels had a variety of numbered series of stories focused on Western heroes and villains, detectives, boy inventor heroes and more. But dime novels are American. Other countries had similar items, and in Britain it was the “penny deadfuls” in the 1800s, that ran similar stories to what the dime novels did, though more aimed at the British boys. These, like dime novels, would be replaced with other literature medium, including comics and boy’s magazines.
“Spring-Heeled Jack” was a folklore entity during the Victorian age that was kind of like a boogeyman. He apparently would spring out at people in the night, menace them, slash them, then leap away. He would later be used in plays and turned into a literary character. In the penny dreadfuls, he was the basis for several serialized characters. These had several common features, and they had similarities to other, later characters. As some have put forward, they are almost a forerunner to costumed heroes.
An 1840 play had him as a disguised brigand. Then he was the star of a 40-volume penny dreadful series in 1863. His identity isn’t revealed, but hints are given that he is a nobleman in disguise. He aids damsels in distress and takes on scoundrels. This series was reprinted in 1867. Another series in 1870 that ran 48 volumes has him as a nobleman who was cheated of his inheritance by an unscrupulous brother (or cousin). So he takes to the roads as a highwayman, but more a Robin Hood-type. He had learned certain skills in India, such as how to make shoes that can launch him into the air and uses these as “Spring-Heeled Jack”. He would eventually triumph over his cousin and get his inheritance back.
Another version appeared in the 1880s. I don’t know much about this one.
Then in 1904, the most well- known version appeared. This is the series that’s reprinted here. Similar to the others, this Spring-Heeled Jack is young British lieutenant during the Napoleonic period who is framed as a spy by his half-brother to take his title and inheritance, aided by a crooked colonel. He is aided by his lawyer, who believes he’s innocent, and helps arrange for him to escape. Now he takes to the roads as Spring-Heeled Jack, thanks to special inventions including boots that help him leap.
Sadly, this series only lasted 12 issues, despite additional ones announced, so the storyline was never completed. In this reprint, we get the first issue, which is pretty short, about 25 pages long. I would have liked to have seen a volume that reprinted two-to-three stories at once. And might be interesting if someone would complete it, but I doubt there is enough popularity to do so.
But it is interesting to learn about the more heroic versions of “Spring-Heeled Jack”, as they preceded the later “vengeance heroes” of the pulps. I am reminded of some of Johnston McCulley‘s characters here. Do check this out. Sadly, I wasn’t able to find much information on this character on Wikipedia, but did find a good video by Fizz Fop on YouTube on the character. And, yes, there are some modern uses of Spring-Heeled Jack, but they aren’t in the style of the penny dreadful heroes.
