There is a Kickstarter campaign that I hope all pulp fans, especially Doc Savage fan, are aware of and will support at some level.
The Kickstarter is for a documentary titled We Are Doc Savage: A Documentary on Fandom. This project comes from Ron Hill, who is creative director and founding partner of Act 3, the company behind the documentary. He has been an illustrator, cartoonist, and creative director for 42 years, and I’ve seen is Doc Savage fan artwork for years. One of these is his Doc parody, The Azure Aztec.
Filming has already begun, and this funding will allow them to complete it. Like many Kickstarter campaigns, there are several levels with different rewards. You can also see some of what is planned. Please check it out, and hopefully make a pledge.
Like the documentary’s concept, I thought I’d share my fan experience with Doc Savage, as I really only gave a little bit here.
I’ve long been a science-fiction fan as a kid, but just as much reading it as watching movies and TV. I obtained and read several reference works on it, so I was exposed to the existance of pulp sf magazines, but nothing on Doc. It would be in middle school or early high school that I discovered a copy of the King Maker in a used bookstore. The cover by Pfeiffer didn’t do much for me, but it was intriguing. I think what grabbed me were the titles of the other Doc novels. It seemed to open a whole world to me.
I was soon checking out used bookstores for back issues. My small town had an excellent one where I got many of my Doc (and The Avenger, etc.) paperbacks, and for years worked to find the others. It wasn’t until I visited the last day of the WorldCon in Orlando in 1993 that I got my final one, He Could Stop the World.
New ones I was also picking up in bookstores. I believe I was buying the ones with Boris Vallejo‘s artwork new. But I recall vividly when I got my copy of The Magic Island at K-Mart. This was back in the days when K-Mart actually had a pretty good book selection. This was Bob Larkin‘s first cover, and I recall looking at the cover trying to figure out if it was a painting or a photo it was so good.
I would continue to get the new works, the doubles, and the later omnibuses. And when Will Murray was doing the new Doc from Bantam, I was getting them.
I also obtained a copy of Philip José Farmer‘s Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life in the first paperback edition in high school. This was my first exposure to Farmer and his “Wold Newton” concept that lead me to reading his many pulp-inspired works. But I’ve touched on that elsewhere. I would later get the follow-up editions.
Strangely, while I read all the pre-war stories, I stopped reading the Doc stories once they got into the doubles and omnis. I did read Murray’s stuff. When Sanctum Books started their Doc reprints, I initially didn’t bother, but when I learned of all the extras, I quickly got them and have each volume, though I don’t have all the Bama cover ones.
Doc was my entrance into the world of pulp heroes. From him, I got into The Avenger, then The Shadow and others. I got into Doc pastiches, probably starting with Doc Caliban. While I was reading pulp sf, I read many of Edgar Rice Burroughs works, and got into H.P. Lovecraft, I think it was Doc that got me into pulp heroes which got me into the wider world of pulp fiction.
So that is my “Doc story.”
Do checkout the Kickstart campaign, and make a pledge at some level. I plan on doing so soon.
It was great meeting you at PulpFest, Michael! Great ‘Doc Discovery’ story, as we are calling them in the documentary. Thanks so much for your endorsement, and anyone with questions can certainly contact us through the Kickstarter campaign or the film’s web page.