Your Top Five Pulp Heroes that you wish were better known? By Pulp Hero fans, I mean. Since pretty much all of them except Conan and Tarzan are fairly unknown.
Itās actually quite hard for me to narrow it down to just five, because Iām having to choose between characters that are my favorites that I wish were more well-known and appreciated (which is all of them), and characters that arenāt quite my favorites but I very much think should have achieved great popularity for a myriad of reasons. So instead Iām going to pick some of each. These are not necessarily ranked by their importance or my personal taste, just 5 characters I felt like highlighting in particular.Ā
Honorable mentions goes to characters I already talked about prior and donāt want to repeat myself on. These arenātĀ ālesserā picks, just ones that I already talked about: ImaroĀ (who in particular definitely feels like he could, and should be, a pop culture superstar if he was only more well-known),Ā Kapitan MorsĀ (whoās got a lot in common with one of my favorite fictional characters, Captain Nemo, but also has a lot of interesting things going on for him as his own character). Sar DubnotalĀ (a character that appeals a lot to me and I think should be included much more often in pulp hero team-ups). The Golden Amazon (again, definitely a character that feels like itās just begging to have a pop culture breakout, even comic books rarely if ever have female supervillains this ruthless and over-the-top),Ā The Mexican FantomasĀ (who absolutely deserves a better name than what Iām calling him here, because heās incredibly awesome and leagues ahead of just being a knock-off). And of course my homeboy, The Grey Claw, whom I would consider Number One of the list if it wasnāt for the fact that his obscurity has left him untouched by copyright and I got plans of my own for the character that wouldnāt be possible if he was more well-known, so I guess Iām ultimately glad heās obscure (even if Iām still bothered by how little heās known).Ā
Sheridan Doome appeared in fifty-four stories and three novels from 1935 to 1943. As chief detective for U.S. Naval Intelligence, Lieutenant Commander Sheridan Doomeās job was a grim one. Whenever an extraordinary mystery or crime occurred in the fleet, on a naval base, or anywhere the navy worked to protect American interests, Doome was immediately dispatched to investigate it. Fear and dread would always precede Doomeās arrival in his special black airplane. For, in an explosion during WWI, he had been monstrously disfigured.Ā
He was six feet two inches tall; had a chalk-white face and head. It appeared as though it had once been seared or burned. For eyes, he had only black blotches; glittering optics, that looked like small chunks of coal. His nose was long, the end of it squared off rudely. He had no lips, just a slit that was his mouth. His neck was long, as white and as bony as his faceā¦.Ā Sheridan Doome looked more like a robot than a human being. He was tall and ghastly; his uniform fitted him in a loose manner. Long arms hung at his sides; his face was a perfect blank.Ā He had no control of his facial muscles; consequently, his countenance was always without expression, chalky and bony.
But behind the ugliness was a brilliant mind. Sheridan Doome always got his man. Before Sheridan Doome became a staple in the pages of The Shadow magazine, two Doome hardcover mysteries were written in the mid-1930ās by acclaimed hard-boiled author Steve Fisher (I Wake Up Screaming) and edited by his wife Edythe Seims (Dime Detective, G-8 and His Battle Aces). Age of Aces now brings you both books in one huge double novel, presented in a retro āflip bookā style. This book is currently Out of Print.
I sadly donāt have any more information on the character other than this. The book is unavailable for me to acquire in any capacity, and the text above is taken from the Age of Aces website as well as Jess Nevinsās personal profile for the character. Iām not even sure if any of those 54 stories even exist anymore, since although he was published as a backup in Shadow Magazine, there doesnāt seem to be reprints of them anywhere, at least as far as I can find, and the original Shadow magazines have largely turned to dust by now.Ā
A character who combines aspects of The Phantom of the Opera and The Shadow, whose adventures are set in a backdrop that can easily lead to ocean adventures? Thatās like, what, three of my favorite things in the world combined. I really, really wish I could at least read the stories this character stars in, but as is, this description is all I can provide. Again, time really has been cruel to the pulp heroes.Ā
This is another character Iāve only been able to learn about through Jess Nevinsās archives and have not been able to attain any further information on, which is sadly the case with a lot of pulp heroes that nowadays only seem to exist as footnotes in his Encyclopedia or records in libraries. I donāt post more about these characters because I really would just be copying the stuff he wrote without much to justify me quoting him verbatim, and I hate the idea of doing that.
I especially hate that in Harlan Dyceās case though.Ā Hereās his description
āDyce had brains, taste, money, ambition, and a total lack of physical or spiritual fear. Butā
āDyce was thirty-three inches tall and weighed sixty pounds.
āThat was all the world could ever hold against him. That was what had made the world, most of it, in all the countries of the world, stare at Harlan Dyce, billed in the big show as āGeneral Midge.āā
Harlan Dyce is a misanthropic and venomous private detective. He has an āamazingly handsome face,ā and the aforementioned brains. But all anyone sees is his stature, and he hates that and turns his cold eyes and acid tongue on them.Ā
The only person Dyce likes and gets along with (besides his dwarf wife, a former client) is his assistant, Nick Melchem, a six-foot tall former p.i.ās assistant with bleak eyes and a strong body. Melchem ignores Dyceās stature and treats Dyce normally, which Dyce responds warmly to.
Dwarfs may be the single most maligned group of people depicted in pulp magazines, even more so than the Japanese in the war years or the Chinese during the peak of the Yellow Perilās popularity. Evil dwarfs, murderous dwarfs, sexually depraved dwarfs, they are all loathsome, ugly cliches that are, sadly, the only instances you see of dwarf characters being represented at all, with the only ones who are awarded any measure of sympathy are doomed henchmen or tragic villains.Ā Even outside of the pulps, the only other examples of heroic, protagonist dwarfs I can think off the top of my head are Puck from Marvel Comics and Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones.
Iām not gonna say Harlan Dyce is great representation because Iām not a little person and can never make that kind of claim for a group Iām not a part of, but Harlan Dyce may be the first time Iāve ever seen a dwarf character in pulp fiction who was not a villain or a murderous goon or a victim, but an actual person and a heroic protagonist, and that definitely counts for something. Iām not sure how popular this character was or could be if someone picked up the concept and ran with it (and Iām pretty sure heāsĀ public domain), but I definitely think this is a character that should exist and should be popular.Ā
Hell, this character has Peter Dinklage written all over it, give it to him. Maybe then he will get to play a smart, fearless, cynical, misanthropic but good-natured and heroic character in something where he actually gets to keep these traits until the show ends.
Number 3: Audaz, O Demolidor
Audaz is a Brazilian character who was created and published by Gazetinha, the same publishers of Grey Claw as well as properties exported from elsewhere like Superman and Popeye, and much like The Grey Claw, he is also completely unknown even here. Iāll get to Audaz more in-depth sometime but here Iām going to provide a quick summary:Ā
Audaz, The Demolisher is a gigantic crime-fighting robot controlled and piloted by the brilliant scientist Dr. Blum, his close friend Gregor and the child prodigy Jacques Ennes, who pilot the giant robot from a massive laboratory inside it's head rather than a cockpit. He takes on a variety of ordinary human criminals, mad scientists, supervillains and invading armies, towering over skyscrapers and grappling with jets.
Audaz was created in 1939 by illustrator Messias de Melo, a year before Quality Comics's Bozo the Iron Man and 5 years before Ryuichi Yokoyama's Kagaku Senshi, and decades before the debut of Mazinger Z.Ā Although he is not the first giant robot of science fiction, he is the first heroic giant robot piloted by human pilots, and thus the first true example of "mecha" fiction.
Number 2: Emilia the Ragdoll
This is another Brazilian character, although nowhere near as obscure as Audaz as even a cursory Google search can show. Although Brazil did not have a āpulp eraā in the same way the US had, weāve long gotten past the point of sticking to it as a definitive rule, and Iām including Emilia as a pulp hero because sheās a 1920s fantasy literature character who was created under a publishing company that released pulp stories, because she doesnāt quite belong in the mold of fantasy literature characters she takes after, and because I like her and if I was putting a bunch of pulp heroes together in the same story, I would definitely include Emilia in it. Itās not like she really has anywhere else to go, now that sheās public domain and sheās outlasted her franchise.
As you can tell by the above image, Emiliaās had a lot of variations over the years and thatās because the work she was created for,Ā SĆtio do Picapau Amarelo (Yellow Woodpecker Ranch/Farm), has become a major bedrock of Brazilian fantasy literature, one of the only works created here that you can find substantial information about in English if you go looking for it. Hereās some descriptions of Emiliaās character:
EmĆlia is a rag doll described as "clumsy" or "ugly", resembling a "witch" that was handmade by Aunt NastĆ”cia, the ranch's cook, for the little girl LĆŗcia, out of an old skirt. After Lucia takes her on an adventure and the doll is given a dose of magic pills, EmĆlia suddenly started talking, and would never stop henceforth.
Emilia has a rough, antagonistic personality, and an independent, free-spirited and anarchist behaviour. She is rogue, rebellious, stubborn, rough and intensely determined at anything she sets her mind on, eager to take off on just about any adventure. She is often immature and behaves like a curious and arrogant child, always wanting to be the center of attention.
She is extremely opinionated even when she constantly and confidently mispronounces words and expressions. Her attitude often gets her into trouble, and she very often has to fight against the villains who attack her home on the Yellow Woodpecker Farm and mistreat her friends.
In the stories, Emilia often takes the role of a heroine who travels through different realms and dimensions, as the books include not only figures from Brazilian and worldwide folklore, but also several characters both real and fictional, such as Hercules, King Arthur, Don Quixote, Thumbelina, Da Vinci, Shirley Temple, Captain Hook, Santos Dumont and Baron von Munchausen.
She's fought scorpions and martians and nymph hordes, her arch-enemy is an alligator witch, she rescued an angel from the Milky Way and tried to teach it how to become a human, and once shrunk the entire population of Earth to try and talk the president of the United States into ending war forever.
To little surprise, she has become the most popular character and the seriesās mascot.
Itās a little strange to consider Emilia underrated considering she is one of the most famous original characters of Brazilian literature, but hardly anyone outside of Brazil even knows who she is, and regardless of the quality of the original stories (and Monteiro Lobatoās views on race that tar much of his reputation), Emilia definitely feels to me like a character that should be a lot more popular globally.Ā
She is the only character from Yellow Woodpecker Ranch that has transcended the original stories, since she was always the most popular character and thereās been a couple of stories written about her that usually separate her from the ranch and just set her out on the world by herself. The latest story about this character has been a series called The Return of Emilia,Ā thatās about her stepping out of the books in 2050 and discovering a Brazil thatās been ruined by social and ecological devastation, and traveling back in time via a flying scooter in order to try and prevent this calamity.Ā
Now that sheās public domain, I definitely think thereās some great stories that can be told with the character that just about anyone could get to, and I definitely think sheās a character that deserves more appreciation. Anything goes in stories starring her and itās that kind of free-for-all freedom that I think can benefit future takes on pulp heroes. I would be very happy to place Emilia among them.
Oh yeah, and there was one time she kicked Popeye's ass by tricking him with a can of mouldy cabbage instead of spinach, making him sick and then beating him, which possibly puts her as one of the all-time badasses of fiction, except she would be pissed at not being number one and likely embark on a quest to beat everyone else just to prove she could, because thatās how Emilia rolls.
Number 1: Luna Bartendale, from The Undying Monster (1922)
Not necessarily my favorite of the bunch, but one who sort of epitomizes what you asked, a character who is both incredibly obscure and incredibly underrated in every sense. Despite the book being somewhat known, mainly thanks to the movie, the character is so obscure that I donāt even have an illustration of her to display here, not even fan art, just one of the bookās covers that I think best conveys it. Luckily, the book is also available freely online, so you can all go check it out here.Ā The movie adaptation does not feature the character of Luna Bartendale which makes it pointless to talk about.
To not spoil it too much, The Undying Monster is a very fascinating book, ahead of itās time in quite a few ways. You expect it to just be a detective story centered around a werewolf cursed, except the subtitle of the book isĀ āThe Fifth Dimensionā and then it goes to talk about dimensions of thought and post-WWI trauma and love and hypnotic regression that travels through time and ancient runes and Norse mythology. Itās not exactly an easy book to get through in one setting, but Iād recommend it much the same if only because itās got supersensitive psychic sleuth Luna Bartendale, literatureās first female occult detective, and sheās an incredible character who absolutely feels like she should have become a literary icon.Ā
She lives in London but is world-renowned for her many good deeds. She is a small, pretty woman, with curly blonde hair, dark eyebrows and a high-bridged nose, and a slight build. She has a voice described as a light soprano that "does not make much noise but carries a long way".Ā
Petite, bedimpled and golden curled, Luna is completely in charge of events, dominating every scene that she appears in with her welcoming disposition and cleverness.Ā
Bartendale has various psychic powers, including mind reading. She is well-versed in psychic and occult lore, is a āsupersensitiveā psychic, and has a āSixth Senseā which allows her to trace things and people through both the Fourth and the Fifth Dimension. (The Fifth Dimension is āthe Dimension that surrounds and pervades the Fourthāknown as the Supernaturalā).
Her extensive knowledge of occult rites and practices puts John Silence, Carnacki and Miles Pennoyer to shame,Ā and she beats them all with her "super-sensitive" gift of being able to psychically connect with troubled souls and hypnotize them.
She uses a divining rod for various tasks, including psychic detection and tracking, and distinguishing between benevolent and malevolent forces. She has various (undefined) powerful psychic defenses, can carry on seances, and can even cure a person of āwehrwolfism.ā And she can always rely on her massive, intelligent dog Roska for help.
Luna sadly doesnāt show up in the book as often as Iād hoped, but everything about this character is so delightful. In a lot od ways she hardly feels like a pulp hero, at least the ones I usually talk about. She feels like a lost protagonist from an incredibly successful kidās adventure series where a kind and eccentric detective witch and her giant dog go around solving occult mysteries and encountering all sorts of weird supernatural beings while counseling and helping people, like Ms Frizzle meets Hilda. Like this character is just waiting for Cartoon Saloon to make a film about her.
Its not so muchĀ āthis character should/could be popular but itās clear why that didnāt pan outā, itās more me being confused as āwhy the hell isnāt she super popular? This character should have had a franchise ages ago, holy shit put her in everythingāā