The Doc Savage Brat Pack

From the JJ Nevins site.

Lobangu. Lobangu, created by Cecil Hayter, first appeared in Union Jack Library in 1906 in "The Slave Market," and later appeared in the Brave and Bold Weekly, appearing in both magazines for at least a decade. In 1922 he was revived by Rex Hardinge in the pages of Union Jack, and he appeared there, as well as in Cheer Boys Cheer and a few other magazines, through the 1930s. Lobangu is a mighty African warrior of the Umslopogaas/Lobangu stripe. He is the chief of the Etbaia tribe of Zulus and began as the faithful native sidekick to Sir Richard "Spots" Losely, Her Majesty's Governor of the Province of Musardo, a kind of Sanders of the River who was responsible for maintaining the peace and British rule (not necessarily in that order) in Lobangu's section of Africa. (Losely had been Sexton Blake's fag at school and remained his close friend.) Later on Lobangu became the lead in various stories, becoming a noble chieftain, adventurer, and hero in his own right. When Blake came to Africa he usually was helped by Lobangu, although on at least one occasion (Union Jack: Second Series #1354, 20 September 1930) Lobangu went to England. Lobangu also teamed up at least once with Gordon Keith (see his entry in the Detectives section), in Brave and Bold Weekly #227, 27 April 1907. There was also at least one other story, the "In Search of the City of Gold" sequence in Cheer Boys Cheer in 1913, #28-52, which had Lobangu and Losely active on their own, fighting against rebel Senoussi in the desert city of Kupra.

Satanas. Thanks to Marc Madouraud I can provide some small information on this character. He was created by Gabriel Bernard and appeared in a novel (not a series of novels, as I originally wrote; thanks to Marc Madouraud for correcting my error) in 1922; the novel was about a group of telepaths. The novel's title was Satanas, with the chapters' titles being Satanas ou la TSF humaine ou la télépathie (Satanas or the Human TSF or the Telepathy), Les Chevaliers de l’Etoile (The Chevalier of the Star), L’Énigme du désert (The Riddle of the Desert), La Cité des prodiges (The Riddle of the Prodigies), Le Secret de Patrice Oriel (The Secret of Patrice Oriel).

Nace, Lee. Created by Lester Dent, of Doc Savage fame, Lee Nace, the "Blond Adder," appeared in Ten Detective Aces in 1934. Nace was a scientific detective and user of gadgets, a tall, gaunt, solemn man who dealt with weird and almost unnatural villains--angry skeletons, crazed murderers who lined caves with the skulls of their victims, mad scientists who could make men explode with their death rays, and a master villain known as the Green Skull. Nace was "very long, bony, blue-eyed," with a scar in the shape of an adder on his forehead. ("A Chinaman had once hit Nace on the forehead with a knife hilt which bore a serpent carving.")

Savage, Doc. Doc Savage, one of the two or three most famous pulp heroes, was...well, there are so many other good web sites on Doc that I just don't feel like doing, poorly, what so many others have done well. So, as with a few other, major figures, like The Shadow, I'll limit myself to a brief recap and then send you on your way to other, better sites devoted solely to Doc.

Doc Savage was created by Henry Ralston, John Nanovic, and most especially Lester Dent, and appeared in a large number of novels, short stories, radio shows, and movies, beginning with "The Man of Bronze" in Doc Savage Magazine #1, in March 1933. He is a "man of superhuman strength and protean genius, whose life is dedicated to the destruction of evildoers." Doc is in the best physical shape possible for humans and knows everything about everything; in the words of one critic, he is a "walking compendium of mankind's total knowledge."

Clark Savage was raised by his widower father to be the perfect human, taught by a series of experts in every field ranging from "Indian fakirs to Yale physicists, from circus acrobats to jungle trackers." He was especially trained in surgery, and became the world's best (hence his nickname). His headquarters and home was his Fortress of Solitude, a superfortress located on a desolate island in the far north, beyond the Arctic Circle. The Fortress was packed with his technologically advanced equipment and weapons, and served as a place for Doc to periodically retire to, to meditate and invent.

His New York headquarters was the 86th floor of "one of New York's tallest buildings," in all likelihood the Empire State Building. From there, and from a warehouse on the Hudson River, owned by the "Hidalgo Trading Company," Doc and his assistants fought a never-ending war on crime, funded by a massive supply of gold hidden in a lost valley in Central America guarded over by the descendants of the Mayans. He was assisted by six people, all of whom were exceptionally capable in their own right. Monk Mayfair is one of the world's foremost chemists and a millionaire with a penthouse lab near Wall Street; he is also an ugly, ape-like man with a taste for the ladies (he never forgets a pair of legs once he sees them). Brigadier General Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks, a British-acting American (thanks to Win Eckert for correcting my error here), is one of the best lawyers in the world, a Harvard graduate with a sharp tongue. He is also a sharp dresser, he's tall, handsome and slender, he carries and uses a sword cane, and he carries on a long-running feud with Monk. John "Renny" Renwick is a top civil engineer, a tall man (almost as big as Doc) with enormous fists and great strength. Major Thomas J. "Long Tom" Roberts is an "electrical wizard," always looking pale and unhealthy and always as vigorous as any five men. William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn is an expert archaeologist. And, finally, there's Patricia "Pat" Savage, Doc's cousin and a stalwart adventurer her ownself.

Doc was not superhuman, but was at the peak of human ability, not just physically but mentally. In addition to his physical skills and expertise in every field imaginable, Doc was also a great inventor, capable of coming up with just about any sort of weapon or instrument or air/sea/land craft. Doc was also so good at surgery that he'd created a crime college to which he brought criminals so that he could operate on them and remove their evil impulses.

Doc's Rogues Gallery was not quite so memorable as the Shadow's but he did have one very memorable enemy: John Sunlight, the only man to survive a bout with Doc and return for a second try, and the only man to ever break into the Fortress of Solitude.

All of that said, go to these sites for better treatments of Doc and his assistants.

Zigomar (II). Zigomar (II) was created by Nikola Navojev and Branko Vidic and appeared in Mikijevo carstvo, a Serbian magazine appearing in 1939. Zigomar (II) was a masked avenger type not dissimilar to the Phantom; in the words of one critic, Zigomar (II) also wore a costume clinging tightly to his body, and a mask on his face; on his hand was an engraved ring with an engraved letter Z. But unlike Phantom whose inseparable companion was the tamed wolf Devil, this hero, Zigomar, adorned additionally by a black cape, had a different companion, a short Chinese named Chi Yang.

Atalanta. This was another Robert Kraft character, appearing in Atalanta (1904) and Atalanta, the Secrets of the Slave Lake (1911). Atalanta was a German adventuress active in America and Canada. Some of her stories were titled, "A Nightly Visitor," "The Heiress of Moorfield," "The Vultures of the Sea," "At the Court of the Ox King," "In Lemuria," "In Flight," "At the Mountain Hermits," "Fred Barkor," "The Death Ship," and "Gentlemen of the Island."

Atalanta. This was the French version of the German heroine. In France she appeared in Atalanta, La Femme Enigmatique (Atalanta, the Enigmatic Woman) #1-80, from 1912-1913.

Anthony, Jim. Jim Anthony was created by Robert Leslie Bellem & W.T. Ballard and appeared in Super-Detective from 1940 to 1943, starting with "Dealer in Death" in October 1940. He was half Irish and half Native American and was a…well, Doc Savage “homage.” He used lots of gadgets and unlike Doc Savage had an eye for the ladies.

In response to my request for more information on Anthony, Ed Love, a gentleman and scholar, sent me this:

Jim Anthony: swarthy half Comanche and half Irish, left a fortune by his father, chief of which seems to be the newspaper Daily Star. He was probably the most successful of the doc savage wannabes lasting three years and some twenty five stories (according to Pulp Review vol 1, #2). the best description of Jim comes from the text itself. "Mark of the Spider," 1942: "Anthony was a murder man of International repute. Not the murderer, of course, but the hunter of men, the seeker of killers. This was his major hobby, homicide, though an amazing mind and physical perfection, allowed him tremendous insight into fully half a hundred of the other -ologies usually assumed by college professors alone. Possession of one of America's major fortunes was always an advantage - for Jim Anthony charged no fees, and consequently was called all over the world on interesting cases."

In this novel alone he displays knowledge of criminal and general psychology as well as forensics. In his cases, he was often assisted by freckled aviator tom gentry. or as Jim would describe their relationship:

"Friend? My God, more than friend! They'd grown up together, they'd been all over the world together, there were a million and one intimate experiences shared that made them closer than brothers, a thousand adventures, hardships, battles where they had fought back to back against hard odds, successes that were so much sweeter because they were won together." Since the pulp was part of the spicy line and it's author was Dan Turner's scribe you got situations that would make doc savage blush. when confronted with a scantily clad woman:

"Anthony was no better and no worse than other men, he was no plaster saint. Blood that flowed in his veins could race hotly, emotions common to others were his as well. There was a heady scent about her, filling his nostrils, not a mere perfume, but an unnameable, mysterious something that belongs to all beautiful women. Her eyes, lids half lowered, were at once a challenge and an expectancy, deep brown, almost black, flecked with dancing little lights. Her lips were full, deep red, moist and parted."

You wouldn't find this kind of passion (lust?) in the doc novels.

Frank Allan. Frank Allan, created and written by diverse hands, appeared in Frank Allan, der Rächer der Enterbten (Frank Allan, Avenger of the Disinherited) #1-612, 1920-1932, and in another magazine of the same name for 55 issues from 1930-1932. Obviously, given his longevity, Allan was one of the major characters in German heldroman (hero fiction). He was a general do-gooder and avenger type, rather than being specialized as a pilot or detective. Naturally, he ranged around the world, fighting opium smugglers in China, submarine pirates in the Pacific, evil Indians in the American West, rioting prisoners in Sing-Sing, the masked criminal, the "Scorpion," in Gotham, the evil Chain Bearer of Krakow (no, I don't know what that means, either), jewel thieves on the Orient Express, pirates on the Yangtze, art thieves in Tokyo (who took the "urn of the Mikado," whatever that is), the Wolf of Bucharest, the Vampire of Baltimore, Mr. Satan, and much, much more. For the crossover-conscious among you, he fought with "Der Luftpirat," someone who had to have been Captain Mors in issues #472 & #491 (as far as I can tell "Der Luftpirat" was the only Allan enemy who survived for a return engagement), and he humiliated the very Holmesian "Inspector Doodle of Scotland Yard" in v2 n39.

Jack Allan. I know nothing about this character, but his magazine's title, Jack Allan, le vengeur des desherites (Jack Allan, Avenger of the Downtrodden) (16 issues published during the 1930s) interests me.