If you missed the last one…
This post is brought to you by Wild Inc. #4 Go Johnny, Go by Jack Mackenzie. Harry Calhoun and the amazing Morrigan Wild are back! Harry goes back to his home town of Toronto, trying to move past Wild Incorporated. Home with his family, he thinks he’s found new love and a new job, but Wild Incorporated is not done with him yet. Harry finds himself in the thick of a deadly mystery that threatens to open Morrigan Wild’s closely held secrets about her father, her old gang, her Fortress of Solitude and a mysterious man who is supposed to be long dead!
1940 was an amazing year in comics. All the energy sparked by the funnies in the newspapers and finally 1938’s Action Comics drove comic publishers to come up with their own version of a superhero after Superman, a jungle lord after Hal Foster’s Tarzan, a space man after Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon, a magician after Mandrake and so on. These characters appeared in new comics like Jumbo Comics (home of Sheena), Flash Comics, Master Comics, Nickel Comics and Slam-Bang Comics. Each of these companies came up with their own line-up that featured its own occult detective. Following in the footsteps of Dr. Occult, everybody had a guy who solved supernatural (or supernatural appearing) cases.
Many of the comic publishers here are also Pulp publishers: Street & Smith, Ned Pines, Fiction House, etc. So no surprise, their comic heroes are versions of their Pulp successes. Where this gets interesting is when the comic versions take on a life of their own, after the novel adaptations, and they begin to become more wild than their Pulp cousins. For example, Doc Savage was always wrangling with evil inventors who find a way to kill people in nasty ways. But he never had to face an actual robot invasion. In the comics…all bets are off. So Pulps that are borderline occult detective tales slip into the sub-genre in the comics.
The Shadow
Shadow Comics #1, January 12, 1940 was the first appearance of the Shadow, a character who began as a radio star, then became a Pulp sensation and finally a comic book hero. Unfortunately, we don’t know the writer or the artist, though Will Murray confirms it was not Walter B. Gibson, the man who wrote the Pulps and would later work in comics. The Shadow’s first adventures are similar to the Pulp but later on deviate into weirder and weirder comics, making him a detective of the occult. Street & Smith’s Shadow Comics ran for 101 issues from January 1940 to August 1949. Later he would be picked up by DC with some great art by Mike Kaluta.
Doc Savage
Shadow Comics #1, January 12, 1940 was also the debut of another S&S favorite, Doc Savage, along with old stars like Nick Carter and Frank Reade from the Dime Novel days. Again, no credits for writer or artist. He would appear in Shadow Comics #1-3 before getting his own comic in April 1940. This lasted for twenty issues (until October 1943) after which he returned to Shadow Comics in January 1944 until the comic ended in 1949. For some reason he was given a strange blue hood to wear. Doc Savage was always a borderline ghostbreaker with evil scientists supplying the killing. By 1948, he was facing off against robots. Doc and crew will be back at Marvel in the 1970s.
The Avenger/Richard Benson
Shadow Comics #2, February 1940 offers the third horsemen of the S&S Pulps, The Avenger. Richard Benson and his gang started in #2 but only hung around until #6, August 1940. This first installment was an adaptation of the Paul Ernst novel, The Yellow Hoard by an unknown writer. Too similar to Doc Savage and The Shadow, he didn’t last long. For more on the Avenger Comics, go here.
Ibis the Invincible/Prince Amentep
Whiz Comics #2, February 1940 was written by Bill Parker. Art was provided by C. C. Beck who would become famous as the artist behind Captain Marvel. Ibis was a resurrected Egyptian prince who has an all-powerful magic wand known as the Ibistick. More superhero than detective, he had many cases in Whiz Comics before having his own short-lived comic. Since Ibis is a magical character, his opponents are often supernatural or have evil magic.
Spectre
More Fun Comics #52, February 1940 was written by Superman creator, Jerry Siegel. 1940 was an important time for DC Comics. Their Superman and Batman comics were big hits and they wanted more. New characters appeared in their anthology titles. Some still exist, some don’t. The Spectre is one who was resurrected when comics went all supernatural in the 1960s. He is still around today. Like Ibis, this ghostly guy can do pretty much anything. Just in a spooky manner.
Dr. Fate
More Fun Comics #55, May 1940 was written by Gardner F. Fox. The other new character who would have a long career at DC was Dr. Fate. Mystically attuned to fate and destiny, Dr. Fate sees what others do not. He too would get revived for the supernatural 1960s and beyond. He was recently played in the movies (Black Adam, 2023) by Pierce Brosnan.
Fero, Planetary Detective
Planet Comics #5, May 1940 was written by house name Allison Brant. Neither writer nor artist are known. Fero is a character who starts off as an occult detective but gets more and more spacy as time goes on. This shouldn’t be surprising since he appeared in Planet Comics. For more on this guy, go here.
Zero, Ghost Detective
Feature Comics #32, May 1940 was written by Toni Blum. Zero, Ghost Detective had a good forty issue run in Feature Comics. He faces off against most familiar monsters like vampires and werewolves. For more on him, go here.
Mysterious Dr. X
Startling Comics #1, June 1940 was written and drawn by unknown creators. The character was not popular, only appearing one more time in Startling Comics #4, December 1940. Doc X sends the body of his niece, Cynthia, into space. She lands on a planet with dinosaurs and cavemen. Cynthia’s fiance, Bob Stone, goes to rescue her. This scenario is well known from the Science Fiction stories of the 1930s and earlier.
Mystico the Wonder Man
Startling Comics #1, June 1940 was written by an unknown author. Mystico does better than Dr. X, appearing for the final time in Startling Comics #17, October 1942. Like Ibis, he is a resurrected man from ancient Egypt. He is revived by a scientist, Dr. Slade, and his Vita-Ray. Using his powers, he defeats the “Green Shirts” a Nazi gang.
Dene Vernon
Weird Stories, August 1940 was Dene Vernon’s first appearance. The comic was written and drawn by John McCail. Dene would resurface in other UK comic albums like Cute Fun Album, Fresh Fun, Funnies Album and Slick Fun Album from Gerald G. Swan. Being in so many collections meant the character appeared from 1940 to 1954. I like the fact he looks a bit like a young H. P. Lovecraft. His cases are traditional occult detective material, unlike many of these Pulp or superhero-esque characters. He deserves to be better known.
Conclusion
1940 was an important year for taking established Pulp characters like The Shadow, Doc Savage and The Avenger and making them comic book characters as well as giving us several new ones that will fill the pages of DC Comics for decades. Among the rest are long-running characters like Zero, Ghost Detective and Dene Vernon, who while not famous, are a strong part of the occult comic scene in the Golden Age. The rest, well, also rans that have been dropped and forgotten like so many hastily conceived and executed pieces. What Dr. Occult started back in 1935 has become cemented in 1940. From here on out, all the phantom detectives and occult crime busters will be in the tradition of these comics.
Check out the rest of the Wild Inc. Super-saga…
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