Street & Smith’s Doc Savage Magazine hit the nation’s crowded newsstands in an issue dated March 1933. Although debuting during the harshest days of the Great Depression, Doc Savage was very much a hit with readers, inspiring several imitators who would follow him to newsstands, including Street & Smith’s own Captain John Fury — The Skipper — and Ace Magazines’ Captain Hazzard, among others.
In 1964, Bantam Books began releasing Doc Savage’s adventures once again, this time in the paperback format. Despite being more than thirty years old, the Street & Smith character proved to be, once again, “very much a hit with readers.”
Between 1964 and 1990, Bantam reissued all of the original Doc Savage adventures. Following the conclusion of the reprints, the series was continued, first by Philip José Farmer, and later, by Will Murray. Nearly two-dozen additional adventures were published between 1991 and 2018, first by Bantam Books and later by Adventures in Bronze.
For the last ninety years, Doc Savage has been inspiring creators across the globe — including Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who gave us Superman. We hope you’ll join PulpFest 2023 at 3 pm on Saturday, August 5, for our panel, “Doc Savage and His Offspring.” Moderated by Jennifer DiGiacomo, it will feature four writers whose work has been inspired by “The Man of Bronze.”
Jennifer DiGiacomo is a digital technologist, having created the first online reality series (AOL’s The Startup), and a writer, winning the Silver Telly Award for The P.O.B. Conspiracy. More recently, she worked on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul for AMC, and Cerebus in Hell? with Dave Sim.
From 1982 to 1985, Jennifer was the publisher of The Savage Society of Bronze, the leading Doc Savage fanzine of its time. She resides in New York City and has several more writing and publishing efforts planned. Jennifer has been presenting annually at PulpFest since 2021.
Win Scott Eckert launched the first Wold Newton website, The Wold Newton Universe in 1997. For the last quarter-century, he has written or co-written novels and short stories featuring characters such as Philip José Farmer’s Patricia Wildman — daughter of the pulp hero Doc Wildman, the bronze champion of justice — cult favorites Honey West and T. H. E. Cat, and classic properties such as The Avenger, Captain Midnight, Doc Ardan, the Domino Lady, the Green Ghost, the Green Hornet, the Lone Ranger, the Phantom, Phileas Fogg, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Sexton Blake, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, and Zorro. The editor of and a contributor to Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe, co-editor of Tales of the Wold Newton Universe, and author of Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World, Win’s latest book is The Monster on Hold, based on Philip José Farmer’s partial manuscripts and copious notes. It features Doc Caliban, another of Farmer’s champions of justice.
Author of the Edgar-nominated Hector Lassiter historical crime series, Craig McDonald is an award-winning novelist, journalist, and editor. The Hector Lassiter series chronicles the exploits of a fictional Black Mask author and his encounters with such notable figures as Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, Ian Fleming, and Lester Dent. McDonald’s internationally acclaimed works have found a global audience and have also been adapted in graphic novel format. A member of the PulpFest organizing committee, Craig began a new series, The Adventures of Zana O’Savin, in 2022. The first book in the series, The Blood Ogre, introduces Zana O’Savin, Craig’s version of Doc Savage’s cousin Pat.
Will Murray has written extensively about Lester Dent’s Doc Savage, as well as countless other pulp and pop culture topics. The literary agent for the Lester Dent properties, he has written over twenty adventures of Doc Savage (with two featuring The Shadow), a solo adventure featuring Pat Savage, three novels about the Popular Publications hero, The Spider, as well as new adventures of Cthulhu, King Kong, Sherlock Holmes, and Tarzan. His non-fiction books include The Dark Avenger, Master of Mystery: The Rise of The Shadow, Wordslingers: An Epitaph for the Western, and Writings in Bronze. You can find Will’s books at adventuresinbronze.com.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gary Phillips has written the adventures of the Green Hornet and Kato, Kolchak the Night Stalker, Captain Action, Honey West, the Avenger, the Spider (teamed with Operator 5), Johnny Dollar, and created Jimmie Flint, Secret Agent X-11, in the linked anthology he contributed to and edited, Day of the Destroyers. Phillips conceived, co-edited, and contributed to Black Pulp I & II — featuring his character Decimator Smith in 1930s Los Angeles — as well as stories for Asian Pulp and the Adventures of the Bronze Buckaroo. His novel Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem reimagined the real-life Arctic explorer in the pulp tradition. Phillips was also a writer and co-producer on FX’s Snowfall. To learn more about Gary and his work, please visit his official website at gdphillips.com.
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Our featured image is excerpted from Joe DeVito’s painting of Doc Savage and his team, created for the back cover of Will Murray’s first Doc Savage novel, Python Isle. Introduced by Bantam Books in 1991, DeVito’s image was used throughout Murray’s run on the Doc Savage series.
Our lead image was adapted by PulpFest advertising director William Lampkin from Walter M. Baumhofer’s front cover art for the March 1933 issue of Doc Savage Magazine.
The Bantam Book edition of Doc Savage #1 — The Man of Bronze was first published in 1964. It featured the iconic cover image of Doc Savage in a torn shirt against a background of black. The cover was painted by James Bama.
Win Scott Eckert’s The Scarlet Jaguar was released in 2016 by Meteor House, featuring cover art by Mark Sparacio. The artist in residence at Lynn University, Mark has also worked as a comic book illustrator for Marvel, DC, and other companies.
Douglas C. Klauba painted the cover art for The Adventures of Zana O’Savin #1 — The Blood Ogre. Written by Craig McDonald, it has been called “one of the more memorable pastiches of Doc Savage, his crew and amazing cousin.”
Gary Phillips’ Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem is a novel that’s a little like a pulp-inflected spin on E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, with real-life characters cropping up in name or in person, including Nikola Testa, Dashiell Hammett, and Dutch Schultz. There is also a character named “Hugo Renwick” in a winking tribute to big-fisted Doc Savage aide, “Renny” Renwick.
George Rozen contributed the cover art for the last issue of the original run of Doc Savage. Dated Summer 1949, it featured Lester Dent’s novel, “Up From Earth’s Center.”
For more on Doc Savage, please visit our YouTube Channel to view Craig McDonald’s videos on the character and other great pulp heroes. While you’re there, please be sure to subscribe to the PulpFest Channel.
