Most influential precursors to Golden Age heroes. 1 1

[Electricmastro]

Pre-1938 heroes which you think likely served as the biggest inspirations for many later Golden Age heroes. They don’t have to have inspired solely superhero characters either, but could have also inspired jungle characters, cowboy characters, space ranger characters, detective characters, magician characters, etc.

Examples can include:

Sherlock Holmes (1887)

John Carter (1912)

Tarzan (1912)

Zorro (1919)

Buck Rogers (1928)

Popeye (1929)

Hugo Danner (1930)

The Shadow (1930)

Tracy (1931)

Conan the Barbarian (1932)

Doc Savage (1933)

The Lone Ranger (1933)

The Spider (1933)

Flash Gordon (1934)

Mandrake the Magician (1934)

The Green Hornet (1936)

The Phantom (1936)

Edited April 15, 2020 by Electricmastro

[OtherEric]

Buck Rogers only made two appearances in the pulps.  He's actually only on the second cover, the first is the Skylark of Space:

[Cat-Man_America]

[AJLewandoski]

He may seem a little derivative, but The Spider is perhaps my favorite pre '38 hero. The movie serial The Spider's Web from '38 is also quite good.

[Electricmastro]

On 1/24/2020 at 7:31 PM, AJLewandoski said:

He may seem a little derivative, but The Spider is perhaps my favorite pre '38 hero. The movie serial The Spider's Web from '38 is also quite good.

I definitely feel that Zorro helped popularize the black wide-brim hat, cape, and mask look.

Edited February 15, 2020 by Electricmastro

[bronze johnny]

Dr. Occult.

[Electricmastro]

1 hour ago, bronze johnny said:

Dr. Occult.

Agreed.

[Surfing Alien]

Gladiator is an earlier (1930) version of the Superman character, born with super strength, skin and speed who fights the Germans in WW 1. The cover on this later paperback is uncredited but a classic for sure.

 

 

[sfcityduck]

Prince Valiant's "demon" sequence basically created the look and premise ("criminals are a cowardly lot ...") for Batman (and, of course, Kirby's Demon which was a wholesale homage/copy of Foster's character):

 

[lou_fine]

On 1/24/2020 at 1:24 PM, Electricmastro said:

Pre-1938 heroes which you think likely served as the biggest inspirations for many later Golden Age heroes. They don’t have to have inspired solely superhero characters either, but could have also inspired jungle characters, cowboy characters, space ranger characters, detective characters, magician characters, etc.

Examples can include:

 

The Phantom (1936)

Since one of the characters we are talking about here is the Phantom, would anybody know of any HG copies of this book here:

Features the first comic book appearance of the Phantom and appears to be a highly undervalued book that hardly ever shows up in the marketplace, with this CGC 7.5 copy being still the highest graded and also most likley the last one to come to market way back in 2010.     

 

[valiantman]

On 2/15/2020 at 7:06 PM, Electricmastro said:

On 2/15/2020 at 5:44 PM, bronze johnny said:

Dr. Occult.

Agreed.

+1

http://www.droccult.com/

Edited February 18, 2020 by valiantman