Welcome to installment #4 in my ongoing “Void Influences” series.  Today, let’s talk about the premier superhero of the depression era, a name that still resonates with many fans today.  I’m talking about Clark Savage, aka “Doc Savage,” the Man of Bronze!

Doc Savage was originally published in American pulps during the 1930s and 1940s.  He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John Nanovic at Street and Smith Publications with additional material contributed by the series’ main writer, Lester Dent. This heroic-adventure character would go on to appear in several other media, including radio, film, comics, and a still running series of paperback novels.

By 1967, my Dad was beginning to take note of my interest in adventure tales and heroic characters.  He was the first person to talk to me about Doc Savage as he had fond memories of reading Doc Savage Magazine as a kid and teenager in the 30s.  It just happened that in my small town of Moultrie, Georgia, I was a regular visitor to the local newsstand.  The owner (whom I only remember as Mrs. Walker) was a sweet lady who was always on the lookout for me.  She’d set aside books or comics that had missed their “return to publisher” date and sell them to me for about 10% of the cover price.  (In those days, comics cost 12-cents each, so 2 x comics = 24-cents plus a penny tax.  But if a single purchase was 14-cents or less, no tax was owed.  So she’d ring up my comics one at a time … as individual 12-cent purchases … so that I’d have an extra penny or two to buy gum or candy.  As I said, she was such a sweet lady).  It just so happened that she had several paperback books of ol’ Doc lying around.  She sold them to me for about a nickel apiece.  Thus, I became immersed in the legend of Doc Savage.

By 1967, Bantam Books was reprinting the individual magazine stories as novels with covers by acclaimed artist James Bama. Printed under the by line of “writer Kenneth Robeson,” this was the Doc I would come to know so well!  (My Mom was not too happy about it … she thought the covers were too scary for my 8-year old mind to digest, but despite her misgivings, she relented … God bless you, Mom)!

Doc Savage’s real name was Clark Savage, Jr. He was a physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, researcher, and musician.  A team of scientists assembled by his father continuously trained his mind and body to superhuman abilities from birth, giving him great strength and endurance, a photographic memory, mastery of numerous fighting styles, every known language, and … well … he was simply the best at everything!  As with most superheroes (although the term had not yet been coined when he was created), he had an oath:

Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it.

Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice.

Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage.

Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do.

Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.

Sounds like a boy scout or 4-H Club President, doesn’t he?  Doc Savage began fighting crime fully 5-years before the appearance of Superman in 1939.  Think he had an impact on the origin of Krypton’s favorite son?  Apart from Savage being referred to as a “superman,” consider these similarities:

Doc Savage/Superman

Real Name: Clark Savage/Clark Kent;

Nickname:   Man of Bronze/Man of Steel;

HQ Name: Fortress of Solitude/Fortress of Solitude.

As my interest in Doc Savage grew, so did his popularity with other audiences of the era.  He began appearing in comics, black and white adventure magazines, and rumors of a major motion picture (starring TV’s Chuck Connors).  Doc finally did get that movie deal in 1975, but it starred TV’s Tarzan, Ron Ely, and was aimed at the campy style of the Adam West Batman TV show rather than a serious look at an iron-jawed superman.

Doc still makes appearances in many mediums of entertainment.  In the 1991 Disney film, The Rocketeer, original script ideas called for the rocket pack to have been designed by none other than Doctor Clark Savage, but copyright laws prevented it from happening.  The 1975 film has just been released on Blu-Ray, new books are in the works, and Doc Savage shows no sign of going away anytime soon.

Doc Savage made a huge impact on me in the summer of 1967.  I thought it cool that I was reading and learning about a character my Dad enjoyed in his youth and as I was striving to be “grown up,” the Bantam book series made it “okay” for me to devour everything I could find about Doc and his crime-fighting companions.  He faced all types of villains, from Nazis to evil scientists to monsters, and he always won. He inspired me to always do my best, not for personal reasons, but because it was the right thing to do.  As the story of Void unfolds, I’d like to think there’s some Doc Savage found in the pages therein … a man with “no regard for anything but justice,” who, despite fearsome adversaries, will never suffer a “loss of courage.”

Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it.

Doctor Clark Savage, Jr.  The Man of Bronze!

For more info on Doc Savage, please visit these fine websites:

http://www.docsavage.org/

http://www.docsavagelibrary.com/superhero-library/doc-savage/doc-savage-home-page.aspx

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