Pulp and International Heroes: Some Helpful Resources

 (This article was originally posted on the Atomic Think Tank on  Nov 14, 2024)

I've been going back over old MuMaMo¹ installments and I hit two in a row that were of particular interest to me (three actually, but my weird obsession with monkeys and apes isn't something I'm going to be going into here!). These are The Hero Pulps and International Characters. And as these are things I find fascinating, I thought I'd share some thoughts, and some hopefully helpful resources.

1. The Pulps.

(L-R: Flash Gordon, Doc Savage, The Rocketeer, The Phantom, Buck Rogers, The Shadow)

Firstly, let's look at Pulps. The Pulps were cheaply printed magazines which featured an array of lurid popular adventure fiction. They were called pulps because of the poor quality wood pulp paper they were printed on (by comparison, the more upmarket story magazines were referred to as 'slicks'). 

The pulps contained all sorts of stories, including high adventure in foreign lands, chilling horror fiction, hard-boiled crime, Westerns, romance, mystery, science fiction and others. Some of the more well-known pulps were the so-called 'Hero Pulps' which featured recurring characters. 
The two most famous were The Shadow, a cloaked man of mystery who battled crime with his blazing automatic pistols, chilling laugh and army of agents, and Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze, a man of peak human capabilities and master of all skills and sciences who, alongside his five associates, investigated strange phenomena and waged war against a parade of colourful and deadly villains.

Many of these early heroes served as a kind of prototype for the early superheroes of comics' Golden Age, and a lot of those superheroes lifted concepts and ideas liberally from the pulps. For instance, Doc Savage had a Fortress of Solitude years before Superman, the first Batman story 'The Case of the Chemical Syndicate' is liberally adapted from an earlier Shadow adventure, 'Partners in Peril', Edgar Rice Burroughs' 'A Princess of Mars' introduced John Carter, a man who travelled to another world where he gained fantastic strength and leaping ability due to the planet's lighter gravity. 

For players and GMs alike, this provides a new way to come at creating heroes, villains, settings and stories. Just like these early comic creators, you can pull character concepts, stories, tropes and all sorts of ideas from these old pulp stories, give them a new spin and see what exciting ideas you can come up with. One of the other benefits of looking into these old pulp stories is that the pulp tradition is not a uniquely American one, and countries across the world all had traditions of cheaply-produced, disposable adventure fiction. This, of course, brings me to my second point.

2. International Adventure.

(L-R: Jumbie (Trinidad & Tobago), The Leopard from Lime Street and Billy the Cat (UK), Blue Demon (Mexico), Darna (Philippines), Southern Cross (Australia), Fleur de Lis (Canada))

One of the things that I love doing when creating international characters is looking at how the people from that culture do it. There isn't a culture on Earth which doesn't have some kind of heroic tradition, whether it's myth and legends, folk stories and fairy tales, or adventure fiction of one kind or another whether these stories take the form of novels, short stories, television, film, etc... Many countries even have their own rich pulp hero and comic book hero traditions.

Doing research on these things can greatly help to create characters which seem true to their cultural context, and help to avoid crude stereotypes based on surface-level outside perspectives. Plus, it's fascinating to see how differently other cultures can approach familiar tropes and ideas. With that said, it's still important to do your research. Coming at these ideas without the appropriate cultural context can just as easily lead to the sort of crude stereotypes we're trying to avoid.

3. Resources. (I've added a number of items to this list, but I suspect that I'm not even close to finished)

a) Online Resources: 

An International Catalogue of Superheroes 
This is an invaluable site and a great starting point. While it goes across a wide range of characters, some of its entries are surface-level at best and sometimes incomplete (to be fair, it's pretty much the work of a single creator!). This site can be an endless time-sink or a launchpad to countless new worlds and ideas.

The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes by Jess Nevins
Jess Nevins is an absolute treasure and this will not be the last time I invoke his name.  A research librarian from Texas, he's written a number of books on pulp and popular fiction as well as novels, role-playing supplements and reference works. One of the things about his work which I adore is that he doesn't restrict himself to English language-based work.
This is an excellent source of information on a variety of pulp adventure characters from all around the world. 

The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess Nevins 
Many modern superheroes and villains can trace their influences back even before the pulps, and in here, you'll find a host of mad scientists, monsters, criminal masterminds, spies, adventurers, detectives, explorers and men of mystery from the latter half of the 19th Century. Once again, this volume does a great job of including works beyond the English-speaking world.

The Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes by Jess Nevins
Not quite as international as his earlier stuff, but wonderfully comprehensive and full of magnificently obscure and wonderful Golden Age characters of all sorts, alongside all the usual suspects.

The Wold Newton Universe by Philip José Farmer and others
While writing a biography of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan, Philip José Farmer came up with the idea of The Wold Newton Universe, a vast, interconnected series of family trees linking together an absolute multitude of popular adventure characters from across the length and breadth of fiction, from Conan the Barbarian, through Captain Nemo to Buffy Summers.
Since then, a host of other writers and creators have taken up the baton and run with it. 
While the Wold Newton concept usually excludes vast superhero continuities like the Marvel and DC Universe, there's plenty here to sink your teeth into.

Cool French Comics by J.M. and Randy L'Officier
J.M. and Randy L'Officier have been doing a phenomenal job for decades in keeping alive the traditions and legacies of French popular fiction, comics, pulps etc...
From here, you can also access The French Wold Newton Universe which looks at French Pulp Adventure Fiction, Black Coat Press, their publishing imprint which translates classic French language fiction and produces all-new fiction featuring classic French Characters, and many others.

The Hero Pulps
Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Spider, Operator #5, G-8 and his Battle Aces and more! 

Mars Ravelo: A Legacy of Filipino Komiks Superheroes
I wish I had a more comprehensive article on Mars Ravelo. When you're talking Filipino Superhero Comics, his name is right at the forefront. Not only did he create Darna, the Phillipines' most beloved superhero, but Captain Barbell, Lastikman, Flash Bomba (My personal favourite), Dyesebel and many others.
His characters have appeared in countless comics, movies, and TV series. 

Guardians of the North
An archived website containing a great deal of information on Canadian Superheroes, their history and creators.

A Brief History of the Heroes of Black Pulp by Michael Gonzales
An article from the Crimereads website, giving a brief overview of Black creators and characters to the Heroic Pulp oeuvre.

b) Books.

Shadowmen & Shadowmen II by Jean-Marc & Randy L'Officier
This is a guide to, respectively, French Pulp Heroes and French Comic Book Heroes. While far from exhaustive in its range of characters, it goes into considerable detail on the characters it does cover. 

Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life by Philip José Farmer
The follow-up to his previous biography Tarzan Alive, in which he first begin developing the idea of the Wold Newton Universe, this more or less abandons the narrative conceit of being the biography of the real person the character was based on. It gives a tremendous overview of the character and history of Doc Savage, and elaborates upon the concept of the Wold Newton Universe. 

The Shadow Scrapbook by Walter B. Gibson
Written and compiled by Shadow creator Walter B. Gibson (he wrote under the pen name Maxwell Grant), this is a compendium containing a variety of articles on various aspect of the Shadow character. While far from complete, it provides a solid overview and a great jumping off point for those interested in more.

Doc Savage: The Sinister Shadow by Will Murray (writing as Kenneth Robeson)
This 2015 novel does a phenomenal job of capturing the writing style of both Kenneth Robeson (a.k.a. Lester Dent, creator of Doc Savage) and Maxwell Grant (a.k.a. Walter B. Gibson, creator of The Shadow) in a story where the two characters encounter on another and work together. In my opinion, his second team-up team-up novel 'Empire of Doom' isn't as successful.

The Encyclopedia of Superheroes (& Others) by Jeff Rovin
Jeff Rovin wrote three companion volumes which cover a lot of ground. The first is The Encyclopedia of Superheroes, the second is The Encyclopedia of Supervillains, and the third is Adventure Heroes. While the first two are fairly obvious, the third volume adds more content on non super-powered adventure heroes from popular culture. All three are excellent, if slightly out-dated.

The Great Pulp Heroes by Don Hutchison
This is a fantastic overview of the 'Hero Pulps' from the big names to lesser-known characters. Very readable and informative.

The Evolution of the Costumed Avenger by Jess Nevins
This is a somewhat more academic text which attempts to answer the questions; Where did Superheroes come from? and Who was the first Superhero? This book charts the gradual evolution of the archetypes which would eventually come to form the modern day superhero concept. This would probably be considered pretty dry reading from someone with only a passing interest in the topic, but to someone like me, this is just a great big pile of delicious candy.
This one combines REALLY well with 'The Time-Traveller's Codex' if you're interested in creating historically-appropriate heroes.

Myths for the Modern Age by Win Scott Eckert (Ed.)
A series of articles spotlighting various elements of Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe. This is something of a mixed bag. If you're new to the WNU, I wouldn't recommend it as a first read, but if you've started down that particular rabbit hole and are enjoying the trip so far, this is definitely something to take along.

The Mexican Masked Wrestler And The Monster Filmography by Robert "Bobb" Cotter
This is the definitive reference work on films featuring powerfully build masked men battling the notorious 3 M's of Lucha Libre villainy (Mobsters, Monsters and Mad Scientists). 

c) Comics.

The Weird World of Jack Staff by Paul Grist
Paul Grist is a British Comics creator and an absolute treasure. This series chronicles the adventures of "Britain's Greatest Superhero" as he attempts to make his way through an ever-increasingly strange world full of crime-fighting robots, retired arch-criminals, shadowy conspiracies, working class vampire hunters, time-travelling chimps and so much more. Many of the characters in the series are references to or analogues of popular British comic book heroes of the past.

The Filipino Heroes League by Paolo Fabregas
This one might be difficult to track down, but it's well worth it. This 3-part series does an absolutely phenomenal job of showing how the concept of the Superhero Team might translate to the developing world, with all that that entails, from headquarters and supercomputers to public perception and supervillainy. There is so much treasure here for GMs and players alike. 

Trese by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldismo
Not as immediately relevant to pure superheroics, but an absolutely amazing Filipino comic, and much more readily accessible. Like her father before her, Alexandra Trese stands between the world of the supernatural and the world of humanity in Manila. When that line gets crossed, it's her job to investigate and sort it out. A great supernatural adventure series full of monsters and magic from Filipino Folklore, which was adapted into an animated miniseries in Netflix and is currently being reprinted for the US Market by Ablaze Comics.

Smash! by Paul Grist
Here he is again, but this time, he's using the actual characters instead of thinly-veiled counterparts. This 3-part series crosses multiple decades to follow a wide variety of classic British comic heroes and villains as they attempt to protect, destroy, defend or steal a perilously powerful mystic artefect.

The Vigilant by Simon Coleby and Simon Furman
A British super-team comic made up of modernised versions of classic British Comic Characters. This one incorporates dozens of different classic characters in new and interesting ways and is a solid example of updating Silver and Golden Age characters to a more modern sensibility.

The Establishment by Ian Edginton and Charlie Adlard 
This short-lived (13 issues) comic series is another British super-team based on classic characters, but this time, they're analogues for TV characters from the 1960s. Lots of references to British TV, comics and films. This was a really very good series indeed which failed to find an audience because many saw it as a knock-off of the then-popular series 'The Authority'.

The Chimera Brigade by Serge Lehman, Fabrice Colin and Gess
This is a French Comic book series set on an alternate world in the years leading up to the Second World War. The series features a wide array of superhumans derived from European fiction and is largely an allegory about Europe's rich tradition of fantastical adventure fiction which was largely brought to a premature end by WWII. 
Since this series, the creators have returned with several follow-ups set in the same universe and even a role-playing game. Unfortunately, many of these have yet to be translated into English.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
In this series, Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill overlay the late 20th Century template of the Superhero Team onto the literary heroes and villains of the late 19th Century. The first two volumes follow this pattern, but later volumes extend the timeline throughout the 20th Century, with several spin-off volumes detailing other characters' stories within the same world.

Tom Strong by Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse 
This series is built on the premise that there was never a superhero archetype, and so adventure fiction very much continued to evolve based on pulp hero tropes. This is a lot of fun and you can tell that all the creators involved are very much enjoying themselves. Other characters within the 'America's Best Comics' milieu fitting into this series include Promethea, Cobweb and Greyshirt.

Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell
Zenith is a shallow, self-obsessed and vain Gen X rockstar whose parents were superheroes during the 1960's. This is a fascinating series, extending over four Phases. Earlier phases involve uncovering the secret of superhumanity, which is somehow tied into experiments by the Nazis and a race of interdimensional Lovecraftian horrors, with later phases escalating the threat, ending in a grand multiversal battle involving hundreds of (classic British comic) heroes from an array of alternate dimensions.

The Treasury of British Comics by Various
Not a single work, but a vast project bringing a massive archive of classic British Comics back into print. Many of these series have been out of print for decades, or impossible to find, but are now becoming readily available. 

The Southern Squadron by Dave DeVries, Glenn Lumsden and Gary Chaloner
An Australian superhero team comic. During the 1980's, The Southern Squadron appeared in an anthology called Cyclone! Comics, which also spawned several other super-characters including Gary Chaloner's Jackeroo, Glenn Lumsden's Golden Age Southern Cross and Tad Pietrzykowski's Dark Nebula. 
The characters have recently been revived and new issues and back issues can be obtained online via https://ownaindi.com/ and https://cyclonecomics.com.au/. 

Northguard by Mark Shainblum and Gabriel Morrissette
An excellent Canadian superhero comic. Originally published by Matrix Graphics, it's currently being published by Chapterhouse Comics, which has also revived a number of other Canadian Heroes including Captain Canuck and Freelance as well as producing a new Team Book, Agents of PACT, featuring a mix of older and new characters. 

1. MuMaMo, or Mutants and Masterminds Monday is a weekly Youtube Series on Green Ronin's Youtube Channel which presents a discussion of various issues relevant to M&M, Superheroes or gaming in general. It is hosted by Disembodied Troy, and features M&M Line Editor, Alex Thomas and M&M Creator, Steve Kenson.