Doc Savage

[Sheol]

Has any body read the Doc Savage series by Kenneth Robeson? I have about 20 of the books and I don't have the first two. I have the third one and a handful of them all the way up to 81. Do I have to have the first two to understand a lot of the series? And should i consider buying the ones I don't have? Any help at all would help.

[dANdeLION]

Well, assuming you can afford them, and can find them, reading in order is always the best thing. Tell me, are there really 81 books in the series? That is a heck of a lot. I always liked Doc, BTW.

[danlo]

His little 'crew' of experts is very cool--I've only read one or two ages ago--but for long pulp series adventure he beats the pants off The Destroyer anyday (even if Remo gets all the superhot Chix ).

[Sheol]

I can afford them but finding them is gonna be the hard part. You can't find anything in little Sheridan Wyoming so i might have to order them. I don't know how many there are but I don't think 81 is the last one because i always figured the last one would have some sort of farewell title. But anyways. if i figure it out I will let you know.

[dANdeLION]

I got this off ThePulp.net......

Just under two years after The Shadow appeared on magazine racks, Doc Savage became the third pulp character to get his own magazine.

The world met the Man of Bronze in a novel titled “The Man of Bronze,” March 1933.

Doc Savage was created by Street and Smith’s Henry W. Ralston, with help from editor John L. Nanovic, in order to capitalize on the surprise success of The Shadow magazine.

It was Lester Dent, though, who crafted the character into the superman that he became.

Dent, who wrote most of the adventures, described his hero -- Clark “Doc” Savage Jr. -- as a cross between “Sherlock Holmes with his deducting ability, Tarzan of the Apes with his towering physique and muscular ability, Craig Kennedy with his scientific knowledge, and Abraham Lincoln with his Christliness.”

Through 181 novels, the fight against evil was on. From a headquarters on the 86th floor of a towering Manhattan skyscraper, Doc, his five pals -- Renny, Johnny, Long Tom, Ham and Monk -- and occasionally his cousin Pat battled criminals the world over (and under) 12 times a year, from 1933 until early 1947; then the team’s exploits dropped to every two months until the final three quarterly issues in 1949.

Doc Savage is one of the few characters whose complete original pulp run has been reprinted in book form. Doc also appeared in a short-lived radio drama in the 1940s, a couple of serialized adventures on public radio and a 1975 movie.

[Roland of Gilead]

I'm a big Doc Savage fan. I read my first one (The Polar Treasure) in the mid-sixties and collected the entire Bantam reprint run. The earlier ones, written in the thirties, are the best. The later ones, written in the forties, were very short and featured Doc as more of a detective than a super-hero. These were grouped together in omnibus editions by Bantam.

Even so, the entire paperback collections is well over one hundred volumes.

Doc's Fortress of Solitude actually predates Superman's by a few months.

Doc's background and reasons for his mission against crime are explained in most of the stories, so it's not necessary to read them in order. And missing a few won't hurt, either.

They are pulp adventure at its finest, with mystery, action, larger-than-life characters and wildly imaginative inventions and plots.

If you want scientific realism, forget it. These novels aren't for you. And keep in mind that they reflect the times, and the dialogue is often hopelessly corny and dated.

But for old-fashioned escapist literature, they can't be beat.

[safetyjedi]

There is a huge following on ebay and Doc Savage is one of the series I sell on ebay. I also sell antique books and the occasional cd or dvd, but mostly old books such as Doc, Richard Bladeby Jeffrey Lord and the Casca series by Barry Sadler. Anyway, you can find pretty much all of the Doc books on ebay, and some even sell a cd that has all of the books in the series on them. Anyway, you probably have all of them by now. It is amazaing to think that they were written back in the 30's!

[dennisrwood]

great series. read a bunch when i was a kid.

thepulp.net/docsavage.html
www.docsavage.org/

[Prover of Life]

Doc Savage! Haven't thought about him in years. Marvel had a comic out back in the early 70's. Who played in the movie? I can see the guy but not the name.

[Prover of Life]

Doc Savage! Haven't thought about him in years. Marvel had a comic out back in the early 70's. Who played in the movie? I can see the guy but not the name.

Tarzan himself....Ron Ely was the Man of Bronze.

[Zahir]

Ah, Doc Savage! I remember him with fondness (not so that silly movie made about him).

The books are pretty much stand alones. The first one or two have some fun details but ones you can easily do without. For my money, the last ten or so don't really measure up to the rest of the series.

Philip Jose Farmer wrote a delightful "biography" of Doc Savage, title Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. In it, he traces Doc's lineage on both sides to 'Wolf' Larson, Ned Land, Fu Manchu, Professor Moriarty, Tarzan, etc. Lots of fun, really!