The Official Doc Savage Thread

[Showtime]

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.

 

[Morg]

Love Doc Savage and have all the paperbacks and comics and more

 

[Morg]

They been re-releasing Doc Savage books in mag size now, bought both the classic look and Bama look pic

 

[C. Lee]

I have all the Bantam reprints....all the Marvel comics.....and I think all the other newer versions ut out the last few years....wish I had some of the ones from the 40's.

 

[C. Lee]

The been re-releasing Doc Savage books in mag size now, bought both the classic look and Bama look pic

They only did the first issue as either classic or Bama....the rest are classic covers only.

 

[Morg]

You got the DC ones too C Lee?

 

[The Question]

Funny you brought up Doc Savage. I had an idea for a shared comic universe of old pulp heroes. If I could ever get the rights, this is what it would look like:

Doc Savage: It'd center around Savage serving the role of the old school scientist adventurer, taking risks in his persuits and also serving as something of a paranormal investigator and debunker, both confirming real strange happenings and exposing the fake stuff, getting him in all kinds of trouble. It'd be like all the best parts of Hellboy, Fantastic Four, Indiana Jones and Planetary rolled up into one badass action hero.

The Shadow: Based a bit more on the film than the old pulps. Lamont Cranson was a wealthy man who had been born with limited psychic abilities that he'd spent most of his life trying to ignore. After "the war," he drifted through southern Asia, and eventually fell in with the criminal element there, becoming a fairly violent gangster and drug runner. However, after his small criminal empire collapsed around him, he was left with nothing. Wandering aimlessly, he found his way to a Buddhist temple. There, the monks gave him shelter and helped him find the inner peace he failed to acheive with violence and vice. They also taught him how to master his psychic abilities, at least enough to influence other people and make people not notice that he's there, effectively making him invisible to all five senses (while people do see and hear him, when he's using his powers, they tune him out as if they were simply not paying atention). This power is, obviously, useless on security cameras. Anyway, he heads back to New York, where he decides to use his newfound skills and wisdom to help others. and mayber redeem himself a bit. As such, he sets himself up as a vigilante detective, helping the helpless and trying to bring down those who would prey on the weak. I'd characterize him a bit differently, I think, in that he'd be alot more zen and spiritual in his outlook, and would be far less violent. He would also, due to his powers, be drawn into investigations of the supernatural. He would encounter fellow superhumans, demonic possessions, and other forms of crazy ****e. In many ways, the series would resemble Angel, albiet with less over the top supermnatural elements and more facing of normal human corruption.

Fu Manchu: This would be a series mostly about the villain. Fu Manchu is a scientist, mystic, and wanted onternational terrorist. As leader of the Si-Fan, his terrorist organization, he seeks to bring the world back to a better way. He feels that humanity has become corrupt and bloated, slowly killing itself with trans fat, television, and apathy. He feels that governments are inefficient, and all the suffering of the world could be solved with a firm hand. He also feels that humanity has misused science, and has lost touch with anything truely spiritual or artistic. His main goals are to overthrow world governments and replace them with an "enforced monarchy," tack a step backwards with technology as a whole and start over, teaching people how to use it properly and respectfully, and bring back some culture to the world. He is opposed by Denis Smith and Dr. Petrie, two British inteligence agents charged with the task of bringing him down. One thing that would make the series interesting is that the villain of the peace, Fu Manchu, is a far more pleasent individual than the hero, Smith, as Smith is quite racist and jingoistic. Of course, Fu Manchu is a monster. But you could get along with him quite well is what I'm saying.

John Carter of Mars: A Civil War soldier who had been abducted by Martian aliens and made the hero of Mars. Basically, Adam Strange before Adam Strange. Due to his fighting prowess, and greatly enhanced strength and speed due to the lower gravity on Mars, he certainly lives up to his job. The series would start with him returning to Earth to become Mars' ambasadore.

Tarzan: Basic Tarzan stuff, I guess. Fighting African warlords and demons and the such.

The Spider: Richard Wentworth, a man born into poverty who, through his talant and determination, became quite wealthy. After his experiences in "the war," he returned to New York where he felt fairly lost. He became something of an amature detective, which grew into a fairly unhealthy obsession and eventually vigilanteism, protecting his old neighborhood and other such poor areas. As The Spider, he's incredibly violent, often killing his enemies rather brutally. This puts him at odds with the police and the much more pacifistic Shadow. His stories would be more straight crime noir.

G-8 and O-5: Now, I know that G8 and Operator No. 5 were comnpletely seperate characters from completely different companies. But both were code named high action spy guys, and other agents in Operator No. 5 had a letter-number codename like G-8. So, abreviate Operator No. 5 to O-5 and have them both be members of the same black ops unit. Jimmy Christopher, code named O-5, was as FBI agent with a pechant for recklessness and a brilliant detective mind before he was recruited for a black ops CIA programme. The enigmatic G-8 is a slightly more seasoned member of the group, a former member of 1 SOW (air force special forces). Both together and seperately, they deal with the threats to national security that the government doesn't want mentioned.

Obviously, it would grow from there. And of course there would be at least one team up of Fu Manchu and John Sunlight.

 

[Morg]

They only did the first issue as either classic or Bama....the rest are classic covers only.

Hmm pretty sure second issue was two cover book too, have to dig it out to check

 

[C. Lee]

You got the DC ones too C Lee?

I think I'm missing a couple.....I need to check on it tomorrow.

I do have the Gold Key one shot with the Bama cover.t:

 

[C. Lee]

Hmm pretty sure second issue was two cover book too, have to dig it out to check

Hmmmm...I went to the publishing companies website....they only showed classic covers for the others. But that was a few weeks ago....they could have went ahead with the Bama covers because of people wanting them.

 

[Morg]

I think I'm missing a couple.....I need to check on it tomorrow.

I do have the Gold Key one shot with the Bama cover.t:

Gold Key one? Damn! I'm going have to steal that one from you C Lee

I wish the release the books out again, would generate new fans and maybe finally get a movie deal

 

[C. Lee]

Funny you brought up Doc Savage. I had an idea for a shared comic universe of old pulp heroes. If I could ever get the rights, this is what it would look like:

I won't quote the whole thing....just say....it sounds like a great idea,and you've already put some thought into it.

I've read 90% of the Doc books, a dozen Shadow, about 5 Spider, all the Fu Manchus, one G8.....love that stuff.

 

[C. Lee]

Gold Key one? Damn! I'm going have to steal that one from you C Lee

I wish the release the books out again, would generate new fans and maybe finally get a movie deal

I may have.......two of them. I'll have to look through my stuff....don't remember if I sold the second one off or not.

 

[C. Lee]

Funny you brought up Doc Savage. I had an idea for a shared comic universe of old pulp heroes. If I could ever get the rights, this is what it would look like:

Hey....you ever see the paperbacks "Weird Heroes"? There were about 8 of them put out in the late 70's early 80's.....they were an attempt to start new pulp heroes.....the one I remember most was by Phillip Jose Farmer called "Greatheart Silver".

 

[Lighthouse]

I like Doc Savage because they aren't afraid ot show a hero with male pattern baldness.

 

[Showtime]

Hey....you ever see the paperbacks "Weird Heroes"? There were about 8 of them put out in the late 70's early 80's.....they were an attempt to start new pulp heroes.....the one I remember most was by Phillip Jose Farmer called "Greatheart Silver".

That sounds pretty interesting? I am going to have to look that up.

 

[Showtime]

So if you were to see a certain Doc Savage story on screen what would you want to see translated?

 

[The Question]

I won't quote the whole thing....just say....it sounds like a great idea,and you've already put some thought into it.

Thanks. I've only really got the basic idea right now, but hopefully I could get more in depth later on. The only major plotlines I have planned are, at one point, Fu Manchu takes a charity fundraiser in Washington D.C. that the Doc is atending hostage, The Spider and The Shadow meet and don't like each other, and then The Dock and Fu lock horns again when Fu Manchu teams up with Joh Sunlight and captures the Doc.

I've read 90% of the Doc books, a dozen Shadow, about 5 Spider, all the Fu Manchus, one G8.....love that stuff.

I really should read more Doc Savage. I have the entire series, but I haven't quite gotten around to it yet.

 

[C. Lee]

So if you were to see a certain Doc Savage story on screen what would you want to see translated?

"The Land of Terror" would be great.....Doc finds an island down around New Zealand full of dinosaurs.

 

[Showtime]

Sounds interesting, and would you want it set in the 30's?

 

[C. Lee]

Sounds interesting, and would you want it set in the 30's?

Absolutely.

The Savage books were started in 1933 and ran to 1949.....so many were set in the 30's anyway.

 

[Showtime]

Oh I know, but you know Hollywood, look what they did with Romeo and Juliet.

Is there any particular poses or moments that are famous to Doc, like Action Comics 1 is to Superman?

Who does the best artwork for the character?

 

[C. Lee]

Art by James Bama

 

[The Question]

You know, part of me would want to see comics based on the pulp heroes set in the modern day. I think that would actually make the Doc stand out more, since science these days is so cautious that he'd be the only real scientist/adventurer around.

 

[C. Lee]

You know, part of me would want to see comics based on the pulp heroes set in the modern day. I think that would actually make the Doc stand out more, since science these days is so cautious that he'd be the only real scientist/adventurer around.

When Marvel comics first did Doc....they set him in modern day...it didn't seem to work too well. It might just need the proper execution. But personally, I love things set pre WWII.