The Doc Savage series has a fairly hokey premise that owes a lot to its 1930s roots: Clark Savage Jr is a super-intelligent doctor (hence the nickname) who’s bronze-colored and has managed to achieve the peak of physical perfection through a terrific devotion to his body. Much like most of the pulp heroes and their derivations in comics, Doc is wealthy and needs no outside support, which means he is beholden to no one and thus is atruistic beyond reproach. In the novels (and radio series) Doc Savage is supported by a crew of scientific geniuses from different disciplines that assist him as needed.
Marvel (as did several other companies) tried to make Doc Savage work on the comics page, but failed. Don’t get me wrong, the script by Doug Moench is competent enough and art from John Buscema and Tony DeZuniga is nothing to sneeze at, but the story presented in the first issue feels like a “greatest hits” of moments from one of the novels instead of giving the reader the combination of humor and characterization that sets the book series apart in the genre.
However, “Doom On Thunder Island” did do one thing very, very well: it showed Doc Savage flipping the fuck out and wailing on dudes.
He also fucks up tigers, by hand.
Thursday, I’ll scan this magazine’s interview with George Pal about the production on the film and include a few of the pictures inside.
If you’re a current fan or interested in getting hold of reprints of the original prose material, Nostalgia Ventures is going to be reprinting batches of the originals in two-fer volumes, starting with a volume that contains my favorite story, The Fortress Of Solitude. Go to their poorly-designed, hard-to-navigate site for more information, or check out the detail-free Amazon page, where you can order it.
A note to Nostalgia Ventures: Is “marketing” that hard for you to understand? Get the word out there, and get people interested. Provide Amazon with the details they need to help make your book sellable. Make your website so I can link to an exact product page that provides detail. Yes, your design is fancy. It’s also possessing piss-poor navigation that’s counterintuitive. Fire whoever designed this for you and get in touch with me. I’m sure I can help you get in contact with people that can make your site do more than click and whir meaninglessly.
