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Post by electricmastro on Apr 15, 2020 18:48:34 GMT -5
What heroes do you think likely served as the biggest inspirations for many later comic book heroes? They don’t have to have inspired solely superhero characters, but could have also inspired jungle characters, cowboy characters, space ranger characters, detective characters, magician characters, etc.
Examples can include:
Sherlock Holmes (1887)
John Carter (1912)
Tarzan (1912)
Zorro (1919)
Buck Rogers (1928)
Popeye (1929)
Hugo Danner (1930)
The Shadow (1930)
Dick Tracy (1931)
Conan the Barbarian (1932)
Doc Savage (1933)
The Lone Ranger (1933)
The Spider (1933)
Flash Gordon (1934)
Mandrake the Magician (1934)
The Green Hornet (1936)
The Phantom (1936)
Zorro is probably one of the most influential in particular, having inspired heroes like Batman and very much emphasized on the modern idea of a citizen dressing up as another identity and using extraordinary skills on the basis of wanting to help out others, as if something out of a fantastical dream.
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Post by Cei-U! on Apr 15, 2020 20:36:57 GMT -5
That's a great list! The only additions I can think of off the top of my head are
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1996)
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905)
Fantomas (1911)
Cei-U!
I summon the forebears!
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Post by electricmastro on Apr 15, 2020 20:48:37 GMT -5
That's a great list! The only additions I can think of off the top of my head are Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1996) The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) Fantomas (1911) Cei-U! I summon the forebears! Yes, Jekyll and Hyde as well, which I imagine were influential for characters such as the Hulk. |
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Post by foxley on Apr 15, 2020 20:57:11 GMT -5
A few more additions to @electromastro's already excellent list:
Robin Hood (c. 1370 based on the earliest unambiguous reference to him as a legendary hero)
A.J. Raffles (1898)
Tom Mix (1909: His first appearance as the now stereotypical white-hatted cowboy hero)
Tom Swift (1910)
Professor Challenger (1912)
Domino Lady (1936)
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Post by beccabear67 on Apr 16, 2020 0:17:37 GMT -5
Yes, just think of all of us people, millions and millions, and we all come from four bears!  H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain of King Solomon's Mines etc. (1885) Mary Roberts Rinehart's 'The Bat' was a masked criminal, but has been cited as a likely influence on Batman. Stage play (1920), film and novelization (1926). |
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Post by shaxper on Apr 16, 2020 6:21:39 GMT -5
The Saint (1928)
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 16, 2020 7:11:39 GMT -5
Captain Nemo (1869)
Cyrano de Bergerac (1897; the character from the play, not the actual man)
The Lensmen (1937)
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 16, 2020 7:27:58 GMT -5
Terry & The Pirates
Wash Tubbs
Prince Valiant
All had artistic and thematic influence on comics and artists.
On the literary side, add Raphael Sabbatini and Captain Blood and Scaramouche.
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Post by Prince Hal on Apr 16, 2020 13:55:15 GMT -5
A thought that literally just came into my head (and apologies) if this is so obvious and I've just never read of it.
How about the Hunchback, Quasimodo? Might he be a literary ancestor of the good-hearted, misunderstood monster?
It's a category that would include all kinds of variations, from Frankenstein's monster, the Hulk, and the Heap to Swamp Thing and Man-Thing, from Ben Grimm to the Beast to the Unknown Soldier, Metamorpho, Jonah Hex and all the less physically repulsive but no less rough-around-the-edges types like Wolverine, Rocky of the Challengers of the Unknown, and similar tough guy members of teams?
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Post by Prince Hal on Apr 16, 2020 14:01:34 GMT -5
And, oh, I first read about this back in high school in Steranko's first volume of the history of the comics: Voltaire's Micromégas (1752), about a strange visitor from another planet from a galaxy far far away. He has a sidekick and both have powers far beyond those of mortal men. It's a little like science fiction, Gulliver's Travels, myths and legends, and tall tales in one story.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2020 14:09:06 GMT -5
Yes, just think of all of us people, millions and millions, and we all come from four bears! H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain of King Solomon's Mines etc. (1885) Mary Roberts Rinehart's 'The Bat' was a masked criminal, but has been cited as a likely influence on Batman. Stage play (1920), film and novelization (1926). I was wondering myself if I would have counted Quatermain, but I just realized - why go for an "iffy" (to me) answer when I can point out that Ayesha from "She" is unquestionably a super-villain. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Apr 16, 2020 14:19:24 GMT -5
I was wondering myself if I would have counted Quatermain, but I just realized - why go for an "iffy" (to me) answer when I can point out that Ayesha from "She" is unquestionably a super-villain. I think Allan Quatermain stories were a big influence on Carl Barks' duck adventure stories. The Seven Cities Of Cibola one for example. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2020 14:28:18 GMT -5
I was wondering myself if I would have counted Quatermain, but I just realized - why go for an "iffy" (to me) answer when I can point out that Ayesha from "She" is unquestionably a super-villain. I think Allan Quatermain stories were a big influence on Carl Barks' duck adventure stories. The Seven Cities Of Cibola one for example. Ah... I'm mostly a super-heroes guy. I sometimes forget the breadth of genres out there. Even though the OP said "not just super-heroes". |
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Post by brutalis on Apr 16, 2020 14:50:10 GMT -5
Anybody besides me consider Mythology as the real precursor to "super" heroes? Greek, Roman, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, German, Native American and others were full of heroic ideals/archetypes meant to inspire and educate us "mere" mortals.
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Post by kirby101 on Apr 16, 2020 17:14:59 GMT -5
The Gladiator by Phillip Wylie 1930. An influence on Siegel and Shuster.  |
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