I noticed that someone asked online who was the first costumed super hero. This was the response:
Not quite accurate since the UK had masked, costumed and winged heroes, anti heroes and villains well before then.
Rover no. 384, 24th August 1929 -The Black Sapper
And if you had read any Black Tower books you would know that before...what's his name..."Ghost Rider"? There was The Skeleton Horseman, Paul Peril and Red Hand facing both mortal and supernatural foes -circa 1866
Or, again if you've read any Black Tower, how about The Smuggler King from 1844?
The first masked crime fighter in comic books was the Clock, whom Centaur Publications introduced in 1936. But it was two young men from Cleveland who created the character who truly launched the superhero genre. DC Comics introduced the first costumed superhero, Superman, in Action Comics #1 (June 1938).
Not quite accurate since the UK had masked, costumed and winged heroes, anti heroes and villains well before then.
Rover no. 384, 24th August 1929 -The Black Sapper
And if you had read any Black Tower books you would know that before...what's his name..."Ghost Rider"? There was The Skeleton Horseman, Paul Peril and Red Hand facing both mortal and supernatural foes -circa 1866
Or, again if you've read any Black Tower, how about The Smuggler King from 1844?
And dare I mention the real life based anti-hero/hero/villain Spring-heeled Jack? The Springald was around in 1834/1836 and John Thomas Haines' play Spring-Heeled Jack, the Terror of London -1840 and this was followed by Spring-heel'd Jack: The Terror of London, a 40-part penny dreadful published by the Newsagents Publishing Company in 1863, then reprinted in 1867. You've read my published work on the Springald...haven't you???
There are others and these, my American chums, pre-date The Clock (one of my favourites) AND Superman by a, uh, "few" years.
There is your answer to that question -a real answer!
Usually the answer to the question about Superman's costume points to the strong man's costume at the circus. Do you have a British answer to that question too?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
There are quite a few -you mean the long johns look? Skin tight outfits were around and to be honest that is splitting hairs. The question was who was the first costumed character ho could be considered a "super hero" -the term super applies to heroic characters are beyond the norm and face enemies and situations beyond the norm. The black Whip from 1931 was depicted with cowl and skin tight outfit. Strang the Terrible from 1931 wore the TRADITIONAL circus strongman outfit of a leopard skin that ran over one shoulder -as worn by the uber strong strongman in the later Shipwrecked Circus. Zero the Silent from 1931 wore a tight fitting outfit, cowl and had various gadgets -well ahead of Bat-Man. The definition of a super hero is a person wearing a costume and or a cowl or mask and having extraordinary abilities or powers and that is hat most of us stick to. NOTHING against American comics at all but historically you can't change facts. In Steranko's History of Comics vol. 1 he refers to the characters of Punch & Judy being the first comic style characters. If we look at pulps from France, Germany, etc., there are others out there.
ReplyDeleteI missed Steranko's History annoyingly. It's wonderful to see these characters represented. The Skeleton Horseman looks a good yarn. I hope that the artists are acknowledged somewhere. As Bib would have said, "It's a must!!". I'll look for it online. Of course it would be wonderful to see it realised. Then we sort of have a partial representation with the cowboy version of Ghost Rider in the film, so it shows how well it could be done. Would have liked to have seen Nightmare on screen in the Doctor Strange film. The character was always a favourite of mine.
ReplyDeleteNames of artists? No. It was rare for the author(s) of these papers to use their real names or get the disrepute of writing the "filth" -as with Lewis's The Monk. And these were best sellers. Engraver-artists were known in some cases though Mary Byfield only signed one of her engraved illustrations. Her brother John was also a luride engraver-artist. You need to get onto Britcomics!
ReplyDeleteTerry: That's a great shame, however, completely expected. For many years I've been full of admiration for the work that went into engraving. Byfield sounds familiar. Will do as you suggest and check out Britcomics. Mentioning Bib; it's five years on 6th February. Hard to believe. I am still finding drawn cartoon postcards that he sent many years ago that I had forgotten, and some of his original, joyously thumbed, pasted, scribbled and patched rough pages. CB's battle with the Boarmen. "Over the side with that rifle, or you're a DEAD BOAR!". Amazing that he put so many of these into recycling. See you in the pages.
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