“John Carter a pulp hero?” I can hear you ask, “John Carter of Mars?”

Yes, although he didn’t appear in a character pulp series, such as Doc Savage or The Shadow, John Carter first made his presence known in the pulp pages of All-Story magazine in 1912. Throughout his long and varied career, John Carter’s story continued to be relayed to the reading public through the media of the adventure and science fiction pulps.

As chronicled by Edgar Rice Burroughs, better known as the chronicler of Tarzan of the Apes, John Carter’s story has been reprinted numerous times in a series of eleven books. It is the continued popularity of these reprinted adventures that has somewhat obscured John Carter’s pulp origins.

Something of an immortal (though even he doesn’t know how long he has lived, or how long he might live), John Carter began his epic adventure shortly after a stint as a captain in the Army of the Confederacy. After the end of the Civil War, Carter became a prospector in Arizona. In 1866 he was chased into a cave by unfriendly Apaches, and was overcome by a mysterious gas that rendered him unconscious. Having an out-of-body experience, he walked out of the cave, looked up, and found himself strangely attracted to a bright red “star”--the planet Mars. Stretching his arms upward, he found himself drawn through the airless void of space to the red planet.

Unlike Buck Rogers, who began life as a pulp character but found greater fame in the funny pages, Flash Gordon made his first appearance in a comic strip and later made a brief foray into the pulps. Alex Raymond had been ghosting Tim Tyler's Luck for King Features when he learned that the syndicate was looking for a science fiction strip to compete with Buck Rogers, which was distributed by a rival syndicate. His first idea was rejected, but he reworked the idea with the syndicate and Flash Gordon first appeared in the Sunday pages on January 7, 1934.

The first panel of the inaugural strip shows the front page of a newspaper, the headlines blaring, "WORLD COMING TO END—STRANGE NEW PLANET RUSHING TOWARD EARTH—ONLY MIRACLE CAN SAVE US, SAYS SCIENCE." In the succeeding panels, the narration informs us: "In African jungles tom-toms roll and thunder incessantly as the howling blacks await their doom! The Arab in the desert resigned to the inevitable faces Mecca and prays for his salvation! Times Square, New York—A seething mass of humanity watches a bulletin board describing the flight of the comet! The scientist, Dr. Hans Zarkov works day and night perfecting a device with which he hopes to save the world—His great brain is weakening under the strain. Aboard an eastbound transcontinental plane we have Flash Gordon, Yale graduate and world renowned polo player and Dale Arden, a passenger. Suddenly, a flaming meteor torn loose from the approaching comet, roars past the plane shearing off a wing—The plane flounders helplessly and dives! Flash takes the girl in his arms and bails out. His 'chute opens with a crack! They float earthward. Landing near Dr. Zarkov's great observatory, Flash frees himself of his parachute. A dishevelled wild-eyed figure confronts them..."

The dishevelled, wild-eyed figure (with an unfortunate comb-over) is Dr. Zarkov, of course, and he's holding a gun. Fearing that Flash and Dale are spies sent out to thwart his plans, the distraught scientist forces them into his rocketship, determined to blast off in an attempt to deflect the onrushing planet from its course and save the Earth. However, as his rocketship approaches the new planet, Dr. Zarkov has a sudden change of heart. Fearing that they'll all be killed, he tries to swerve his rocket away from the oncoming planet. Flash, realizing that they are Earth's only hope, struggles with the mad scientist and knocks him unconscious. Roaring over a beautiful city on the surface of the new planet, the rocket crashlands on the side of a mountain, the force of the impact apparently being sufficient to jar the planet into a new orbit.

On Mongo, for such is the name of the new planet, Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, and Dr. Zarkov come under the baleful influence of Ming the Merciless, Emperor of the Universe. In the course of their improbable and breathtaking adventures they meet Princess Aura, Ming's daughter, Prince Barin, the rightful ruler of Mongo, Thun, Prince of the Lion Men, Vultan, King of the Hawk Men, Azura, the Witch Queen of the Blue Magic Men, Fria, Queen of the frozen kingdom of Frigia, and countless other friends and enemies—all beautifully illustrated with the lush, sensuous artwork for which Alex Raymond is so justly remembered.

Doc Savage and his five companions first made their appearance between the oversize covers of the pulp magazines in March of 1933. Their first recorded adventure, The Man of Bronze, found them heading to the Central American republic of Hildalgo to investigate Doc's father's mysterious death. Deep in the Valley of the Vanished, Doc and his aides discovered a lost Mayan kingdom, where they learned the cause of the senior Savage's death, and gained access to the untold wealth necessary to carry on their fight against evil.

Trained from birth to be a champion for justice, Clark "Doc" Savage, Jr. is a mental marvel with superhuman strength. Fighting by his side is Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair, a world renown chemist with a distinctively simian appearance, Brigadier General Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks, a formidable and dapper attorney who carries a cane with a surprising sting, William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn, a tall, skinny drink-of-water of an archaeologist and geologist with a penchant for big words, Colonel John "Renny" Renwick, a much sought-after engineer with enormous fists, and Major Thomas J. "Long Tom" Roberts, a genius at electricity with the pallor of a corpse. Joining Doc and his aides for occasional adventures, usually against Doc's wishes, is Doc's beautiful and capable cousin, Pat Savage. Together, this small force of talented and energetic adventurers stike fear in the hearts of evil-doers throughout the world.

From his headquarters on the 86th floor of the tallest building in New York, Doc and his aides set forth for adventure to all corners of the globe. In the deepest jungles, the driest deserts, on land, in the air, and on and under the sea, Doc and his crew help those in need, uphold the right, and fight for the good.

Edgar Rice Burroughs employed and exploited his famous Tarzan character for thirty years from 1911 to 1944 in 24 published novels -- he was still writing about him in 1946 and no doubt would have written many more Tarzan novels had he lived a longer life.
It is interesting to speculate on how the mythos of Tarzan developed over the years. His first two Tarzans, Apes and Return make a pair of sorts, some like to include Beasts in the grouping and think of the first three Tarzan novels as a trilogy to balance the great Barsoomian trilogy written in white-hot inspiration during this same period from 1911 through 1914.

Tarzan of the Apes was a deadly trickster who found imaginative ways to end the dastardly lives of his enemies. It is one of the reasons we love him so much. He was a master of clever, even nightmarish revenge who arranged the gruesome demise of evil men in ways we all secretly wish we might eliminate those who do us harm. And he did it with a smile.
Who can forget the trembling last hours of Major Schneider trapped up a tree by a man-eating lion in a narrow gorge? Tarzan set this little scene for us to enjoy in Tarzan the Untamed, placing the wicked Hun there to exact revenge for his "murder" of his beloved Jane. Never mind that he had the wrong Schneider. Never mind that Jane was alive. We can imagine with a Tarzanic, slight smile on our lips the final mad scramble for the cliff, the terrified screams under the rending claws. Ah, sweet revenge!

Tarzan was a man with a grim sense of humor. No sadist, he did not hang around to witness the delicious dance of death he had set up. The stunt was similar to the one prepared for the witch-doctor, Bukawai, whom he left bound to a tree in a cave for the hyenas to return in Jungle Tales. He did not stay for the curtain fall that time either, but Burroughs assures us that the hyenas returned.

It took nearly eight and a half years, with a total of more than one hundred and seventy novels, for The Shadow to meet up with Shiwan Khan, the Golden Master, yet that confrontation was inevitable almost from the start. To appreciate this, it is necessary to review the saga of The Shadow, which began and ended as an unfinished story, running a total of more than fifteen million words which carried it into its twentieth year before it suddenly ceased publication although further adventures were still in the offing. That marks the conflict between The Shadow and Shiwan Khan as a definite peak in the series.

The factor that rendered The Shadow series decidedly unique was that it opened with only the semblance of a plot; not just as a single story, but as one of four. Henry W. Ralston, general manager of Street & Smith Publications, had decided to produce a new magazine featuring a character to be called The Shadow, which required at least four issues to establish it as a regular periodical on a quarterly basis. To get it under way as soon as possible, Ralston instructed Frank Blackwell, the editorial director, to have someone update a leftover dime novel on a rewrite basis.

This confronted Blackwell with two dilemmas. None of his regular writers was anxious to take on a rewrite assignment; and since The Shadow was to be more of a mystery figure than a stylized private detective, the job itself raised too many complications. But I had already been thinking in terms of a mysterious character who would become a controlling force in the affairs of lesser humans, so I was naturally intrigued when he asked me if I would like to take on The Shadow. That offered the prospect of developing the character in the course of the story itself, and when Blackwell agreed that if the first story proved acceptable, I would get the order for the other three, that meant that the process could be continued right on through.

THREE-YEAR-OLD David Rand first took up residence in the jungle when his father had crashed his light plane into a small clearing bordering on a lake deep in the Belgian Congo. John Rand, David's father, was a young American adventurer with wide shoulders and muscles of whipcord and steel. He had been flying his wife, Constance, and their young son from their home in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Cario, where Connie's father had taken seriously ill.

John Rand had received a few scratches when his plane came down, and young David had a nasty bump on the head, but Constance had suffered a fractured leg. Connie's bad leg delayed any plans that Rand might have to hike the hundreds of miles of trackless jungle to the nearest civilized enclave. Forced to rely on rescue by search planes sent out to look for them, John and Connie watched in dismay as the few planes that flew into their area continued on their way without spotting the hapless Rands.

Although John Rand was concerned for the safety of his wife and child, and Constance feared for the safety of her son, young David Rand showed an early affinity for jungle life. An affinity that would serve him in good stead in the times to come.

Like that other jungle lord, Tarzan, young David soon lost his mother--Constance succumbed to a jungle fever early on in the Rand family's struggle for survival. Unlike Tarzan, however, David Rand was fortunate in having his father to watch out for him during his developing years--though in a somewhat dimished capacity. While preparing for the long journey that he and his son must take to make it back to civilization, John Rand had been struck a glancing blow by the limb of a falling tree and was never quite the same again. After his injury, John Rand lost all interest in returning to civilization--though luckily for David, his father retained enough of his faculties to well provide for the growing boy.

As he grew older, young David became more and more an inhabitant of the jungle--the only home that he could ever remember. On one of his solitary walks through the jungle, David came upon Zar, the lion, floundering in a patch of quicksand. David cut boughs and brush from the surrounding foliage and threw them out to Zar. Finding purchase on the debris, Zar was able to pull himself from the quicksand--never forgetting the kindness that David had shown him.

When he was thirteen, David lost his father, and found himself alone in the depths of the Belgian Congo. Remembering his friendship with Zar, David moved into the lion's cave--sharing it with his leonine friend and Sha, Zar's mate. With his last connection to civilzation lost, David adopted the name of Ka-Zar, brother to Zar the mighty.

On the heels of the success of Street and Smith’s The Shadow, Popular Publications brought another black hat and black cape wearing hero to the pulps -- The Spider, Master of Men! He was the seventh pulp character to get his own magazine.
Readers met another “wealthy, young man-about-town” who in reality was a crimebuster, Richard Wentworth, in “The Spider Strikes,” October 1933.

Initially penned by R.T.M. Smith, The Spider’s exploits began as run-of-the-mill battles against typical racketeers and criminal masterminds.

But that changed as quickly as the author’s name on the magazine’s cover. Beginning with the third issue, December 1933, Grant Stockbridge was credited with the writing and The Spider’s adventures began to take on mythic proportions. His struggles pitted him against foes such as “The Mad Horde,” “The City Destroyer,” “Serpent of Destruction” and “The Devil’s Death Dwarfs.” And, the character of The Spider changed from simply a nickname for detective Wentworth into a shocking, caped and fanged wild man that Wentworth dressed up as.

During this time, Norvell W. Page took the reigns as head writer. He shared the Stockbridge monicker with four other writers, including Emile Tepperman.

In the adventures, Wentworth was aided chiefly by the lovely Nita Van Sloan, his trusted Hindu servant Ram Singh and his butler Ronald Jackson. And, Inspector Kirkpatrick unwittingly helped out during The Spider’s 118-issue run from 1933 to 1944.