As someone who grew up on the classic Bantam (pulp reprint) paperbacks of Kenneth Robeson's Doc Savage, I have an especially warm place in my heart for the Man of Bronze. I used to read these books like most kids read the Hardy Boys growing up, and there were more to choose from! Unfortunately in the field of actual comic books there's not much to choose from out there. Gold Key (in the 1960's) was the first to do a Doc Savage comic book and it only lasted one issue. Then Marvel's short lived magazine (followed by the comic book) series in the (70's) with two comic issues crossing over into Marvel Two in One and Giant Size Spiderman. Skylark's one issue in 1979 is hardly worth mentioning (and even harder to find... I'm stilling missing it). DC gave it a go in the 1980's with a futile attempt to update the character into the modern world (Doc's son & Grandson) before bringing back the classic (original) Doc. Millennium Press had the rights through the 90's and unleashed some promising comics that never made it anywhere due to delays between issues and low print runs. Then Dark Horse did an excellent 4 issue series and a crossover with the Shadow (after they had revitalized that franchise as well). Sadly there has been nothing done since then.
The classic Bama covers are the one's that I enjoy the most, unfortunately they are not available on any of the comic books.
The notable exceptions being Bama inspired covers on Gold Key and Marvel's Doc Savage magazine from the 70's. Steranko and Kane did some excellent covers on the Marvel series and Kubert did some classics for the DC comics. Stelfreeze did extremely stylized Art Deco stuff on the Millennium runs, and there were some incredible covers that hearkened back to the original pulps of the 1940's on the Dark horse stuff. In terms of composition and style I have to say that I am waxing nostalgic with this one...
Happy 75th Doc!
Rob
