I discovered Doc Savage when the movie came out in 1975. My grandmother bought me the first book because I didn't get to see the movie right away. I'm so glad she did. I loved the book and set about acquiring the rest of them. If I had seen that campy piece of trash they released as Doc Savage Man of Bronze first, I would have never picked up the book. I have been a fan ever since. Did you know that DC is publishing new comics? The first one was a crossover with Batman of all characters.

I have happened upon two Dokugans who are into Doc Savage. That is so amazing to me, because, in real life, I have never met anyone outside of me and my younger brother who even knows who Doc Savage is (was?). When I was a pre-teen and teen, in the 70s, Doc was MY MAN! Every chance I got, I checked the local used book store for copies of the Bantam paperback series about Doc's adventures. Doc was very disciplined, and worked endlessly on his physical and mental fitness. He was raised by his father to excel in every endeavor, but this upbringing was very cold and lonely. He was perfect, except that he didn't know how to interact with women, and he tended to be really solitary, until he met his gang when he was a young man fighting in WWI. He and his gang adhered to a very strict moral code. He always did what was right, and tried to help people and society in any way possible. By today's standards, this all seems very naive, I'm sure, but I loved it then and I love it now. I guess it helps that, when I was a child, the only books in the house were hand-me-downs from the 1890-1910 period, when Robin Hood and King Arthur were very popular.

So I guess my fascination with Lord Sesshomaru makes perfect sense. Like Doc, he has a great physique, was a great fighter, had no family after his father died. He even has golden eyes. How about you? Did you have any "knights in shining armor" when you were growing up?

I think Batman is a little too close to Doc Savage to team the two up. Because they both obtained their superhero status through hard work and physical culture (now there's an old school term), they both are kind of private-detective types, use innovative technology, both are solitary, kind of tormented souls. They can't really play off eachother. I would like to see a serious anime or manga-quality adaptation of Doc Savage, though. It doesn't seem like anyone is interested in portraying the TRUE Doc. I saw one comic where Doc was brought into the future, and the main character was his son or his nephew or something, it didn't have anything to do with the REAL Doc Savage at all. Actually, now that I think of it, it was like a very bad Mary-Sue fanfic. Hey, I wonder if there are any Doc Savage fanfics out there. That would be interesting to see.

The crossover with Batman just started it off. Batman actually went after Doc thinking he was the bad guy. It was a two issue mini series opening to the new Doc Savage monthly series.

There are actually a few Doc fanfics out there. See Chuck Welch's site. It used to be the Hidalgo Trading Company. He also runs the private Yahoo news group The Flea Run. You can find most of the fanfics through him. I would recommend The Bleeding Sun. It's pretty good. Also somewhere in there, you will find the Will Murray script for the unfinished 2nd movie. Not quite as campy as the first one.

As for the older comics, the futuristic DC series you mentioned was not good at all. For new stories and not reprints, try the 8 issue Doc Savage Magazine by Curtis, circa late 1970's. Some of those stories were pretty good and all adhered more to the standard Doc fare.

There was discussion several years ago of an animated series, but Conde Nast (the current rights holder) wanted too much money to make it feasible. There was also talk of a serious Hollywood movie. Unfortunately the driving force behind it dropped out when he was elected Governor of California. lol Maybe that was a good thing, because he was insisting that he play Doc. Might have pulled it off around the time of his Conan movies if he lost the accent, but he's way too old now.

God, no, not Arnold S. as Doc Savage! Or how about Sylvester Stallone. Shudders. I was thinking that there is not anyone I can think of who would be a good Doc, but then I thought about the latest James Bond- the blond guy with the good body. He's kind of old and craggy, but he might be an INTERESTING Doc...

I can't really think of anyone now who would be a good Doc. I used too think perhaps Dolph Lundgren back before the Punisher movie, but he is now also too old. Whoever they get would have to have really intense eyes. That's why I don't think the new James Bond could pull it off. He's got the size and the looks, but something is missing in the eyes.

The sites have changed a lot since I was last out there, but I found the main fanfics I was thinking of as the best available. Here are the links to them. The first is The Bleeding Sun.

docsavage.info/sun/sun00.html

The second is The Stone Death.

docsavage.info/stn/stn00.html

Enjoy!

All right! Doc Savage fanfics, here I come!