The Doc
Savage Chronology
Additions to
Philip José Farmer's Chronology in Doc Savage: His
Apocalyptic Life
by Win Scott
Eckert
Doc
Savage
|
Pat
Savage
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Monk
Mayfair
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From March 1933 to Summer 1949,
Street & Smith published 181 issues of Doc Savage
Magazine, carrying the byline of Kenneth Robeson. Actually, most
of the novels were written by Lester Dent, with some being
contributed by Norman Danberg, Alan Hathway, and William Bogart.
In Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Philip José Farmer
compiled a chronology of the 181 supersagas.
This chronology merely
constitutes the addition of stories and novels not included in
Farmer’s original chronology; the two chronologies should be
read together for a complete picture. A few Doc Savage pulp
novels with the dates from Farmer’s chronology are included
here in order to provide referents for the newly-included
adventures.
Integrated into Farmer’s
framework of the original pulp novels is a chronology of every
other comic, short story & novel appearance of Doc Savage or
his aides of which I am aware, not including the Street &
Smith comics of the 1940s. I have included material that was
authorized and licensed by Condé Nast Publications, Inc. Also
included are appearances of Doc where he is not named as such, as
in The Rocketeer comics or the science-fiction novella, Who
Goes There? Fan fiction is not included. The timeline also
attempts to reconcile conflicting information provided in the
licensed sources and create a streamlined chronology of the life
of Doctor Clark Savage, Jr.
1888
Birth of Theodore Marley
"Ham" Brooks, one of Doc Savage's five assistants.
1894
Birth of Andrew Blodgett
"Monk" Mayfair, nephew of Professor George Edward
Challenger, and one of Doc Savage's fabulous five.
1896
Colonel Richard Henry Savage
defeats a plot of Doctor Nikola to loose a plague upon the
world (see Doom Dynasty). Colonel Savage is the
adoptive father of Clark Savage, Sr.
May 1901
Clark Savage, Sr., the
illegitimate son of William Cecil Clayton, the sixth duke of
Greystoke, is implicated in the kidnapping of his younger
half-brother, the legitimate son of the sixth duke, as
described by Watson and Doyle in the Sherlock Holmes story The
Adventure of the Priory School. After these events,
Savage and his wife Arronaxe Larsen flee England; a
guilt-ridden Savage vows to dedicate his life and that of his
unborn child to fighting evil. Click here for a brief article on Doc Savage's father
and the Greystoke lineage.
November 12, 1901
Clark "Doc"
Savage, Jr., is born on the schooner Orion in a cove off the
northern tip of Andros Island, Bahamas. Doc's parents are
Clark Savage, Sr. and Arronaxe Larsen. Doc's maternal
grandparents are Wolf Larsen (The Sea Wolf) and
Arronaxe Land, who is the daughter of Ned Land (20,000
Leagues Under the Sea). As part of his training to
combat crime and evil, Clark, over the years, will study
various disciplines with Sherlock Holmes, Arsène Lupin,
Richard Wentworth, Dr. John Thorndyke, Craig Kennedy, Kent
Allard, Harry Houdini, and Tarzan.
June-July 1908
Doc's mother is killed in
Siberia. (The Asteroid Terror, DC Comics’ Doc
Savage, Volume 2, issues 22-24.) This account differs
from Farmer’s, which claims that Doc’s mother
drowned in 1902.
1914
Birth of Patricia Savage,
Doc Savage's cousin.
1915
Birth of Princess Monja
F’Teema in Hidalgo.
1917-1918
Dr. Clark Savage, Sr., and
Hareton Ironcastle mount a second expedition to The Lost
World discovered by Professor Challenger and Lord John
Roxton.
March 31-July 1918
Escape From Loki
Doc meets his future aides,
Ham Brooks, Monk Mayfair, Renny Renwick, Johnny Littlejohn,
and Long Tom Roberts, in the prison camp Loki. (Novel by
Philip José Farmer.)
There are three masterful
articles on this topic by Christopher Carey: Farmer's Escape from Loki: A
Closer Look; Loki in the Sunlight; and The Green Eyes Have It - Or Are They Blue?
or Another Case of Identity Recased.
Regarding Mr. Carey's proposition in the latter article that
Captain Nemo, Professor Moriarty, Wolf Larsen, Baron Karl von
Hessel (Escape From Loki), Baron Karl (Fortress
of Solitude), and Dr. Karl Linningen (Up From
Earth's Center) are all the same person, the evidence he
gathers is vast. However, Moriarty's career beyond
Reichenbach is well-documented, and argues against him being
the same person as Wolf Larsen. (Interestingly, Wold Newton
investigator Dennis Power independently discovered the Moriarty-Larsen
connection and
revealed that it is a father-son relationship.) Nevertheless,
there is nothing to argue against Wolf Larsen being the same
person as Baron von Hessel and Baron Karl. In fact, von
Hessel, when revealing his age-delaying elixir to Doc, states
that he was born in 1858, which is close enough to the
hypothesized time-frame for the birth of Larsen to be taken
as accurate. That von Hessel is actually Doc's grandfather
makes the battle of wills and testing of young Clark in Escape
from Loki all the more remarkable.
July 1918
The Olympic
Peril (Chapter 2)
After their escape from the
first prison camp Loki, Doc and the boys are recaptured and
placed in a second camp of the same name, but quickly escape.
(DC Comics’ Doc Savage annual 1.)
September-November 1918
Savage, Jr., meets his
cousin, Lieutenant John "Korak" Drummond-Clayton,
while flying during the Argonne operation.
April 1919
Nine months
after Doc Savage's escape from the prison camp Loki, a child
is born to Lily Bugov, the Countess Idivzhopu. The child is
raised as the son of Baron Karl von Hessel (Doc's
grandfather, who will go by the moniker Baron Karl by the
time of Fortress of Solitude). However, given young
Clark Savage's intimate encounter with the Countess Idivzhopu
in July 1918, there can be little doubt as to the true
parentage of this child, who will grow up to menace the
world, not to mention his own hated father, as "John
Sunlight."
Wold Newton
researcher Christopher Carey, in his article Loki in the Sunlight, gathers and
documents an incredible amount of evidence about the
Countess, von Hessel, and Doc's arch-enemy "John
Sunlight." Virtually the only piece of Mr.
Carey's article with which I disagree is his conclusion that
John Sunlight is either Lily Bugov posing as a man, or that
she underwent a sex-change operation to become Sunlight. Mr.
Carey evocatively points out both Bugov's and Sunlight's
unusually long fingers. Keeping in mind all the physical
similarities between Bugov and Sunlight that Mr. Carey
documents, as well as the behavioral differences, I am lead
to a different conclusion. I believe Sunlight is Lily Bugov's
son.
However, if
Sunlight were born in April of 1919, he would be only
eighteen years old in August of 1937 (Fortress of
Solitude). This could pose a problem, in terms of his
believability as a villain. On the other hand, Baron von
Hessel/Baron Karl has been mentoring him in the ways of evil
for those eighteen years. And Doc made a believable hero at
age sixteen, just as many other Wold Newtonites started their
careers early in life. There is a statement that, "He
was not a young man...," but I believe this to be
blatant misdirection on Lester Dent's part, in order to help
Doc conceal the terrible secret of Sunlight's parentage. In
short, Sunlight's age is not an insurmountable issue. (It is
interesting to note that, based on textual evidence in Fortress
of Solitude, Sunlight escaped from the Siberian gulag at
approximately age sixteen or seventeen -- the same age at
which his father escaped from a similar inescapable prison
camp.)
Further, I
do not believe that Farmer would have noted the sexual
encounter between Clark and Lily without reason. Sunlight,
like Doc, emits a strange sound in times of excitement or
stress, although Sunlight's takes the form of a low, evil
growl, rather than Doc's cool, exotic trilling. Sunlight's
inhuman strength, derived from unspecified sources, and his
incredible stamina and will power, a result of his
magnificent brain, are extensively described in Fortress
of Solitude. The derivation of Sunlight's formidable
intelligence is easily understood once it is revealed that he
is of the Moriarty lineage, as well as that of the
Savages-Claytons. In my estimation, the physical similarities
between Countess Idivzhopu and Sunlight, coupled with
Sunlight's Savage-like strength, vocal habits, and brain
power, undoubtedly point to a familial relationship, one made
possible by Doc's indiscretion with the Countess.
1925
Who Goes There?
Clark Savage, Jr., joins an
Antarctic expedition as meteorologist and second-in-command
(McReady, "a bronze giant of a man"; the theory that McReady is Savage was first proposed by
Albert Tonik in A Doc Savage Adventure Rediscovered, published in Doc
Savage Club Reader number four, 1978).
Savage
and the
other members of the expedition must fight for their lives
when they discover a Thing (from another world). Savage does
not have his M.D. yet (according to Farmer, he got his M.D.
in 1926). (Classic science fiction novella by John W.
Campbell, Jr., most recently published in the collection The
Antarktos Cycle, Chaosium, 1999, as The Thing From
Another World.)
1929
At the Mountains
of Madness
The leader of the Miskatonic
University expedition to Antarctica, Professor Dyer, and
Professor William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn, one
of Doc Savage's five assistants, are one and the same person,
in this novel by H.P. Lovecraft. (Recently reprinted in the
anthology The Antarktos Cycle, Chaosium, 1999.)
January 1931
Devil's Thoughts
Johnny Littlejohn, one of
Doc Savage's five assistants, is an archaeology professor at
Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts. (Millennium
Comics’ Doc Savage mini-series.)
March-April
The Man of
Bronze
Doc Savage and his five
associates begin their fight against the forces of evil.
First appearance of Princess Monja. (Original pulp novel by
Lester Dent, under the "house" name Kenneth
Robeson.)
1932
King Kong
Although Doc is not in on
this adventure, he financed the expedition, and returns to
New York in time to witness its final events.
April 1932
Brand of the
Werewolf
First appearance of Doc's
cousin, Pat Savage. (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
April 1932
The Feathered
Octopus (Original pulp novel by Lester
Dent.)
May 1932
After King Kong
Fell
Doc and his boys, along with
The Shadow and Margo Lane, witness the aftermath of Kong's
plunge from the Empire State Building (click here for more info on
Margo). (Short story by
Philip José Farmer.)
April 1933
Doom on Thunder
Island (Marvel Comics’ Doc Savage
Magazine 1.)
May
A Most Singular
Writ of Habeas Corpus (Marvel Comics’ Doc
Savage Magazine 3.)
May
The Inferno
Scheme (Marvel Comics’ Doc Savage
Magazine 3.)
May-June
The events of Tarzan's
Quest, in which Tarzan, Jane, and a few others
acquire Kavuru immortality pills. After this adventure,
Tarzan sends a sample to his cousin, Doc Savage, for
analysis. Savage is able to synthesize the compound, after
which both Tarzan and Savage have access to a supply for
themselves, their families, and comrades.
June
The Earth
Wreckers (Marvel Comics’ Doc Savage
Magazine 5.)
July-August
Meteor Menace
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
June 1934
Fear Cay
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
July
The Hell Reapers
(Marvel Comics’ Doc Savage Magazine 2.)
Mid July
Death in Silver
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
Late July
Python Isle
(This novel by Will Murray, under the house name of Kenneth
Robeson, takes place in 1934, just after Death in Silver.)
August
The Sea Magician
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
March 1935
The Majii
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
April
The
Conflagration Man
Doc's first teaming with The
Shadow. (DC Comics’ Doc Savage ongoing series,
issues 17 & 18, and issues 5 & 6 of DC’s The
Shadow Strikes!)
May
Spook Hole
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
May
The Jade Ogre
(This novel by Will Murray takes place in Spring, 1935, after
Spook Hole.)
May
Pat Savage:
Family Blood (One issue published by Millennium
Comics.)
Mid October 1935
The Vanisher
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
Late October
White Eyes
(This novel by Will Murray takes place after The Midas
Man, which was "some months ago" (June 1935).)
Late October
The Metal Master
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
November 1935-February 1936
The South Pole
Terror (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
February
Ghost Pirates
from the Beyond (Marvel Comics’ Doc
Savage Magazine 4.)
February
Curse of the
Fire God (Mini-series published by Dark Horse
Comics.)
February-March
Resurrection Day
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
May-July 1936
Ost
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
July
The Olympic
Peril (Chapter 1) (DC Comics’ Doc
Savage annual 1.)
July-August
Repel (Aka
The Deadly Dwarf. Original pulp novel by Lester
Dent.)
August
The Olympic
Peril (Chapter 3) (DC Comics’ Doc
Savage annual 1.)
August-September
The Sea Angel
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
September
The Golden Peril
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
September
The Living Fire
Menace (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
September
The Sky Stealers
(Marvel Comics’ Doc Savage Magazine 6.)
September
Devil on the
Moon (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
Late December 1936
The Green Death
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
January 1937
The Whistling
Wraith (A new novel by Will Murray, which takes
place a few weeks after The Motion Menace (October
1936).)
February
The Yellow Cloud
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
April 1937
The Boss of
Terror (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
May
The Air Lord
(Issues 19-21 of DC Comics’ Doc Savage, Volume
2.)
May
The Case of the
Shrieking Skeletons
The Shadow and Doc Savage
cross paths again. (Mini-series published by Dark Horse
Comics.)
June
The Forgotten
Realm (This new novel by Will Murray takes
place in summertime, and several months after Devil on
the Moon (September 1936).)
July
The Mountain
Monster (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
Late July
Tunnel Terror
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
August
Fortress of
Solitude
First appearance of villain
John Sunlight. (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
September
The Flaming
Falcons (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
October
The Devil
Genghis
Second appearance of John
Sunlight. (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
October
Doc saves Earth from a
collision with the asteroid Hermes (The Asteroid
Terror, DC Comics’ Doc Savage, Volume 2,
issues 22-24).
April 1938
The Other World
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
April
The Rocketeer
Cliff Secord finds
Doc’s rocket pack. (Graphic novel by Dave Stevens.)
May
The Monarch of
Armageddon
John Sunlight and Princess
Monja appear in this adventure. (This mini-series written by
Mark Ellis was published by Millennium Comics and takes place
just after The Rocketeer.)
June
Hex
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
Late
December 1935
Doc
Savage: Archenemy of Evil After receiving a telegram from Doc Savage,
Sherlock Holmes, in retirement in Sussex, refers to Doc as
the greatest student of detection he ever had. Holmes and
Watson continue their reminiscences, remembering that they
first encountered Doc's father, Savage, Sr., during the case
which Watson recorded as The Adventure of the Priory
School, which case unfortunately resulted in Savage,
Sr.'s expedient flight from England. (Screenplay by
Philip José Farmer for the second, unmade, Doc Savage
feature film. Although Farmer's screenplay dates these events
during Christmastime, 1936, this does not fit into Farmer's
own Chronology from Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Finding
an available slot in Rick Lai's Chronology of Bronze, I have placed these
events during Christmastime, 1935.)
June 1939
The Flying
Goblin (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
July
Doom Dynasty
Doc Savage fights against
the evil villain Doctor Nikola, who somehow had found access
to the Kavuru-Siliphium life-extension elixir. Nikola is
killed at the conclusion of the adventure. (Mini-series
published by Millennium Comics.)
August
The Purple
Dragon (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
August
Devils of the
Deep (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
August
The Awful Egg
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
September
The Crimson
Plague (Marvel Comics’ Doc Savage
Magazine 8.)
September-December
The Golden Man
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
May 1941
The Rustling
Death (Original pulp novel by Alan Hathway.)
June
The Mayan
Mutations (Marvel Comics’ Doc Savage
Magazine 7.)
June
The Laugh of
Death (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
July 1945
Se-Pah-Poo
(Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
July
The Discord
Makers (prologue) (DC Comics’ Doc
Savage, Volume 2, issue 1, pp. 1-8.)
July
The Screaming
Man (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
February 1948
The Red Spider
(This adventure by Lester Dent was not included in Farmer's
original chronology.)
1948
Marriage of Pat Savage and
Rex Hazzard.
November 1948
Up From Earth's
Center (Original pulp novel by Lester Dent.)
January 1949
The Frightened
Fish (In this new novel by Will Murray, Japan
surrendered over three years ago. It is a sequel to The
Red Spider, which was almost a year ago, and The
Screaming Man, which was over three years ago.)
1949
Doc Savage secretly marries
Mayan Princess Monja F'Teema.
1949
Birth of Rex Hazzard, Jr.,
son of Captain Rex Hazzard and Pat Savage.
July-November 1949
Flight Into Fear
(This new novel by Will Murray is a sequel to The Red
Spider.)
December 1949
Miles Morgenthal kidnaps
Long Tom and subjects him to mind-control gas, causing him to
betray Doc (The Mind Molder and The Heritage of Doc
Savage).
January 1950
The Heritage of
Doc Savage
Doc, battling Heinz Wessel,
disappears into an alien transporter and is thought dead by
his aides. Monja and the unborn Clark III go to Hidalgo.
(Issue 1 of the Doc Savage mini-series published by
DC Comics. The August 1945 date is incorrect.)
May 1950
Birth of Clark Savage III.
Rumors spread that Monja died in childbirth.
1950
Doc's aides hire Beau
Faulkner's father to impersonate Doc. The charade
doesn’t last long, and Doc’s "retirement"
is announced to the world. Only Doc’s aides know that he
is really dead (which, in fact, he really isn’t).
1951
For unknown reasons, Monja
sends baby Clark III to New York, and Doc's aides, believing
the reports of Monja’s death, raise him.
1958
Doc’s aides run out of
Kavuru age-delaying elixir (see Farmer's Doc Savage: His
Apocalyptic Life, p. 39) and begin to age normally. The
elixir, first administered in 1933, has bought them an extra
25 years of life.
August 1966
The Heritage of
Doc Savage
Death of Clark III. (Issue
2, pp. 1-10 of the Doc Savage mini-series published
by DC Comics.)
May 1967
Birth of Clark
"Chip" Savage IV, grandson of Doc Savage.
1968
Birth of Pam Hazzard,
granddaughter of Pat Savage and Captain Rex Hazzard.
September 1970
Invisible Death
The second Prince Zarkon
adventure, in which Zarkon visits the Cobalt Club and
consults with fellow member Ham Brooks.
April 1971
The Volcano Ogre
In Prince Zarkon's third
adventure, he again goes to the Cobalt Club, where he meets
with Col. John "Renny" Renwick.
June 1978
The Earth-Shaker
Patricia Savage Hazzard
(cousin of Doc Savage), who married pulp hero Captain Rex
Hazzard, makes a cameo appearance in the fourth Prince Zarkon
adventure.
1979
Horror Wears
Blue
Prince Zarkon and his Omega
Crew, in London, briefly encounter Doc Savage's aide Monk
Mayfair.
1985
Jake Speed
Would-be adventure hero Jake
Speed refers to Doc Savage, commenting on his retirement.
Summer 1987
The Heritage of
Doc Savage
Doc returns in the alien
transporter and defeats Wessel’s scheme. In addition to
Ham, Monk, Renny, and Johnny, the team now includes new
members Shoshonna Gold and Beau Faulkner. (Issue 2, pp.
11-27, issue 3, and issue 4, pp. 1-26, of the Doc Savage
mini-series published by DC Comics.)
December 1987
The Heritage of
Doc Savage (epilogue)
Doc belatedly realizes that
Long Tom betrayed him back in 1949, and forgives him. (Issue
4, pp. 26-27, of the Doc Savage mini-series
published by DC Comics.)
1988
For most of 1988, Doc
retrains himself and trains his new aides. With Doc’s
return, his aides and family once again have access to the
life-extension elixir, which actually begins to slowly
reverse the aging process in Ham, Monk, Johnny, and Renny.
December 1988
The Discord
Makers (Issues 1-6 of DC Comics’ Doc
Savage, Volume 2.)
1989
The Mind Molder
Doc and his team relocate
from the Fortress of Solitude back to the Empire State
Building. Long Tom is cleared and rejoins the team. Doc and
the team also find and rescue Pat, who has been held captive
for many months. Presumably, both Pat and Long Tom begin
taking the life-extension elixir. Chip Savage leaves and Pam
Hazzard, granddaughter of Pat Savage, joins the team. Anton
Ivanovich, formerly a Colonel in the Soviet Army, also joins
the team. (Issues 7-8 of DC Comics’ Doc Savage,
Volume 2.)
1989
The Golden God
Doc finds Monja still alive
in Hidalgo. Tragically, she is killed. (Issues 9-10 of DC
Comics’ Doc Savage, Volume 2.)
1989
Sunlight Rising
John Sunlight is
resurrected. (Issues 11-14 of DC Comics’ Doc Savage,
Volume 2.)
1990
The Sea Baron
(Issues 15-16 of DC Comics’ Doc Savage, Volume
2.)
August 1990
The Asteroid
Terror
Chip Savage returns.
Flashbacks to June-July 1908 and October 1937. (Issues 22-24
of DC Comics’ Doc Savage, Volume 2.)
The Doc
Savage Chronology was created for the sole purposes
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Eckert. No copying or
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