The Secrets of "The Land of Always Night"

A mysterious pale complected stranger named Ool with watery blue eyes, a black cape and an odd accent stalked New York City. The stranger used a fluttering motion of his hand to bring sudden death! He was searching for a pair of thick black-lensed goggles which were the key to finding a hidden realm under the frozen north where giant mushrooms grew and all manner of strange fungi.

In solving this mystery, Doc and his crew found a lost civilization that had gone underground thousands of years ago. These people had adapted to life underground and were technologically advanced. There sole source of light is strange device that makes the air itself glow but it can only be seen using the black lensed goggles. The primary source of food for him these people were fungi and fish.

Who were these people and how was it that they had adapted to living in a land where it is always night?

Several of the Doc Savage Super Sagas describe lost human races that had gone underground thousands of years ago to avoid some great catastrophe. The discovery of the city of Taz in the Super Saga "The Mystery Under the Sea" points to a technologically superior civilization that once existed in a sunken land in the Atlantic Ocean which led to the fable story of Atlantis.

The strange pale people of the Land of Always Night must have been a colony from that same culture which went underground to avoid whatever destroyed Taz. This was a radical solution since it meant that they had to live in total darkness. Whatever they were fleeing must have been truly monstrous.

Of necessity, these refugees needed to make a number of adaptations, including genetic ones in order to survive. To begin with, they lost most of their skin pigmentation since they did not need protection for the sun's ultraviolet rays. But as a consequence, they could not use sunlight to manufacture Vitamin D3 which is generated by UVB rays in surface people. Furthermore, they had no good sources of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Retinoids, and other nutrients which only come from green plants.

Then there were the vision problems. In a world with no high output light source, vision would be practically useless and the "glowing air" device they had was decidedly unreliable in moist air as the Super Saga showed. Color vision especially requires much higher levels of ambient light than one finds underground. The goggles and 'glowing air" only enhanced light and dark vision and did not distinguish color.

The goggles themselves used photomultiplier technology and they were not merely crystal filters as the Super Saga implies. The power source was a small nuclear reactor that used a high yield radioactive isotope. The radiation was contained by a light-weight ceramic material.

According to my sources, the true capabilities of the Night People were not disclosed in the Super Saga to prevent a panic. For a variety of reasons, these people preferred to remain in their underground world and it is a good thing that they did!

I have discovered that the Night People were an artificially enhanced client race that the Taz civilization had developed to perform tasks such as mining and manufacturing in the depths of the Earth. They also were apparently granted abilities to make them effective underground soldiers to counter a threat from an underground source. One may speculate that the Night People were put in place to prevent the incursion of the underground realm of XINAIÁN into Taz's territories. the story of the XINAIÁN realm has been told in the Story "The Mound" by Zealia Bishop and H. P. Lovecraft.

In order for them to function effectively underground, the Night People had been given several anatomic and physiological changes. First of all their livers had been enlarged and were capable of synthesizing several substances that surface people cannot make including Vitamin C, Biotin, Vitamin A and a host of retinoids and bioflavinoids.

They had a particular enzyme system derived from sulfur-reducing bacteria that was capable of actively generating 2-carbon fragments from carbon dioxide and synthesizing sugars in a manner similar to photosynthesis but in the absence of sunlight. This same system activated Vitamin D3 as well withut light. This process generally used sulfur as the terminal electron acceptor, but could use sulfite, thiosulfate, and even oxygen as the terminal electron receptor. There is quite a bit of sulfur in their underground realm and this allowed the Night People to survive on a diet that would be substandard for surface people.



Sulfur was the most common material used in this process. This generated hydrogen sulfide which gives the Night People and their realm the distinct odor of 'rotten eggs.' Hydrogen sulfide is highly toxic and is chemically very similar to hydrogen cyanide. As a consequence, the Night People are very tolerant of both of these poisonous chemicals. Nevertheless too much of either chemical can be fatal even to them. Trying to survive for too long on a substandard diet may result in auto-intoxication for them. They have several pathways to detoxify hydrogen sulfide including the synthesis of the essential amino acids cysteine and methionine both of which contain sulfur. There are also bacteria in the the intestines of Night People which can oxidise hydrogen sulfide to elemental sulfur and sulfates.



Sulfoplast

The capability to use sulfur to power chemical syntheses is present in intracellular organelles called sulfoplasts. These are similar in size and design to the mitochondria in eukaryote cells that use oxygen to generate cellular energy and the chloroplasts in plants in which photosynthesis occurs. The sulfoplast has its own DNA and protein synthesis system that uses unique ribosomes unlike those used in the main cytoplasm of the cell.

Night People also have been given enhanced retinal sensitivity to light and dark with a greater density of rods in the central area of the macula and a relative paucity of cones. Consequently, their color vision is less sensitive than ours. The sensitivity of the rods has been shifted deeper into the infrared as well.

Their eye has also been designed to be "inside out" when compared to that of surface dwellers. (It is rumored that this is an extremely rare genetic variation among surface humans as well.) The human eye normally sends the optic nerve inside the eye and then spreads out to form the retina. Where the nerve enters the eye is a physiological "blind spot" which we normally suppress so that it is unnoticeable. The Night People form the retina from behind like the Octopus.





HUMAN EYE vs NIGHT PERSON'S EYE

The macula in surface people is insensitive to light and dark but highly sensitive to color. It is the most central part of our visual field and is necessary for reading and fine detail vision. At night we have two blind spots in each eye including one at each macula! But the Night People because of the way their eye is constructed have no blind spot at all.



The Night People have also inherited the ability to generate large amounts of electrical voltage in their bodies that can further increase the sensitivity of the retina. It allowed them to boost their vision in the same way that night vision goggles do using a photomultiplier effect. It also gave them a kind of "Radar Sense" that allowed them to perceive nearby objects in the dark using capcitance and radiowave projection.



These abilities fades with age and that is the reason why the Night People developed the goggles that figure so prominently in the Super Saga. Ordinary young and middle aged people are able to see the "glowing air" effect with their naked eyes. But the villain, Ool, (who was an older man) could not do so reliably. This electrical ability is like that of the electric eels and a full sized adult male Night Person could generate a hefty shock which could also be used as an offensive weapon. About one Night Person in a hundred is an adept who has an even greater electrical power which could generate potentially lethal shocks over short distances even though there was no direct contact with the victim. This power can be enhanced by selective mating of adepts with each other, but their government forbade the interbreeding of adepts except under a specific license. The adepts are automatically trained for the police and the military, but they are forbidden to be members of the ruling class. Any adept born into a noble family must renounce all claim to any title.

Other genetic differences included enhanced senses of smell, taste, touch, and hearing many of which use a similar electrical multiplier mechanism to the one that enhances their vision. The ears of the Night People are slightly larger than ours and their heads are wider to separate the ears more and enhance their ability to detect and localize sounds and echoes. Night People have a sensitivity to ultrasonic frequencies slightly better than that of dogs but not anywhere near that of bats. In the dark they can navigate by sound alone.



They also have longer more sensitive fingers and toes than surface people. They also have light sensitive cells in their skin which gives them enhanced Dermo-Optical Perception. They are able to detect light and dark (and even some color) using these skin receptors in low-intensity light.

While vision remains the dominant sense for these people, hearing is a close second and the structure of their brains reflects this with enlargement of the auditory cortices. They also have superior spatial orientation skills. But their bodies are designed to move slowly and carefully in the dark. They have reflexes that are slightly slower on average than those of surface people, and they cannot run for long distances. But they are great climbers and have a powerful grip in their fingers and toes.

Since the Night People's diet is primarily fish and fungi, it is low in carbohydrates and saturated fats. They have relative glucose intolerance and can become diabetic on some normal surface dwellers diet. Ool was quite smitten with chocolate candies on his first trip to the surface. He did not realize that even thought they tasted good for his race tehy were not a healthy food. A moderate amount of roughage may give them constipation. They also can be overdosed with fat soluble vitamins from dietary sources because these are synthesized in their liver. And the saturated fats from red meats can cause premature cholesterol plaque formation and accelerated atherosclerosis. A well balanced diet can keep the production of hydrogen sulfide to a minimum and decrease the "rotten egg" odor to a point where it is not noticieable by surface dwellers.

Night People also are very sensitive to light. They are virtually blind in direct sunlight and will get sunburned easily. Their skin does contain some melanin because it enhances the ability of their radar sense to detect the presence of other people. Some few Night People have a melanin content which approaches that of fair-haired Scandinavians.

Because they are so well suited to their underground environment, the Night People are happy to remain where they are. But now that Ool has escaped and found that the upper world is inhabitable, we should not be surprised if some Night People may venture forth into our world for either good or nefarious reasons.

The Secret of the Mental Wizard and of "Klantic"

The South American adventure entitled "The Mental Wizard" was first published in March of 1937. Doc and his crew discovered an exotic woman named "Z" whose every strand of hair has been coated with pure gold! Furthermore, this woman had a genius IQ, could read minds, project emotions, and even cause visual hallucinations.




We discover that she is a Princess from a lost colony of Egyptians who live in an underground city in the Amazon Basin. Their ancestors allegedly came across the Atlantic Ocean before the reign of King Tut led by the Pharaoh Klantic who had discovered the secret of incredible mental powers. They had created an underground city in the southern side of the Amazon inside a mile-long statue of Klantic himself. Any visitors to this lost Egyptian world were not allowed to leave. The ruling family was descended from Klantic himself and Z was the last of her line. The people in the lost city waited anxiously for Klantic to return them.

During her brief trip to the outside world, Z taught herself English and astounded Doc by reading technical journals with incredible ease. She also could read the thoughts of those around her. At one point when she felt that Doc and his men were being ambivalent, she was able to use her powers to make them all fall in love with her simultaneously. But of course, her eyes were really on Doc!

Supposedly, the secret of her powers was a reddish dust that was stored in the temple of the city and which she had ingested during her childhood. Monk Mayfair tried it and all it did was give him indigestion. Meanwhile he began to analyze the powder but we never learned its secret.

During their sojourn in the city, Doc Savage was able to 'prove' to the populace that he was actually Klantic who had returned to his people. While he was there, the people feasted and Doc did not catch on until they were half-way through that it was a wedding ritual for him and Z.

The mystery of Z and her powers was never solved in the story. It was assumed that she inherited them genetically and that there was no way to induce such powers in others.

Recent information has come to light concerning the actual identity of "Klantic". It seems that the time when Klantic and his people fled Egypt was right after the events recorded in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. The Pharaoh at that time was Ramses II who had many sons by many wives and concubines. One of his sons Khalfani Kek (meaning "the dark Lord Kek shall rule") became a priest and a wizard. It was he and his fellow wizards who did battle with Moses in Pharaoh's court in Exodus:

Exd 7:8
And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
Exd 7:9
"When Pharaoh says to you, 'Prove yourselves by working a
miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your rod and cast it down before
Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.'"
Exd 7:10
So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the LORD
commanded; Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and his servants, and it
became a serpent.
Exd 7:11
Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers;
and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts.
Exd 7:12
For every man cast down his rod, and they became
serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.

Exd 7:20
Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded; in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, he lifted up the rod and struck the water that was in the Nile, and all the water that was in the Nile turned to blood.
Exd 7:21
And the fish in the Nile died; and the Nile became foul, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exd 7:22
But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts; so Pharaoh's heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them; as the LORD had said.

Exd 8:6
So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.
Exd 8:7
But the magicians did the same by their secret arts, and brought frogs upon the land of Egypt.

Exd 8:16
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.'"
Exd 8:17
And they did so; Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and struck the dust of the earth, and there came gnats on man and beast; all the dust of the earth became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.
Exd 8:18
The magicians tried by their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast.

We can see that according to the biblical account, the Egyptian magicians had true powers and up to a point they were able to match their power against Moses and Aaron. Eventually though Moses and Aaron were able to perform feats that they could not duplicate and so the magicians failed which led to a disastrous defeat for Ramses. In his anger the Pharaoh banished his son, Khalfani Kek and his entire retinue of priests from Egypt. When he did so, they took the secret of their arcane arts with them and -- using their powers -- sought refuge from Ramses wrath on the other side of the world. The name "Klantic" is just a corruption of "Khalfani Kek."

We know that in Alexandria Egypt there were ancient adepts known as the Alchemists who used a form of gold in a white powder that was known as 'mfkzt' or the Paradise Stone. This powder was used to make conical cakes that were ingested by the Pharaohs. It was revered as nourishment of the 'light body' (the ka) and was said to increase general aptitudes of leadership, such as awareness, perception and intuition. It was also thought to increase longevity. There was a fabled "Elixir of Life" made from this gold by the alchemists which purportedly had the ability to restore youth and perfect health. There is also the rumor of a hidden civilization where a form of gold turned human blood a golden color and granted longevity. (See the story "Golden Blood" by Jack Williamson.)

This white 'mfkzt' powder has been identified with an allotrope of gold known as m-state gold. M-state elements are a unique form of gold and other transitional metals such as silver, platinum, iridium, copper, and rhodium which are much more biologically active than their metallic form.

A mono-atomic element is not the same as a colloid. Colloidals are still in metallic cluster form, albeit in very small clusters. A colloidal element is one with a particle size so small that it will not settle out but remains evenly and semi-permanently suspended in water. However, a colloid is still in its metallic state, and exhibits the normal chemical properties of that metal.

In m-state, atoms have their electrons paired up into what are called "Cooper pairs". These Cooper paired electrons are not available as valence electrons and therefore do not form molecular bonds. An atom must have the ability to bond to other atoms of the same element in order to be metallic. Cooper pairing is one of the prerequisites of superconductivity, and in their m-state form, transitional elements are generally superconductive. While physicists have been searching for many years for room temperature superconductors, biologists have known for a long time that superconductive effects can be seen in living organisms.

Cooper pairing and superconductivity are generally properties associated with Bose-Einstein Condensates or BECs. BECs are substances which are composed of many atoms but which behave as a single atom. The common current belief among physicists is that BECs cannot exist at temperatures much higher than absolute zero or in a superconductive matrix structure. However, m-state elements may be the exception to this rule.

The Cooper-pairing of the electrons in these atoms or di-atoms seems to create a Meissner effect around each atom/diatom unit. This Meissner field provides a non-local quantum connection between other nearby m-state units so that together they exhibit behavior which follows the rules of quantum mechanics. If you have a great number of these mono-atom/di-atom units they can exhibit quantum physical behavior at classical physics scales. M-state elements may function within organisms by facilitating communication between cells, and are especially abundant within brain tissue. Some assays done on pig and calf brains showed that they contained 2.5% iridium and rhodium by weight.

The reddish powder that was stored in the temple of Klantic may have been a stable form of transitional metals -- mostly composed of gold -- in a form in which it could easily be converted to the m-state by secret chemical processes. We already know that the Klantic scientists could manipulate gold in a way that is not possible for us even today. Even in the 21st Century, we are not able to coat individual human hairs in pure gold.

What Z had received in small amounts over her entire life had been specially prepared conical cakes of m-state forms of gold and other metals which were incorporated into her growing brain tissue. As she grew up, she was instructed in techniques and disciplines to make the best use of this m-state matrix within her central nervous system. This then was the source of her extraordinary mental powers.

The secret of this process was lost to the Old World when Ramses banished the failed priests and sorcerers from Egypt and for centuries alchemists in east and west have tried to recover it. But the real secret had gone across the Atlantic Ocean and had hidden itself in the jungle awaiting a time when the secrets would once again be of use to the world.

One wonders if this m-state gold may have also been responsible for the intelligence enhancing formula from the Super Saga The Too-Wise Owl published in March of 1942.

Now, Doc Savage has become heir to these secrets which he had not yet revealed to the world. It appears that he may have used the m-form of gold in his longevity formula. What else does he plan to do with these secrets?

Ham Brooks' Law Firm

We have known for quite sometime that Ham was a member of a law firm with partners. This was mentioned in the movie Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze. There also was a mention of this in the Prince Zarkon story Invisible Death by Lin Carter. Carter actually names the partners himself: Drew, Van Dusen, and Rummel. In this article we will explore the identity of these men who worked so closely with Ham Brooks.

Carson Drew

Carson Drew was the father of the teenage detective Nancy Drew. He had brown hair and blue eyes. He was originally from the small town of River Heights, Illinois. He was a widower in the 1930s and apparently had been a classmate of Ham Brooks at Harvard Law School. The books say that he was a graduate of "Hale University." I assume this meant that he attended Yale as an undergraduate and went on to Harvard for law.

His wife, Mildred Austin Drew, had died in 1914 when their daughter Nancy had been only three years old. Carson and Ham had gone into partnership in 1906 after Ham started his own law firm. During the Great War when Ham Brooks went into the French Foreign Legion, Carson Drew managed the practice for him. In the next decade Carson made a small fortune which remarkably survived the Stock Market Crash in 1929. In 1930, he retired and moved to a town in the New York suburbs that was also named River Heights. He chose this town for sentimental reasons since it had the same name as his home town in Illinois. Carson opened up a small law office there to keep himself busy. The Drews got a dog name Togo and bought a three story brick house.

Carson Drew shared several cases with his daughter, Nancy. Father and daughter worked well together as a team. This relationship would would prove mutually beneficial and set Nancy on the course of her future career.

Carson's sister Eloise who had moved to New York with them initially was a teacher in a private school in New York City. She maintained an apartment in Manhattan and Nancy often went to the city to visit her. The Drews had a housekeeper, Hannah Gruen, who was an excellent cook and a staunch church-goer. She became a mother-figure to Nancy after the death of her mother. Hannah was constantly worried about Nancy and her father but they were both survivors and could take care of themselves.

Life in River Heights got boring for Carson, and when Nancy started college at age 20, Carson rejoined his old firm. For reasons that are not clear, the published stories continued to describe River Heights as being in rural Illinois while saying it was "not too far from New York City." This anomaly has been noted by several commentators. You can't have it both ways. The town of River Heights in the first Nancy Drew Stories must have been in the New York suburbs.

Nancy followed in her father's footsteps and went to law school. She did a clerkship at her father's firm and eventually joined it. She married her long time boy friend, Ned Nickerson but kept her own name for business purposes. Their daughter, Nancy, was precocious like her mother and many of the "Nancy Drew" Stories from the 1950s and later were really about her.

Professor Van Dusen

Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S., M.D., M.D.S. (and several other degrees from France, England, Russia, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Spain) was a brilliant detective and polymath. He graduated from college at the age of 10! He had degrees in Physical Chemistry, Philosophy, Law, and Medicine, among others.

He was the youngest man ever to have held a chair in philosophy at Harvard but was asked to leave over his presentation of a startling and unorthodox hypothesis. Just a few weeks later he saved the life of the Assistant Dean of the Harvard Law School. (See the story My First Experience With the Great Logician.) The Dean was so impressed with his logical reasoning that he took an interest in the young academic. That was when Augustus turned his sights on the law and received in succession an LLB and an LLD from Harvard Law School. It was during these studies that he met Ham Brooks. Prof. Van Dusen cultivated an international reputation in several fields, but especially forensic investigation. He was inducted into the Royal Society of London as a Fellow under the sponsorship of his friend and colleague, Sherlock Holmes.

Van Dusen became another partner of Ham Brooks. Originally from Boston, he too was a classmate of Ham Brooks at Harvard and joined the firm after the Great War. He was a small, thin man with a huge head and a bulbous, protruding forehead; his hat size was 8. He has sparse straw-colored hair and darting, intelligent blue eyes which sat behind thick glasses. His face was white with the pallor of the student; his mouth was a bloodless slit. He was the typical obsessed academic who was constantly consumed with his various researches and had little or no social graces. He is described as being petulant, irascible and bad-tempered.

He had had a teaching post at Harvard as a Full Professor in the Law School. He also did lecturing in other fields including Medicine, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and Philosophy. He retired early from his post in 1919 after twenty years cumulative years teaching at Harvard. He was not a very popular lecturer and the students began to annoy him. But every student that took his courses ( especially his course on criminal law) admitted that the grilling he gave them stood them in good stead in their later professional careers. He was far more popular with the alumni than with the student body.

While theirs was primarily a business law firm, Brooks and his partners occasionally handled criminal cases especially when the crimes occurred on the premises of their clients. They also handled malpractice cases and some technical cases that required a knowledge of Chemistry and Physics. Van Dusen helped investigate crimes at the client companies and was particularly good at detecting embezzlement and other white collar crimes. He also did much private consulting work as well. It was his preternatural insight with regard to client choice and investments during the 1920s that made the firm as wealthy and powerful as it became. He was well aware of the problems in the Stock Market long before October 1929. He tried hard to get reforms enacted but was unsuccessful. Happily, his keen insights helped to preserve the fortunes of his partners and their clients through the Great Depression.

Known as "The Thinking Machine", Van Dusen was a very methodical and exacting investigator. He had earned his nickname from a disgruntled Russian Chess Master whom he beat using pure brute force reasoning after studying the rules of chess for less than a day. His legal briefs were succinct yet comprehensive and accurate. His contracts had no loop holes and he never missed a trick. He was merciless on depositions and cross examinations. Sadly, he did not have much rapport with the jury, so many times others did the final summations for him. He was neither the heart or soul of the firm, but its methodical brain.

Beau Rummell

Beau Rummell, lawyer and one-time partner of private detective Ellery Queen, was a wealthy, personable fellow who was the true front-man for the firm. He was quick with a joke and was every man's best friend. He also had a dazzling way with the ladies. He joined the firm in the late 1920s after finishing law school and just before Carson Drew retired. Ham Brooks saw that he was a natural people person which was something his other partner lacked. Rummell had been the co-founder of Ellery Queen's detective agency. He came to Ham's attention during the case known as The Dragon's Teeth. Beau was a bit of a maverick, but his flourish and style complimented the quiet dignity of Ham Brooks and the arid intellectuality of Prof. Van Dusen. And he kept the clients happy.

As Ham became more involved with Doc's work, he began to spend less time with the firm. His two sons eventually came on board (as would Nancy Drew-Nickerson at the end of the decade). But the firm needed a real leader to fill in for Ham during his absences. Neither Van Dusen nor Rummell really could do the job. Luckily, at that point, Carson Drew had had enough of the rural life and he returned to run the firm.

Under Carson Drew's mentoring, Rummell was able to focus his energies and he turned into a very fine lawyer. He was eventually offered a junior partnership in the late 1930s. Meanwhile, the firm often called on Ellery Queen to do investigative leg work in the same way that Perry Mason used to call on Paul Drake.


So this was the roster of the law firm Brooks, Drew, Van Dusen, and Rummell, attorneys at law.

More of Sun Koh's Crew

As I have learned more about the German pulp character Sun Koh, I have discovered other regular characters that occur in his stories. They are interesting and I thought people might enjoy hearing about them:

Gertrude Reinhardt née Shumann is the middle aged secretary who is the office manager for Sun Koh's offices on Friedrichstraß in Berlin. She is the daughter of an Admiral and the widow of a battleship captain. She had worked as a government secretary for 20 years when she started working for Sun Koh. She had four sons and two daughters. Her sons each went into a different military service: the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and Military Intelligence. Her two daughters married military officers as well. Gertrude had the highest possible security clearance for a civilian civil servant. She also had no sense of humor and a frown that could turn a basilisk to stone. She ran a tight ship and could be trusted to hold down the fort in a crisis. On her desk she kept pencils in a pewter stein that her husband always took with him on his ships in the Great War. She also had a human skull with the top of the cramium removed in which she kept black-and-red wax wrapped sweets. These sweets had a smoked caramel center surrounded by dark bitter chocolate. To say the least they were an acquired taste. In her desk drawer she kept her father's old Mauser 1896 "Broomhandle" automatic pistol which she took home every night in her purse. A girl can't be too careful.

Mordechai Absolam Jonathan aka Jack Holigan aka Rapier X aka Nimba was an Afro-American who had served in the US Army during the Great War and had been awarded the Croix de Guerre. His father had been a professor at Tuskegee Institute. Mordechai was the 'black sheep' of the family and ran away to New York to earn a living as a boxer under the alias Jack Holigan. He ran a foul of the mob when he refused to take a dive. To escape them he volunteered for the US Army to fight in World War I. He was attached to a French Army unit and fought with distinction. Despite his decoration, he could not find a decent job after the war and the mob was still looking for him, so he went out west as a cowboy. He carried a stiletto which he had obtained in France and used it in knife fights to kill his opponents. He was forced to flee the US and went to work in Canada under the alias Rapier X. He was rescued from captivity there by Sun Koh and brought back to Europe. Mordechai was a heavy weight boxer and remained undefeated, winning every professional bout with a knock out. He was also an expert swords man whose preferred weapons were the rapier and the stiletto. In gratitude for services rendered, Sun Koh gave him a small fortune with which Mordechai purchased a club in Paris which he named Au Coeur des Ténèbres (The Heart of Darkness). In the War between Italy and Ethiopia, Mordechai fought for the Ethiopian side under the pseudonym 'Nimba" and wore bullet-proof body armor.

Hal Mervin is the bellhop in the Hotel Adlon Berlin where Sun Koh keeps a suite. He was born in 1917 and was only 17 years old when he met Sun Koh in 1934. His father had died during the Great War and his mother had to raise him by herself. She eventually was forced into prostitution and Hal had to fend for himself much of the time. She died in 1933 under violent circumstances probably at the hands of SA thugs meting out vigilante justice. He is street-smart, self-reliant, and very observant. Hal has the uncanny ability to anticipate people's needs before they ask for anything and this makes him an excellent bellhop. He eventually becomes Sun Koh's personal valet and teen aged side-kick. Sun Koh becomes the Father he never had and personally supervises his education.

Gretchen Schulman is Rolf 'Schreck' Karsten's 'Gal Friday. ' She is the best documentary researcher in Germany and probably in western Europe. Gretchen is a petite blond with a smashing figure who dresses in a way that shows off her figure without appearing cheap. She keeps her blond hair in a large puffy hair-do that floats around her head like a cloud. She has a musical voice and is very conscious of the way people (especially men) perceive her. She is able to get the crustiest document guardian to let her "just take a peek." She exudes sexuality but is morally very conventional. She has been married and divorced twice and is Schreck's on-again/off-again lover. Hal Mervin has a boyhood crush on her. Even Sun Koh finds her very attractive.




One of the few men in the world who can stand toe to toe with Sun Koh on technical matters was Dr. Ildefons Peters a brilliant though eccentric scientist from the University of Heidelburg who was so far ahead of his time that he was dismissed by his colleagues as a crackpot. His brother was Col. Roch Peters of the Bavarian Staatspolizei. He was the typical obsessed polymath researcher who routinely had brilliant insights which advanced the fields of physics, chemistry and engineering without any effort. He eventually becomes a valued member of the Technocrat movement that Jan Mayen headed and moved to their secret island base in the Pacific.



Dr. Joan Martini is an Italian archaeologist and anthropologist who is continuing her father's life work of trying to prove the existence of Atlantis in the deep past. Her father was an archaeologist and Egyptologist from the University of Rome who looked for parallels between the Egyptian and Meso-American high cultures. Joan is also a lecturer at the university and an internationally renowned expert on Meso-American Indians and the sources of their cultures in Pre-Columbian America. She is constantly looking for any possible links between the Americas and Europe, Asia ,and Africa during ancient times. Joan is a titian-haired beauty of refined manners. She is a devout Catholic and very careful of her virtue. She is also a genius with an encyclopedic knowledge of ancient lore from both the Old and New World.

The Martinis were direct descendants of the Italian King, Victor Emmanuel II through Joan's grandmother, and so Joan was technically a Princess. Her father Albert was a staunch Fascist in the 1930s who had previously been a Freemason who dabbled in the occult. Joan disagreed with her father's politics and his anticlericalism, but she was convinced that he was right about the links between the Old and New World.

She met Sun Koh during a hunt for a a lost city in the Amazon Basin. Sun Koh was captivated by her beauty and her intelligence as well as her virtue. She was the first modern woman of royal lineage that he found worthy of his attentions. This created an interesting triangle between Sun Koh, his consort Shani, and Princess Joan.

In What Years were Pat Savage and the Five Aides Born?

This represents an interesting problem. There are no clear indications in the Super Sagas or in Dent's notes as to the ages of Pat Savage or the Five Aides. People have speculated about this but in many cases I think they have severely underestimated the men's ages. This was considered necessary because otherwise the Crew would have been a bunch of old men in the 1930s and 1940s.

But I think that we have to assign them ages that are commensurate with their professional accomplishments,and with their military ranks during and at the end of the Great War in the Super Sagas and in Phillip José Farmer's Escape from Loki. It is our assumption that since all of Doc's men are the tops in their fields, they have obtained the highest academic credentials which would mean doctorates. That would require a total of at least 8 years of graduate and post-graduate training if not more. It would also take several years to build up a reputation and establish oneself in one's chosen discipline. If we assume that they entered college at the age of 16-18 years old, they would have had to have been at least 29-35 years of age in 1918 during the Great War. (Long Tom is the sole exception to this rule. He was a few years younger for reasons I will explain shortly.) That means that in 1931 when the storyline of the Super Sagas actually began, each of the four other aides would need to be a minimum of 42 years old and probably more like 45-50 years of age if not older. That is awfully long in the tooth to be going around chasing bad guys and getting coshed in the head regularly as Monk did. This is especially true in 1933 when medicine was not as advanced as it is today and lifestyle interventions for chronic disease were limited to rest or exercise or a very few medicines. Age would have caught up with these guys a lot faster than it does today.

We avoid the aging problems by acknowledging (as I did in my article on Monja F'Teema ) that in 1925, Clark Sr. had developed an anti-aging elixir which he shared with his son and eventually with his son's companions. This makes it possible for us to accept ages for the Fab Five that would otherwise be unthinkable.

Let's first deal with Patricia Savage, Doc's younger cousin. According to the consensus article on the Doc Savage Chronology at the Wold Newton Universe Website, she was born in 1914. We know she was the only daughter of Doc's uncle Alex Savage who lived on a ranch in Canada that her grandfather had founded. No mention is ever made of her mother. We first meet Pat in the Super Saga Brand of the Werewolf (January, 1934). At that time she would therefore have been 20 years old. This is a credible age for her. She is described as a young woman, not as a minor. In the subsequent Super Saga Fear Cay (September, 1934) Pat had moved to New York and opened a Beauty Salon and Spa that catered to a rich clientele. She worked at this business for the duration of the Super Sagas and was quite successful with it. It is never mentioned whether or not she became a US Citizen.

Some have speculated that she was 18 in 1934, but I do not think that is credible. She would have been too young to own a business and would more likely have gone to college instead. As it stands, we must assume that she had already attended College and received her degree, probably in business.

John 'Renny' Renwick was a construction engineer who had an excellent reputation prior to the Great War. In Escape from Loki, Monk recognized him at the German prison camp, Loki, in April 1918 as an old drinking buddy with whom he had built a chemical plant in Brazil a few years before the war. At Loki, Renny was a Captain in the Army Corp of Engineers. We know by the end of the year (i.e., after November 11, 1918 when the Armistice was signed) he would be discharged with the rank of full Colonel (Likely a brevet rank given so that he could fill a high level staff position). Renny was also the most accomplished marksman, driver, outdoors man, hunter, and pilot of Doc's aides. These were all skills he picked up working as an engineer in the field. (He also became the best fighter but only after Doc started instructing him in Karate techniques in later years which took advantage of his huge hands.) So I would estimate that Renny would have had to be 36 years of age in 1918 meaning that he had been born in 1882.

Thomas "Long Tom" Roberts was a First Lieutenant in the Signal Corp at Loki. Since he made Major by the end of the year (which was probably also a brevet rank) he must have been in his late 20s. In my short story Long Tom Robber (Soon to be published in Zine of Bronze #4) I tell what really happened with the 'Long Tom' cannon in that French town. I thought it was interesting that Long Tom earned his nickname not for an electronic device but for the makeshift use of an old mechanical device: a cannon. As I did my research I realized that Long Tom had not only studied with the great electronic geniuses Steinmetz and Tesla but also with Thomas Edison who was an inventor who delved into several fields including mechanical engineering. I also discovered interesting parallels between Long Tom Roberts and another famous inventive 'Tom': Tom Swift.

Tom Swift had dabbled in electronics, automotive, aeronautics, and even war devices including a "War Tank" and a "Giant Cannon." If they were the same person, it would explain why Long Tom would have felt confident enough to refurbish and use that old French cannon. He had had some prior experience with artillery. Tom Swift had some other interesting parallels with our Long Tom. They were both blond and blue eyed. They both worked on projects for the US Government before, during, and after World War I and World War II. And in 1929, Tom Swift married his sweetheart Mary Nestor. We have always read in the Super Sagas that Long Tom was a misogynist: a woman hater. While the other fellows were out chasing skirts (even Doc dated regularly in the 1940s) Long Tom was never moved by feminine pulchritude. The sole exception to this that I know of was in The Feathered Octopus (September, 1937) where Long Tom was smitten by the tall blond Valkyrie-like Lam Benbow. Even a married man is allowed a (platonic) crush now and again. But in-between, he will seem like a woman-hater when in reality he is just a woman-avoider trying to remain faithful to his spouse. Also Long Tom did not smoke or drink and neither did Tom Swift. Swift's father was plagued with lung and heart problems likely due to the common American habit of cigarette smoking. He may also have had an alcohol problem, though the Tom Swift stories do not say this. Such a problem would explain why his son would not drink alcohol. The impact of seeing what cigarettes (and alcohol?) did to his father might have made Long Tom into a non-smoking teetotaler. And the name "Swift" sounds like one of those semi-pejorative nicknames that smart kids got from the more average boys in their neighborhood.

According to the Tom Swift experts, he had been born in 1893 and would have been 25 years old in 1918. His first adventure, Tom Swift and his Motorcycle, was published in 1910 when he was 17 years old. That would also have been the right age for Long Tom by my reckoning since he was a Lieutenant at Loki in 1918. Supposedly, Swift had been home-schooled by his father to a college level with a heavy concentration in physics and mechanics. He had attended the local Public School for First Grade but the curriculum was so far behind his abilities that his father decided to teach the child himself. Tom had also been an active inventor since before he was 17, so he had started his life's work at an earlier age than the other Savage Aides. Through the social contacts of his father (who was also an inventor) he met and studied with many of the greatest American inventive minds of the time including Edison, Steinmetz, Tesla, Marconi, and Westinghouse.

Tom Swift took the entrance exams and made it into the MIT graduate division receiving credit for an undergraduate degree in physics at the age of 18. He earned his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering at the tender age of 22. He became more and more obsessed with electronics and all of its possible practical application over time. Before the Great War he had begun working on graduate studies in electronics and Electrical Engineering which he completed when he returned Stateside qualifying for a second doctorate. All of this fits our portrait of Long Tom. it also helps explain why he was not in many of the Super Sagas. He had a parallel set of adventures with his friends and family many of which have been chronicled under his boyhood nickname.

William Harper "Johnny" Littlejohn was a civilian during the Great War who was working secretly for US Army Intelligence while he was on an archaeological dig outside of Munich, Germany. He was caught in Germany after the US declared war and was interned in a civilian detention camp. He proved to be a difficult to keep imprisoned and so they sent him to the Loki camp with the incorrigible military prisoners. This was technically illegal. We are told in Escape from Loki that he had already earned a doctorate in Geology and was almost finished with a second doctorate in archaeology. Very likely he was already a full professor and had travelled to Germany during his sabbatical year to perform an archaeological dig as a requirement for his second doctorate. This would mean that he was at least seven years out from his first degree, if not longer.

It should also be noted that many intelligence agents were (and are) recruited in college as undergraduates usually during war time. For Johnny, this could have been around the turn of the century. He may have been recruited during the Spanish American War in 1898 and been an operative in Cuba. Later in 1903, the US instigated the revolution in Panama against the Colombian government which resulted in the US gaining control of the Panama Canal. It would not have been unusual for an American geologist to have been in Panama at that time and to have acted as an agent provocateur. In fact, Johnny's career as a geologist and an archaeologist would have been a good cover for traveling around the world and acting as a covert agent for Uncle Sam. We know that this was true in Germany in 1918.

So I propose that Johnny was born in 1880 and thus was 38 years old in 1918 at the time he was in Loki. By then, he was a seasoned intelligence agent with twenty years of experience in covert operations. It is to his credit that he simultaneously had a brilliant career in academia as well as a lucrative one involving the practical aspects of geology and archaeology. In fact, he had more breadth of knowledge in different areas than any other of Doc's aides. It included not only his primary areas of study but anthropology, folklore, linguistics, paleontology, religious studies, the classics, history, literature, economics, politics, and diplomacy.

Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair was an Infantry Lieutenant Colonel in 1918 at Loki. He also was a Chemist and Chemical engineer with an international reputation. He and Renny had first met on a chemical plant building project in Brazil a few years before the Great War. Some Savageologists have proposed 1894 as the birth year for Monk, but this is not credible. That would have made him only 24 in 1918 which is barely old enough to have gotten his doctorate and is not compatible with his being a renowned expert in his field before the war. It was also too young for him to have been a Lieutenant Colonel in 1918.

It has come to my attention that Monk was a member of the very famous New Orleans Mayfair family whose history has been chronicled by author Anne Rice in her novels The Witching Hour, Lasher, and Taltos. These Mayfairs had a high degree of psychic ability which might explain Monk's telepathic capabilities in the 1930s. He and Ham were sometimes able to exchange thoughts even over long distances. [See for example The Mountain Monster (1937).] It might also explain his facility with chemistry which is just another way of concocting useful potions. Such things were in his blood.

I noted that in The Witching Hour there was a curious story. In 1888, Julien Mayfair took his niece (who was likely also his daughter) Mary Beth Monahan on a trip to Europe. Mary Beth was described as a large stocky woman with coarse features who could pass for a man in middle age. While in Scotland that year, she allegedly married a 'Lord Mayfair' who was a distant relative and was impregnated by him. There was never any documentation of such a marriage and the stories about their time in Scotland were full of contradictions. The alleged 'Lord Mayfair' supposedly died under mysterious circumstances shortly thereafter. Mary Beth had a child, Belle, in Scotland in 1889. The Talamasca scholars who chronicled this incident thought that Belle was sired incestuously by Julien, but no one in the family believed that. I have a different proposal.

In 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson published his classic horror novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in which the timid Dr. Henry Jekyll discovers a chemical formula that transforms him periodically into the brutish and "ape-like" Mr. Edward Hyde. The story ends with Dr. Jekyll on the verge of a permanent change into Mr. Hyde. Supposedly, Hyde committed suicide at the end of the story, but that could have been a cover-up for his disappearance. Rumors that he still lived circulated for years afterwards.

There has been much speculation as to the type of elixir that Dr. Jekyll had concocted. Some thought that it was a psychotropic drug that induced in him a state of multiple personality disorder. I submit that in fact, the elixir had a direct effect on his genome and that it activated latent atavistic genes that were present in is "junk DNA" leading to a reversion to a more primitive body type. The transformation was gradual -- albeit with fits and starts -- but progressive and irreversible. It even affected his reproductive cells so that the traits could be passed on to his children. Mr. Hyde manifested hybrid vigor showing not only tremendous physical strength but increased intelligence as well.

The events in the novella apparently transpired 2 or 3 years before the story was published. Around that time a curious incident occurred. There was a Dr. William Rutherford who had been a teacher of Arthur Conan Doyle. He and his entire family were stout brutish men with short tempers. He had a young cousin, George Rutherford who lived in the village of Largs in Scotland. He and his wife had only one son also named George who had been born in 1863 and educated in boarding schools. Young George was nondescript and prone to depression. He completed his basic education before being forced to return to Largs to care for his ailing parents. They were the poor relations that the rest of the family did not acknowledge. In 1884, the elder George and his wife succumbed to consumption and young George -who was now alone in the world and penniless - disappeared. The Largs estate was liquidated to pay off the family's creditors.

Then in 1886 a man claiming to be young George Rutherford began his studies at Edinburgh University. He claimed to have made money in business ventures overseas in order to pay for his education. He was a fiery red headed bull of a man with a short temper who was prone to violence. He was rude, crude, and lacking in both conscience and social inhibition. He was also a brilliant scientist. He completed degrees in Medicine, Zoology, and Anthropology. He was an iconoclast who challenged the accepted wisdom in all areas including morals. He was given the nickname "Challenger" by his classmates. Upon achieving his first doctorate he legally changed his name to 'George EDWARD Challenger'. He stated that the Rutherford family had abandoned him and his father so in his success he was abandoning them. He preferred to be called 'Eddie' by his friends. He eventually married a French woman, Enid Delagardie, to whom he became devoted and who was the one civilizing force in his life. On his trip to The Lost World, Challenger was noted to resemble the primitive ape-men on the plateau and to be rather ape-like in his body habitus.

I submit that George Edward Challenger was actually Mr. Edward Hyde who had either killed or discovered the death of young George Rutherford and assumed his identity. There were several Rutherfords in Edinburgh none of whom really knew their obscure cousin and so the impostor was able to bluster his way into the family. Hyde had a rough physical resemblance to George Rutherford which he decided to exploit to create a new life and career for himself. John Rutherford of Edinburgh practically adopted him as his own son.

Mary Beth's brother Vincent Blodgett Mayfair had married Melissa Rutherford the daughter of John Rutherford. They had had met in Europe on vacation in the South of France. Julien and Mary Beth visited the Rutherfords while they were in Scotland and it was there that they met young 'George Rutherford.' He either seduced Mary Beth or raped her And as a result she became pregnant. It is not clear exactly what happened. It is alleged in Rice's novel Lasher that "Lord Mayfair" died on the night he seduced Mary Beth, but no proof is ever given for this. In any case she was terrified of the man who impregnated her and wanted nothing to do with him thereafter.

Mary Beth bore twins in 1889: a boy and a girl. The boy she named Andrew. He was a brutish looking child that strongly resembled his biological father. Mary Beth found that likeness upsetting and could not stand to be around the child. Julien arranged for Andrew to be brought to the United States and had him adopted by Mary Beth's brother Vincent and his wife Melissa. Thus the child was raised by his aunt and uncle. They had been childless despite years of trying and were more than happy to have a son. Such arrangements done discretely were not uncommon in Victorian times. Vincent had moved to Oklahoma City where he was a successful commodities broker. After Andrew came to live with Vincent and Melissa, their fertility problems ended and they had several more children. Eventually, they moved back to New Orleans where most of their descendants live to this day. This would explain why the family refused to believe that Julien was Belle's father. Her real father's identity was a family secret.

There was a quiet furor when John Rutherford found out that his brutish cousin had ravaged and impregnated Mary Beth. This incident along with George Ruherford's arrogance and generally uncouth behavior alienated him from the rest of the Rutherford family and led to him assuming the name 'Challenger.'

Andrew was a precocious child with tremendous physical energy. He was prone to violent fits of temper and was far stronger than any other child in his school. When he was younger, the bigger children taunted him because of his looks. But as he grew bigger and stronger, no one bullied him anymore. Even the older children steered clear of him. He looked mean and had a temper to match.

Andrew had a genius IQ despite his simian appearance. He was accepted at age 15 to Fordham University in New York where he received an undergraduate degree in Chemistry. He did graduate work both at Fordham and Columbia earning a doctorate in Chemistry and a Masters in Chemical Engineering. In 1914, he received his first big break. His Master's thesis on chemical synthesis had so impressed his advisers that they brought it to the attention of a major chemical company. The company hired Andrew on the spot to build a plant in Brazil that would use his new process. He was given full credit for his ideas and several patents. These would be the first in a long string of such patents which would earn him income for the rest of his life.

When the US went to war, Andrew volunteered and received a commission in the infantry. The Mayfairs were of French ancestry and they had a strong affinity for the suffering of the French people during the war. Because of his background in chemistry he became an exchange officer with one of the French Z-Units that utilized offensive poison gas weapons. His recommendations early in America's involvement in the Great War lead to the adoption of French tactics in offensive chemical warfare by the American Expeditionary Force. It was while serving with the French that he met Ham Brooks who was then in the Foreign Legion. Monk was granted a brevet rank of Lieutenant Colonel and acted as a special staff officer for chemcial affairs to General Pershing. There would not be any formal Gas Warfare branch until late 1918 so Monk remained officially in the infantry.

Monk was a raucous man who was always out for a good time. He liked cold beer, hot jazz, fast women, sloe Gin, and practical jokes. Needless to say he often got into trouble in Paris. Despite all of his achievements in preparing the AEF for chemical warfare, he was never promoted beyond Lieutenant Colonel and was lucky that he did not get demoted. He spent more than a few nights in the stockade. It was the intercession of Brigadier General Ham Brooks that protected Monk at the end of the war. Ham was sent home in early December 1918 becasue his wife had take ill with the deadly 1918 flu that year. He requested to have Monk sent home at the same time. The Adjutant General was more than happy to oblige.

Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks has been given a birth year of 1888 by some Savageologists, but I again do not find that credible. This would have made him only 30 years old in 1918 which is far too young for a man who ended the war with the rank of Brigadier General. This is especially true since he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the French Foreign Legion while at Loki and did not return to allied lines until early August 1918. There just was not enough time for a such a young man to have earned that high of a rank.

Instead I propose that he had been born in 1876 and was 42 years old in 1918. We know that Ham had attended Harvard Univeristy and Harvard Law School and graduated with distinction in 1897 having earned a JD. He immediately started post-graduate studies towards an academic LLD doctorate in law. Then the Maine was blown up in Havana harbor and Ham volunteered for the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment with Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. He served with them in Cuba during the Spanish American War as a JAG officer, but fought with the unit in each of its battles. He and Roosevelt became friends and the two 'Teddys' became part of the upwardly mobile social set in New York. Ham Brooks finished his LLD and became a successful business attorney in Manhattan. Eventually he became the founder and senior partner of his own law firm. Ham was married in 1900 and had four sons and one daughter with his first wife. All of these sons became attorneys and two eventually joined his firm.

In 1914, Ted Brooks was appalled at the brutality and illegality of the German attack through neutral Belgium. He felt strongly that the U.S. needed to weigh in on the side of the British and French but there were strong isolationist and pacifist feeelings in America especially with Woodrow Wilson in the White House. Disgusted, Ted Brooks followed the example of many Harvard men and went to France in early 1915 at the age of 38 to join the foreign legion. He was an enthusiastic soldier and a brilliant tactician. He had been given a commission as a Captain on completing basic training and rapidly was promoted to Major and then Lieutenant Colonel. Such promotions in the Legion for an American were virtually unheard of. He received the Croix de Guerre more than once and several other decorations. He was in fact the most decorated American in the Foriegn Legion by the end of the war.

His most notable achievement was when, as a battalion commander, he deduced a German move to envelop the French division to which his Foreign Legion unit was attached. On his own initiative he used his unit to effectively counter the German manuever. At first his Division commander was unaware of what was happening and was furious with Brooks for departing from the battle plan. When the entire story came out it was clear that Brooks' action had saved the division and he received a Division Croix De Guerre as a result.

When Doc and his men returned to the Allied lines in early August 1918 after escaping from Loki, Ham was transferred to the US Army. Because of special circumstances he was given the brevet rank of Brigadier General. He retired with this rank at the end of the war. At that time he was 42 years old which is still young for a General Officer. The exact cicumstances leading to this promotion will be chronicled in a future story about Ham and Monk that I am in the process of writing for The Zine of Bronze #5.

So in summation, I propose the following birth years for Doc Savage's associates:

Patricia Savage - 1914

Renny Renwick -1882

Long Tom Roberts - 1893

Johnny Littlejohn - 1880

Monk Mayfair - 1889

Ham Brooks - 1876

What was Doc Savage's Birthday?

{I want to give a special thanks to Savageology scholar Chuck Welch. His critique of the first edition of this blog led to the correction of several errors. I think the argument in this revised version is that much stronger because of his input. Thanks, Chuck!}

One of the enduring mysteries of the Doc Savage Super Sagas is on what day Doc Savage was born. It is generally agreed that Doc was born in 1901, that the events in The Man of Bronze (March, 1933) occurred in March 1931, and that Doc had not yet reached his 30th birthday. There are two major theories about his date of birth. Based on notes from John Nanovic, Philip José Farmer fixes the date as November 12, 1901. Chuck Welch alleges that the known weather patterns around Andros Island on that date do not match what is written in The Golden Man (April, 1941) and he places Doc's birthday on November 7, 1901 based on his analysis of Peril in the North (December, 1941). You may follow his reasoning here at Doc Savage Info: Happy Birthday, Doc Savage.

Jeff Drescher has claimed that the internal evidence in Peril in the North fixes Doc's birthday in late May between the 25th and 31st. He prefers Doc's birth year between 1906 and 1910 because he is described as appearing in his 20s in some of the Super Sagas in the 1930s. You may follow his reasoning at Doc Savage Info: That Stormy Night.

With regard to Doc's apparent youth in the 1930s, I believe that was due to the anti-aging Formula that his father developed in 1925 and cannot be used to establish Doc's true age or that of his Aides who also shared it.

Julien Puga V in his article When Did the Legend Start? in The Bronze Gazette Volume 17, Issue 51 (September, 2007) champions the date May 25, 1901 and gives very convincing evidence to back it up based on material from Peril in the North.

It is my general policy on Wold Newton Questions to go with what Phil Farmer wrote unless there is some serious need to do otherwise. In this case, I have to go with Phil.

The internal date mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Priory School (1903 ) indicates that the kidnapping of Lord Saltire occurred on Monday May 13th. Based on the story, the flight of James Wilder (aka Clark Savage Sr.) from England was on Wednesday May 22st the day after Holmes last spoke to the Duke of Holdernesse.

May 13 fell on a Monday in 1901. The closest other years when May 13 fell on a Monday were 1895 and 1907. Also Lord Saltire was 10 years old at the time of the story and his parents had been married in 1888. This is compatible with 1901 as the year of these events and is not compatible with the other years. A birth year of 1901 would also make Doc Savage 16-17 years old in 1918 and would be consistent with his serving in the Great War. Many able-bodied young men at 15 or 16 could pass for 18 or older and during World War I and World War II many such young men lied about their age and volunteered to fight. Any year later than 1901 would not be credible, especially in the light of the events documented in Escape from Loki which was an authorized work based on Dent's own notes.

The proposed date of Doc's birth on May 25, 1901 is therefore not possible. It is too soon after the Priory School affair. There is no way that a wind Schooner could have arrived in the Caribbean that quickly, especially since the best evidence indicates that the Wilders met Hubert Robertson in France after May 22nd and departed from there a few days later. Nor is it possible for the Priory School affair to have occurred in any other year than 1901 except for 1895 or 1907 neither of which are compatible with the published material in the Super Sagas, Escape from Loki or The Adventure of the Priory School.

But there is no question that Doc celebrated his 40th birthday on May 25, 1941. The internal analysis of Peril in the North confirms this. The analysis from Drescher and Puga is so detailed that I will not reproduce it here but TRUST me, its a slam-dunk. The most telling piece of internal evidence is that during the story, the Midnight Sun is seen over Greenland. This can only occur between May 25 and July 25 of 1941. This rules out any possibility that the story could have occurred in November. In light of what we demonstrated in the previous paragraph, how is that possible?

Well, we need to remember that James Wilder, and his wife Arronaxe were on the lam from the law. They were trying to hide their identity from the authorities. That situation did not change after Arronaxe had died. James was a wanted criminal. It would be only natural for 'Clark Savage Sr.' to claim that his wife had given birth to their child while they were in the Bahamas on May 25, 1901. It was a known fact that James Wilder and his wife did not leave England until May 22nd, and it was just not possible that they would have arrived in the Caribbean in only 3 days. It is also very likely that Wilder knew the trail of their departure could be traced by the police for several days after the 25th before they effectively disappeared in France and left on the Orion with Hubert Robertson.

We must also remember that in The Golden Man, Doc Savage clearly believed that no one knew that he had been born on the Orion near Andros Island. It follows logically that whatever report of his birth had been given to US Authorities did not reveal the true location where he was born. This must have been done deliberately to conceal the real facts and the family's identity. There is therefore no reason to assume that the true date would have been given either.

Besides, no one outside the couple themselves even suspected that Arronaxe was pregnant at the time that they left England. In May, she would have been in her 3rd month of pregnancy and in Victorian attire, no one would have noticed her condition at that point. Consequently a child born so soon after the Priory School affair would not have been linked to the fugitive couple.

The mystery of how the Golden Man (who was the head of German intelligence) knew the secret of Doc's birthplace is never solved in the Super Sagas. I think the revelation in the 1989 DC Comics Doc Savage Annual that German physician Dr. Gunter Asch was on the Orion and likely delivered baby Clark solves that mystery. We know that Asch returned to Germany and eventually worked for the Nazis. He would have made available to them the information that Clark Sr. had withheld from American authorities. We should also remember that in Escape from Loki, Baron von Hessel tells young Lt. Savage:

"... Never mind all that, Lieutenant. Let us discuss other matters, if you
care to. For instance, a subject which greatly intrigues me. That is, the
efforts of your father to make you into a superman. What Nietzsche called der Übermensch..."

"Yes, I know much about that. Our Intelligence has a dossier on you and Doctor Clark Savage, Senior. Quite a lengthy one. I’ll be frank with you. I wouldn’t have invited you to dinner if you’d only been some Yankee flier with more courage than brains. We may talk about your peculiar education and your father’s motives for giving it to you..."

It is clear that even in 1918, the Germans were well informed about Doc Savage's life and his father's plans for him. This could only have happened if some insider had informed them about it. That insider was likely Dr. Asch.

But how could they hope to pass off an infant born in November as one born 6 months earlier? One of things that mitigated in favor of this prevarication was the fact that Clark Jr. was a large and precocious baby who at 3 months of age could already meet the developmental milestones of a 6 month old including standing unsupported, recognizing familiar faces, baby talk, and full head and neck control. He was also the height and weight of a 6 month old. In fact, at the age of 1 year, Clark was already walking, talking, climbing, and sounding out the printed word! It would have been ridiculous for Clark Sr. to try to pass-off his son as being his true age. No one would have believed him!

With regard to the question of the weather around Andros Island, there is no reason to think that the Orion sank on the same day that Doc was born or that it sank by Andros Island.

This is what it says in The Golden Man:

The golden man seemed not to hear the inquiry. He studied Doc for a few moments, then said in a deeply impressive, solemn voice, "Since that stormy night when you were born on the tiny schooner Orion in the shallow cove at the north end of Andros Island, you have done much good, and many things that are great."

The cove on the northern tip of Andros Island was the location of the boat when Doc was born. He was born at night and there was a storm of some kind, but there is nothing that says it was a big storm or that the boat was scuttled. In fact, the Super Sagas never say that the Orion sank. That comes from Dent's notes. So it is entirely possible that the Orion may have sunk off Andros Island or somewhere else in the Bahamas at some date subsequent to November 12 in one of those pocket hurricanes for which the Caribbean is famous.

All we know for sure from the Super Sagas is that Doc's mother died before he was one year old. In the story Cargo Unknown (Summer 1944) we are told:

Doc had never known his mother; she had died when he was less than a year old.

The best evidence we have is that she did not come to America with her husband and child after they recovered the treasure from the Caribbean that was the foundation of Clark Sr.'s fortune.

Meanwhile, a small rain storm on the night of the birth which had been localized to the area of the schooner is also feasible. We must not forget that Andros Island is on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle. All kinds of odd weather patterns come up suddenly and unexpectedly there. What we know for certain is that sometime after Doc was born, the Orion sank in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle where many ships have mysteriously vanished in what had appeared to be clear seas and his mother died when it did.





















So I must defer to Phil Farmer. Doc Savage was born on November 12, 1901. But on the Birth Record that his father registered with the US authorities, he used the date May 25, 1901 to conceal their identities. As a result, Doc Savage has two birthdays! One is his LEGAL birthday and the other is his REAL birthday. Being a larger-than-life hero, he is entitled to both of them.

Murder Mirage and the Hiroshima Shadows

{Spoiler Alert}

The Super Saga Murder Mirage (January, 1936) has a very interesting super scietnfic menace. It is an unknown radioactive element that causes a green "flash" which dissolves flesh and organic material leaving behind only metal artifacts like buttons and jewelry and the victim's shadow which is burnt into the ground.

This was a prescient predcition of Lester Dent which he made nine years before the Atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan in August 1946. the pictures above show some of the amazing shadows that were burnt into the landscape as a result of the atomic flash.

The most amazing ones are the two which show the shadow of a man who had been sitting on the steps outside his bank in Hiroshima waiting for it to open. He was within 0.3 miles of the atomic explosion. The man was totally disintegrated. Nothing was left of him except for his shodow on the steps. There were many of these death shadows found near ground zero. They captured people doing everyday tasks when the nuclear flash overtook them and they evaporated away.

The parallel between the Hiroshima Shadows and the Murder Mirage shadows are startling. I have found that Lester Dent was a great prognosticator. Almost frighteningly so. In The Secret in the Sky (May, 1935), Dent predicted that a faster-than-sound aircraft would make a loud booming noise when it passed over head analogous to the "crack" of a bullet as it passed by your ear. This was fully 12 years before Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier on October 14th, 1947 in the Bell X-1 rocket plane.






Lester Dent was clearly a man of vision and way ahead of his time.