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127-437: The heroic-adventure character would go on to appear in other media, including radio, film, and comic books, with his adventures reprinted for modern-day audiences in a series of paperback books , which had sold over 20 million copies by 1979. Into the 21st century, Doc Savage has remained a nostalgic icon in the U.S., referenced in novels and popular culture . Longtime Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee credited Doc Savage as being

254-455: A dime novel publisher partially owned by brother and sister Joseph Meyers and Edna Meyers Williams and hired them to organize a new company called "Avon Publications". Avon copied the basic format established by Pocket Books but differentiated itself by emphasizing, as a book on collecting paperbacks says, "popular appeal rather than loftier concepts of literary merit." In 1953, Time magazine summarized its books as "westerns, whodunits, and

381-404: A super race refers to an entire category of beings with the same or varying superhuman characteristics, created from present-day human beings by deploying various means such as eugenics , euthenics , genetic engineering , nanotechnology , and/or brain–computer interfacing to accelerate the process of human evolution . Throughout history, the discussion of superhuman traits and the idea of

508-500: A 96 ml/kg/min. Another man, Dean Karnazes ran 50 marathons in 50 days in all 50 states in the United States in 2006. On February 4, 2015 actor and power lifter Hafthor Bjornsson broke a 1000-year-old record by carrying a 650 kilogram (1,433 pound) log on his back for 5 steps. Outside of athletics, many people have performed superhuman feats. The Blue Angels flight acrobatics team regularly pulls maneuvers equal to 4–6 times

635-509: A choice of the original pulp cover or the covers from the Bantam paperbacks, and most include the original interior artwork, as well as new essays and reprints of other old material. In late 2008, Nostalgia Ventures ended their relationship, and Sanctum Books continues with the reprints on their own. Two Doc Savage radio series were broadcast during the pulp era. The first, in 1934, was a 15-minute serial which ran for 26 episodes. The 1943 series

762-410: A collection of reprinted material. Graphic novels may also be printed in trade paperback form. Publishers sometimes release popular collections first in a hardback form, followed by a trade paperback months later. Examples include Marvel Comics ' Secret War and DC Comics ' Watchmen . Japanese manga , when they are collected into volumes, are published in the tankōbon format, approximately

889-506: A correlation between the actions of man, and the patterns of the earth, in which this unity established with God, nature and man can allow for super human feats to become possible. The Nietzschean notion of bettering one's self as an individual was expanded within the philosophy of Nazism to apply to whole groups and nations. Nazi racialist thinkers proposed perfecting the Aryan race through controlled breeding and coercive eugenics (including

1016-511: A crossover with King Kong , was released in 2013. Murray teamed Doc up with another Street & Smith pulp-era hero, The Shadow , in Doc Savage: The Sinister Shadow (2015) and Doc Savage: Empire of Doom (2016). Sanctum Books, in association with Nostalgia Ventures, began a new series of Doc reprints (starting November 2006), featuring two novels per book, in magazine-sized paperbacks. Several editions came with

1143-404: A dashing and daring life. The character first appeared on screen in a 1975 film, Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze . It was announced on May 30, 2016, that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would be playing Clark "Doc" Savage, billed as the "World's First Superhero", and the film would be directed by Shane Black with a script by Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry. In 2020, the concept was changed from

1270-410: A few years of publishing undistinguished novels, focused on the romance genre and became one of the world's largest publishers. At first, paperbacks consisted entirely of reprints, but in 1950, Fawcett Publications ' Gold Medal Books began publishing original fiction in mass–market paperback. It was revolutionary. The term paperback original applies to paperback original publications of fiction. It

1397-462: A film involving several Street and Smith pulp heroes, including The Shadow , The Avenger , and Doc Savage. A screenplay was supposedly written by Siavash Farahani but since then, no other news surfaced with regards to this script. Writer/director Shane Black was set to direct a film adaptation for Original Film and Sony Pictures . Black would also co-write the screenplay with Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry . The film version will be set in

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1524-566: A film to a television show. A team of scientists assembled by his father deliberately trained his mind and body to near- superhuman abilities almost from birth, giving him great strength and endurance, a photographic memory , a mastery of the martial arts , and vast knowledge of the sciences. Doc is also a master of disguise and an excellent imitator of voices. He is a physician , scientist, adventurer, detective, inventor, explorer, researcher, and, as revealed in The Polar Treasure ,

1651-622: A form of achieving superhuman capabilities is a well known concept in fiction, such as films like Limitless and the Marvel Comics character Nuke , in real life the current substances that are known and available do not produce such fantastical abilities. The results from some of these drugs are minimal, and often short term. However, they can still produce detrimental side effects , including many adverse psychological effects. SARMS and DMAA are safer forms to enhance physical performance. Other forms of enhancement include strengthening

1778-433: A fraction of the historical cost of a book, and were of a smaller format, 110 mm × 178 mm ( 4 + 3 ⁄ 8  in × 7 in), aimed at the railway traveller. The Routledge's Railway Library series of paperbacks remained in print until 1898, and offered the traveling public 1,277 unique titles. The Continental market also supported examples of cheap paper-bound books: Bernhard Tauchnitz started

1905-628: A line of Fawcett paperbacks, and he felt original works would not be a violation of the contract. To challenge the contract, Fawcett published two anthologies— The Best of True Magazine and What Today's Woman Should Know About Marriage and Sex —reprinting material from Fawcett magazines not previously published in books. After these books were successfully published, Fawcett announced in December 1949 that in February 1950 it would publish "original fiction including westerns and mysteries at 25 cents in

2032-431: A meaning to life greater than one person, and positively influencing the lives of others with an overarching goal of humanity. These goals help one overcome life's feeling of meaninglessness. In transhumanism and futurology , superhuman abilities are the technological aim either of human enhancement by genetic modification or cybernetic implants or of future superhuman artificial intelligence . Human enhancement

2159-408: A medium-sized paperback of 129 mm × 198 mm ( 5 + 1 ⁄ 8  in ×  7 + 3 ⁄ 4  in). This size has been used to distinguish literary novels from genre fiction . In the U.S., books of this size are thought of as smaller trade paperbacks (see below). A trade paperback (also called trade paper edition and trade ) is a higher-quality paperback book. If it

2286-433: A movie adaptation of The Thousand-Headed Man . Complications with rights killed the project. In 1975, producer and director George Pal produced the movie Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze , starring Ron Ely as Doc Savage. The movie was a critical failure and did poorly at the box office. Several articles and a later interview with Pal suggest the movie's failure had much to do with its loss of funding during filming when

2413-423: A musician. Dent described the hero as a mix of Sherlock Holmes ' deductive abilities, Tarzan 's outstanding physical abilities, Craig Kennedy 's scientific education, and Abraham Lincoln 's goodness. He also described Doc Savage as manifesting " Christliness ." Doc's character and world-view is displayed in his oath, which goes as follows: Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to

2540-543: A network of railways. These innovations enabled the likes of Simms and McIntyre of Belfast, Routledge & Sons (founded in 1836) and Ward & Lock (founded in 1854) to mass-produce cheap uniform yellowback or paperback editions of existing works, and distribute and sell them across the British Isles , principally via the ubiquitous W. H. Smith & Sons newsagent found at most urban British railway stations. These paper bound volumes were offered for sale at

2667-451: A paperback copy of Four Tragedies of Shakespeare . "Sometimes one can find Shakespeare on these shelves among the many lurid novels of juvenile delinquents," he comments. In 1945, Bantam Books was formed by Walter B. Pitkin Jr. , Sidney B. Kramer, and husband and wife Ian and Betty Ballantine as a mass-market paperback publisher. The fifth major 1940s publisher of mass-market paperbacks

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2794-474: A pocket-sized format" in a series called Gold Medal Books. Publishers Weekly reported in May 1950 that Fawcett books were "similar in appearance and cover allure to many of the paperback reprints, but the story material [was] original and not reprinted from regular editions." It also said the authors would be paid a $ 2,000 advance with a guaranteed first printing of 200,000 copies. That same month Fawcett released

2921-521: A potential Wold Newton Universe cross-over involving a meeting between Doc Savage and a retired Sherlock Holmes in 1936. In any case, this screenplay was never filmed. In 1966, the basic premise of Doc Savage's origin was an obvious influence on the Mexican lucha libre film character Mil Mascaras (1966), which was released at the height of the popularity of the Doc Savage paperback book series in

3048-426: A print run of about 10,000 copies each were: This list includes seven novels, the most recent being six year old ( Lost Horizons , 1933), two classics (Shakespeare and Wuthering Heights , both out of copyright), one mystery novel, one book of poetry ( Enough Rope ), and one self-help book. The success of Pocket Books led to others entering the market. In 1941, American News Company , a magazine distributor, bought

3175-579: A proposed Doc Savage TV series, George Pal commissioned a two-part teleplay by Alvin Sapinsley based on the May 1935 pulp novel The Secret in the Sky . The teleplay was completed in January 1975, but due to the poor reception of the first Doc Savage film, a pilot was never filmed. Another screenplay was written by Philip José Farmer based on the January 1936 pulp novel Murder Mirage . It included

3302-409: A reprint and one original, with two covers and two title pages. In 1952, husband and wife publishers Ian and Betty Ballantine left Bantam Books and founded their own publishing house, Ballantine Books , to publish paperbacks simultaneously with their publication in hardcover by traditional publishers. Their first book, Cameron Hawley 's Executive Suite , published January 1, 1952 at 35 cents in

3429-568: A reputation as a "superman". Savage is accompanied on his adventures by up to five other regular characters (referred to in the 1975 movie and in marketing materials from the Bantam Books republication as "The Fabulous Five"), all highly accomplished individuals in their own right. In later stories, Doc's companions become less important to the plot as the stories focus more on Doc. The "missing" characters are explained as working elsewhere, too busy with their own accomplishments to help. Toward

3556-458: A second script based on the first Doc Savage pulp novel, The Man of Bronze , because he felt the movie-going audience needed more background information about Doc and his origin. Contemporary news accounts indicated that Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil had been filmed in the Lake Tahoe area simultaneously with the principal photography for the first Doc Savage film. However, due to

3683-477: A smaller profit per unit. First editions of many modern books, especially genre fiction , are issued in paperback. Best-selling books, on the other hand, may maintain sales in hardcover for an extended period to reap the greater profits that the hardcovers provide. The early 19th century saw numerous improvements in the printing, publishing and book-distribution processes, with the introduction of steam-powered printing presses, pulp mills, automatic type setting, and

3810-404: A specific task. Examples of where computers have achieved superhuman performance include Backgammon , Bridge , Chess , Reversi , Scrabble , Go and Jeopardy! . It is suggested that there is a relationship between the fall of a society and the perfection of mankind. Many economic, social and environmental factors, which all contribute to the sustainability of a society, are built upon

3937-436: A successful human one would focus on the realities of our world, rather than the beyond world, or afterlife. Nietzsche explores the idea of a superhuman in his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra , in which he discusses the reality of humans existing as just that, and their potential to be more, through risks taken to advance humanity. This belief focuses not on a man who is bettering oneself but instead establishes values which create

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4064-471: A very long list of pocket editions, James Hilton 's Lost Horizon is often cited as the first American paperback book. However, the first mass-market, pocket-sized, paperback book printed in the U.S. was an edition of Pearl Buck 's The Good Earth , produced by Pocket Books as a proof-of-concept in late 1938, and sold in New York City. The first ten Pocket Book titles published in May 1939 with

4191-444: A wide readership of men and women serving in the military or employed as shift workers; paperbacks were cheap, readily available, and easily posted and carried. Furthermore, people found that restrictions on travel gave them time to read more paperbacks. Four-color printing (invented in 1906 ) and lamination (invented in 1936 ) developed for military maps made the paperback cover eye catching and kept ink from running as people handled

4318-539: Is a movement of art by the people, for the people, and about the people. It is about tolerance and human understanding. Initially, a superhumanist work will move you to feel—to laugh, to cry, to shudder, to be overwhelmed with compassion. They do not include any aesthetic gesture to distract from the vivid nature of the image. A superhumanist work will take a down to earth subject, and use original technical means to exaggerate it, achieving an over-the-top impact of its humanist theme". Treadwell used this art movement to emphasize

4445-529: Is a notation at the end of the original film that a sequel adapted from the novel Death in Silver featuring the infamous Silver Death's-Heads was in the works, but nothing came of it, despite the drafting of a script for it). According to the screenplay by Joe Morhaim that was posted on the Internet, as well as other archival and news accounts, Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil was based very loosely on

4572-402: Is a softcover edition of a previous hardcover edition and is published by the same house as the hardcover, the text pages are normally identical with those of the hardcover edition, and the book is almost the same size as the hardcover edition. The pagination is the same, so that references to the text will be unchanged: this is particularly important for reviewers and scholars. The only difference

4699-399: Is an attempt to temporarily or permanently overcome the current limitations of the human body through natural or artificial means. Human enhancement may be through the use of technological means to select or alter human characteristics and capacities, whether or not the alteration results in characteristics and capacities that lie beyond the existing human range. Some bioethicists restrict

4826-477: Is mentioned in Truman Capote 's novel In Cold Blood , as an older Kansan recalls Doc's "fixing" of the criminals he had caught. Lester Dent , the series' principal author, had a mixed regard for his own creations. Though usually protective of his own work, he could be derisive of his pulp output. In interviews, he stated that he harbored no illusions of being a high-quality author of literature; for him,

4953-401: Is not expected to be a major seller and the publisher wishes to release the book without a large investment. Examples include many novels and newer editions or reprintings of older books. Because paperbacks tend to have smaller profit margins , many publishers try to balance the profit to be made by selling fewer hardcovers against the potential profit to be made by selling more paperbacks with

5080-434: Is not usually applied to original non–fiction publications, although paperback publishers also began issuing original non–fiction titles. Fawcett, an independent newsstand distributor, in 1945, negotiated a contract with New American Library to distribute its Mentor and Signet titles. That contract prohibited Fawcett from becoming a competitor by publishing its own paperback reprints. Roscoe Kent Fawcett wanted to establish

5207-563: Is on the 86th floor of a New York City skyscraper, implicitly the Empire State Building , reached by Doc's private high-speed elevator. Doc owns a fleet of cars, trucks, aircraft, and boats which he stores at a secret hangar on the Hudson River , under the name The Hidalgo Trading Company , which is linked to his office by a pneumatic-tube system nicknamed the "flea run". He sometimes retreats to his Fortress of Solitude in

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5334-468: Is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples . In contrast, hardback (hardcover) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic. Inexpensive books bound in paper have existed since at least the 19th century in such forms as pamphlets , yellowbacks , dime novels , and airport novels . Modern paperbacks can be differentiated from one another by size. In

5461-451: Is particularly true of first novels by new authors. The mass-market paperbacks sold in airport newsstands have given rise to the vaguely defined literary genre of the " airport novel ", bought by travelers to read while they sit and wait. Mass-market paperbacks also have offered collections of comic strips and magazine cartoon series, such as Ernie Bushmiller 's Nancy and Chon Day 's Brother Sebastian . The term B-format indicates

5588-630: Is revealed as a blimp, a scorching death comes from super-charged electric batteries, a "sea angel" is a mechanical construct towed by a submarine, Navy ships sunk by a mysterious force are actually sabotaged, and so on. But Doc Savage also battles invisible killers, a murderous teleporter, and superscientific foes from the center of the Earth. In earlier stories, some of the criminals captured by Doc receive "a delicate brain operation" to cure their criminal tendencies. These criminals return to society, unaware of their past, to lead productive lives. The operation

5715-416: Is the soft binding; the paper is usually of higher quality than that of a mass-market paperback, often being acid-free paper . In the United States, the term trade paperback also encompasses the medium-sized paperbacks described as B-format, above. British trade paperbacks are 135 mm × 216 mm ( 5 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ×  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in). Trade paperbacks did not enter

5842-548: The Arctic , which pre-dates Superman 's similar hideout of the same name. The entire operation is funded with gold from a Central American mine given to him by the local descendants of the Maya people in the first Doc Savage story. (Doc and his assistants learned the little-known Mayan language of this people at the same time, allowing them to communicate privately when others might be listening.) Lester Dent kept current with

5969-549: The Great Depression , enabling him to buy a yacht and vacation in the Caribbean. All of the original stories were reprinted in paperback form by Bantam Books in the 1960s through 1990s. Of the first 67 paperback covers, 62 were painted in extraordinary monochromatic tones and super-realistic detail by James Bama , whose updated vision of Doc Savage with the exaggerated widow's peak captured, at least symbolically,

6096-465: The Penguin Books imprint. They adopted many of Albatross's innovations, including a conspicuous logo, using only type on the cover, and color-coded covers for different genres. The first book on Penguin's 1935 list was André Maurois ' Ariel . Lane intended to produce inexpensive books. He purchased paperback rights from publishers, ordered large print runs (such as 20,000 copies—large for

6223-777: The cloud of the future greatly expanded Internet through brain–computer interfacing ) by gradually replacing their biological cells with new cells having a more efficient cellular energy processing system that will be based on nanobots manufactured using nanotechnology . These nanobot based cells will enable those who possess these initially quasi android bodies ("Human body 2.0") to have much greater physical endurance as if they were permanently on steroids , and many Olympic records will be routinely broken. The five senses will be enhanced first by genetic enhancement and then by additional brain–computer interfacing. By about 2040, most humans will have become fully android ("Human body 3.0"). Finally, predicts Kurzweil, by 2045, because of

6350-424: The machine pistol , the supermachine pistol, or the rapid-firer. A wide range of ammunition types were used for the machine pistols, including incendiary bullets that smash on contact, coating the target with a high-temperature paste-fed fire, high explosive bullets able to uproot trees, ordinary lead bullets, and the sleep-inducing "mercy bullets". Doc also developed an automated typewriter. Doc's greatest foe, and

6477-555: The murder of those deemed unfit ) as a way of improving their racial stock and purifying their society. They intended to create a herrenvolk (race of masters) wherein the Germanic " Übermenschen " would rule over so-called inferior " untermenschen " such as Slavs and West Asians. The Neo-Nazi David Myatt advocated in the early 1990s that after the Western Imperium , a proposed future autocratic state governing all

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6604-445: The plants and animals in their natural ecosystems ) on large fleets of interplanetary spaceships that will rocket outward into the solar system and convert all the matter they encounter into megacomputers made of computronium (such as Jupiter Brains ) in order to continually expand the computer capacity of the solar system and thus create ever more realistic virtual reality and solve ever more complex computer problems . Once

6731-410: The poor reception of the first film, Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil was never completed or released. In an interview conducted in 2014, while he was filming the television movie Expecting Amish , actor Ron Ely stated unequivocally that "no portion of The Arch Enemy of Evil was ever filmed, concurrently with The Man of Bronze or otherwise. That's a total myth." Finally, in anticipation of

6858-408: The "Singularity", the worldwide supercomputer will deploy other humanoid androids and robots in the meat world . A space navy of these androids and robots will radiate outward from Earth (by now itself a gigantic worldwide supercomputer , except for extensive areas of the surface of Earth set up as nature reserves for those humans who wanted to remain in their natural state as well as to preserve

6985-494: The 1930s and will include the Fabulous Five. Neal H. Moritz will produce. In September 2013, talking about the difficulty in casting the character, Black commented, "He's the perfect physical specimen, people look at him and they are over-awed by the symmetry and perfection he exudes." In June 2014, it was revealed that he wanted Chris Hemsworth for the lead role but Hemsworth was never officially announced or attached to

7112-438: The 1940s. The books measured 6.5" by 4.25" (16.5 cm by 10.8 cm), had full-color covers, and cost 25 cents. Eventually in the 1950s the height increased by 0.5" (1.4 cm) to 7" (18 cm). The width remained the same because wire display racks used in many locations could not hold wider books. With the larger size came a higher price, first 35 cents and then 50 cents. Because of its number-one position in what became

7239-740: The 7" height simultaneously with Houghton Mifflin 's $ 3.00 hardcover edition, was a success for both publishers. Of their next nine novels, two were published simultaneously by Houghton Mifflin and one by Farrar, Straus & Young and six were stand-alone originals. In 1953, Dell announced its line of originals, Dell First Editions, and published its first novels by Walt Grove, Frederic Brown , and Charles Einstein . Genre categories began to emerge, and mass-market book covers reflected those categories. Mass-market paperbacks influenced slick and pulp magazines . The market for cheap magazines diminished when buyers began to buy cheap books instead. Authors also found themselves abandoning magazines and writing for

7366-464: The 86th floor of a world-famous New York skyscraper (implied, but never outright stated, as the Empire State Building ; Phillip Jose Farmer, in his Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life , gives good evidence that this is likely the case). Doc Savage fights against evil with the assistance of the "Fabulous Five". Doc Savage has appeared in comics and a movie, on radio, and as a character in numerous other works, and continues to inspire authors and artists in

7493-470: The American market until around 1960. Unlike mass-market paperbacks they are distributed by their original hard-cover publishers directly to book stores, not through magazine distributors to other retailers. Trade paperbacks are often used to reprint several issues of a comic series in one volume, usually an important storyline or the entire series, and the name trade paperback has become synonymous with

7620-481: The Bantam Books reprints a success, media tie-ins for Doc Savage began immediately. A 1965 house ad for a poster, "The Arch-Enemy of Evil", announces, "Tougher than Tarzan, braver than Bond, Doc is America's newest rage - with teenagers, college students, and the 'in' groups all over the country. And there's a television series and feature motion picture in the future." In 1967, a TV Guide article reported talks were underway to have Chuck Connors play Doc Savage in

7747-590: The Canadian mass-market book trade in the early 1960s, with its "Canadian best seller library" series, at a time when Canadian literary culture was beginning to be popularized, and a call for a Canadian author identity was discussed by the Canadian people. The mass-market paperback is a small, usually non-illustrated, inexpensive bookbinding format. This includes the A-format books of 110 mm × 178 mm ( 4 + 3 ⁄ 8  in × 7 in), in

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7874-516: The Collection of British and American Authors in 1841. These inexpensive, paperbound editions, a direct precursor to mass-market paperbacks, eventually ran to over 5,000 volumes. Reclam published Shakespeare in this format from October 1857 and went on to pioneer the mass market paperbound Universal-Bibliothek series from 10 November 1867. The German publisher Albatross Books revised the 20th-century mass-market paperback format in 1931, but

8001-428: The Doc Savage series was simply a job, a way to earn a living by "churning out reams and reams of sellable crap", never dreaming how his series would catch on. Comics historian Jim Steranko revealed that Dent used a formula to write his Doc Savage stories, so that his heroes were continually, and methodically, getting in and out of trouble. Dent was initially paid $ 500 per story and this was later increased to $ 750 during

8128-471: The North American market. To reach an even broader market than Lane, he used distributors of newspapers and magazines to distribute his books because they had a lengthy history of being aimed (in format and distribution) at mass audiences. Pocket Books were not available in book stores because they did not carry magazines. Pocket Books established the format for all subsequent paperback publishers in

8255-520: The October 1934 pulp novel Death in Silver . Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil would feature a deformed, German-speaking supervillain , whose pet man-eating octopus was a nod to a similar plot element in the September 1937 pulp novel The Feathered Octopus . In fact, this screenplay was originally intended to be filmed as the first Doc Savage movie. However, producer George Pal commissioned

8382-475: The U.S. In 1999, there was an announcement that a possible remake featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the works, with the involvement of Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell , but it and several other Schwarzenegger projects ( Sgt. Rock and an epic about the Crusades ) were shelved when Schwarzenegger ran for and was elected Governor of California . In late 2006, Sam Raimi was rumoured to be making

8509-669: The United Kingdom, and the "pocketbook" format books of a similar size, in the United States. Mass-market paperbacks usually are printed on cheap paper. They are commonly released after the hardback edition and often sold not only at bookstores, but also where books are not the main business, such as at airports , drugstores , and supermarkets. In 1982, romance novels accounted for at least 25% of all paperback sales. In 2013, 51% of paperback sales were romance. Many titles, especially in genre fiction, have their first editions in paperback and are never published in hardcover; this

8636-754: The United States, Robert de Graaf created the Pocket Books label in 1939, partnering with Simon & Schuster to issue a similar line of reprints. Because at first Pocket Books was the only publisher of paperbacks, the term "pocket book" became synonymous with paperback in English-speaking North America. (In France, the term livre de poche , which translates as "pocket book", was used and is still in use today.) De Graaf, like Lane, negotiated paperback rights from other publishers, and produced many runs. His practices contrasted with those of Lane by his adoption of illustrated covers aimed at

8763-460: The United States, in every local grocery store, drug store, dime store , and bus and train station, displaying everything from best sellers and mysteries and westerns to classics and Shakespeare. In 1955, in William Inge 's Broadway play Bus Stop , it did not seem unbelievable that a long-distance bus traveller stranded by a snowstorm in an out-of-the-way cafe walks to a shelf and picks up

8890-404: The United States, there are "mass-market paperbacks" and larger, more durable "trade paperbacks". In the United Kingdom, there are A-format, B-format, and the largest C-format sizes. Paperback editions of books are issued when a publisher decides to release a book in a low-cost format. Lower-quality paper, glued (rather than stapled or sewn) bindings, and the lack of a hard cover may contribute to

9017-490: The approach of World War II cut the experiment short. Albatross's innovations included a standardized size, use of new sans-serif fonts, use of logo and type on the cover without an illustration, and color-coding the covers by genre. In 1935, British publisher Allen Lane , investing his own capital, initiated the paperback revolution in the English-language book market by releasing ten reprint titles to launch

9144-618: The areas inhabited by the Aryan race , is established, and the birth rate of the Aryan race is brought up from its present level of about 1.6 to a replacement rate of 2.1, that then a new super-race called Homo Galactica should be created by genetic engineering from the most perfect Aryans, which by then will have themselves been improved through genetic enhancement . This new super race would be genetically engineered to have super brains, super senses, and more delicate hands to be able to travel in starships , which would be sent out to colonize

9271-412: The best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man. By the third story, Doc already has

9398-399: The book. A revolving metal rack (invented in 1906), designed to display a wide variety of paperbacks in a small space, found its way into drugstores , dimestores , and markets. During World War II, the U.S. military distributed some 122 million " Armed Services Editions " paperback novels to the troops. After the war, the former servicemembers' familiarity with paperbacks helped popularize

9525-470: The character in the pulps. This lasted through the end of Doc Savage Comics in 1943 after 20 issues, and briefly with his return to Shadow Comics in vol. 3, #10 (Jan. 1944). He would last until the final issue, vol. 9, #5 (1948), though did not appear in every one. He also appeared in Supersnipe Comics #9 (June 1943). Post- Golden Age , there have been several Doc Savage comic books: With

9652-402: The character is being dubbed the "World's First Superhero", mentioning that Savage's published appearance pre-dated that of Superman 's (who debuted in 1938). Johnson also included the hashtag "#World'sFirstSuperhero". On April 11, 2018, Johnson said he and Black were still eager to do the project, but, "That project had a few issues, not creative issues but more so business affairs issues—where

9779-508: The character moved to his own book, Doc Savage Comics . Originally, these stories were based on the pulp version, but with Doc Savage Comics #5 (1941), he was turned into a genuine superhero when he crashed in Tibet and was given a blue hood with a sacred ruby in the forehead that deflected bullets and hypnotized anyone who gazed into its mystical red light. These stories had a Doc (now known as "The Invincible") who bore little resemblance to

9906-737: The characters from the X-Men franchise and cyborgs such as those found in the Ghost in the Shell franchise. In 2005, the inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted that over a 40-year period between 2005 and 2045, most human beings will gradually evolve into a super race of immortal cyborgs called Transhumans with super-bodies and super-brains (the super brains of the humanoid androids will have greater capacity not only in and of themselves, but also because they will be able to function more efficiently by storing some of their mental capacity in

10033-426: The connection between mundane nature of humans, and the superior characteristics that exist in that simplicity. Stan Lee's Superhumans was a television show devoted to finding people around the world who exhibit abilities that exceed normal human capabilities. Daniel Browning Smith , the most flexible man in the world, is an example of a superhuman who travels the world finding physical and mental feats that expand

10160-511: The end of the series, usually only Monk and Ham appear with Doc. Doc's cousin Patricia "Pat" Savage , who has Doc's bronze skin, golden eyes, and bronze hair, also is along for many of the adventures, despite Doc's best efforts to keep her away from danger. Pat chafes under these restrictions, or indeed any effort to protect her simply because she is female. She is also able to fluster Doc, even as she completely charms Monk and Ham. Doc's office

10287-482: The entire Milky Way Galaxy with the descendants of Aryans. Many acts performed by elite athletes are seen as superhuman. Elite athletes perform at a level that is perceived as unattainable by normal standards of performance. These are the result of a mixture of performance enhancing drugs, genetics, physical training, and mental conditioning. For example, the highest VO2 max test results ever recorded were from Norwegian cross-country skier, Bjorn Daehlie , who scored

10414-424: The entire Milky Way Galaxy. When these nanobots arrive in a planetary system , the nanobots will be programmed with software to begin converting some of the matter they encounter into more androids and robots. While in the process of doing so, they will continue converting all other matter they encounter not being used to create additional androids and robots into more megacomputers—the androids and robots created by

10541-476: The essence of the Doc Savage novels. The first 96 paperbacks reprinted one of the original novels per book. Actor and model Steve Holland , who had played Flash Gordon in a 1953 television series, was the model for Doc on all the covers. The next 15 paperbacks (consisting of stories 97 through 126 in the Bantam reissue series) were "doubles", reprinting two novels each (these were actually shorter novellas written during paper shortages of World War II). The last of

10668-417: The final cancellation of the magazine. In a September 20, 1948, letter to Lester Dent , Bacon wrote "As long as we are dropping the science detective and returning to just Doc Savage, I think we should return to a real adventure story..." A key characteristic of the Doc Savage stories is that the threats, no matter how fantastic, usually have a rational explanation. For example, a giant mountain-walking spider

10795-506: The first four Gold Medal books, original novels by W. R. Burnett , Sax Rohmer , Richard Himmel, and John Flagg - one western and three mysteries/adventure novels. Fawcett's action led to immediate controversy, with an executive Vice president of Pocket Books attacking the whole idea, a literary agent reporting that one hardcover publisher threatened to boycott his agency if he dealt with mass market publishers, and Doubleday 's LeBaron R. Barker claiming that paperback originals could "undermine

10922-504: The first issue of Doc Savage Magazine . Because of the success of the Shadow, who had his own pulp magazine, the publishers Street & Smith quickly launched this pulp title. Unlike the Shadow, Clark Savage, "Doc" to his friends, had no special powers but was raised from birth by his father and other scientists to become one of the most perfect human beings in terms of strength, intelligence, and physical abilities. Doc Savage set up base on

11049-718: The force of gravity (g), with some turns as high as 8g. One man, Greg Poe, is a pilot who was able withstand turns of 12g. There are also many stories of people lifting extremely heavy objects under extreme stress, known as hysterical strength . These situations are created when abnormal tasks are completed due to the brain's heightened need for achievement. One modern day method of achieving above average abilities include performance-enhancing drugs ; these include substances such as painkillers , blood boosters , stimulants , and anabolic steroids , but can also encompass substances that are not fully recognized as enhancers such as caffeine , protein supplements, and vitamins . While drugs as

11176-424: The forerunner to modern superheroes . Doc Savage Magazine was printed by Street & Smith from March 1933 to the summer of 1949 to capitalize on the success of The Shadow magazine and followed by the original Avenger in September 1939. In all, 181 issues were published in various entries and alternative titles. Doc Savage became known to more contemporary readers when Bantam Books began reprinting

11303-441: The format. Two new developments changed the nature of the mass-market paperback business. One was the decision by publishers to publish more recent best selling books than the older books originally published by Pocket Book. They sought reprint rights on new books and soon found themselves in competition for the biggest sellers, leading to bidding against each other for the rights and costing them more money. The second development

11430-429: The high levels of advancements being achieved hence correlating with a need for power, eventually leading to an ultimate state of anarchy. As a major defining factor of the superhumanism philosophy, humans are expected to possess traits that are considered to be those of high moral grounds, dignity and intrinsic values. Many people who believe in superhumanism value the importance of independent responsibility in making

11557-507: The ideal human in physical, mental, or spiritual form has influenced politics, policy, philosophy, science and various social movements, as well as featuring prominently in culture. Groups advocating the deliberate pursuit of superhuman qualities for philosophical, political, or moral reasons are sometimes referred to as superhumanist . Modern depictions of this have evolved and are shown in superhero fiction or through technologically aided people or cyborgs . The Übermensch or "Superman"

11684-405: The impermanence of paperbacks by telling readers if you "enjoyed it so much you may wish to own it in a more permanent edition", they could return the 25 cent book to Pocket Books with an additional 70 cents and it would send them a copy of the 95 cent Modern Library edition "substantially bound in durable cloth." Since the mid-20th century, paperbacks can also be the preferred medium when a book

11811-417: The individual magazine novels in 1964, this time with covers by artist James Bama that featured a bronze-haired, bronze-skinned Doc Savage with an exaggerated widows' peak , usually wearing a torn khaki shirt and under the by-line "Kenneth Robeson". The stories were not reprinted in chronological order as originally published, though they did begin with the first adventure, The Man of Bronze . By 1967, Bantam

11938-666: The kind of boy-meets-girl story that can be illustrated by a ripe cheesecake jacket [cover]". The next year Dell Publishing , which was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. to publish pulp magazines , joined with Western Publishing to publish Dell Books . Like Avon, Dell followed the basic format established by Pocket Books. But within that format, "Dell achieved more variety than any of its early competitors [with its] . . . instantly identifiable format of vibrant airbrushed covers for its predominantly genre fiction", specialized logos and special features like maps and lists of characters. World War II brought both new technology and

12065-464: The lower cost of paperbacks. In the early days of modern paperbacks, the 1930s and 1940s, they were sold as a cheaper, less permanent, and more convenient alternative to traditional hardcover books, as the name of the first American paperback publisher, Pocket Books, indicates. In addition, the Pocket Books edition of Wuthering Heights , one of the first ten books it published in 1939, emphasized

12192-454: The market - Lion Books and Pyramid Books (both 1949), Fawcett Gold Medal Books (1950), Ace Books and Ballantine Books (both 1952), and Berkley Books (1955). U.S. paperbacks quickly entered the Canadian market. Canadian mass-market paperback initiatives in the 1940s included White Circle Books, a subsidiary of Collins (UK.); it was fairly successful but was soon outstripped by the success of Harlequin which began in 1949 and, after

12319-503: The material properties of bone by integrating it with titanium foam. More studies are needed to assess the long term effects of these emerging technologies. Technology can also be used to improve on human sensory and communication abilities as has been shown through experimentation with nervous system implants. In this way humans can take on senses such as ultrasonics for an accurate indication of distance and communicate much more directly between brains. Speculation about human nature and

12446-416: The matter of the solar system has been mostly converted to computer substrate, forming a Matrioshka brain , according to Kurzweil, by about the beginning of the 22nd century, life will then expand outward into interstellar space in all directions, deploying miniature starships (to save on expensive anti matter starship fuel) that will be Von Neumann probes crewed by swarms of nanobots , to colonize

12573-506: The nanobots will build interplanetary spaceships to fan out into the planetary system and themselves help get this job done. Some of the androids and robots will then settle down in the meat world as immortal colonists on the surfaces of the Matrioshka brains thus constructed (regularly making backup copies of the contents of their brains so they can be reconstructed if they are killed in an accident), while others will upload themselves into

12700-508: The need for a solution to a problem. Superhumanism requires the ability to overcome these problems, either through physical, mental or emotional triumphs of purity and self-actualization. Through the elimination of these problems, many economies and social structures would be collapsed. Also, through advancement in areas such as Transhumanism , some believe that people humans will advance to a point of education and readiness that war will break out between one another, or tyrannies will reign, due to

12827-584: The only enemy to appear in two of the original pulp stories, was the Russian-born John Sunlight , introduced in October 1938 in the Fortress of Solitude . Early villains in the "super-sagas" were fantastic schemers bent on ruling the world. Later, the magazine was retitled Doc Savage, Science Detective , and Doc dealt with more conventional criminal organizations. The super-saga was revived in 1948 by new editor Daisy Bacon shortly before

12954-531: The operation of Moore's law , supercomputers linked together by the Internet will have developed enough memory capacity such that most of the now mostly android human race (except those who do not want to) will be able to upload themselves into the worldwide Internet supercomputer of 2045 and live forever after in virtual reality —an event he calls the Singularity . Kurzweil predicts that soon after

13081-598: The original novels were reprinted in a numbered series of 13 "omnibus" volumes of four to five stories each. It was one of the few pulp series to be completely reprinted in paperback form. The Red Spider was a Doc Savage novel written by Dent in April 1948, about the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The story was killed in 1948 by new editor Daisy Bacon , though previous editor William de Grouchy had commissioned it. It

13208-415: The paperback market. The leading paperback publishers often hired experienced pulp magazine cover artists, including Rudolph Belarski and Earle K. Bergey , who helped create the look and feel of paperbacks and set an appealing visual standard that continues to this day. Scores of well-known authors were published in paperback, including Arthur Miller and John Steinbeck . McClelland and Stewart entered

13335-538: The possibilities of both human enhancement and future human evolution have made superhumans a popular subject of science fiction . Superhuman abilities are also associated with superhero fiction . In 1979, the British artist Nicholas Treadwell wrote a book entitled Superhumanism , followed by Superhumanism 2 in 1982. Treadwell defined his movement as "the first people's art movement—a movement, first and foremost, inspired by life, as opposed to inspired by art. It

13462-435: The project once was, who had rights to it, where we were trying to move it to. There was a lot of that, which we're still kind of working through." On February 19, 2020, it was announced Original Film would, instead, shift development to a television series. The project is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television and Condé Nast Entertainment. Mass market paperback A paperback ( softcover , softback ) book

13589-405: The project. On May 22, 2016, Black told Thrillist that he would like to make the movie with Dwayne Johnson , stating, "I made a decision that Dwayne is the guy. I would like to do Doc with Dwayne Johnson if we can make that work. It's on the back burner while he's busy." On May 30, 2016, Johnson confirmed on his Instagram account that he will be starring as Savage in the film, also hinting that

13716-410: The realm of fantastic adventure. Doc Savage Magazine was created by Street & Smith Publications executive Henry Ralston and editor John Nanovic to capitalize on the success of Street and Smith's pulp character, The Shadow . Ralston and Nanovic wrote a short premise establishing the broad outlines of the character they envisioned, but Doc Savage was only fully realized by the author chosen to write

13843-496: The realm of what humans can do. Human Body: Pushing the Limits is a Discovery Channel show that explains what happens to people's strength, sight, brainpower, and sensing abilities when placed under extreme stress. These circumstances can lead to short-term superhuman abilities, which allow people to excel in advanced, or impossible tasks. How to Be Superhuman is a podcast series by Red Bull about people who have gone close to

13970-443: The scientific developments of his era. While some of Doc's gadgets were simply science fiction many of his 'futuristic' devices were actual inventions, or ideas engineers were attempting to produce. Futuristic devices described in the series include the flying wing , the answering machine , television , automatic transmission , night vision goggles , electromagnetic rail guns , and a hand-held automatic weapon , known variously as

14097-472: The series with another Murray-Dent posthumous collaboration, The Desert Demons. Nine new novels are planned for the new series The Wild Adventures of Doc Savage . In 2011, Doc Savage: Horror in Gold was published. In 2012, Altus Press published Doc Savage: Death's Dark Domain , Doc Savage: The Forgotten Realm , Doc Savage: The Infernal Buddha and Doc Savage: The Desert Demons . Doc Savage: Skull Island ,

14224-461: The series, Lester Dent . Dent wrote most of the 181 original novels, hidden behind the " house name " of Kenneth Robeson . (See List of Doc Savage novels for a complete list of the titles in the original pulp magazine series.) One Lester Dent biographer hypothesizes that one inspiration for Doc Savage may have been the American military officer and author Richard Henry Savage , who wrote more than 40 books of adventure and mystery stories and lived

14351-428: The size of a trade-sized book. The most common tankōbon sizes are Japanese B6 (128 × 182 mm) and ISO A5 (148 × 210 mm). Superhuman The term superhuman refers to humans, humanoids or other beings with qualities and abilities that exceed those naturally found in humans . These qualities may be acquired through natural ability, self-actualization or technological aids. The related concept of

14478-511: The studio changed heads and Pal was forced to cut costs. Nevertheless, Pal, as producer, is generally blamed for using the "high camp" approach in the style of the Batman television series. An original soundtrack for the film was also commissioned, but when Pal lost his funding, he resorted to a patriotic march from John Philip Sousa , which was in the public domain . Science-fiction writer Philip José Farmer tried to get another movie made (there

14605-418: The term to the non-therapeutic application of specific technologies — neuro- , cyber- , gene- and nano-technologies —to human biology . According to transhumanist thinkers, a posthuman is a hypothetical future being "whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer unambiguously human by our current standards." Fictionalized accounts of transhumanism include

14732-474: The time) to keep unit prices low, and looked to non-traditional book-selling retail locations. Booksellers were initially reluctant to buy his books, but when Woolworths placed a large order, the books sold extremely well. After that initial success, booksellers showed more willingness to stock paperbacks, and the name "Penguin" became closely associated with the word "paperback" in Great Britain. In

14859-683: The virtual reality based on these Matrioshka brains, keeping their bodies in cryonic storage . Eventually, the entire Galaxy, then the Local group , then the Virgo Supercluster , then the Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex and ultimately the entire Universe will be turned into a gigantic megacomputer. Superhuman is one of the stages in classification of progress in artificial intelligence where an entity of artificial intelligence performs better than most humans do in

14986-460: The whole structure of publishing." Sales soared, prompting Gold Medal editorial director Ralph Daigh to comment later, "In the past six months we have produced 9,020,645 books, and people seem to like them very well." In 1950 Gold Medal published 35 titles, in 1952, 66. Other paperback publishers saw Gold Medal's success and began to emulate it. Publishers Weekly reported in May 1952 that Avon had included three originals in its April releases and

15113-415: The world a better, and more moral place. This often means being in, or establishing some sort of spirituality which allows one to follow guidelines and grounds of a moral structure, and achieve a certain level of clarity and purity in their self and their path to righteousness and betterment. Superhumanism is often referred to as a combination between religion and philosophy, which suggests that there should be

15240-642: Was New American Library . Originally Penguin USA, it became a separate publisher in 1948 as the New American Library of World Literature when it separated from Penguin and Victor Weybright and Kurt Enoch took over. Its original focus was classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction. Eventually it shortened its name to New American Library and published books in the Mentor and Signet lines. New paperback publishers continued to enter

15367-571: Was based not on the pulps, but on the comic book version of the character. No audio exists from either series, although some scripts survived. In 1985, National Public Radio aired The Adventures of Doc Savage , as 13 half-hour episodes, based on the pulps and adapted by Will Murray and Roger Rittner. Daniel Chodos starred as Doc. Street & Smith Comics published comic book stories of Doc both in The Shadow comic and his own title. These started with Shadow Comics #1–3 (1940). In May 1940,

15494-613: Was forgotten until 1975, when Doc Savage scholar Will Murray found hints of its existence in the Street & Smith archives. After a two-year search, the carbon manuscript was located among Dent's papers. It finally saw print in July 1979 as Number 95 in Bantam's Doc Savage series. When the original pulp stories were exhausted, Bantam Books hired Philip José Farmer to pen the tale of how Doc and his men met in World War I. Escape from Loki

15621-405: Was postulated in the later writings of Friedrich Nietzsche as a type of supreme, ultra- aristocratic achievement which becomes possible in the transcendence of modernity, morals or nihilism. Nietzsche believed in creating the perfect human, or at least a definition of one, and achieving this perfection through the enhancement of individual and cultural health, creativity, and power, and that to be

15748-478: Was published in 1991. It was followed by seven traditional Doc Savage stories written by novelist Will Murray, working from unpublished Lester Dent outlines, beginning with Python Isle. Philip José Farmer had earlier written the book Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life in 1973, which described the characters and the stories on the entertaining premise that Doc actually existed and the novels chronicled his exploits in "fictionized" form. In 2011, Altus Press revived

15875-590: Was publishing once a month until 1990, when all 181 original stories (plus an unpublished novel, The Red Spider ) had run their course. Author Will Murray produced seven more Doc Savage novels for Bantam Books from Lester Dent's original outlines. Bantam also published a novel by Philip José Farmer , Escape From Loki (1991), which told the story of how in World War I Doc met the men who would become his five comrades. Clark Savage Jr. first appeared in March 1933 in

16002-456: Was seeking more. It added that Dell was " 'thinking about' some systematic programs of original publishing," Lion Books had "a definite original publishing program in the works", and that Graphic had begun publishing originals about a year earlier. Bantam, Pocket Books, and New American Library said they were not going to publish originals. Also in 1952, Ace began publishing Ace Double Novel Books, two books printed in one volume for 35 cents, one

16129-475: Was the spinner rack , a metal pole with a four-sided wire frame designed to vertically hold rows of racks of paperback books. Retail store owners no longer had to devote feet of valuable counter space to low-profit paperbacks. Dozens of paperbacks could be displayed vertically in five or six square feet of floor space. (Similar racks were available for magazines and comic books.) By the late 1940s, paperback spinner racks were ubiquitous in large and small towns across

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