Doc Savage Meets King Kong in his latest adventure.
Eighty years ago in
February, 1933 the Street & Smith company released the first
issue of Doc Savage Magazine,
introducing one of the most popular and influential pulp superheroes ever to hit
the American scene. Doc Savage was the greatest adventure and scientist of his
era, and while his magazine ended in 1949, he influenced the creators of
Superman, Batman, Star Trek, The Man from UNCLE and the Marvel Universe—to name
only a few.
While that first issue of
Doc Savage was fresh on Depression newsstands, RKO
Studios released one of the most important fantasy films of all time. Everyone
knows the story of how King Kong was discovered on Skull Island and hauled back
to New York in chains, only to perish tragically atop the world's tallest
skyscraper, the Empire State Building.
As it happened, that was
where Doc Savage had his world headquarters. For decades, fans have wondered:
Where was Doc the day Kong fell?
On the eightieth
anniversary of these fictional giants, Altus Press is proud to release the first
authorized clash between The Man of Bronze and the Eighth Wonder of the
World—Doc Savage: Skull
Island.Written by Will Murray in collaboration with Joe DeVito, creator of
KONG: King of Skull Island, Doc Savage: Skull Island is a new pulp epic.
The story opens when Doc
returns from his Fortress of Solitude in the North Pole to
discover the cold corpse of Kong lying on his doorstep.
"I know
this creature," he tells his dumbfounded men.
Tasked
to dispose of the remains, the Man of Bronze then tells the untold story of his
epic encounter with Kong back in 1920, after Doc returns from service in World
War I, long before Kong became King Kong.
Doc
Savage: Skull Island is a
multi-generational story in which Doc and his father—the man who placed him in
the hands of scientists who made him into a superman—sail to the Indian Ocean in
search of Doc's grandfather, the legendary Stormalong Savage, whose famous ship
has been discovered floating, deserted, her masts snapped by some incredible
force.
The
quest for Stormalong Savage leads to the fog-shrouded Indian Ocean—and
Skull Island! There, Doc Savage faces his first great test as he encounters its
prehistoric dangers and tangles with the towering, unstoppable Kong.
"When
Joe DeVito brought this idea to me," says Will Murray, "I knew it had to be
written with reverence for both of these immortal characters. So I used the
locale of Skull Island to tell a larger story, an untold origin for Doc Savage.
It all started back on Skull Island…."
Doc Savage: Skull Island has
already been hailed as "The Doc Savage novel that Doc fans have been waiting on
for 80 years!"
Doc Savage: Skull Island is will
be released in March, as the fifth entry in Altus Press' popular Wild Adventures
of Doc Savage series. Cover by Joe DeVito.
