Greg Clark Noir Art

  LEGENDARY HEROES #10 DICK TRACY Chester Gould (1900-1985) was born in Pawnee, Territory of Oklahoma before it became a state.  All four of his grandparents were pioneer settlers in Oklahoma and Chester was the son of a minister of the United Brethren Church.  Gould moved to Chicago to attend art classes at the Art Institute and Northwestern University, then went to work for local Chicago newspapers where he did advertising art and comic strips.  In 1931 Gould had the idea of creating a police comic strip that would feature a modern day American Sherlock Holmes, who would be tougher than the criminals he tangled with, a cop who would shoot first and ask questions later.  It was a lawless time in America, with Prohibition and the Depression at the same time, and no place was as lawless as Chicago.  So Gould created a strip titled "Plainclothes Tracy" and submitted it to the Tribune.  Joseph Medill Patterson suggested the name change "Dick Tracy" and th...

  LEGENDARY HEROES #9 HOPALONG CASSIDY Hopalong Cassidy was created in 1904 by author Clarence E. Mulford.  Mulford was born in Streator, Illinois and wrote 28 novels and numerous short stories about Hopalong and the Bar 20 Ranch.  The first story appeared in "Outing" magazine in 1904, and the last appearance was his 1941 novel "Hopalong Cassidy Serves a Writ".  The character of "Hoppy" was a grubby, irritable, foul-mouthed, crusty old coot who had a wooden leg  that caused him to "hop", hence his nickname.  The literary Cassidy was nothing at all like the film version that popularized him.  The film series began in 1935 with William Boyd playing Hopalong as a clean-cut hero who never drank anything stronger than sarsaparilla.  Whether he was driving a herd of cattle for the Bar 20 or lending a helping hand to those in need, Hopalong Cassidy was always on the side of the righteous.  There were no other actors who portrayed Hopalong which made...

  LEGENDARY HEROES #8 THE CISCO KID The Cisco Kid was created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way" from the book "Heart of the West" and the July 1907 issue of Everybody's Magazine.  In the original story The Cisco Kid was not the hero that we know him to be today.  He was a 25 year-old murderous desperado who killed for sport and was responsible for 18 deaths.  The Kid was so cold-hearted that when a Texas Ranger gets on his trail, he sets up his own duplicitous girlfriend to be killed by the Ranger to make good his escape.  "The Caballero's Way" was filmed in 1914 as a silent film, which to my knowledge, no longer exists.  I don't know how faithful to the story the film was, but the depiction of Cisco as a heroic figure came in 1928 when actor Warner Baxter played the character in the film "In Old Arizona".  Baxter's portrayal won him the Oscar for Best Actor, though he almost didn't get the chance t...

  LEGENDARY HEROES #7 NYOKA, THE JUNGLE GIRL The creation of "Nyoka, the Jungle Girl" is an interesting one.  Republic pictures released a 15-chapter serial in 1941 titled "Jungle Girl" that gave partial writing credit to Edgar Rice Burroughs of Tarzan fame.  Burroughs' short story "The Land of Hidden Men" was published in the May 1931 issue of the pulp Blue Book.  Burroughs expanded his own short story into the Lost World novel "Jungle Girl" published in 1932.  The novel was set in Cambodia and the title character was an Asian princess named Fou-Tan.  The novel bears no resemblance to the 1941 movie serial, nor is there any character in the novel named Nyoka.  The only similarity is the title "Jungle Girl" which resulted in a writing credit for Burroughs.   The serial "Jungle Girl" had as it's heroine Nyoka Meredith, a white woman living in Africa and starring Frances Gifford in the title role.  Filming took place fro...