One of those powers the Green Lama acquired in Tibet must have been adaptability.
Though little-known now, the Green Lama was a fairly important American superhero in his day, a crossover character in three media — pulp magazines, comic books and dramatic radio.
The Green Lama, who was really millionaire Jethro Dumont, was created in 1940 by pulp writer Kendell Foster Crossen as an assignment from Munsey Publications. His mission was to duplicate the success of the pulp and radio Shadow.
“I was trying to pick a name somewhat like in sound to Lamont Cranston,” Crossen recalled. “You know what I mean, Lamont-Dumont. It was as close as I dared get to Lamont Cranston. A book had just been published about an American who had gone to Tibet and studied and had become a lama, the only white person who ever had at that time. The result was the Green Lama, which the company liked.”
Sales of Double Detective Magazine jumped for the issue when the Green Lama appeared. Unlike other superhero creators, Crossen wisely retained the rights to his character.
When the Lama’s pulp magazine ran its course in 1943, Crossen spring-boarded the character as a rival for Captain Marvel and Superman. The Green Lama’s comic book adventures for Spark Publications benefited from art by the much-admired Mac Raboy.
In comics, the now-caped Green Lama could fly and smash Japanese Zeroes. But even in pulps, he had some modest super powers. He could, by ingesting “radioactive salts,” stun criminals with a gentle touch. Seems more fitting for a Buddhist hero than a teeth-rattling haymaker, somehow.
In 1949, as the comics’ superheroes were fading, Crossen sold the character to CBS as a radio series, and the Green Lama almost made it into onto early television.
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| Golden Lad gives a pitch for the Green Lama Club |
Edward Lee Love wrote: His pulp stories are interesting as the character changed over time. By the end, he no longer used the radioactive salts but was displaying some actual magical abilities such as creating temporary duplicates of himself or able to do a mass hypnosis with no prepping of the subjects. Also, his supporting cast would change over the time as aides came and went.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of pulp stories where the Green Lama is involved investigating crimes in Hollywood. These are very funny with allusions to other pulp and serial characters that were filmed. Made me wonder if Crossen was looking at the time in bringing the character to film. He would later write for the television market.
Michael Fraley wrote: The "American lama" was Theos Bernard, who read about "infinite energy" while recovering from rheumatic pneumonia, and from that point on studied yoga and Tibetan Buddhism.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Blake:
ReplyDeleteVon Doom also went there to find himself.
Such should be included in the travel brochures.
Chris Nowlin:
ReplyDeleteThat’s good idea. I tried visiting Chernobyl, but came back with no super powers. I was hoping a spider there might bite me.
Wayde Weston:
ReplyDeleteWhy so many green superheroes? Green Lantern. Green Arrow, Green Hornet, now Green Lama? Did Blue Beetle and the Yellow Kid start a family, or what?
I replied:
Green is apparently the most heroic color, just as captain is the most heroic rank.
Eric Hinkle:
ReplyDeleteWith all these white guys who went to Tibet, studied Buddhism, and came back with superpowers, you have to wonder if there was a school there specializing in this.
I replied:
When my friend Cam was visiting Tibet, I asked him to please bring me back some super powers. He said I have enough already. It was the nicest thing anybody ever said to me (sniff!).
ReplyDeleteDan Riba:
I had stumbled onto a cheap reprint of Raboy's comic version. That and the write up in Steranko's history of Comics...made me a fan of the character. I would draw him in sketchbooks and in one doodle I copied the monastery with the Tibetan word balloon of the mantra. A friend who had traveled to Tibet was stunned that I knew how to write in Tibetan. He had a carved stone with the same mantra written on it. That was when I learned that it was not some made up graphic shapes...but actual Tibetan language written in the comic!
Michael Fraley:
ReplyDeleteA hero who paralleled the Tibet experience was Plastic Man. While he didn't gain his powers in a Tibet, he was reformed in a monastery -- ostensibly a Christian one -- where he discovered and learned to deal with his polymerization. I would guess that a long lost version of his origin probably pushed him further in a mystical direction, making him a true Indian (rather than Tibetan) rubber man.