The British "Pulps" era

For want of a better title, I've designated this period the Pulps era, but to be fair, it predates the true American Pulps era of the late twenties and thirties, originating instead in the newspaper strips and penny dreadfuls of the previous century. Many of these characters (such as Black Sapper) would later be revived in picture strips years down the line. Many thanks to Stephen Montgomery for pointing out my mistaken belief that Britain had no real superheroes or supervillains prior to the Second World War, and for providing pictures and biographical information on a large number of these characters.

Unlike with later years I'm not going to split the characters into heroes and villains, as many of these individuals would start the latter only to reform and begin fighting crime (a British tradition that would continue unabated for decades). Instead I've split them by decade, more because it's interesting to see the gradual development of these types of characters than necessity.

Pre -1920's


Nipper	Waldo the Wonder Man	Zenith the Albino	Marie Galante	Prince Wu Ling

Ally Sloper	Iron Man	The Winged Man	Batsowl

1920's


Black Sapper	Blackshirt	Invisible Dick	Marko the Miracle Man	Morgyn the Mighty

Phantom Protector	Waldo the Wonder Boy	The Black Trinity	Mr. Mist	The Owl

Miss Death	Dr. Satira	The Grey Bat

1930's

With the launch of the Beano and the Dandy in the late thirties the first proper "superhero" type picture strips arrive in Britain.


Black Whip	Derickson Dene	Desperate Dan	Flaming Avenger	Frosty McNab

The Hooded Protectors	The Night Hawk	Norman Conquest	Pansy Potter	Peter Piper

Ping the Elastic Man	Sparrowhawk	Wild Boy of the Woods	Steam Man	Tin-Can Tommy

Strang the Terrible	Shade the Shadower	Captain Q	Iron Man	Karga the Clutcher

Keeper of the Dread Sword	Zero the Silent	Black Slink	Vull the Invisible	Hooded Unknown

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