Real
Name: Jethro Dumont Green Lama
Real
Name: Jethro Dumont
Identity/Class: Human magic user
Occupation: Priest (specifically, Tibetan Lama)
Group Membership:"Crime Crushers" (the General, the Corporal, Yank, Doodle, the Black Owl, Doctor Frost)
Affiliations: Maga, Tsarong (valet), Jean Parker
(girlfriend), Bulldog Denny, Gary Brown, Evangl Stewart, Jean Farrel, Ken
Clayton
(AC version only) Femforce
Enemies: Crimson Hand, Falstaff, Baroness von Elsa, Dr. Tana, Mephistopheles, Stopwatch, Frankenstein
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Reverend Dr Pali
Base of Operations: Park Avenue, New York, but mobile across the USA
First
Appearance: "The Green Lama", Double Detective magazine Vol.5 #5 (Frank A. Munsey Co, April 1940)
Powers/Abilities: Superhuman strength and resistant to damage, and able to paralyze people if he touches their faces. He can also make himself unseen, not actually invisible but simply going unnoticed despite being in plain sight. He gets his powers through chanting the Tibetan phrase "Om Manu Padme Om", a.k.a. the Jewel Lotus Mantra. He can gain an "electric touch" by drinking radioactive salts (this may be the same power as the paralyzing one mentioned earlier). On at least one occasion he summoned the ghosts of dead heroes to fight evil.
As well as being skilled in the mystic arts, the Lama is also a learned scientist.
(comics only) Able to fly, and invulnerable.
Height: Unrevealed, but slightly
above average
Weight: Unrevealed; slim but extremely toned and muscular
Eyes: Blue-gray
Hair: Black
Summary: After earning a Ph.D in "Oriental religions" and inheriting ten million dollars Harvard graduate Jethro Dumont decides to visit Tibet to further study Eastern mysticism. After becoming a Buddhist and spending years meditating he become a priest, gaining superhuman abilities as a result. Returning to America, literally as he stepped off the cruise ship, he witnessed a drive-by shooting by mobsters, machine-gunning down a fleeing rival but also callously slaughtering a woman and her three young children in the process. When the police failed to bring the culprits to justice despite Dumont's clear descriptions, the priest decided to become a vigilante, the Green Lama, while also posing as the Revered Dr. Pali when not crimefighting. He was assisted by a changing roster of assistants, including his Tibetan servant Tsarong, reformed mobster Gary Brown and the mysterious Magga, whose true identity even the Lama didn't know. Though he avoided directly killing his foes, he was more than happy to trick them into ending their own lives.
History: (The Case of the Crimson Hand, Double Detective Vol 5 #5, April 1940) When the villainous Crimson Hand's gang stole radioactive capsules from Doctor Valco which could be used to murder millions, the Green Lama hunted them down and stopped their evil scheme.
(Croesus of Crime, Double Detective Vol 5 #6, May 1940) No synopses available.
(Babies for Sale, Double Detective Vol 6 #1, June 1940) No synopses available.
(The Wave of Death, Double Detective Vol 6 #2, July 1940) No synopses available.
(The Man Who Wasn't There, Double Detective Vol 6 #3, August 1940) No synopses available.
(The Man With the Death's-Head Face, Double Detective Vol 6 #4, September 1940) No synopses available.
(The Clown Who Laughed, Double Detective Vol 6 #5, October 1940) No synopses available.
(The Invisible Enemy, Double Detective Vol 6 #6, December 1940) No synopses available.
(The Case of the Mad Magi, Double Detective Vol 7 #1, February 1941) No synopses available.
(The Case of the Vanished Ships, Double Detective Vol 7 #2, April 1941) No synopses available.
(The Case of the Fugitive Fingerprints, Double Detective Vol 7 #3, June 1941) No synopses available.
(The Case of the Crooked Cane, Double Detective Vol 7 #4, August 1941) No synopses available.
(The Case of the Hollywood Ghost, Double Detective Vol 7 #5, October 1941) No synopses available.
(The Case of the Beardless Corpse, Double Detective Vol 8 #2, March 1943) No synopses available.
Comments: Created by Kendell Foster Crossen under the pen name Richard Foster. The Green Lama character is copyright by Kendra Crossen Burroughs, thegreenlama.com.
Created in an attempt to mimic the success of the Shadow, the Green Lama was originally intended to be called the Gray Lama until the publishers deemed that the name needed to be more colorful. Debuting in the April 1940 issue of the Pulp magazine "Double Detective", the Lama went on to appear in fourteen issues of that title, last appearing in Double Detective's March 1943 issue.
Prize Comics adapted him to comics in December
1940, starting with Prize Comics #7 (still written by Crossen, and drawn
by Jack Binder, an artist famous for illustrating Captain
Marvel Jr.). In October 1942's Prize Comics #24, the Green Lama
teamed up with the other heroes featured in the comic - Yank,
Doodle, the Black
Owl, humor strip characters the General and the Corporal, and Doctor
Frost - assembled by Bulldog Denny to capture his foe Frankenstein,
a mission they narrowly succeeded at. This assemblage of Prize Comics
characters may well have been inspired by All-American Publications
similarly gathering their company's heroes in All-Star Comics a couple of
years earlier to form the Justice Society of America, but if so Prize
either decided not to capitalize on it or felt it didn't succeed as no
further crossovers were forthcoming. The Prize Comics team never had an
official name, but were described as "Crime Crushers."
The Green Lama ultimately stayed in Prize Comics for a continuous run up to Prize Comics #34, before transferring to his own title published by Spark Publications, which lasted a further eight issues. His last comics appearance of the era was in Green Lama #8, cover date March 1946.
In 1949 the Green Lama returned as the star of his own radio show, played by Paul Frees. Again written by Crossen (in conjunction with some co-writers), it lasted for 11 episodes.
After the end of the radio series the Green Lama dropped into disuse for several decades, barring an unofficial cameo in Marvel's Avengers#92 in 1971, when he appeared as one of a number of non-Marvel Golden Age comic heroes visualized by comic fan Rick Jones.
Because many people wrongly assumed that like most Golden Age characters from defunct comic companies the Green Lama had fallen entirely into the public domain (rather than just some of his stories, as was actually the case), eventually the Green Lama was revived in the pages of AC's Femforce#19 (1989), and he became a recurring character in that title for the next few years before eventually being replaced by his son, Gordon Dumont, as the new Green Lama. Similarly, in 2008 Dynamite Publishing included the Green Lama in their Project Superpowers universe alongside a horde of other revived Golden Age characters. Then in 2009 Airship 27 Productions and publisher Cornerstone Book Publishers began releasing new prose novels featuring the further adventures of the original Double Detective magazine version of the Lama. When it became clear in 2014 that the Lama was not public domain, Moonstone became the officially licensed publisher of new tales featuring the character, and Airship 27's main Green Lama author arranged to reprint the books he had written via them, as well as adding in additional new novels.
Appearance checklist (not including reprints):
Canonical(i.e. authorized by the rights holder)
In
prose: Double Detective magazine Vol.5 #5-6, Vol.6 #1-6, Vol.7
#1-5, Vol.8 #2;
(Moonstone) Green Lama: Scions; Green Lama: Horror in Clay;
Green Lama: Crimson Circle: Green Lama Unbound; Day of the Destroyers; The
Black Bat Returns
(Altus Press) Green Lama and the Case of the Final Column
(new story in otherwise all reprint Green Lama: The Complete Pulp
Adventures Volume 3)
In comics: Prize Comics#7-34;
(Spark Publications) Green Lama#1-8
(Moonstone) From the Vault: The Pulp Files; Secret
Agent X#1; Of Monsters and Men (stiory "Daemon's Kiss")
In audio & radio: Green Lama radio series
episodes 1-11; Green Lama played by: Paul Frees (better known for
voicing Boris Badenov and Ludwing Von Drake)
Green Lama podcast series episodes 1-8
Merchandise:
Dark Horse released a Green Lama limited edition statue in 2008; with only
350 made, if you want one and manage to track one down, you'll probably
pay a pretty penny for it.
Non-canonical (i.e. not authorized by the rights holder)
In prose: (Airship 27) Green Lama: Volume 1 (2009 anthology); Green Lama: Mystic Warrior
In comics: (AC Comics): Femforce#19, 29, 31,
33-36, 50, 57-60, 67-69, 73, 87, 109, 131; Reddevil#1; AC Annual#4; Purple
Claw Mysteries#1; Scorpion/Darkshade#1, All-Hitler Comics#1; Green Lama:
Mask of Strength#1-2; Yankee Girl#1
(Dynamite): Project Superpowers #0, 1/2, 1-7; Project
Superpowers: The Death-Defying 'Devil Free Comic Book Day 2008; Project
Superpowers Chapter 2 Prelude, #0-12; Black Terror#1-4, 10-12;
Death-Defying Devil#1; Masquerade#1; Masks#2-8; Masks 2#1, 3-8; Project
Superpowers: Blackcross#1, 3, 5-6; Project Superpowers 3#0-5; The Owl#1;
Herokillers#2; Codename: Action#3-5; Die!Namite#2-4; Vampirella: The Dark
Powers#2; Red Sonja (2021)#4; Vampirella vs Red Sonja#1
(Image) Savage Dragon#141
(Thrilling Nostalgia Comics) The Liberty Brigade#1
For those who might want to track down the above
stories, the Double Detective stories have been collected as a three
volume set "The Green Lama: The Complete Pulp Adventures" and can be
purchased from online retailers (in print or digital format) such as
Amazon. Similarly, the eight issue Spark Publications' Green Lama comic
from the 1940s have been collected as a two volume hardcover Green Lama
Archives by Dark Horse Comics. His 1940s comic book appearances have
fallen into the public domain, and most can be found (quite legally)
online at Comicbookplus, both the Prize
Comics run and Spark Publications' Green
Lama. The 1949 radio plays have also entered the public domain, and
thus some of them can also be found online on Comicbookplus.
Both of the issues of the AC Green Lama: Mask of Strength comic can be read for free online
at the official Green Lama site. The more recent Green
Lama audio drama can be heard on the Apple Podcasts site.
Contributors to this page: Mack Murdock (initial
information), Kendra Crossen Burroughs (corrections), Ben Samuels (images
formerly used in profile), Riley (additional information about the pulp vs
comic versions)
CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with
anyone else who is Green
First Posted: Circa 14/09/2004
Last updated: 10/11/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
All images and characters depicted on this site are copyright their respective holders, and are used for informational purposes only. No infringement is intended and copyrights remain at source.