Olga Mesmer Explained

Olga Mesmer is a superpowered fictional character in a pulp magazine's comic strip published from 1937 to 1938. Like the newspaper comic-strip character Popeye (1929) and novelist Philip Wylie's protagonist Hugo Danner (1930), she is among the precursors of the archetypal comic-book superhero, Superman.

Publication history

Olga Mesmer, "The Girl with the X-ray Eyes", starred in a single-page comic strip that ran in issues of the pulp magazine Spicy Mystery Stories cover-dated August 1937 to October 1938.[1] The first story, "The Astounding Adventures of Olga Mesmer, the Girl with the X-Ray Eyes", and subsequent installments are by an unidentified writer.[2] Art for the strip, created at a comics studio run by Adolphe Barreaux,[3] is credited to Watt Dell, who sometimes signed his illustrations for the magazine as Watt Dell Lovett, and may be a pseudonym; as well, some of the Mesmer strips are signed "Stone".[4]

Powers and abilities

Mesmer's X-ray vision stemmed from experiments done on her Venusian mother, Margot, by her mad-scientist father, Dr. Hugo Mesmer, who exposed Margot to radiation.

Legacy

With scientifically enhanced super-strength and X-ray vision, but no separate alter ego and with her powers kept secret, she nonetheless is considered by comics historian Will Murray as "the superhero before Superman",[5] though an addition about her mother's extraterrestrial origin may have come only after Superman's debut.[6] More generally, writes historian Peter Coogan, she is considered a precursor:

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Book: Coogan, Peter. Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre . Monkeybrain . 2006 . 978-1932265187. 165–174. Reprinted in Book: The Superhero Reader . Charles . Hatfield . Jeet. Heer . Kent, eds.. Worcester. . 2013 . 978-1617038068 . 12.
  2. Book: Swiderski, Richard M. . X-Ray Vision: A Way of Looking Paperback . 2012 . Universal Publishers. 978-1612331089 . 161.
  3. Book: Daniels, Les . Les Daniels

    . Les Daniels. Wonder Woman: The Complete History . . San Francisco . 2000 . ??? . 978-0811829137.

  4. News: Will . Murray . The Spicy Strips. Risque Stories . Cryptic Publications . 5 . 1987 . Via webpage The Fine Print (requires scrolldown).
  5. News: Will . Murray . Comic Book Marketplace . 51 . September 1997 . The Pulp Connection: The Superhero before Superman.
  6. News: Will . Murray . The Roots of Superman! . Comic Book Marketplace . 64 . October 1998. 19–21.