Pappy’s Tenth Anniversary Sunday Special #5: The Mask of Fu Manchu

Author Sax Rohmer introduced the supervillain Fu Manchu to the world in 1913. He wrote some popular books, then like his contemporary Arthur Conan Doyle, he tried to kill off his creation just as Doyle had tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes. Fans clamored for more. Rohmer wrote 15 books about Fu Manchu, the last being published as late as 1959. Rohmer, who was born Arthur Henry Ward in 1883, died the year his last book was published of — you cannot make this up — Asian flu.

So Rohmer was alive the year this comic book adaptation of The Mask of Fu Manchu (novel published in 1932, comic book in 1951) was released by Avon. You will not find Rohmer’s name anywhere because for some reason in their comic book adaptations Avon sometimes left off the original author’s name.  It is odd to me, but there is no one left alive to tell us why. (You may recall that two weeks ago I showed an Avon adaptation of a popular novel where the author’s name was not deleted, so it was not a totally consistent practice for Avon.)

And yes, Fu Manchu is a blatant example of the racial attitudes toward Asians from that period, a viewpoint that seemed hard to kill even midway through the twentieth century. The lurid True Detective cover above is from 1930. I have been over that ground several times in this blog. I am not ignoring the “Yellow Peril” plotline, but I am showing the comic primarily because it is drawn by Wallace Wood and whomever was helping him at the time.

The second story is also of interest because it is drawn by Alvin Carl Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth was one of the rare African-American comic artists, who usually signed his work A. C. Hollingsworth. Later he left comics and went into fine art and teaching. He died in 2000 at age 72.

This ends the Anniversary Sunday Specials feature. I like the way this month’s posts turned out. I will be doing more Sunday Specials in the future, but not every week.

The actual start date for Pappy’s was July 26, 2006. 

Posted in: Pappy Comics