Just like an earlie entry, we have a pulp magazine title, “the Secret Six,” that was copied, swiped or borrowed for a later comic book title.
I’ve never read any pulp Secret Six adventures, the title only lasted four issues, but one Web site calls it ” the best template for a typical adventuring party of (largely) equal members.” This statement leads me to believe it, and similar team pulps, are where the traditional superhero team idea comes from. It’s a group where everyone brings something to the table, not just the leader.
So who are the Secret Six?
Here’s what one now-gone Geocities site said about the Six says (text in blue):
The Secret Six (who were created by Robert J. Hogan and appeared in The Secret Six, from 1934 to 1935) were a group of men who were sought by the police for crimes they did not commit. The Six were actually crime fighters who waged war on the Underworld but whose enemies were more often strange and even supernatural beings. The Six consisted of: King, a former pilot sent to the electric chair for a murder he never committed; Luga, King’s servant and the man who led the other members of the Six to rescue King from the chair; the Doctor, the Key (the safecracker and burglar of the group), the Bishop, and Shakespeare (the intellect of the group). Besides their contacts in the underworld they also were assisted on occasion by a mute criminal known as the Dummy. Their enemies were on the unusual side, from a man whose size doubled every day to an enormous, intelligent, golden alligator living in the Everglades.
The group kind of sounds like “The A-Team” in that description.
A list of available Secret Six reprints can be found here.
There was also a real-life Secret Six, whom you can read about here.
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And for you fans of role-playing games, check out this site , where you can find some tips about running a pulp-style game.
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