Olga Mesmer is a superpowered fictional character in a

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

published from 1937 to 1938. Like the newspaper comic-strip character

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Philip Wylie Philip Gordon Wylie (May 12, 1902 – October 25, 1971) was an American writer of works ranging from pulp science fiction, mysteries, social diatribes and satire to ecology and the threat of nuclear holocaust. Early life and career Born in Bev ...

's protagonist Hugo Danner (1930), she is among the precursors of the archetypal comic-book superhero,

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 ( cover-dated June 1938 and pub ...

Publication history

Olga Mesmer, "The Girl with the

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 ...

Eyes", starred in a single-page comic strip that ran in issues of the

''Spicy Mystery Stories''

cover-date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unus ...

d August 1937 to October 1938. Reprinted in The first story, "The Astounding Adventures of Olga Mesmer, the Girl with the X-Ray Eyes", and subsequent installments are by an unidentified writer. Art for the strip, created at a comics studio run by Adolphe Barreaux, is credited to Watt Dell, who sometimes signed his illustrations for the magazine as Watt Dell Lovett, and may be a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...

; as well, some of the Mesmer strips are signed "Stone".

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", though an addition about her mother's extraterrestrial origin may have come only after Superman's debut. More generally, writes historian Peter Coogan, she is considered a precursor:

Publication history

Powers and abilities

Legacy

References

Further reading