''Invisible Scarlet O'Neil'' is a 1940–1956 American

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

written and drawn by Russell Stamm, who had previously been an assistant to Chester Gould on ''

Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the '' Detroit Mirror'', and was distributed by the Chicago T ...

''. The strip focused on Scarlet O'Neil, a plainclothes

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

(and one of the first superheroines) with the power of

invisibility Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be ''invisible'' (literally, "not visible"). The phenomenon is studied by physics and perceptual psychology. Since objects can be seen by light fr ...

Publication history

Originally published by the '' Chicago Daily Times'' and distributed by its syndication service, ''Invisible Scarlet O'Neil'' began on June 3, 1940. In September 1949, the title of the strip was reduced to simply ''Scarlet O'Neil'', and her invisibility powers were seen much more rarely. Starting on September 13, 1954, Emery Clarke drew the strip from Stamm's scripts. The title was changed again to ''Stainless Steel'' on October 24 the same year, and the character of Scarlet was dropped. The strip ended in 1956.

Characters and story

Scarlet used her power of invisibility mostly to help out strangers in need and help the police catch dangerous criminals, as explained by comics historian

Don Markstein Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

In other media

Scarlet O'Neil also appeared in a

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

series published by

Harvey Comics Harvey Comics (also known as Harvey World Famous Comics, Harvey Publications, Harvey Comics Entertainment, Harvey Hits, Harvey Illustrated Humor, and Harvey Picture Magazines) was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alf ...

, as well as Big Little Books, and a 1943 prose novel. Atlantis Studios in 2007 published a one-shot comic book ''Untold Origins of Invisible Scarlet O'Neil'' on the history of the character. In 2017 Babes With Blades premiered a play by Barbara Lhota based on the strip.

Graphic novel

In 2012 New Legends Productions published a graphic novel with a contemporary setting written by the son of the creator, Russell Stamm Jr., and artwork by Wendell Cavalcanti (pencils), Rob Jones and Elton Thomasi (inks).Invisible Scarlet O'Neil Returns!
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References

External links

Russell Stamm's ''Invisible Scarlet O'Neil'' official site
{{GoldenAge 1940 comics debuts 1956 comics endings American comics characters American comic strips American superheroes Comics about women Comics characters introduced in 1940 Female characters in comics Fiction about invisibility Fictional characters who can turn invisible Golden Age superheroes Female superheroes Superhero comic strips Comic strip superheroes