Long before Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor, Richard Henry Benson was The Avenger. Benson was a globe-trotting adventurer and millionaire who, with his team of assistants, battled evil wherever he found it. From 1939 to 1942, his adventures were detailed in The Avenger Magazine. The majority were written by Paul Ernst under the pen named Kenneth Robeson.
There were 24 issues of The Avenger. The majority of them featured covers by artist Harold Winfield Scott. Have a look at a few of them below:
by Harold Winfield Scott
by Harold Winfield Scott
by Harold Winfield Scott
by Harold Winfield Scott
by Harold Winfield Scott
by Harold Winfield Scott
by Harold Winfield Scott
Artist Unknown
Artist Unknown
Artist Unknown
I see they used the Avenger’s frozen face as a background element in a lot of these. And tried milking the non-existent Doc Savage connection (worked on me when they came out in paperback in the 1970s).
Not as memorable as the best Doc Savage covers though.
I would agree that Doc had better covers – and so did The Shadow. I still think the first 12 or so Avenger novels are amongst the very best pulp stories ever written, though. I’d rank those 12 as being superior to almost all Docs but that’s just me 😉
Shadow covers are fantastic. I don’t remember liking the Avenger as much as you, but perhaps I’ll reread them when I finish with Doc Savage.
Richard Henry Benson has certainly had worse luck in comics adaptations.