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Greatest 12 Characters of the 1870's

Who is on this list, what this list is about and how they got on the list!

 A Legend
 A Legend
Synopsis 
This is one of a set of lists I made showing a progression of the greatest characters in a heroic style throughout time. Focusing for the most part on one decade at a time. The heroes that we know and love today were inspired by heroes before them. Some are even real people who moved into folklore. Before comics there were pulp magazines. Before that there was dime novels and before that was the penny dreadfuls. There were many others as well like Gothic novels, story papers and yes even a real novel.  
 
The List 
 These are the greatest characters in comics from 1870 to 1879.  These would be characters who will go on to be the biggest influences in comics either directly or indirectly.  In other words these will become great inspirations to future comic characters and stories. Right now they are in order of year.   

New Stuff 
In the 1870's most the characters are either from novels or they were real people who became a part of folklore and were written about in books like dime novels.  There are also characters from dime novels.  The most intriguing is Black Bart.  (See why below)
 
Here is the past list
 Real Man/Comic Hero
 Real Man/Comic Hero
Greatest 12 Characters of the 1860's 

Here is the next list 
Greatest 12 Characters of the 1880's

List items

  • Captain Nemo is a great anti-hero or anti villain to be more precise. Torn between wanting to make a better world and the actions he chooses to do so. Not to mention being a mastermind of his time. His first appeared in in 1870 in the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

  • Ned Land, a harpooner who hunts the gigantic killer narwhal. Only to be end up on the Nautilus. His first appeared in in 1870 in the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

  • It is unknown when the first fictionalized story of Jesse James came out but it was during his lifetime most likely in the 1870's that dime novels, the first comics dictated Jesse in his many adventures. Later, on Jesse would be the star of his own comic books.

  • Real life imitating fiction, fiction imitating real life. Black Bart got the name Black Bart from a story called The Case of Summerfield in 1871. In the story a character named Black Bart robbed stage coaches. This is what Black Bart did using the name from the character.

  • Jack Harkaway first appeared in Jack Harkaway's School Days 1871. He is just a kid who goes on his own adventures to do right.

  • Oddly enough Katy Carr was a little girl along the lines of Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy Gale. She first appeared in What Katy Did in 1872.

  • Phileas Fogg was first seen in the novel Around the World in Eighty Days in 1873. Phileas is the an adventure and travels the world in adventure just to settle a bet.

  • Tom Sawyer had a humble start as his first appeared in the novel the Adventures of Tom Sawyer written in 1876. Later however he became one of literature's first detectives as he grew into a man.

  • Just like tom Huckleberry Finn first appeared in the Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876. He is a trickster and even crime-fighter.

  • It is believed the the first dime novel of Wyatt Earp was written in 1876. As were many other stories today including the Wyatt Earp Comics.

  • Rose Belinda Coote is a questionable character for this list in more way than one. She first appeared in an adult story called the The Convent School, or Early Experiences of A Young Flagellant in 1876. It's not Debbie Does Dallas but it is not on most book shelve either.

  • Like others of her time Calamity Jane was a real person who became a folk legend. These folk legends became heroes. Calamity Jane a living legend was first fictionalized in Beadle's Half-Dime Library issue #1 in 1877.
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