Publisher Fiction Magazines Alter ego Ellen Patrick | Created by "Lars Anderson" Abilities None | |
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First appearance Saucy Romantic Adventures (May, 1936) Similar Avenger, Green Lama, The Phantom Detective, Airboy, Badger | ||
The Domino Lady was a masked pulp heroine who first appeared in the May 1936 issue of Saucy Romantic Adventures. All of her stories were published under the house name "Lars Anderson" owned by the publisher, Fiction Magazines. The author's real identity is unknown.
Contents
Saucy Romantic Adventures was a "spicy pulp" magazine, a genre that typically featured semi-pornographic short stories. Though writers for these were paid less, the cover price was higher than that of a typical pulp magazine. This was due to a combination of smaller print runs and what the traffic would bear. Such magazines were usually sold "under the counter" upon request.
New short stories and a comic book featuring The Domino Lady are currently being published by Moonstone Books, Airship 27 and Bold Venture Press new pulp fiction magazine AWESOME Tales.
Character
The Domino Lady is really University of California, Berkeley-educated socialite Ellen Patrick. When her father, District Attorney Owen Patrick, is murdered she puts on a domino mask and a backless white dress to avenge him. She would arm herself with a .45 pistol and a syringe full of knockout serum, but often her best weapon was her beauty, which often distracted and entranced opponents, or at the very least led them to underestimate her, allowing her to outwit them. Such wiles rarely worked upon her female adversaries, however.
She steals from her targets, donating most of the profits to charity after deducting her cut, and leaves a calling card with the words "Compliments of the Domino Lady".
Stories
- The Domino Lady Collects (Saucy Romantic Adventures, May 1936)
- The Domino Lady Doubles Back (Saucy Romantic Adventures, June 1936)
- The Domino Lady's Handicap (Saucy Romantic Adventures, July 1936)
- Emeralds Aboard (Saucy Romantic Adventures, August 1936)
- Black Legion (Saucy Romantic Adventures, October 1936)
- The Domino Lady's Double (Mystery Adventure Magazine, November 1936)
Reprints
Reprints of the original pulp magazines and individual stories have been made, such as in Pulp Collector Press' Pulp Review in 1992.
The Domino Lady stories have been reprinted in one volume, Compliments of the Domino Lady by Bold Venture Press, with cover artwork by Jim Steranko (ISBN 1-887591-70-2).
Modern adventures
Eros Comix have published a series of Domino Lady and Domino Lady's Jungle Adventure comics written by Ron Wilber. They were collected and reprinted in 1995 as Eros Graphic Album Series No. 19: Domino Lady (ISBN 978-1560972174).
In 2009 Moonstone Books published Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon, a collection of eight new stories set in the 1930s and edited by Lori Gentile. Many stories involve the Domino Lady teaming up with other fictional characters like the Phantom and Sherlock Holmes.
In 2009 Moonstone also launched a comic book by Nancy Holder with art by Steve Bryant.
In 2015 Airship 27 published Domino Lady Volume One with stories by Tim Bruckner, Kevin Findley, Greg Hatcher and Gene Moyers.
Audio
The AudioComics Company, an audio production company devoted to producing and distributing professional full-cast audio dramas adapted from independent comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, and the occasional prose work, announced in 2011 that they would be producing a series of Domino Lady stories as part of their "Pulp Adventures" line, marking the first time that the character has ever appeared on radio. The first episode, "All's Fair in War," written by Rich Harvey and directed by AudioComics co-founder Lance Roger Axt, was recorded in San Francisco in November 2011 starring Bay Area-based actor Karen Stilwell, the original "Erotica Ann 333" from the 1980s stage production of Starstruck, as Ellen Patrick/The Domino Lady. The work was released exclusively as an Mp3 digital download April 30, 2012, and is available for sale on iTunes.