The Domino Lady was a masked

pulp Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit * Pulp (band), an English rock band Engineering * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture ...

heroine who first appeared in the May 1936 issue of '' Saucy Romantic Adventures''. New short stories and a comic book featuring The Domino Lady are currently being published by

Moonstone Books Moonstone Books is an American comic book, graphic novel, and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and prose anthologies as well as horror and western tales. The company began publishing creator-owned com ...

and Airship 27 in various books, and Bold Venture Press in its new pulp fiction magazine ''Awesome Tales''.

Development

All of the Domino Lady stories were published under the house name "Lars Anderson" owned by the publisher,

Fiction Magazines Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with fact, history, or plausibility. In a tradit ...

. The author's real identity is unknown. ''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.

Character

The Domino Lady is really

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

-educated socialite Ellen Patrick. When her father,

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...

Owen Patrick, is murdered she puts on a

domino mask A domino mask is a small and (often) rounded mask covering only the area around the eyes and the space between them. The mask has seen special prevalence since the 18th century, when it became traditional wear in particular local manifestations ...

and a backless white dress to avenge him. She would arm herself with a .22 pistol strapped to her thigh 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

Original adventures

# ''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 James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comics artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, Illusionist, magician, publisher and film production illustrator. His most famous comic book work was with th ...

().

Modern adventures

Eros Comix Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and (formerly) the erotic Eros Comix imprint. They have managed several awards for ...

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'' (). In 2009

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 ''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The char ...

and

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

. In 2009 Moonstone also launched a comic book by

Nancy Holder Nancy Holder (born August 29, 1953) is an American writer and the author of several novels, including numerous tie-in books based on the TV series ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. She has also written fiction related to several other science fict ...

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. Illustrated by James Lyle. Cover by Fred Hammond. 2015 — "Pretenders to the Throne" by Rich Harvey, ''Awesome Tales'' magazine, issue #1
Bold Venture Press
2015. 2015 — ''Domino Lady: Death on Exhibit'' by Rich Harvey
Bold Venture Press
2015. The complete radio script (three episodes) of the Audio Comics Company's incomplete Domino Lady radio drama. In 2016 Airship 27 followed up with Domino Lady Volume Two with tales by Kevin Findley, Brad Mengel, Gene Moyers, and Robert Ricci. Illustrated by James Lyle. Cover by Fred Hammond. Also in 2016, Moonstone published Sherlock Holmes & Domino Lady, featuring comic stories and prose stories featuring both characters by Bobby Nash, Nancy Holder and James Chambers. Illustrated by Scott Vaughn. Cover by Mike Fyles. 2017 — ''Give Them a Corpse'' (Part 1) by Rich Harvey, ''Awesome Tales'' magazine, issue #6
Bold Venture Press
2017. 2018 — ''Give Them a Corpse'' (Part 2) by Rich Harvey, ''Awesome Tales'' magazine, issue #9
Bold Venture Press
2018. In 2019 Airship 27http://airship27.com returned with Domino Lady Volume Three, with stories by Adam Mudman Bezecny, Gene Moyers, Brad Mengel, and Samantha Lienhard. Illustrated by James Lyle. Cover by Ted Hammond. 2020 - Moonstone Books published Gentlemen prefer Domino Lady, with eight stories written by assorted authors. Introduction by Nancy Holder. 2022 - Airship 27 published Domino Lady volume 4, with stories by Gene Moyers, Kelly Nolan, Kevin Findley and Samantha Lienhard. Cover by Ted Hammond and interior illustrations by James Lyle. 2024 - Airship 27 published Domino Lady volume 5 with tales by Gene Moyers, George Tackes, Gene Popa and Fred Adams Jr. Interior illustrations and cover by Warren Montgomery.

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 iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

References

External links

Moonstone Books: Domino Lady
(search option)
Moonstone Books: Domino Lady
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922100842/http://moonstonebooks.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=28 , date=2020-09-22 Characters in pulp fiction Fictional American police detectives Female characters in literature Literary characters introduced in 1936 Fictional prostitutes