Native Mythology
Swift Runner ate his entire family one winter, claiming that he was possessed by one of these.
What is a wendigo?
Who is Edgar Allan Poe?
This pulp crimefighter, well known for his radio show, which featured the tagline "Who knows what evil lurks inside the hearts of men?", would inspire later superheroes like Batman.
Who is The Shadow?
Although he couldn't fly in his earliest appearances, this "first superhero" could jump 1/8th of a mile!
Who is Superman?
Who is Robert Johnson?
This Native god is said to have stolen the sun from an old man who kept it hidden in a box, thus giving light to the world.
Who is Raven?
This 20th-century writer created his own brand of horror known as cosmic horror, populating his stories with elder gods like Cthulhu, Dagon, and Yog-Sothoth.
Who is H. P. Lovecraft?
Like Superman, this pulp adventure hero was named Clark, had a metallic nickname (The Man of Bronze), and even had his own Fortress of Solitude.
Who is Doc Savage?
Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, this comic book character is now 85 years old, having first appeared way back in 1939.
Who is Batman?
This 1970s country-rock song by Charlie Daniels Band features a fiddle-playing contest against the Devil.
What is "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"?
Coyote is an example of this type of god, one who often looks out for himself at the expense of others and uses deception to get his own way.
What is a trickster god?
Washington Irving, one of America's first great fiction writers, gave us this story, which features the headless horseman chasing down Ichabod Crane.
What is "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?
The most major influence on Batman, this character is a wealthy Californian landowner who puts on all black to protect the Mexican-American California natives from crime and political corruption, often carving the letter Z into his enemies' flesh.
Who is El Zorro?
These two young Jewish-American men spent more than five years trying to sell the Superman comic idea they came up with as teenagers.
Who are Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster?
This classic story features the Devil as a woodsman who cuts down trees -- representing different people's lives -- when they're rotten enough for him to take.
What is "The Devil and Tom Walker"?
Psychologists came up with this term to describe Cree and Algonquin people who turned to cannibalism.
What is wendigo psychosis?
Poe's raven, a powerful symbol of loss, famously speaks only this one word.
What is "Nevermore!"
Even though he died at age 30, Robert E. Howard was one of the most successful pulp writers, leaving behind a legacy of characters like Solomon Kane, Kull the Conqueror, and Conan the Barbarian, which is said to have been the start of this fantasy subgenre, known for its roguish heroes and evil magic.
What is Sword & Sorcery?
William Moulton Marston, the creator of Wonder Woman, was also partially responsible for creating this device.
What is the polygraph, or the lie detector?
Salem native Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was a descendent of one of the Salem Witch Trial judges, wrote this well-known story about a Puritan man who goes out to the woods one night to discover that his whole town might just be devil worshippers.
What is "Young Goodman Brown"?
Raven found a way into the Old Man's house by transforming himself into this.
What is a hemlock needle, or what is a baby?
In "The Fall of the House of Usher," the house collapses after Roderick Usher is killed by this person, whom he buried alive.
Who is his sister, or Madeline Usher?
One of the most famous Conan stories, "The Frost-Giant's Daughter", in which Conan lustfully chases after the title character until she is transformed by her godlike father, is heavily based on this classic Greek myth.
What is The Myth of Apollo and Daphne?
Created by Lee Falk, this comics hero, whose adventures ran in the newspaper, predates Superman by two years and is sometimes seen as the real first superhero -- his white eyes (when masked) would influence depictions of later masked heroes like Batman.
Who is The Phantom?
Instead of selling his soul to the Devil, in reality Johnson probably just spent a year learning guitar from this mysterious bluesman who often practiced in graveyards and who was never recorded.
Who is Ike Zimmerman?