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Glossary and Character Taxonomy  Breakdown by Country of Origin   Bibliography   Table of Contents    The Best of the Encyclopedia

Yuma. Yuma was created by “Rafael Molinero,” the pseudonym of the Spanish author Guillermo Lopez Hipkiss (Perry Baxton, Al Capone (II), Edward Cromwell, Lincoln Fields, Patrick O’Hara, Roland Patton) and appeared in Yuma #1-14 (1943-1946).

Yuma is a Costumed Avenger modeled on The Shadow (I) and Doc Savage. Yuma, “the invisible one,” is a vigilante who goes into action wearing a monk’s robe and hood. The civilian identity of Yuma is Ramón Trévelez, a Spanish-American millionaire. Trévelez lives in a Barcelona which has not been victimized by the Spanish Civil War–in the world of Yuma there was no war–and operates the Institute of Inventors and Scientific Investigators, which is located on the top of Mt. Tibidabo. From his laboratories beneath the Institute Yuma wages war on a variety of strange criminals, from Mad Scientists to the leaders of international conspiracies. Yuma is armed with SCIENCE! gadgets, including sleep-gas guns, a robe which allows him to turn invisible, a stun-pistol, and Morse-code-transmitting wrist watches. Additionally, Yuma is a master of disguise.

Some enemies Yuma kills. Others he just captures, takes to a secret base in the Yucatan, and operates on them, removing their memories so that the criminals can be productive members of society. Yuma is assisted by four main Spanish agents, R., Marcos Manrique, Santos and Girvez, all rich, idle young men and all identified by a single letter; the most important of these agents is R., who is actually the beautiful Dr. Dolores Arana, Yuma’s lover.

Yuma appears in stories with titles like “The Luminous Man,” “The Tower of the Dragon,” and “The Ghost Pirate.”

* I'm including Yuma in the Best of the Encyclopedia list because his stories are fun. While Yuma may have been modeled on Doc Savage, Guillermo Lopez Hipkiss was a far better writer than Lester Dent and produced better-written and more entertaining stories than Dent did. The Yuma stories are not sophisticated or High Pulp; they're just a great deal of fun, with good two-dimensional characters, entertaining villains, and imaginatively conceived-of weapons and gadgets. 

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