Dick Turpin

Based on the real 18th-century English outlaw, Dick Turpin is a romanticized highwayman who robbed coaches across England on horseback, becoming a folk legend. Comics adaptations drew on his swashbuckling reputation, portraying him as a daring, masked road agent of Georgian-era Britain.

Few Golden Age debuts have shown the staying power of Dick Turpin, who first rode onto the page in Real Clue Crime Stories #10 back in 1948 and kept appearing in comics all the way through 2003 — a remarkable 55-year span that carried him from the postwar Golden Age into the modern era. His catalog trail runs through some genuinely eclectic company, with Look-In, Real Clue Crime Stories, and 2000 AD among his most frequent haunts, and he shares adventures with a fascinatingly varied cast including Jaime Sommers, Steve Austin, Sapphire, Steel, and Worzel Gummidge. With two key issues among his 33 catalogued appearances, collectors have taken notice of this enduring figure. That kind of longevity — crossing eras, publishers, and genres — is exactly what makes a character worth tracking down.