Hugo Hercules
Illustration — Hugo lifting a car. An American weekly comic strip published in the Chicago Tribune, written and drawn by Wilhelm Heinrich Detlev Körner. It ran for five months, from September 7, 1902, to January 11, 1903, totaling seventeen strips.
Hugo Hercules
Wilhelm Heinrich Detlev Körner · Barnacle Press: Hugo Hercules · Public domain
- Creator
- Wilhelm Heinrich Detlev Körner
- Date
- 1902
- Language
- English
- Genre
- superhero fiction
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Documentary summary
Illustration — Hugo lifting a car. An American weekly comic strip published in the Chicago Tribune, written and drawn by Wilhelm Heinrich Detlev Körner. It ran for five months, from September 7, 1902, to January 11, 1903, totaling seventeen strips.
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Note VALÉORINE
The genre of Hugo Hercules is superhero fiction. The language is English. Formation dates to 1902.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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wikidata · Q5934009 · wikipedia · Hugo Hercules
In this article
Characters and story
Characters and story
Despite its short run, it is considered the earliest superhero fiction comic.
It is recorded as the work of Wilhelm Heinrich Detlev Körner. It is associated with United States. The record gives 1902 as its date of establishment or first appearance. Recorded genres are superhero fiction. The recorded subject matter is superhero, superpower and superhuman strength.
A good-natured man endowed with superhuman strength, Hugo wandered about town, helping people with their problems and shocking them with his surprising displays of power. He was so strong he could pick up an elephant, kick a house like a football, wield an artillery cannon like a handgun, and lift a locomotive engine off the tracks and pull its cargo behind him at train speeds. Casual about his incredible feats, Hugo often repeated his catchphrase, "Just as easy", shrugging off the adoring crowds. Sometimes referred to as the first superhero, the strip was not a great success and Körner eventually left comics to become a painter.
Strips
Strips
• Sept 7, 1902: Hugo Hercules Obliges Beauty in Distress. • Sept 14: Hugo Hercules Stops the Terrible Runaway. • Sept 21: Hugo Hercules to the Rescue Once More. • Sept 28: (no strip) • Oct 5: Hugo Hercules Rescues Lady Disdain Once More. • Oct 12: Hugo Hercules Performs Another Prodigy. • Oct 19: (no strip) • Oct 26: Now, Wasn't This Kind of Hugo Hercules? • Nov 2: Hugo Hercules Saves Four Comic Supplement Lives. • Nov 9: Hugo Hercules Has a Great Pull with the Conductor. • Nov 16: Hugo Hercules Misses the Football, But --" • Nov 23: It's Just as Easy for Hercules to Make a Touchdown. • Nov 30: Hugo Hercules Gets Along Quite Well Without a Cab. • Dec 7: Hugo Hercules Does a Little Holding Up Himself. • Dec 14: Hugo Hercules Comes to the Rescue of the Cannon Ball Limited. • Dec 21: The Fire Engine Broke Down - But Hercules Was There. • Dec 28: Hugo Hercules at New Year's Bowling Contest. • Jan 4, 1903: Hugo Hercules Goes Ice Boating. • Jan 11, 1903: Hugo Hercules Wrestles with a Bear.
Other appearances
Other appearances
Hugo Hercules appears in the graphic novel Nemo: River of Ghosts and the subsequent, limited series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume IV: The Tempest, both written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill.
Identity
Identity
Hugo Hercules is associated with United States. Recorded from 1902.
Course of the series
Dated record
Course of the series
The full dated record · 2 entries
1902
Hugo Hercules created.
1902
Hugo Hercules is recorded from 1902.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- United States
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Holtz, Allan. American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. The University of Michigan Press. 198. 2012. 9780472117567.
- 2.Lambiek. William H. D. Koerner. Lambiek Comiclopedia.
- 3.William H. D. Koerner. Hugo Hercules performs another prodigy. The Chicago Sunday Tribune.
- 4.William H. D. Koerner. Hugo Hercules misses the football, but—. The Chicago Sunday Tribune.
- 5.William H. D. Koerner. Hugo Hercules does a little holding up himself. The Chicago Sunday Tribune.
- 6.William H. D. Koerner. Hugo Hercules comes to the rescue of the Cannonball Limited. The Chicago Sunday Tribune.
- 7.Bill Blackbeard & Dale Crain, The Comic Strip Century. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press, 1995. 2 volumes. 480 pp.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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