The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (1897) was one of his genre-establishing books along with The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau and The War of the Worlds. Wells created the monster tropes that Science Fiction and Horror would recycle endlessly for the next hundred years. The idea of unseeable things predates Wells, with “What Was It?” by Fitz-James O’Brien (Harper’s Magazine, March 1859) and “The Damned Thing” by Ambrose Bierce (San Francisco Examiner, September 13, 1896) but Wells uses the idea on a much deeper level than just “Geez, I wonder what that was?” He works in Socialism and how society treats outsiders, and whether he meant to or not, he once again built on the mad scientist theme we get from Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson and his own Dr. Moreau.
The novel follows a mysterious scientist who seeks solitude so he can reverse a discovery that has rendered him invisible. Nosy villagers pry until he is discovered. Escaping, he employs a tramp then a man named Kemp to further his goals. These go from changing back to ruling the world, for the Invisible Man has become mad. In the end, he is betrayed by new fallen snow. A group of laborers kill him with their shovels.
Adaptations of H. G. Wells’ novel are to be found in the usual places: Gilberton’s Classics Illustrated, Pendulum Press and Marvel Classics Comics. As with the Jekyll & Hyde comics, adaptations tend to be reprinted rather than redone. Of course, we all know the story from the Universal horror film The Invisible Man (1933) starring Claude Rains and its sequels, The Invisible Man Returns (1940), The Invisible Woman (1940), Invisible Agent (1942), The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951). These old films make us laugh today with their items on strings. There have been several recent remakes but none has the power of the original 1933 film. The 1975 television show with David McCallum made him a hero rather than a villain.
The Comics took after the invisibility idea with certain characters. Invisible Woman in The Fantastic Four (first appearance November 1961) is probably the most famous. Susan Storm was hardly the first nor the last. For comic book colorists the usual method was to make the supposedly invisible characters white or colorless. This made them look like ghosts (which there was more than enough of already). When the character was not drawn at all, the artist had to resort to the same tricks the films and TV used.
Adaptations
The Invisible Man (Superior Stories #1, May-June 1955) was adapted by an unknown author.
The Invisible Man (Classics Illustrated #153, November 1959) was adapted by an unknown author.
The Invisible Man (Supernatural Thrillers #2, February 1973) reprinted in black & white in Masters of Terror #2 (September 1975) with a Dan Adkins cover based on Jim Steranko’s earlier cover. The story was adapted by Ron Goulart.
The Invisible Man (Marvel Classics Comics #25, 1977) was adapted by Doug Moench.
Some Comics That Use Invisibility
If you go by titles there are thousands of comics about invisibility. But titles are deceiving. Most often when the word “Invisible” is used it refers to a secret, something hidden or a phantom menace in the same sense that the film used ‘phantom’. Figuratively, not literally. (I might have enjoyed The Phantom Menace more if a creepy phantom had shown up at some point.) Here are some comics that use actual invisibility in an interesting way. I am quite sure there are many I have not included.
Several of the writers in this section were Pulp writers before they wrote comics including Alfred Bester, Gardner F. Fox, Otto Binder and Edmond Hamilton. Writers who had experience with Science Fiction usually produced the most interesting variations of this theme.
“The Invisible Man” Myra North (Crackajack Funnies #30-33, January-March 1941) reprints Sunday pages from the newspaper. The strip was written by Ray Thompson.
“The Menace of the Invisible Raiders” (Adventure Comics 367, October 1941) was written by Alfred Bester.
“The Mysterious Invisible Monster” (Captain Marvel Adventures #130, March 1952) was written by Otto Binder.
“The Invisible Invaders” (Plastic Man #36, July 1952) was written by an unknown author.
“The Invisible Man” (The House of Mystery #32, November 1954) was written by an unknown author.
“Invisible Spaceman” (Strange Adventures #55, April 1955) was written by Sid Gerson.
‘The Invisible Woman” (Journey Into Mystery #43, February 1957) was written by an unknown author.
“I Was the Invisible Man” (Strange Tales #67, February 1959) was written by Jack Kirby.
“The Beast From the Invisible World” (Tales of the Unexpected #48, April 1960) was possibly written by Gardner F. Fox or Edmond Hamilton.
“I Am the Invisible!” (Tales to Astonish #15, January 1961) was written by an unknown author.
“The Invisible Menace” (Adventures Into the Unknown #125, June-July 1961) was written by Richard Hughes as Derek Rutherford.
“The Invisible Dinosaur” (Strange Adventures #133, October 1961) was written by Gardner F. Fox.
“The Invisible Raiders of Rann” (Mystery in Space #73, February 1962) was written by Gardner F. Fox.
“The Invisible Ones” (The Twilight Zone #24, January 1968) was written by an unknown author.
“I, the Invisible” (Creepy #46, July 1972) was written by Jose Bea.
“The Invisible Man” (Quasimodo’s Monster Magazine #8, May 1976) was written by Joe Kiernan.
“The Continuing Story of H. G. Wells’ The Invisible Man” (Creepy #143, November 1982) was written by Gerry Boudreau.
Conclusion
Again, as with Mr. Hyde, the most recent and memorable version is the one from Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1999). In the film version he is played by Tony Curran as a largely self-serving anti-hero. He does prove useful though. I think Moore nailed his personality. In the novel the scientist is driven but lacks empathy for the rest of humanity. We might see him as tragic if he was more relatable but his monomania makes him unlikable. When he is beaten to death at the end, you feel relief not sadness.
Wells’ message of the proletariat (the common men who are laborers) striking down those who would enslave them hasn’t stuck to the idea much. The visual gimmicks seem the most hardy. In one comic adaptation, the workers are replaced by policemen. (Mr. Wells would not approve.) The image of a gang of policemen beating a man to death has a very different quality to it today.
