| Sir Ralf Clifford | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Ralf Clifford |
|
First Appearance |
Sir Ralf Clifford, l'Uomo Invisibile (1906) |
|
Original Publisher |
|
|
Created by |
Martin Winfried |
Origin[]
Ralf Clifford was a westerner, who traveled to the East to learn the ways of mysticism. He was given the mummified head of a cobra by an Indian fakir. The fakir informs Clifford that if he presses the cobra head against his breast, he is injected with a poisonous fluid which scars him but also leaves him invisible for seven minutes. It is explained that if Clifford is dosed 217 times, he will die. Clifford used this weapon to battle injustice as a consulting detective.
Clifford’s arch-enemy is the notorious murderer Pitt Potter, who frequently tries to steal the cobra's head. Clifford also used his invisibility to take on secret cults, subterranean masterminds, vampires, werewolves, living Buddhas, the evil Jesuit, Yellow Peril Mandarins in the Forbidden City of Peking, Communist nihilists, a cursed Pharaonic mirror, “the Amazon of Hyde Park,” and an evil Ent-like “living tree.” He uncovers secrets in Lhasa temples, defeats the "Black Priest of Notre Dame," travels to the South Pacific and Mexico, and recovers the stolen pearls of an Indian Maharajah.
Notes[]
- Some sources claim that Clifford was an American, but this doesn't explain his title, "Sir."
- Clifford's adventures were first printed in Italy (it is unclear exactly when), and later reprinted in Germany.
Appearances[]
- Sir Ralf Clifford, l'Uomo Invisibile (1906-1910)
- Sir Ralf Clifford, Der unsichtbare Mensch oder Das geheimnisvolle Vermächtnis des Fakirs (Sir Ralf Clifford, the Invisible Man, or the Mysterious Legacy of the Fakirs) #1-192 (1921-1925)