I’m not sure if this has been picked up by anyone before but thought it was worth sharing. I came across a French serial fiction from early 1900s that has a number of interesting similarities to this case. Please check out the links and description. There are some very interesting images from the serials in these links – particularly the second image down in the first wiki link (i’m not sure if if or how to copy images here).
Enjoy!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zigomar-Leon-S … 1612278612
‘Masked, hooded, or in disguise, Zigomar constantly bedevils the law’.
https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Category:L … _-_Creator
https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Zigomar
‘Zigomar himself is a suave but brutal man who carried out nefarious schemes throughout Europe. He would hold people up at gun point and was guilty of murder, arson and robbery’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fant%C3%B4mas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fant%C3%B … quitue.jpg
Fantômas (Red Phantom?) may well have been influenced by its less well remembered predecessor, Zigomar, the creation of Léon Sazie, which first appeared as a serial in Le Matin in 1909, then as a pulp magazine (28 issues) in 1913, and again in Zigomar contre Zigomar for eight more issues in 1924.
‘During the 1960s the Mexican comics publisher Editorial Novaro produced a Fantomas, La Amenaza Elegante (Fantomas, the Elegant Menace) comic book series that became popular throughout Latin America. This was apparently meant to be the same character’
… assisted by several secret agents, including the 12 "Zodiac Girls", beautiful women who assisted him personally and dressed provocatively, known only by their codenames – the signs of the zodiac
Interesting. There are a number of such anti-heroes in French literature around that time. Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin (1905) is another. He is a gentleman thief, a master of disguise, constantly taunts the police, and leaves calling cards on the scene of his crimes.
