The basic concept of a man trained from birth to fight evil was created by Street and Smith Publications to capitalize on the success of their other pulp hero magazine success, The Shadow. A short premise was written establishing the broad outlines of the character they envisioned, but Doc Savage was only fully realized by the author chosen to write the series, Lester Dent. Dent wrote most of the 181 original novels, hidden behind the "house name" of Kenneth Robeson.

From the 1960s through the 1990s all of the original stories were reprinted in paperback form by Bantam Books. About sixty of the paperback covers were painted James Bama, whose updated vision of Doc Savage with the exaggerated widow's peak captured, at least symbolically, the essence of the Doc Savage novels. Actor and model Steve Holland who had played Flash Gordon in a 1953 television series was the model for Doc on all the Bama covers.