History Main / DimeNovel

* NickCarter: A GreatDetective (see below for tropes that pertain to him).

!! NickCarter
A physically powerful but diminutive master sleuth, NickCarter made his debut in 1886.Basically a Victorian-era version of DocSavage (trained by his father to be a superman, dedicated opponent of evil, etc). Phenomenally long-lived, the character has shifted with the times, going from DimeNovel detective and adventurer, to PulpMagazine detective, to paperback secret agent (Nick Carter, Killmaster, agent for AXE!). The tropes listed here pertain to the DimeNovel version of the character:

* ActionGirl: Well, ActionGirl in a late Victorian sense. Ida Jones, a schoolgirl who assists Nick.

* ArchEnemy: Nick's was the fiendish DrJackQuartz, a hypnotist and vivisectionist.

* BigApplesauce: Nick operates out of Victorian New York.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Nick was trained practically since birth by his father to be a mental and physical marvel.

** One early novel neatly summarizes Nick's training and abilities:"Giants were like children in his grasp. He could fell an ox with one blow of his small, compact fist. Old Sim Carter had made the physical development of his son one of the studies of his life. Only one of the studies, however. Young Nick's mind was stored with knowledge--knowledge of a peculiar sort. His gray eyes had, like an Indian's, been trained to take in minutest details fresh for use. His rich, full voice could run the gamut of sounds, from an old woman's broken, querulous squack to the deep, hoarse notes of a burly ruffian. And his handsome face could, in an instant, be distorted into any one of a hundred types of unrecognizable ugliness. He was a master of disguise, and could so transform himself that even old Sim could not recognise him. And his intellect, naturally keen as a razor blade, had been incredibly sharpened by the judicious cultivation of the old man."

* CulturedBadass: Nick was always depicted as the epitome of the Victorian gentleman and sportsman.

* DarkActionGirl: Nick had quite a few of these. Perhaps the most dangerous was Dazaar the Arch Fiend. Her specialty was knife throwing; she could throw a knife hundreds of yards with extreme accuracy.

** Another of Nick's female enemies was Zanoni the Woman Wizard, a skilled hypnotist and chemist (poisons were her specialty). She was a truly nasty piece of work.Once, after being captured by Nick, he warns her not to try to "make love" to him as a way to get out. Her reply conveys her fiendishness: "Have no fear, my pretty man, my cornucopia of driveling goodness. When I make love to you, it will be to your articulated skeleton--to your empty, fleshless skull--to your heart preserved in alcohol and your liver thrown to the dogs."

* GeniusBruiser: Adept at all the arts and sciences, Nick is also a highly trained fighter; when that isn't enough, he also carries two spring-loaded revolvers concealed up his sleeves.

* GreatDetective: Needless to say, Nick is a master sleuth.

* LostWorld: Nick runs into his fair share of lost civilizations.

* MadScientist: Arch-foe DrJackQuartz definitely qualifies.





* MasterOfDisguise: Nick can disguise himself to an incredible degree.

* {{Omniglot}}: Nick is conversant with a wide variety of languages, including Old Norse (Which comes in handy when he runs into a LostWorld filled with people who speak Old Norse).

* PintSizedPowerHouse: Although only 5'4, Nick is incredibly powerful, strong enough to "lift a horse with ease...while a heavy man is seated in the saddle....he can place four packs of playing cards together, and tear them in halves between his thumbs and fingers."


* RoguesGallery: Nick had quite an assortment of enemies: DrJackQuartz, his ArchEnemy;Dazaar the Arch Fiend, mistress of disguise and master knife thrower;Scylla the Sea Robber, a female pirate with an all female crew; Baroness Latour; Zanoni the Woman Wizard;Praxatel of the Iron Arm, one of the first cyborgs;the gambler Dan Derrington; Burton Quintard, Nick's first recurring foe;Gaston Dupont, a student of Professor Quartz's ;the six Dalney Brothers, each one stronger than even Nick himself, etc.

* PintSizedPowerHouse: Although only 5'4, Nick is incredibly powerful, strong enough to "lift a horse with ease...while a heavy man is seated in the saddle....he can place four packs of playing cards together, and tear them in halves between his
thumbs and fingers."

* MadScientist: Arch-foe ProfessorJackQuartz definitely qualifies.

* RoguesGallery: Nick had quite an assortment of enemies: ProfessorJackQuartz, his ArchEnemy;Dazaar the Arch Fiend, mistress of disguise and master knife thrower;Scylla the Sea Robber, a female pirate with an all female crew; Baroness Latour; Zanoni the Woman Wizard;Praxatel of the Iron Arm, one of the first cyborgs;the gambler Dan Derrington; Burton Quintard, Nick's first recurring foe;Gaston Dupont, a student of Professor Quartz's ;the six Dalney Brothers, each one stronger than even Nick himself, etc.

* ArchEnemy: Nick's was the fiendish ProfessorJackQuartz, a hypnotist and vivisectionist.

* RoguesGallery: Nick had quite an assortment of enemies: ProfessorJackQuartz, his ArchEnemy;Dazaar the Arch Fiend, mistress of disguise and master knife thrower;Scylla the Sea Robber, a female pirate with an all female crew; Baroness Latour; Zanoni the Woman Wizard;Praxatel of the Iron Arm, one of the first cyborgs;the gambler Dan Derrington; Burton Quintard, Nick's first recurring foe;Gaston Dupont, a student of Professor Quartz's ;

* PintSizedPowerHouse: Although only 5'4, Nick is incredibly powerful, strong enough to "lift a horse with ease...while a heavy man is seated in the saddle....he can place four packs of playing cards together, and tear them in halves between his thumbs and fingers."

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Nick was trained practically since birth by his father to be a mental and physical marvel.One early Carter novel neatly summarizes Nick's abilities and training:
"Giants were like children in his grasp. He could fell an ox with one blow of his small, compact fist. Old Sim Carter had made the physical development of his son one of the studies of his life. Only one of the studies, however. Young Nick's mind was stored with knowledge--knowledge of a peculiar sort. His gray eyes had, like an Indian's, been trained to take in minutest details fresh for use. His rich, full voice could run the gamut of sounds, from an old woman's broken, querulous squack to the deep, hoarse notes of a burly ruffian. And his handsome face could, in an instant, be distorted into any one of a hundred types of unrecognizable ugliness. He was a master of disguise, and could so transform himself that even old Sim could not recognise him. And his intellect, naturally keen as a razor blade, had been incredibly sharpened by the judicious cultivation of the old man."

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Nick was trained practically since birth by his father to be a mental and physical marvel.

* FrankMerriwell: An IvyLeague (he was a Yale man)athlete and adventurer (1896).

NickCarter: A GreatDetective (see below for tropes that pertain to him).

OldSleauth: Another GreatDetective (first appearing in 1872).

OldKingBrady: A GreatDetective (1885).

OldCapCollier: A GreatDetective (1883).

DeadwoodDick: An adventurer operating in TheWildWest (1877).

DiamondDick: A fighter for justice in TheWildWest (1878).

FrankReade: I-JR-III: Teenage inventors (see below).

JackWright: Another teenage inventor (1891).

* TheChick - The defining characteristic of almost any woman character. Sadly, their sheer lack of characterization resulted in many boys objecting to ''any'' female character on the sole basis that she would inevitably turn out to be bland and uninteresting.

* DistressedDamsel - Women did not get much in the way of important roles in these books, that was for sure.

* TeenGenius: JackWright, FrankReade, etc.

* SubmarinePirates: Tom Edison Jr fought a YellowPeril villain named Kiang Ho of the Golden Belt in 1892. He used a submarine called the Sea Serpent.

* TrainJob - When focusing on famous outlaws of the time, particularly Jesse James.
* TheWildWest: Many of the characters had at least the occasional adventure in TheWildWest.

*
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: A modified version of the trope. Many DimeNovels were fictionalized versions of the exploits of people who were still alive at the time: BuffaloBill, CalamityJane, KitCarson, etc.

* LostWorld: Many DimeNovel heroes ran into one of these. NickCarter, for example, ran into a lost civilization of Old Norse speaking Amazons in Bolivia in 1907.

* CattlePunk: A lot of the young inventors' Verne-Tech was used out West.

* TeenGenius: All three of the Reades start out quite young.

* BigAppleSauce: The first Frank Reade lives in New York. Frank Reade, jr, though operates in nearby Readestown.

* CattlePunk: Frank's Wild West adventures fall under this category.

* MadScientist: Arch-foe ProfessorJackQuartz definitely qualifies.

* GreatDetective: Needless to say, Nick is a master sleuth.









* GeniusBruiser: Adept at all the arts and sciences, Nick is also a highly trained fighter; when that isn't enough, he also carries two spring-loaded revolvers concealed up his sleeves.

* DarkActionGirl: Nick had quite a few of these. Perhaps the most dangerous was Dazaar the Arch Fiend. Her specialty was knife throwing; she could throw a knife hundreds of yards with extreme accuracy.

* CulturedBadass: Nick was always depicted as the epitome of the Victorian gentleman and sportsman.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Nick was trained practically since birth by his father to be a mental and physical marvel.

* ArchEnemy: Nick's was the fiendish ProfessorJackQuartz, a hypnotist and vivisectionist.

* BigApplesauce: Nick operates out of Victorian New York.

* ActionGirl: Well, ActionGirl in a late Victorian sense. Ida Jones, a schoolgirl who assists Nick.