In the published pulp fiction magazine boom in the US between the two World Wars, a hero emerged called Zorro. On 9th August, 1919 he appeared in All Story magazine for the first time, and has completed a century of his existence in 2019 by captivating so many through movies, comic books and crime thrillers. He gave rise to many other masked heroes.

Pulp fiction is not treated as literature, but still remains staple reading of middle and lower middle households and migrant job seekers in the cities. Lovecraft wrote such stories. H.G.Wells wrote such science fiction. Edgar’s Tarzan and John Carter’s adventure stories belong to this genre. Instead of pulp paper, such literature is now printed on glazed white paper. Zorro was created by Johnston Macculley. He was the hero of a novel The Curse of Capistrano. This hero had a black mask on the face. He fought for the oppressed. He defeated the enemies and scratched the letter Z with his sword on their chest.

In 1920, the first movie of Zorro called Mask of Zorro was released. This silent movie is available on YouTube. Don De la Vega becomes Zorro, after having black dress and a mask. Zorro appeared in the book form in Mask of Zorro published in 1924. The other Zorro like masked men who appeared in pulp fiction were Black Star, Thunderbolt, Green Ghost, The Spider, Man in Purple and Crimson Clone. Zorro, however, sustained for a long time.

Batman created by Bob Rane in 1940s was inspired by Zorro.

Later, comic books and neo-literature magazines appeared, ending the demand for pulp fiction magazines. Still every decade had a movie based on Zorro. Zorro became popular in Europe and Asia too in the 1960s. Many personalities were patterned after Zorro in comic books.

Zorro is Spanish word for a cunning and agile fox. Isabel Allende, a Chilean woman writer, wrote a big novel on Zorro in 2005.