From Pulpy beginnings comes our next profile on....

The Sandman

    Tired of seeing crime roam the streets of New York City, wealthy playboy Wesley Dodds builds an underground laboratory accessed by a wall panel in his mansion. There he invents a sleeping gas gun to incapacitate criminals. Then, attired in a business suit, gas mask, cape, and fedora, he sets out to fight crime as the Sandman. His girlfriend, the beautiful and clever Dian Belmont (see individual entry on Madame Sand) aided the Wesley and on a few occasions dressed up as the Sandman (as seen ). Eventually, Wesley devised a “wirepoon gun” which fired a barbed cable. Wesley Dodds as the Sandman was also a charter member of the Justice Society of America, fighting alongside those brave heroes and heroines. Part way through his career as the Sandman, Wesley changed his costume (as seen ) to a more heroic and vibrant look and eventually discarded his gas gun. In the process he also picked up a sidekick in Sandy Hawkins, Dian Belmont's orphan nephew, who becomes Sandy the Golden Boy (see individual entry), and the pair fight side by side against evil in all forms, often seeming to fly through the air while riding their wirepoon cables. On the sleeping forms of his victims the Sandman often leaves a note with these verses:

There is no land beyond the law
Where tyrants rule with unshakable power!
It is but a dream from which the evil wake
To face their fate, their terrifying hour.