Doctor Occult

Doctor Occult
Art by Eduardo Barreto
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	New Fun Comics #6 (October 1935)
Created by	Jerry Siegel (writer) Joe Shuster (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Richard Occult
Team affiliations	Justice Society of America All-Star Squadron Sentinels of Magic The Trenchcoat Brigade
Notable aliases	Doctor Mystic
Abilities	Astral projection Hypnosis Illusion creation Telekinesis Wields Mystic Symbol of the Seven talisman, granting him powers of clairvoyance, fighting exorcism, deflection, and force field projection.

Doctor Richard Occult is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Doctor Occult, also known as the Ghost Detective, is a private investigator and user of magic who specializes in cases involving the supernatural. Doctor Occult is the earliest character created by DC Comics still currently used in the DC Universe.

The character first appeared in New Fun Comics #6 in 1935 as one of the first depicted superheroes published by DC and in comic books in particular. He was depicted as a supernatural detective, whose detecting style was very much in the style of Sam Spade, only with supernatural abilities.

He also appeared in Centaur Publications' The Comics Magazine #1 under the name "Dr. Mystic". This was the same character because his story, "The Koth and the Seven", began in The Comics Magazine and continued in DC's More Fun Comics #14–17 (issues also designated as vol. 2, #2–5). In this story, he travels to a mystic realm where he flies and wears a cape, making him the first caped comic book superhero. This story also introduced the Seven, a group of mystics who would later be retconned into having raised Richard Occult and Rose Psychic. Doctor Occult made his last original appearance in More Fun Comics #32 in 1938.

He later appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths (1986), The Books of Magic (1991), Vertigo Visions: Dr. Occult (June 1994), and The Trenchcoat Brigade (1999).

Doctor Occult is resurrected nearly fifty years later in All-Star Squadron, a title set during World War II but written in 1985. His given origin was that on New Year's Eve, 1899, Occult and Rose Psychic had been rescued by a shadowy group called "The Seven" from ritual murder at the hands of a Satanic cult. The two were later trained in the use of occult magics themselves. Thirty-six years later, Doctor Occult opened up his own detective agency, specializing in crimes of a mystical nature, and during World War II he joined the All-Star Squadron. At some point, he and Rose become fused into one being. Doctor Occult has used sorcery to halt or greatly slow the aging process, so that he appears in modern comics to still be a man in his late thirties or early forties, even though he was born at the end of the 19th century.