Buzz
In the winter of 1887, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson made their first appearance in Beeton’s Christmas Annual. Since that moment, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary characters have become the gold standard of literary detectives. Beyond Conan Doyle’s original works, which spanned from 1887 to 1927, Holmes and Watson have been featured in countless radio, stage, and film adaptations. Remarkably, Holmes holds the distinction of being the most portrayed fictional human in cinematic history, with only Count Dracula coming close (though Dracula isn’t exactly human).
The lasting popularity of Sherlock Holmes can be attributed to several factors. At times, he provides a firm answer to political or social unrest, while at other times, he acts as a human magician, able to deduce an entire life’s history from a single speck of dirt. As a result, many authors around the world have created their own Holmes-like detectives. These characters share the same eccentric quirks, reserved demeanor, and sharp intellect as Holmes, though their stories take place in various settings, from Victorian London to 20th-century Japan and medieval Italy.
10. Erast Fandorin
Erast Fandorin, created by Georgian-Russian author Boris Akunin (born Grigory Chkhartishvili), is a high-ranking police officer and occasional government official in Tsarist Russia. Fandorin is a beloved literary hero in Russia, the subject of multiple feature films. A British television series based on his character is also in development. There are 13 books in the Fandorin series, some of which remain untranslated. Unfortunately, no more will follow, as Akunin retired from writing in 2013, after selling around 18 million copies of his books.
A philologist with expertise in the Japanese language, Akunin (a name taken from the Japanese word for "villain") crafted his historical series to delve into the narrative techniques of various renowned authors. Take, for example, his 1998 novel Murder On The Leviathan, set aboard a passenger ship teeming with captivating mysteries. The writing is undeniably reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s style. Similarly, Fandorin, who is portrayed as a polymath-turned-quirky gentleman adventurer, strongly resembles Mr. Holmes in many ways.
Much like Holmes, Fandorin is a coldly rational detective who frequently takes on cases driven by personal motives. Similarly, details about Fandorin’s background are scarce, though it is known that his father served as a military officer in the Russian army. In many respects, Fandorin seems to be a blend of Holmes and his brother Mycroft, a secretive figure in the British government. Regardless, Fandorin undeniably holds the title of Russia’s most cherished literary detective.
9. Solar Pons
While Akunin drew inspiration from Holmes when creating Erast Fandorin, Solar Pons is such a faithful imitation that the two characters are nearly indistinguishable, save for the notable difference in fame and recognition. Both Sherlock Holmes and Solar Pons reside in London (Holmes at 221B Baker Street, Pons at 7B Praed Street) and are frequently accompanied by doctors who also serve as their chroniclers (Dr. Watson and Dr. Parker). Holmes’s older brother is Mycroft, while Pons’s sibling is named Bancroft. Even their landladies are similar, with the iconic Mrs. Hudson replaced by Mrs. Johnson in the Pontine canon.
Solar Pons, a creation of pulp writer August Derleth, who is also known for his association with the legendary H.P. Lovecraft, first appeared in 1928, the year after Arthur Conan Doyle ceased writing his Sherlock Holmes stories. In an ambitious move, the 19-year-old Derleth reached out to Conan Doyle, requesting permission to write his own Holmes stories. When the request was politely rejected, Derleth decided to create his own version of the character, even though he was a Wisconsin teenager who had never visited London.
Unlike the older style of Conan Doyle's works, Derleth’s Solar Pons tales are set in the 1920s and ’30s, incorporating an array of modern technological gadgets. Derleth also leaned into his pulp fiction roots, setting Pons against notorious villains such as Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu. At the same time, Derleth, with his love of horror fiction, crafted more outlandish cases for Pons than Conan Doyle ever gave Holmes. This tradition continued with Basil Copper, a British writer and journalist, who contributed to and revised Pons stories from 1971, the year of Derleth’s death, until 2005. In a nod to Holmes’s Baker Street Irregulars, fans of Solar Pons now uphold a group known as the Praed Street Irregulars.
8. Kogoro Akechi
In the 1920s, Taro Hirai was a young Japanese admirer of Western detective fiction. At that time, most of his favorite stories had yet to be translated into Japanese, and Japan lacked a strong native tradition of detective literature. To fill this gap, Hirai took matters into his own hands and began writing his own mysteries. Adopting the pen name Edogawa Rampo, a Japanese version of “Edgar Allan Poe,” Hirai went on to craft some truly surreal and disturbing tales. One of his most famous works, The Human Chair, tells the eerie tale of a famous mystery writer receiving a letter from a grotesque criminal who has managed to hide inside a luxurious armchair. Many of Rampo’s stories have been adapted by manga and anime artists, ensuring his legacy continues in contemporary Japanese culture.
Rampo’s detective fiction remains influential, particularly his stories featuring the private detective Kogoro Akechi. Initially introduced as a penniless student with extraordinary investigative talents, Akechi eventually evolved into a sophisticated, Holmes-like figure and has since become a key character in detective manga, anime films, and TV series, rivaling Holmes himself in popularity. Akechi is a calm, cool-headed, and entirely rational detective, skilled in solving seemingly unsolvable cases that involve bizarre and gruesome methods of murder. His primary adversaries include the master thief known as The Fiend With Twenty Faces and the deadly femme fatale The Black Lizard. The latter villain, featured in Rampo’s 1934 novel The Black Lizard, made her film debut in 1968, in a movie that also starred Yukio Mishima, the famous writer and poet who tragically committed seppuku after attempting to lead a failed coup in 1970.
7. Sexton Blake
Sexton Blake, often called the 'Prince of Penny Dreadfuls,' was conceived as a replacement for Sherlock Holmes following Conan Doyle's decision to end Holmes' story with his fall over the Reichenbach Falls in 1893’s *The Final Problem*. Blake swiftly established himself as a central figure in British pulp fiction and newspaper comics, despite being seen as a ‘budget’ version of Sherlock Holmes.
Originally created by Harry Blyth, Blake’s adventures were crafted by numerous writers and illustrators during the time his stories were featured in *Detective Weekly* magazine. As a comic strip character, Blake evolved beyond his Holmesian roots, emerging as more of a pulp vigilante. This transformation led to action-packed tales involving global crime syndicates and thrilling locales. Blake also squared off against a growing roster of inventive adversaries, such as the unseen Mr. Mist, the eerie Miss Death, and Dr. Satira, a villain capable of controlling animals through telepathy and ruling over a secret city of intelligent apes.
The first Sexton Blake stage adaptation premiered in 1909, marking the beginning of the character's widespread adaptations. Over the years, Blake has appeared in films, radio dramas, and even a British TV series that aired from 1967 to 1971.
6. Sherlock Hound
A partnership between Japanese and Italian television networks, Sherlock Hound aired 26 episodes from 1984 to 1985. The series showcased Conan Doyle’s well-known characters as anthropomorphic dogs set in a steampunk-inspired neo-Victorian world. While many episodes presented entirely original plots, a few, such as “The Speckled Band,” made attempts to remain somewhat faithful to the original Conan Doyle stories.
Notably, Sherlock Hound was the result of collaboration with acclaimed Japanese animator, director, and writer Hayao Miyazaki, who directed the first six episodes. While it is not widely regarded as one of Miyazaki’s standout creations, Sherlock Hound was heavily promoted by its Japanese and Italian producers, ultimately finding some success. Its influence was long-lasting, introducing Miyazaki to Marco Pagot, a representative from the Italian RAI network, who later played a role in inspiring Miyazaki’s iconic Porco Rosso, where an Italian fighter pilot named Marco Pagotti is transformed into a talking pig.
5. Harry Dickson
Dickson began his journey as a German pulp detective hero during the early 1900s. Initially, the character was simply referred to as “Sherlock Holmes,” but legal issues soon prompted the German publishers to rename him “the King of Detectives,” though he was undeniably modeled after Holmes. By 1927, a Dutch translation made modifications, calling him “Harry Dickson, the American Sherlock Holmes.” In 1928, Belgian pulp author Jean Ray was tasked with a similar translation into French, and by around issue 20, Ray began adding his own unique elements to the character, often drawing from his background as a horror writer.
Much like the transformation of Sexton Blake, Ray's Harry Dickson evolved from a mere Sherlock Holmes imitator into a charismatic pulp action hero, taking on a variety of sinister antagonists who often blurred the boundaries between the human and the supernatural. This was complemented by magazine covers showcasing stunning artwork. Ray penned at least 180 Dickson stories and short novels, which became immensely popular throughout the 1930s. The character's enduring appeal even led famed French filmmaker Alain Resnais to attempt a high-budget Dickson movie in the 1960s, although the project ultimately fell through. Tragically, many of Ray's Harry Dickson novels have yet to be translated into English.
4. Hemlock Jones
As with many beloved characters, both past and present, Sherlock Holmes has often been the subject of mockery. His pompous nature and uncanny ability to solve even the most perplexing cases make him an easy target for ridicule by fans and fellow writers alike. One such example occurred in 1902, when American author Bret Harte released 'The Stolen Cigar-Case' (available to read here) in Pearson’s Magazine.
Harte, who is better known for writing about the rugged characters of America's Wild West, achieved great success with this comedic take on Sherlock Holmes. The detective-writing duo known as Ellery Queen even called it 'the finest parody of Sherlock Holmes ever written.' In the story, which imitates Conan Doyle’s distinct style, Hemlock Jones attempts to explain his reasoning for believing that the narrator—who resembles Watson—has stolen his cigar box.
Hemlock Jones adds a comedic layer to the story by making the most obvious deductions, such as concluding that it's raining outside simply because the narrator's umbrella is wet. This behavior aligns with the character’s name, which evokes the poison Socrates allegedly drank to end his life, symbolizing the death of intellect. Ultimately, after several dramatic attempts to accuse the narrator of stealing his precious cigar box, Hemlock Jones is revealed as a pompous figure who never bothered searching for the missing box. Despite this, the narrator is captivated by the detective’s inflated sense of competence.
3. William of Baskerville
Released in 1980, The Name of the Rose instantly captivated readers worldwide. This debut novel by Italian scholar Umberto Eco follows a murder investigation in an Italian monastery during 1327. Noteworthy for its use of literary analysis and semiotics within the storyline, Eco's novel introduces the distinctive detective, William of Baskerville. A Franciscan friar from England, he is believed to be inspired by the historical figure William of Ockham, combining Sherlock Holmes’ sharp investigative skills with a profound sense of Christian humility that is crucial to the plot.
The idea of Catholic clergy becoming detectives wasn't groundbreaking by 1980. Seventy years earlier, G.K. Chesterton created The Blue Cross, a detective novel starring Father Brown, a humble Catholic priest. Chesterton designed Brown to be the antithesis of Holmes. While Holmes relies on detached logic and a scientific approach to solving crimes, Father Brown uses intuition and his deep understanding of the human soul. Holmes represents the Enlightenment, while Father Brown harkens back to the spiritual wisdom of the Middle Ages.
William of Baskerville, whose name pays homage to the famous Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles, merges Father Brown’s deep understanding of human sin with Holmes’ methodical scientific approach. Alongside a Watson-like companion, Adso of Melk, William uncovers the mystery of the monastery by applying multiple scientific disciplines. In 1986, the novel was adapted into a film of the same title, featuring Sean Connery in a starring role.
2. Jimmy Kudo
The lead character in one of the longest-running manga series, Jimmy (or Shinichi, depending on your preference) Kudo is a devoted fan of Sherlock Holmes. Created by Gosho Aoyama, Kudo is a teenage detective who adopts the alias Conan Edogawa after a mysterious criminal organization transforms him into a child (it’s a bit complicated).
Kudo stars in the series Case Closed (also known as Detective Conan), which serves as Aoyama’s homage to both Sherlock Holmes and detective fiction as a whole. In Kudo, Aoyama introduced an astute and energetic investigator who mirrors many of the traits associated with Holmes. For instance, both characters are violinists, and Kudo is often seen wearing Holmes’s iconic deerstalker cap and cloak. Despite selling an impressive 140 million copies of its 85 volumes, Case Closed is still only the fifth highest-selling manga of all time.
1. Herlock Sholmes
Much like Hemlock Jones, Herlock Sholmes is a satirical take on the legendary detective created by a renowned author. This particular character was created by Maurice Leblanc, the same author who gave birth to another famous character of the era: Arsene Lupin. A gentleman thief and dandy known for his heists against the upper class, Lupin enjoys immense popularity in his native France. Just a year after his debut, Lupin was pitted against Holmes (or rather “Herlock Sholmes”) in a series of short stories that were later compiled in Arsene Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes.
In the early 20th century, British audiences favored detective heroes in their stories, while the French were more inclined toward criminal protagonists like Lupin and the eerie serial killer Fantomas. This contrast highlights a playful rivalry between the two nations, with Lupin’s clever games against Herlock Sholmes symbolizing a competition between different literary traditions. As a proud Frenchman, Leblanc was determined not to let the British detective overshadow his own creation, so in Arsene Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes, Lupin consistently outsmarts Sholmes with his wit and ingenuity. The success of the pairing led to a 2008 PC game under the same title. Unlike the original stories, the game does not parody Holmes and presents a more balanced showdown between the two characters.
