Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective in the public domain who has had an influence in superhero fiction.  It could also be argued that the character is a precursor to the superhero.

History

The character of Sherlock Holmes premiered in the story "A Study in Scarlet", where he appears as a "consulting" detective with no direct ties to any law enforcement agency, instead providing help for particularly difficult mysteries.  The character continued to appear in a number of stories in which he solved seemingly impossible mysteries.  The character later seemingly died trying to stop a dangerous criminal named Moriarty but revealed himself to be alive years later (author Arthur Conan Doyle brought the character back due to popular demand). Notably, even before the conventional concept of the public domain, he appeared in many unsanctioned stories written by different authors, a sort of forebearer to modern "fanfic".