Die Swart Luiperd

The Black Leopard (Afrikaans: Die Swart Luiperd) is a South African series of pulp novels featuring Leon Fouché, an adventurer resembling Lee Falk's The Phantom. The novels, published by Pronkboeke,^[1] an imprint of Die Goeie Hoop Uitgewers (Edms.) Bpk, were written first by Abraham Le Roux Botha using the pen name Braam le Roux,^[1] and, following his death in 1956, by F.A. Venter using the pen name Meiring Fouché.^[2] The series ran from approximately 1948 to 1963.^[3]

Leon Fouché is the Black Leopard. He travels far afield seeking adventure on his horse, Donker, with his two leopards, Simson and Spikkels.^[4] He uses no firearms, only his hunting knife and bow and arrow. His wife, Sonet, and his son, Bennie, accompany him later in the series. He has been compared to Lee Falk's The Phantom,^[1] but also, together with another contemporary hero of Afrikaans pulp fiction, Rooi Jan, with Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan.^[5]

An unrelated photo comic by the same title appeared later; its primary hero, Baron Rolf du Plessis, wears a leopard mask.