I follow pulp-era lore and classic cinema closely, so I tend to separate literary creation from cinematic costuming in my head. When someone asks who 'created the masked character pulp fiction costume', I first ask which tradition they mean. In pulp magazines and serials, masked figures were born on the page: Walter B. Gibson (as Maxwell Grant) gave us 'The Shadow' in the 1930s, Lee Falk introduced 'The Phantom' in 1936, and Johnston McCulley had already set a template with 'Zorro' back in 1919. These authors described masks, capes, and silhouettes that artists then rendered on covers and pulp illustrations, cementing the look.
For modern film incarnations, the visual credit often goes to a movie's costume designer. For example, Betsy Heimann is the credited costume designer for 'Pulp Fiction', and she established that sleek, noir-derived wardrobe for the film’s characters. Over decades, illustrators, comic artists, and costume designers have all iterated on those foundational descriptions, so what we wear as fans today is a layered
inheritance — part writer’s concept, part artist’s interpretation, part costumer’s craft. Personally, I find that layered creative lineage fascinating; it’s like every stitch tells a story.