As surfing entered popular culture in the 1960s, it started to appear in some pretty strange places. The Silver Surfer emerged as a character in Marvel Comics as the mysterious Norrin Radd, a chrome-skinned humanoid alien from the planet Zenn-La who rode a surfboard that could move faster than the speed of light. The Silver Surfer features in numerous comics, movies and tv shows. The character was conceived by Jack Kirby and first appeared in 1966.