The stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have been very popular as adaptations for the stage, and later film, and still later television. The four volumes of the Universal Sherlock Holmes (1995) compiled by Ronald B. De Waal lists over 25,000 Holmes-related productions and products. They include the original writings, "together with the translations of these tales into sixty-three languages, plus Braille and shorthand, the writings about the Writings or higher criticism, writings about Sherlockians and their societies, memorials and memorabilia, games, puzzles and quizzes, phonograph records, audio and video tapes, compact discs, laser discs, ballets, films, musicals, operettas, oratorios, plays, radio and television programs, parodies and pastiches, children's books, cartoons, comics, and a multitude of other items—from advertisements to wine—that have accumulated throughout the world on the two most famous characters in literature."

Board games The board game 221B Baker Street (Gibsons Games) was first developed in 1975, and the book-based game Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (Sleuth Publications) was published in 1981. Multiple expansions have since been published for both games. The board game A Study in Emerald, released in 2013, was based on the Sherlock Holmes pastiche "A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman. Other Sherlock Holmes board games include Watson & Holmes (Ludonova, 2015), Beyond Baker Street (Z-Man Games, 2016), Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty's Web (2016), and Exit: The Game – The Disappearance of Sherlock Holmes (Thames & Kosmos, 2022) Card games based on Sherlock Holmes include I Say, Holmes! (2007, updated 2014), Holmes: Sherlock & Mycroft (Devir Games, 2015), and Clash of Minds: Holmes vs Moriarty (2019).

Comics Comic strips Three Sherlock Holmes adaptations have appeared in American newspapers. The first, titled Sherlock Holmes, ran from 1930 to 1931. Sherlock Holmes was drawn by Leo O'Mealia (who later drew covers for Action Comics) and distributed by the Bell Syndicate.Ron Goulart, The Funnies:100 Years of American Comic Strips, Holbrook, Mass.:Adams Publishing, 1995. (pp. 104, 106) A short-lived half-page Sherlock Holmes comic strip appeared daily and Sunday in the 1950s, written by radio scriptwriter Edith Meiser and drawn by Frank Giacoia.Goulart, 1995 (p.198) The third adaptation "Mr. Holmes of Baker Street" by Bill Barry appeared in 1976–1977. This adaptation of the famous detective was not very popular in the south, but experienced a series of faithful followers in northern states.

Comic books

Despite the character's near-ubiquitous presence in other media and household recognition, in comic books Sherlock Holmes has been limited to the occasional miniseries or guest appearance. Sherlock Holmes cover artist Walt Simonson has speculated that this may be because the period setting is so difficult to draw.

SelfMadeHero published "Hound of the Baskervilles", adapted by Ian Edginton and illustrated by Ian Culbard, in May 2009.

In The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Holmes appears in a flashback sequence depicting the climactic scene of "The Final Problem" and is still believed by the public to be deceased, although it is revealed in the second volume that Mina later meets with him.

In the 1990s, Caliber Comics issued a four-part Sherlock Holmes Reader which features quotes from Holmes, a map of 221-B Baker Street, and canon story adaptations as well as individual stories such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes and The Sussex Vampire.

2009 brought the Black House Comics series The Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes. The series is written by Christopher Sequeira with covers by Academy Award winning artist Dave Elsey.

In 2010, Boom! Studios published a four-part series entitled Muppet Sherlock Holmes which featured Gonzo as Holmes, Fozzie Bear as Dr. Watson, and Kermit the Frog as Inspector Lestrade.

In 2013, New Paradigm Studios began publishing a monthly, ongoing series entitled Watson and Holmes. The series re-imagines Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as living in the 21st century and living in Harlem.

The BBC series Sherlock (see: Television series in this article) has a manga adaptation published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten. The English translation of this series is being released by Titan Comics in the UK and US.

There is also a loosely adapted manga adaptation titled Moriarty the Patriot that follows William Moriarty as the hero and protagonist.

In 2024, IDW Publishing announced Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theater, a three-part miniseries where Sherlock Homes will team up with Great Gatsby, Dracula and the Time Traveller from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine to battle the Godzilla.Roe, Mike. (July 19, 2024). "Godzilla Takes on the Great Gatsby and Sherlock Holmes in 'Monsterpiece Theatre' Comic." The Wrap. Retrieved July 20, 2024.

DC Comics DC Comics' Sherlock Holmes one-shot (cover-dated September–October 1975) adapts "The Final Problem" and "The Adventure of the Empty House". The one-shot's creative team of Dennis O'Neil (writer) and E. R. Cruz (artist) had coincidentally just come off of adapting another pulp crimefighter for DC, The Shadow.

O'Neil and Cruz would each shortly take an additional turn at the character: The Joker #6, written by O'Neil, pitted Holmes (actually an actor suffering a head injury) against the title character, and the 50th anniversary issue of Detective Comics, drawn by Cruz, additionally commemorated the 100th anniversary of Sherlock Holmes, featuring an elderly Holmes meet Batman.

Marvel Comics

In the Marvel Universe, the immortal shapeshifter Mystique is depicted as having lived in a male guise as a "consulting detective" who first established her romantic relationship with her later wife Destiny (Irene Adler) in the 1800s. Biographical details implied Mystique to have been Sherlock Holmes,Mystique comics – Destiny Retrieved October 23, 2008. an implication confirmed in the text by 2022. Mystique, in her male guise of Holmes, conceived Nightcrawler with Destiny, who bore him.

The character of Clive Reston in the Marvel Comics universe is a relative of Sherlock Holmes mentioned the former hero to be his great uncle.

Separately, a different version of Holmes from the "Ideaverse" appears as the main protagonist of Deadpool Killustrated.

Books Novels/Novellas

There are many novels, novellas, and short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes that were written by authors other than Arthur Conan Doyle.

Film

It has been estimated that Sherlock Holmes is the most prolific screen character in the history of cinema. The first known film featuring Holmes is Sherlock Holmes Baffled, a one-reel film running less than a minute, made by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in 1900. This was followed by a 1905 Vitagraph film Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; or, Held for Ransom, with H. Kyrle Bellew and J. Barney Sherry in unlisted roles. It was long believed that the film starred Maurice Costello as Sherlock Holmes, but Leslie S. Klinger has written that the identification of Costello in the role is flawed. Klinger states that the first identification of Costello with the role was in Michael Pointer's Public Life of Sherlock Holmes published in 1975 but that Pointer later realized his error and wrote to Klinger stating

Many similar films were made in the early years of the twentieth century, most notably the 13 one- and two-reel silent films produced by the Danish Nordisk Film Company between 1908 and 1911. The only non-lost film is Sherlock Holmes i Bondefangerkløer, produced in 1910. Holmes was originally played by Viggo Larsen. Other actors who played Holmes in those films were Otto Lagoni, Einar Zangenberg, Lauritz Olsen, and Alwin Neuss. In 1911 the American Biograph company produced a series of 11 short comedies based on the Holmes character with Mack Sennett (later of Keystone Cops fame) in the title role.

In 1914, Universal released A Study in Scarlet, starring Francis Ford as Holmes with a script by Grace Cunard. It is believed that Ford's younger brother, John Ford, credited as "Jack Ford", portrayed Dr. Watson.

By 1916, Harry Arthur Saintsbury, who had played Holmes on stage hundreds of times in Gillette's play, reprised the role in the 1916 film The Valley of Fear.

The next significant cycle of Holmes films were produced by the Stoll Pictures company in Britain. Between 1921 and 1923 they produced a total of 47 two-reelers, all featuring noted West End actor Eille Norwood in the lead with Hubert Willis as Watson.

John Barrymore played the role in a 1922 movie entitled Sherlock Holmes, with Roland Young as Watson and William Powell in his first screen appearance. This Goldwyn film is the first Holmes movie made with high production values and a major star.

Clive Brook played Sherlock Holmes three times: The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1929), as part of the anthology film Paramount on Parade (1930), and Sherlock Holmes (1932). Reginald Owen, who played Dr. Watson in the latter film, would portray Holmes the following year in A Study in Scarlet.

In 1931, Raymond Massey played Sherlock Holmes in his screen debut, The Speckled Band, while Arthur Wontner played Holmes in five British films from 1931 to 1937.

Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce played Holmes and Watson in The Hound of the Baskervilles, which launched a 14-film series. Rathbone is regarded as the Holmes of his generation.

Peter Cushing played Sherlock Holmes in the 1959 film The Hound of the Baskervilles as part of Hammer Horror. This was the first depiction of Holmes in colour. He later portrayed Holmes alongside Nigel Stock as Dr Watson in a 16 part BBC television series in 1968.

A Study in Terror is a 1965 British thriller film directed by James Hill and starring John Neville as Sherlock Holmes and Donald Houston as Dr. Watson. It is the first film in which the sleuth investigates the Jack the Ripper murders.

In the 1970 film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Holmes is portrayed by Robert Stephens, Dr. John H. Watson by Colin Blakely and Mycroft Holmes by Christopher Lee. Lee had previously played Sherlock in the 1962 film, Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace.

The 1971 film They Might Be Giants explores the premise of a deranged man who believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes, with a psychiatrist becoming his Watson.

In 1975, Gene Wilder made his directorial debut with the comedy The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, which he also wrote and starred in. Wilder played the bumbling jealous younger brother of Holmes (played by Douglas Wilmer) trying to solve a case in which a young dance hall girl (Madeline Kahn) is being blackmailed. The cast also included Marty Feldman and Dom DeLuise.

In 1976, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution was released, adapted from the novel of the same name which was written as a pastiche by the American writer Nicholas Meyer. The film sees Sherlock Holmes being treated for a cocaine addiction with the help of Sigmund Freud.

In the 1979 film Murder by Decree, Holmes is embroiled in the investigation surrounding the real-life 1888 Whitechapel murders committed by Jack the Ripper. Christopher Plummer plays Holmes and James Mason plays Watson.

Young Sherlock Holmes, a film about Sherlock Holmes's early adventures as a teenager, was produced by Amblin Entertainment and released by Paramount Pictures in 1985.

In 1986, Walt Disney Animation Studios released The Great Mouse Detective, an animated animal film based on the tradition of Sherlock Holmes.

In 1988, Michael Caine starred as Sherlock Holmes, with Ben Kingsley as Doctor Watson, in Without a Clue.

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law portray Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, respectively, in the film Sherlock Holmes, directed by Guy Ritchie and released in 2009, and its sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, released in 2011.

In 2015, Ian McKellen played a 93-year-old Sherlock Holmes in the film Mr. Holmes.