APOCOLYTE'S WORLD OF COMICS: THE BLACK TERROR / Nemesis Of Evil

Friday, May 16, 2014

THE BLACK TERROR / Nemesis Of Evil - Origin Story

Greetings,

Comics Fan!

I am

THE APOCOLYTE!

THE BLACK TERROR is a Golden Age Superhero.

If you go searching for "Black Terror" on the internet,

you may find some things that are definitely NOT

the Superhero from the 40's.

So, be careful out there.

The kind of Black Terror that I want to share with you today first appeared in the pages of Nedor's EXCITING COMICS #9, in 1941, and enjoyed a Golden Age run through the 1940's.

cover art by Elmer Wexler

From that issue we will see his origin.

I always had a soft spot for origin stories. How about you?

Well, we'll see how a weak and belittled pharmacist discovers a formula that somehow transforms him into a virtual super-man, a terror, if you will. The black part basically comes from his costume, I guess, which sports a large skull and crossbones across his chest. If there were heavy metal bikers back in the forties, I imagine this would have been the comic book hero for them.

Oh, yeah, I guess we can't forget about Tim.

Who's Tim, you ask? Why, Tim is his kid sidekick, of course!

Every hero had to have one back then, union rules and such.

The story is written by Richard Hughes (who also colored the story). Hughes was the creator of the original Dr. (Doc) Strange in 1940, and later created Fighting Yank, Pyroman, and Supermouse, among others. He was also the editor for American Comics Group (ACG) from 1943 to 1967, their entire existence. BLACK TERROR's origin story features art by David Gabrielsen, who according to GCD only drew a handful of the early BLACK TERROR stories and virtually vanished from comics after 1942 (except for 2 Kid Eternity stories in 1947).

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