Black Terror, The
Entry updated 14 April 2025. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1943-1949). Nedor Publishing Company/Visual Editions Inc. 27 issues. Artists include Al Camy, Mort Meskin, Ed Moritz, Jerry Robinson and Alex Schomburg. Scriptwriters include Donald Bayne Hobart, Richard Hughes and Charles S Strong. Originally 68 pages, then declining until #26 and #27 had only 36. Usually four long strips per issue, a couple with five, whilst #26 and #27 had three; there would also be at least one text story, plus short fiction or non-fiction strips as filler. All issues had at least three Black Terror strips, a few having four. Stories only started to be regularly given titles from #19.
Superhero The Black Terror – masked, dressed in black with a skull and crossbones on his chest – had first appeared in Exciting Comics #9 (1941), staying until the end of its run (#69, 1949), and was deemed popular enough to be given his own comic. #1 summarizes the set up: "Bob Benton, meek young druggist, calls on formic ether vapors to help him combat America's enemies!", which he does in the guise of The Black Terror. His Superpowers are exceptional strength (able to lift buildings) and erratic toughness (he is bulletproof but can be knocked out fairly easily), with support provided by "Tim, the invincible American boy", similarly attired: together they are called the "Terror Twins". Another regular is Bob's friend Jean Starr, a young woman unaware he and The Black Terror are one and the same, despite the considerable circumstantial evidence (frustration at Bob's passive demeanour keeps her from joining the dots); she frequently has to be rescued (see Women in SF). The influence of Superman might be detected.
Though a druggist, Bob is also a practising Scientist, sometimes assisting the authorities; thus the stories frequently involve chemistry. As tales they tend to be straightforward, but are sometimes enlivened by an eccentric plot element; Hypnosis turns up with surprising frequency. Schomburg drew all the covers except for #1; the quality varies, but they are often dynamic and sometimes memorable (such as #6, #7 and #17) though some (particularly #5 and #7) also suffer from the racist caricaturing of the Japanese that was typical of the era (see Race in SF). Though the strip art is usually at least competent, works by the team of Meskin and Robinson stand out: they first appear in #23 and then did 2-3 strips per issue (except #26); the first two in #24 are particularly good, though sadly they joined the comic just as the genre stories ceased.
For the first few years The Black Terror's adventures usually involve fighting the Axis Powers (see World War Two), with genre tropes often appearing. #1 has the Nazis helping Japanese saboteurs pass unnoticed in America with an injection that turns them temporarily Occidental. In #3 a hypnotic serum turns giant killer apes into an obedient gun-wielding army (see Apes as Human) that German agents plan to use in North Africa; the story also has a net made of a "substance ten times stronger than iron", and thus able to restrain the apes and our hero. #4 has termites "drugged" by the Nazis so that they eat metal (aside from the drug they also need human blood): the intention being to sneak them onto Allied ships. In #5, Bob's study of old manuscripts reveals the existence of a "strange chemical" in Turkestan "that explodes with fifty times the force of gunpowder"; another story has a US inventor, ignored by his own government, trying to sell his Invisibility cloak to the Germans; they, on learning he cannot make more, simply kill him and take it. In #6 a Dr Kambi breaks "the hidden code of the Rosetta Stone" to discover the High Priests of Ancient Egypt could create Zombies by injecting corpses with a chemical; Kambi plans to take over the world. Another tale has the Nazis use "magna-vitalo fluid" to create exceptionally tough, strong soldiers.
In #9 the Germans develop the "electro-destroyer", a Weapon than can electrocute at a short distance; one of their agents upgrades it to harness storms, creating lightning to destroy factories (see Weather Control). In the same issue the Japanese have invented the "electro-hypnotizer", a machine that broadcasts hypnotic rays. Though the Germans are now (1945) on the retreat, #10 has them planning to fight back with "robot bombs" that can not only destroy London, but also be sent across the Atlantic to flatten American cities ("robot bomb" was one of the terms used by the Allies to describe V-1 Rockets). In another story the Japanese are also using science to turn the tide of the war, with an "ultra-short frequency transmitter" whose Magnetism can control US Naval battleships: they capture two and use them to land at San Diego. The third tale has a forty-foot gorilla brought from Africa to the USA, whereupon a scientist steals it and – using what he calls "chemical hypnotism" (see Drugs) – has it rob Fort Knox. #12 includes Mad Scientist Dr Ghoul, whose Machine turns people into ghouls. In #14 a Japanese chemical turns people into murderous giants (see Great and Small) – some try unsuccessfully to fight it, apologizing to their victims.
In #15 Dr Inch "whose fiendish brain is almost as large as his small body" (actually his head is in proportion) has an Invention that paralyses the will, rendering its victims obedient – until they take a blow to the head. Another tale has Bob trying to find a peacetime use for a War Department chemical that disintegrates bone cells; this is stolen by crooks and becomes mixed with gunpowder, whereupon it ossifies the thieves' bodies, making them as tough as concrete. The issue's third tale has a secret weapon the Germans never had the opportunity to use, that uses "hyper amplified radio-waves" to create earthquakes: it is of course stolen by criminals. #16 has an organization called the "Patriotic Americans", funded by a Nazi industrialist, who want to "kick all foreigners out of the country. Us Aryans are going to take over and run things" (see Politics). Another story has a chemical that lights up the body like an X-ray. #17 offers more hypnotism, with a criminal using a spray that paralyses "certain brain cells", making the victim more susceptible. In #18 the "dried spores of a rare oriental plant" force people to mimic the actions of others.
In #19 "a break in the Earth's hard crust – right to the core of the world" opens in a mine, from which come rubbery men, who have "developed hard rubbery body tissues, to withstand the heat" (see Evolution). Our hero herds them back by uprooting a tree and waving it at them: "These Underground men never saw trees! The green leaves will frighten them." Another tale has a chemist developing a compound that "produces a strange cellular energy" that "creates a vacuum around the lower part of the body – causing propulsion!"; it launches the drinker through the air (see Flying) and criminals use it to escape after a bank robbery, having donned parachutes for the descent. In #20 a scientist comes up with a formula to synthesize gold, but tears it up for fear of what it would do to the US economy if it got into the wrong hands (see Economics). #21 has Leprechauns. In #22 Bob attends The Fibber's Club (see Club Story) and tells a tall tale of the Black Terror visiting 9767 in a Time Machine built by a physicist friend. They find the era ruled by a dictator who keeps everyone docile and obedient by a combination of drugs and Technology that makes the population believe they are experiencing the paradise shown on a movie screen: Satire is presumably intended. The dictator does not initially believe he is seeing the real Black Terror, as his enemies "always masquerade as mighty figures from the past". The tale turns out to be true, as Bob presents the club with a mechanical talking doll (see Robots and possibly AI) of the Black Terror made in that time, who explains it will answer all questions "provided they don't violate professional ethics". #23 has a Supervillain, the Lady Serpent, who has a hypnotic monocle and, as she rather fancies our hero, uses it on him to win his favour; however he is too strong-willed to succumb. She returns in #24, with snakes. Save for The Terror Twins' superpowers, the stories in subsequent issues are all mundane.
The non-Black Terror story in each issue is sometimes sf or Fantasy. #7 has The Ghost, who uses "the secret lore of oriental Magic" to fight Nazis; here the latter have a record that, when broadcast on the radio, hypnotizes its listeners. #8 has Hale of the Herald, a journalist who uses an invisibility pill to fight Nazis. In #20 The Scarab (previously seen in Startling Comics and Exciting Comics) makes a one-off appearance. Another Exciting Comics superhero, Miss Masque, appears in #21. #22 has the Crime Professor, a young academic who not only studies but also fights crime: his inventions include a working Lie Detector which looks like an electric chair. #23's "Space Speedsters" is set in the Near Future: a new planet approaches the Earth, causing an eclipse and panic, so Jinx Johnson pays a visit, using the Spaceship of her physicist friend Randy Colman, to discover the planet is propelled by flaming jets of gas from its depths (see World Ships) and that its inhabitants plan an Invasion of Earth. [SP]
further reading
- The Black Terror – Volume 1 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2025) [graph: collects issues #9-#20 of Exciting Comics: illus/various: hb/Elmer Wexler]
- The Black Terror – Volume 2 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2025) [graph: collects issues #21-#32 of Exciting Comics: in the publishers Golden Age Classics series: illus/various: hb/Elmer Wexler]
- The Black Terror – Volume 3 (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2025) [graph: collects issues #33-#44 of Exciting Comics: in the publishers Golden Age Classics series: illus/various: hb/Alex Schomburg]
links
previous versions of this entry