Comic Book Review: Black Magic Vol. 1 Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby
The creative team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby tried many different ideas for comic books over the years. Some were successful, others flops. In 1950, they cashed in on the then hot horror genre with Black Magic, created for Prize Comics. The full title promised “True Amazing Accounts” and supposedly the stories were based on actual purported events with some names changed. While often spooky, the stories were not dependent on gore or disturbing imagery, and the title was able to function under the Comics Code until 1961. A number of the stories were reprinted in the 1970s by DC Comics.
This volume reprints the first four issues, ads and all. (A surprisingly high number of ads for bust “improvement.”)
We lead off with “Last Second of Life!” The splash page is three witnesses stating that the events they’re about to describe are true and that they can be reached at any time for confirmation. Wealthy industrialist Matthew Crane witnesses the death of his long-time and much hated partner Joshua Benton. At the last moment before passing away, Benton seems to see something that terrifies him, but is unable to articulate it before passing away.
Mr. Crane becomes obsessed with finding out just what it was Joshua saw. Eventually, he has a terminally ill young woman transferred to his mansion for palliative care, so that he can be there when she dies and get another chance to learn what lies beyond the veil. In her last moments, the woman whispers what she sees into Mr. Crane’s ear. We don’t know what she said, but perhaps Mr. Crane could tell us if he ever stopped screaming.
The final story in this volume is “The Jonah!” Down on his luck reporter Mark Thompson wanders into a dockside dive called the Jolly Roger. He meets Abel Cain, a sailor with a skull-like face, who tells him of the last sea voyage he was on. A voyage doomed by the sea-going jinx known as a “Jonah.” One by one, the crew dies off, and Cain is the sole survivor. Despite his disbelief in the superstition, it’s clear that Cain himself was the Jonah. Ever since, he’s been unable to get a berth. Shortly after the interview, the bar burned down with Cain again the sole survivor, but the paper wasn’t interested in Thompson’s story.
Standout stories include:
“When You Were Alive!”, a retelling of the classic “ghostly passenger” folk tale. A young man gives a ride to a stranded girl who disappears after getting out of the car, and he later learns that she’s been dead for years, but the coat he loaned her is lying on the grave.
“The Scorn of the Faceless People!” A man has a recurring nightmare about a town full of people he doesn’t quite recognize accusing him of a terrible crime and being whipped in punishment. Dream researchers help him realize what incident in his past his dreams are referencing, and his hidden guilt. Despite the title, the townspeople are drawn with faces, however distorted.
“A Silver Bullet for Your Heart!” is a werewolf (probably) story set in the wilds of Canada. Steve Rice is an American trapper who meets a mysterious silver-haired woman. His Quebecois partner Jacques believes the woman to be a loup-garou, the other form of a white wolf that’s been terrorizing the territory. There’s no actual silver bullet in this story, ordinary bullets kill a loup-garou just fine. But they also kill humans, and no one actually ever sees the girl change form…
“A Curse on You!” concerns a nebbish bookkeeper who has the evil eye and can curse people–except that he doesn’t believe in such rubbish and believes it’s all coincidence. A murderously jealous salesman realizes what’s going on and manipulates the bookkeeper into cursing his romantic rival. But as we all know, if you consciously wish evil using the dark arts, it will come back to bite you.
There’s also the mandatory text stories the postal regulations of the time required. They’re pretty dire, like “The Idol” which is about a six-armed Buddha statue that’s actually an instrument of murder
Content note: This is horror, after all, so the usual mayhem and spooky stuff. A couple of the stories have bullying and abuse. Teenagers and up should be able to handle it, younger readers may need some guidance.
This is stock horror comics of the 1950s, not the best like EC or the dreadful stuff from some other companies. Most recommended to Jack Kirby fans as there’s some nifty art, including interesting faces.
