Tremble before Beauki! Art by Flint Henry.

by Beau Smith

My dad handed a lot of things down to me, some material, but mostly wisdom that would influence and help as I became a man.

Once (Early 1960s) while I was going through my stack of comic books, my dad surprised me by asking me if I had any Blackhawk comic books in my pile. The first thought in my pointy little head was “How does dad know who Blackhawk is??”

So I fingered through my stack and pulled out a Blackhawk comic and handed it to him. Then dad laid the next surprise on me, he started naming all the Blackhawks. My then beardless jaw dropped. “How do you know who they all are?” I asked.

He then went on to tell me how as a kid he read not only Blackhawk, but other comic books as well. He said that he and his friends used to play like they were Blackhawk outside fighting Nazis and other assorted bad guys. My mind swam in amazement as I pictured my dad and his buddies outside pretending they were Blackhawk. Of course in my head I still saw them as adults, so the vision was kinda funny to view.

I asked dad if Blackhawk was his favorite comic book. He said no, it was his second favorite. His first was one I had never heard of—The Black Terror.

Black Terror #7

Just the name of that character had me all stoked. It only amplified as he told me what The Black Terror looked like with his all black, skull and crossbones costume and how he and his sidekick, Tim, used Thompson machine guns to mess up Nazis, gangsters and the other axis of evil members of the world. I was impressed in a big way. I wanted to know more. I’d never seen a Black Terror comic book in the grocery store spinner racks or in the piles of comics that I used to trade with the other kids. This began my hunt for The Black Terror. If this character was cool enough to be my dad’s favorite, then it was it was cool enough to be mine. Now I just had to find some.

Little did I know that they didn’t publish The Black Terror anymore and hadn’t in years. None of my buddies had any in their collection to trade for and back in the early 60s, we didn’t have the back issue outlets we do today.

America's Best #24

Then one evening my dad came home from my grandparent’s house with a small stack of old comics in his hands. He had found these in the attic, where he shoved them in a box a long time ago. In this stack of comics were some beat up issues of The Black Terror, Exciting Comics, and America’s Best where the Black Terror would show up. Dad handed them over and said, “Here ya go. You can have these.”

I felt like it was Christmas morning.

The Black Terror & Tim take care of business

Needless to say, I devoured these books over and over until I could almost repeat dialog and panels to the letter. The Black Terror and Tim weren’t like Batman and Robin. Even at the young age when I read these comics, I knew that The Black Terror and Tim had a brutal side when it came to fighting bad guys. They not only shot them with automatic weapons, the also seemed to take greater pleasure in beating the bad guys into submission with their bare hands. The Black Terror and Tim were always putting the knuckles to somebody’s jaw. Unlike, Robin, Tim, a teenager, wasn’t kept on a short leash by the adult Black Terror. Nope, he let Tim shoot guns, kick ass and drive any vehicle they came across. Tim was no wimpy sidekick in short pants and elf boots. The Black Terror was my new favorite comic book character! (Sub-Mariner and Blackhawk came in second and third. There were some of those in the stack as well.)

In my school notebook I would sketch The Black Terror and even make up my own adventures about him. It really stoked my creative fires. This and the teachings of Stan Lee are what inspired me to want to be a comic book writer, a profession I had desired since the third grade.

More adventure with the Black Terror & Tim

Fast forward to 1986, my first year as a professional writer in comic books. I made a vow, a serious one, to one day write a Black Terror comic book in honor of my dad. I was not only writing professionally in 1986, but I was also the VP of marketing for Eclipse Comics, fine publisher of such books as Miracleman, Scout, Airboy and Zot just to name a few.

I figured Eclipse Comics would be a great place to make my dream of writing The Black Terror come true. I had already done my legal research and found that The Black Terror and most of the other characters from his Golden Age line were public domain. I had also taken years of notes and ideas and jotted them down in lots of notebooks all dedicated to bringing The Black Terror back to life with the printed pages of comic books. It was time for The Black Terror to return to comic books.

That time was now.

Black Terror #1

End Of Part One. Tune In Next Time For Part Two Of…

“The Color Of Terror Is Black…BLACK TERROR!”

Your amigo,

Beau Smith

The Flying Fist Ranch

www.flyingfistranch.com

Editor’s Note: Want to read Beau’s work on Black Terror? We have a limited number of sets of the complete miniseries available, all signed by Beau! You can find them here!

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