A Dragon's Quest

Comics usually follow the latest fads in society, so it should come as no surprise that publishers jumped on the "Kung Fu Craze" bandwagon. In 1973, the same year Warner Brothers imported King Boxer (also known as Five Fingers of Death) and then released Enter The Dragon,

Marvel debuted The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of KungFu, featuring the son of Fu Manchu as the series protagonist. Iron Fist followed a year later.

In Detective Comics #437 DC Comics had revamped Manhunter, a Golden Age character, complete with a modern outfit and newly acquired martial arts skills. Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter came along in May 1975, just as the "craze" was winding down.

In June 1975, Atlas/Seaboard Comics premiered their martial arts comic, The Hands Of The Dragon. If look and design of the cover look familiar, well, it was no coincidence. A very "off brand" look of Marvel's Master of Kung Fu series.

Atlas/Seaboard was the brainchild of Martin goodman, the founder of Marvel Comics. As the story goes, Goodman wanted revenge on the new owners of Marvel for their reneging on the promise to keep his son Charles "Chip" Goodman installed as the company's editorial director. His plan was to create a new company that would go head-to-head with Marvel, basically "Marvelizing" his line of books. Not the best way to start a company IMHO. Looking back, Atlas' line was more "miss" than "hit", but as a kid during that time, it was very exciting to "get in on the ground floor" of a new comic experience. I don't want to overanalyse Hand Of The Dragon's only outing with a contemporary mindset. There was room for growth, unfortunately, the company folded the series never got that chance. Incidentally, if the artwork looks familiar, that's because it's Canadian artist Jim Craig, who would later if only briefly, take over the art chores on Marvel's Master of Kung Fu series. Man, talk about irony.

The First African American (Costumed) Superhero?

Who was the first Black American Superhero in costume? This question has been debated by comic fans for many years. A search on the internet will lead to a wide range of points and counterpoints, some say Marvel's "The Falcon", for others it's Dell Comics' "Lobo" (1965) or "Lion Man" who appeared in All-Negro Comics (1947). The thing is, neither Lobo or Lion Man are costumed adventurers.

The only character that comes to (my) mind is The Black Phantom. Created by Steve Perrin (writer) and Ronn Foss (artist), The Black Phantom, along with his teen White sidekick The Wraith, originally appeared in prose form in Mask and Cape" number 4, published in 1964. However, in 1966, The Black Phantom made his sequential appearance in the sixth issue of Adult Fantasy.

The Black Phantom was Lafayette Jefferson, an Engineer, Veteran, and Bus Driver who works with the N.A.A.C.P. From the very first page, Perrin and Foss waste no time establishing the tone and feel of the strip. The language, imagery, and type of confrontations rooted in the turbulent days of the Civil Rights movement, were like nothing seen before in American comics. BP's main antagonists firmly established: racism and The Ku Klux Klan.

The Black Phantom even caught the attention of Castle of Frankenstein, a horror, science fiction and fantasy film magazine that featured a review of Adult Fantasy/Black Phantom in the "CoFanaddicts" section of it's Tenth issue.

Sadly, this is the one and only Black Phantom comic book appearance. Although Mr. Perrin did write a follow-up story, "Death Trap In Harlem", it didn't see the light of day.

But who knows, maybe one day...