Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: golden age, jack kirby, joe simon

Simon & Kirby Reboot the Black Owl in Prize Comics, at Auction

Power Nelson, Man of the Future had been the cover feature of the first six issues of Prize Comics, but that ended for good with Prize Comics #7.  A burst of new creators and new features quickly left Power Nelson on the back pages of the title, and as a result of this new mix of features Prize Comics #7-9 are highly sought after by collectors to this day.  Prize Comics #7 introduced Dick Briefer's wild take on Frankenstein, brought Ken Crossen's Green Lama to comics in stories by Mac Raboy, and had Joe Simon & Jack Kirby reboot the Black Owl into a full superhero.  These issues are an interesting combination of tough to get and desirable, with crossover appeal to both superhero and horror collectors (Briefer's Frankenstein started out serious, turned into a humor feature, then turned serious again during the course of its lifespan), and there's a Prize Comics #8 (Prize, 1941) CGC Qualified VG+ 4.5 Off-white to white pages and Prize Comics #9 (Prize, 1941) Condition: VG as well as 59 of that original 68-issue Prize Comics run up for auction in the 2022 August 21-22 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122234 at Heritage Auctions.

Fascinatingly, the Black Owl seems to have started life as a completely different superhero entirely.  In Prize Comics #1, wealthy playboy Douglas Danville is secretly the costumed hero called K the Unknown, who gets into adventures with his female friend, private investigator Terry Dane.  While the blurb at the end of this issue #1 installment of the K the Unknown feature promised further adventures, Prize Comics #2 instead featured the same wealthy playboy Douglas Danville and private investigator Terry Dane, but now Danville was secretly the masked hero the Black Owl.  No explanation was given, and K the Unknown would never appear again.

It seems likely that after that issue #1 had been turned in, someone realized that scripter Robert Turner had borrowed the name K the Unknown from a 1924 Universal Pictures silent film of that title.  Universal's K the Unknown was itself based on the 1915 crime novel K by Mary Roberts Rinehart.  The storyline centers around a mystery man who goes by the initial K, who becomes involved with the story's protagonist, a woman named Sidney.  It appears that Turner simply thought it was an interesting name and borrowed nothing else from the original versions.

But this led to a hastily reimagined regular feature for Prize Comics.  While K the Unknown of Prize Comics #1 wore a standard superhero costume, his replacement the Black Owl was a masked hero in the pulp mold, wearing a cowl and cape with a regular suit.  Neither K the Unknown nor the Black Owl had any particular powers beyond a wealthy playboy's free time and ambition.  Simon & Kirby changed the character beginning in Prize Comics #7 in what could be considered a soft reboot.  The character was redesigned with a complete superhero-style costume and cape and given a magical sword that energized his body with undefined power when he held it.  The sword seems to have been forgotten after a couple of issues, but the costume stuck.  The Black Owl subsequently became a regular cover feature until Yank & Doodle took the covers over beginning with Prize Comics v2#7 (19).  The character would remain a solo interior feature until Prize Comics #v3#8 (32).  He would then team with Yank & Doodle periodically on covers and interior stories through Prize Comics #v4#8 (44), and sporadically after that through the end of the series.

Part of a brief run of issues that could be considered an important turning point for the Prize Comics Group as a whole, there's a Prize Comics #8 (Prize, 1941) CGC Qualified VG+ 4.5 Off-white to white pages and Prize Comics #9 (Prize, 1941) Condition: VG as well as 59 of that original 68-issue Prize Comics run up for auction in the 2022 August 21-22 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122234 at Heritage Auctions.  If you've never bid at Heritage Auctions before, you can get further information, you can check out their FAQ on the bidding process and related matters.

Prize Comics #8 (Prize, 1941) CGC Qualified VG+ 4.5 Off-white to white pages. Green Lama cover. Frankenstein, Black Owl, Voodini, and Power Nelson appearances. Jack Kirby, Mac Raboy, and Dick Briefer art. CGC notes, "Panel cut out of page 6, 13, 17, 26, 30, and 31, affects story, Incomplete." Overstreet 2022 GD 2.0 value = $194; VG 4.0 value = $388.

Prize Comics #9 (Prize, 1941) Condition: VG. Featuring a Black Owl story and a Ted O'Neil story by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. Also contains a Green Lama story by Mac Raboy, and a Frankenstein story by Dick Briefer. Bottom staple popped. Overstreet 2022 VG 4.0 value = $412.

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