Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: blackstone, golden age, Street & Smith, walter gibson

Walter Gibson & Blackstone Launch Super-Magic Comics, Up for Auction

Blackstone the Magician made his comic book debut in Street & Smith's Super-Magic Comics #1, written by Shadow creator Walter Gibson.

Harry Blackstone Sr. (1885-1965) was one of the most famous and successful magicians of his or any era. At the age of 13, Blackstone was inspired by seeing legendary magician Harry Kellar perform in Chicago in 1898.  Blackstone's career spanned more than four decades, during which he toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada. He helped to popularize magic as an entertainment form in the twentieth century, and he was very effective at marketing himself with the help of Shadow creator Walter Gibson among others.  A magician himself, Gibson wrote extensively about magic, including ghost-writing articles for Harry Houdini and Blackstone, and writing comics and a radio show based on the fictional adventures of Blackstone.  It was Gibson who suggested that Blackstone get into the comic book business with Shadow publisher Street & Smith, and the result was Super-Magic Comics #1, soon retitled Super-Magician Comics.  There's a Super Magic Comics #1 (Street & Smith, 1941) Condition: Apparent GD+ and several of issues of Super-Magician Comics plus some of Marvel/Timely's Blackstone the Magician up for auction in the 2023 April 9-11 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122315 at Heritage Auctions.

In his 1985 book The Blackstone Book of Magic & Illusion, Blackstone's son, Harry Blackstone, Jr., described how the original Street & Smith Blackstone comic book series came about.  "Since the average run of a comic book was 200,000 copies in those days, Gibson made the proposition particularly attractive to the publishers by offering to have my father buy 50,000 of the press run at five cents per copy (the newsstand price for a comic book in the 1940s was ten cents). My father, in turn, would offer these comics as a premium to children at his matinees, and the theatre managers would pay half the newsstand price of the comics distributed for this promotion. For an additional nickel a ticket, the theatres' business was increased and the books thus cost my father nothing. Gibson wrote the first issue on the train from Boston to New York, and the Street and Smith editors were delighted with the adventures he had concocted."

While the younger Blackstone's book asserts that the title change to Super-Magician Comics was "to put more emphasis on Blackstone", it's likely that the first Super-Magic Comics issue ran into some objections from rival comic book publishers after that first issue.  Most notably, David McKay Company had been publishing a successful monthly comic book series titled Magic Comics, which featured highly popular comic strip magician Mandrake among other King Features Syndicate strips, since 1939.

It's also worth noting that Super-Magic Comics #1 contained a backup feature called Rex King, Black Fury —  and there were no fewer than three comic features named Black Fury launched in early 1941.    Fantastic Comics #17 from publisher Fox Feature Syndicate with a superhero character named Black Fury drawn by Dennis Neville hit newsstands around February 10, 1941.  Street & Smith's Super-Magic Comics #1, debuted on newsstands around March 14, 1941.  And June Tarpé Mills' Black Fury comic strip launched on March 31, 1941. While we can't say for sure how subsequent matters might have played out, Fox Feature Syndicate publisher Victor Fox was notorious for legal wrangling with rivals.  When Rex King returned in Super-Magician Comics #2, with a newsstand date of July 22, 1941, he had been renamed Rex King, Adventurer.  Black Fury was renamed Miss Fury on December 21, 1941.

Blackstone's feature in Street & Smith's Super-Magician Comics lasted until the March 1946 cover-dated issue, when a fictional magician called Nigel Elliman was abruptly created to replace him in the series. Per a 1972 letter, Gibson states that he had a contract dispute with Street & Smith at that time and "quit and went on the road with Blackstone the Magician for that season and part of the next," which seems a likely reason for Blackstone's exit from that publisher.  What would follow was a historically unusual sequence of events for a comic book property of that era.

The very next month, Blackstone, Master Magician Comics debuted from publisher Vital Publications.  That series lasted only three issues and was written by Gibson with artwork Elmer C. Stoner.  Vital Publications was run by Julien J. Proskauer, who was a magician himself best known for debunking fraudulent claims of mediums, and also the president of printing and publishing giant William C. Popper & Co. Like Gibson, Proskauer seems to have had multiple ties to Blackstone.  There exists a signed contract between the three men for a proposed Blackstone's Magic publication.  It also appears that William C. Popper & Co. published the 1945 Blackstone tour souvenir program book with a cover by legendary Captain Marvel comic book artist C.C. Beck. the 1946 tour program book and how-to guide called Blackstone, World's Master Magician, and the 1947 (also the 1948?) program book, these last two with covers drawn by Elmer C. Stoner, the artist of the Vital Publications comic series.

But the Vital Publications comic book series didn't last very long, despite Proskauer's ongoing connections with both Blackstone and Gibson.  Blackstone comic books next turn up with Blackstone, the Magician Detective #1 from EC Comics. This series lasted only one issue under EC, with the series numbering continuing with a Marvel/Timely series for three additional issues. It has been suggested that the EC Comics series was cut short by the death of founder M.C. Gaines that year. This seems possible and perhaps likely, because of course, that wouldn't have been the only course change made at EC Comics during this period.  Perhaps on point, the indicia of this issue names Gaines personally as the licensor, and not the publishing company.

Notably, Proskauer had somewhat unusual business ties with both Street & Smith and Timely, which might possibly suggest that he had some hand in the fate of the comic title throughout the period.  Beyond the 1946 Vital Publications comic series and the William C. Popper & Co.-published items, Vital Publications published at least two Blackstone comic book giveaways, in 1948 and 1949, one of which also includes Timely-published material.  Proskauer was in the Blackstone publishing business throughout this entire period.

Meanwhile, Street & Smith's Super-Magician Comics lasted for nine issues after Blackstone's departure.  Two of the final three issues also featured legendary magician Houdini.  But Street & Smith was not quite done with magicians, next giving regular Super-Magician Comics backup character Red Dragon a second chance at his own title.   The publisher had launched the short-lived Red Dragon Comics volume one in 1943 and briefly tried the title again after the demise of Super-Magician Comics with the December-January 1947 issue.

A long-running series with Golden Age series featuring an important 20th-century pop cultural phenomenon, there's a Super Magic Comics #1 (Street & Smith, 1941) Condition: Apparent GD+ and several of issues of Super-Magician Comics plus some of Marvel/Timely's Blackstone the Magician up for auction in the 2023 April 9-11 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122315 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.

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