Category: Crime

That’s the splash page to Darwyn Cooke’s first published comics work which appeared in DC’s Talent Showcase #19 in 1985.

Thanks to The Bristol Board you can see the whole story!

Recently Newsarama did a piece on The Top Ten Comics That Deserve a Relaunch.

I thought that was a worthy idea so for the next seven days I’m going to present a comic series a day that I believe we deserve to see again.

Today’s choice is a bit different from the other comics I selected for relaunch.  Both Black Cross and Black Terror were published years ago [with as far as I can tell] no thought about new stories in years.

A new Sin City series has been talked up for years.  Both Miller and Dark Horse have said a new yarn is forthcoming.  Although neither says exactly when.  If Frank Miller came in tomorrow with a completed Sin City  story there’s little doubt Dark Horse would prep it for publication as quickly as possible.

So what’s the hold-up?

Perhaps Miller was so involved with getting the Sin City movie that he didn’t have time to work on a new comic yarn.  Maybe it’s a health issue.  [I certainly hope not and wouldn’t be calling for a series if that was the case.  I’d want Miller to work on his health before all else.]  However, since I don’t know the reason for the delay and these posts are about comics I’d want to see get a relaunch…  Sin City is high on my list.

The Black Terror: Seduction of Deceit

The Black Terror: Seduction of Deceit was a three issue limited series created by writers Beau Smith & Chuck Dixon and artist Dan Brereton. Each issue consisted of 48 pages.

This series took place in an alternate universe where organized crime had become a legitimate enterprise.  In this hard-boiled setting, the Black Terror waged a one man war against crime.  Despite his best efforts, the Black Terror realized that he wasn’t making a dent in the criminal underworld.  So he decided that the only way to take down the organization was from within.

To this end, he “did in” a couple of low level hoods and began to work his way up into the organization.  The mobsters only knew him as Ryan Delvecchio, a tough, on-the-rise thug; not his alter-ego, the criminal killer known as The Black Terror.  When Delvecchio is hand-picked to become part of an elite Mafia hit squad, he’s in the perfect position to take out the major players in organized crime… that is if the Feds don’t kill him first.

It’s a crime this limited series has never been collected in a nice hardcover edition.  I always hold out hope that will change.  Until we get The Black Terror: Seduction of Deceit omnibus we deserve, it’s time to give the series a second (or first if you haven’t already) look.