The Black Owl is the name of two fictional superhero characters. Both appeared in the Prize Publications title ''Prize Comics'' in the 1940s.

Publication history

In 1940, Prize Publications, which was already established as a producer of pulp magazines, began publishing superhero comic books with a new title, ''Prize Comics''. The first issue featured "K the Unknown", whose name was changed to the Black Owl in issue #2 (April 1940). The lead character, like many in superhero comics at the time, was a bored, wealthy sophisticate who fought crime to pass the time. In issues #7-9, the Black Owl stories were written and drawn by legends-to-be Joe Simon and

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He gre ...

. This was Kirby's first superhero feature. In issue #24 (Oct. 1942), the Black Owl was part of a large, one-time crossover story called "Utter Failure!!" in which a group of heroes, including

Yank & Doodle Yank & Doodle is a pair of superheroes who first appeared in the Prize Publications title ''Prize Comics'' in August 1941. They were revived by Dynamite Entertainment in the 2000s. Identical twins Rick and Dick Walters, being too young to enlist ...

, Doctor Frost and the

Green Lama The Green Lama is a fictional pulp magazine hero of the 1940s, created by American author Kendell Foster Crossen. He is commonly portrayed as a powerful Buddhist Lama, dressing in green robes with a red scarf and using his powerful skill set t ...

, fought together against

Frankenstein's monster Frankenstein's monster or Frankenstein's creature, often referred to as simply "Frankenstein", is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus''. Shelley's title thus compares ...

. In issue #34 (Sept. 1943), the identity of the Black Owl was passed on from Doug Danville to Walt Walters, a character who was already established as the father of

; the two series were merged. In issue #64 (June 1947), the father was sidelined by means of a bullet, and the focus was almost entirely on Yank & Doodle. In ''Superhero Comics of the Golden Age'', Mike Benton says that making a connection between these two features was a clever move: With issue #69 (April 1948), ''Prize Comics'' became ''Prize Comics Western'', and everything that didn't fit the new

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

format — including Yank, Doodle, and the Black Owl — was discarded. The three characters have since fallen into the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

. In 2008, the online superhero fiction site Metahuman Press debuted the series ''Living Legends'' which featured the first Black Owl as part of its cast. The second Black Owl appeared briefly in ''

Fantastic Comics ''Fantastic Comics'' was an American comic book superhero anthology title published by Fox Feature Syndicate during the Golden Age of Comic Books. The title introduced the characters Banshee, Black Fury (John Perry), Nagana, Queen of Evil, Samson, ...

'' #24, the first issue of the

Next Issue Project The Next Issue Project is a series of American comic-book anthology one-shots published by Image Comics beginning in February 2008. The multi-title project, edited by Erik Larsen, creator of Savage Dragon, features comic book characters that h ...

. In issue #6 of ''

Project Superpowers ''Project Superpowers'' is a comic book limited series published by Dynamite Entertainment beginning January 2008. It was co-plotted by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross, with scripts by Jim Krueger, covers by Alex Ross, and interior art by Doug Klaub ...

'', the Black Owl and Yank & Doodle were included in a two-page layout of

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

character sketches. In the one-shot ''Project Superpowers: Chapter Two Prelude'', it was stated that the three of them would appear in the second volume of this comic title, and that the Black Owl (which one is not yet known) would be transformed into a living black hole.

Fictional biography

Doug Danville

In 1940, Doug Danville, being a bored and wealthy playboy, decided to add meaning to his seemingly pointless life by fighting the criminal element hand to hand. Originally calling himself "K the Unknown", he quickly changed his identity to that of the Black Owl. His original outfit was a

tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element ...

and an

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

mask, but he soon switched to a blue and red costume. According to ''Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes'', "his Rogues Gallery includes ordinary criminals, Axis agents, the Whistler, the femme fatale Madame Mystery, the murderous Reaper, Chief Skullface (a white man posing as a legendary Native American), the jolly evil prankster the Laughing Head, and the superhumanly strong and clever circus dwarf the Terrible Midge, who hates everything big". At one point during his career, the Black Owl fought alongside The

, and several other heroes to defeat

. Finally, after more than three years of crimefighting, Danville decided to do something even more meaningful with his life; he joined the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and fought in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Before leaving, he passed on the costume and identity of the Black Owl to Walt Walters. Whatever became of Danville after the war is not yet known.

Walt Walters

Walt Walters was already indirectly connected to superheroing; his twin sons, Rick and Dick, were the costumed heroes Yank & Doodle. After Walt took up the mantle of the Black Owl in 1943, he and his sons worked as a team, with Rick and Dick essentially being his sidekicks. In 1947, Walt suffered a bullet wound and found himself reconsidering being an active superhero; from that point on, he simply served as an adviser to Yank & Doodle.

References

External links

The Black Owl
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on August 10, 2015.

at Don Markstein's Toonopedia

from the original on August 10, 2015.

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Black Owl Crestwood Publications characters Dynamite Entertainment characters Golden Age superheroes Comics characters introduced in 1940 Fictional World War II veterans