BLACK MAGIC Volume 1

Simon & Kirby created this outstanding pre-code horror series. And they drew the covers and multiple stories for each issue, the first five thick 52-pagers. This is Kirby at his best, honing his skills 9 years before he and Stan began their monster run in the Marvels. These stories are more supernatural, nightmare visions, magic, witches...character driven and still very readable! Additional artists, all working in the S&K studio, are Mort Meskin, Leonard Starr and George Roussos, three solidly good artists and storytellers. This is a stand-out title from the 1950s and deserves your attention if you don't already know of it. As a collector of Kirby's work, not to mention Meskin and Starr, I love this title. The Kirby covers are just wonderful. And they were writing very good stories, not the werewolf (well, there may be one such) and silly over-the-top stuff some other publishers were putting out. Black Magic was a quality title, and it lasted all the way into 1960, even though our boys were long gone by then. We are not currently aware of a hardcover planned of this.