Frazetta, Schomburg, Robinson, Meskin on Black Terror #24 at Auction

Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Black Terror, frank frazetta, jerry robinson, Mort Meskin

Inside a cover by the legendary Alex Schomburg, The Black Terror #24 also features work by Frank Frazetta, Jerry Robinson and Mort Meskin.

Article Summary

The Black Terror #24 features iconic cover art by Alex Schomburg and interior work by comic legends Frazetta, Robinson, and Meskin.
The issue’s lead story, “The Lady Serpent Returns,” is inspired by post-war events and reflects Marshall Plan implementation.
This blends superhero action with noir influences and real-world context.
The presence of a young Frank Frazetta marks an early milestone in the career of the future fantasy art master.

Black Terror #24 represents a fascinating convergence of the past, present, and future of comic art from its 1948 perspective. On the cover, legendary artist Alex Schomburg delivers a combination of Good Girl art and superhero action, the likes of which helped define that era’s newsstand appeal. Inside, Joker co-creator Jerry Robinson and superhero comics veteran Mort Meskin give the lead Black Terror stories a sense of film noir atmosphere. And buried in a one-page “strange facts” feature is the work of a 20-year-old Frank Frazetta, still a few years away from the beginning of his destiny as a master of modern fantasy art. A late-Golden Age superhero comic underappreciated for its Schomburg cover and much more, there’s a high-grade CBCS VF/NM 9.0 Off-white pages copy of The Black Terror #24 (Nedor Publications, 1948) up for auction in the 2025 October 16 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase Auction III at Heritage Auctions.

A comic illustration depicting a woman with blonde hair tied up and gagged, sitting on a bed. A man in a colorful outfit is holding a stack of money, while another figure in a dark costume looms behind them, creating a sense of tension. — The Black Terror #24 (Nedor Publications, 1948)

Hitting newsstands in the late summer of 1948, The Black Terror #24, the lead story, “The Lady Serpent Returns” is directly inspired by one of the most important geopolitical events of the post-war period: the Marshall Plan. Officially known as the European Recovery Program (ERP), the Marshall Plan was enacted on April 3, 1948, shortly before this comic was created. It was a massive American initiative to provide economic aid in the form of food, supplies, and capital to rebuild a war-torn Western Europe. The program was a constant fixture of newspaper headlines, symbolizing America’s humanitarian effort and its attempt to stabilize the continent against the growing threat of Soviet influence. The story’s good ship ‘Peace’, carrying food and medical supplies bound for Europe, is a clear representation of this real-world effort. The plot centers around Lady Serpent’s hijacking of the relief ship to establish a rogue base, tapping into the anxieties of the early moments of the Cold War. The fear that subversive forces could undermine American efforts to project its influence and contain the spread of communism was a prevalent theme in comics of the post-WWII era.

The Black Terror #24 represents a comic book industry at a number of crossroads. It has an iconic Alex Schomburg cover that defines a segment of the appeal of the comic books of the post-war era. It features some beautifully noir-inspired work from the brilliant partnership of Jerry Robinson and Mort Meskin, and includes a hidden gem by Frank Frazetta. And the book is a fascinating artifact of its moment in history. There are only only a tiny handful of copies nicer than this high-grade CBCS VF/NM 9.0 Off-white pages copy of The Black Terror #24 (Nedor Publications, 1948) up for auction in the 2025 October 16 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase Auction III at Heritage Auctions.