After getting past that great cover by Everett Raymond Kinstler, BLACK HOOD COMICS #14 comes off as an above-average issue of that title. Here’s what I thought of the contents:
The lead-off story “Death Counts Ten” was quite an intriguing little mystery helped along by some great artwork by Irv Novick. Incidentally, I noticed something that I hadn’t paid that much attention to in Novick’s work that I didn’t pay much attention to until now, he was able to draw some of the foxiest ladies in comics (take a look at his drawings of Barbara Sutton).
If you got a feeling of what Yogi Berra called “deja-vu all over again” while reading the second story “Death, the Crow Strikes”, you should if you’re a regular visitor to this site. That’s because the story is a remake of a Hangman tale that appeared in PEP #32. (Incidentally BLACK HOOD COMICS was previously known as HANGMAN COMICS from issues #2-8.) But like so many other remakes, this remake wasn’t as good as the original.
The BENTLEY OF SCOTLAND YARD story was quite an interesting variation of A. C. Doyle’s classic novel THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. And the moody artwork by Gil Kane (?), in its own way, puts it on the level of Jim Steranko’s “Dark Moon Rise… Hell Hound Kill!” from NICK FURY #3.
The third Black Hood tale is another impressive little mystery this time concerning a phony spiritualist. And this time, Clem Weisbecker is adding some impressive artwork.
As for the GLOOMY GUS story, not my cup of tea.
All in all, another interesting book from the people at MLJ.
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