#12 Black Terror
Public domain character time. Seeing Greg Giordano do a few PD characters got me antsy for doing one, so I killed two birds (PD and a color titled character) with one stone. And this is a doozy.
Concept: Growing up, there were tons of characters called “Black __” that were African American (in some cases, African). So, when I discovered the public domain characters, and the Black Terror, I decided to go all out and create an original BT. This one owes much of his existence to the Blaxploitation flix of the 70’s. The idea: The Black Panthers created their own killing machine, called, “The Black Terror,” that they unleashed on racists, neo-Nazis, and the like.
Design: Uh…it’s pretty much the Black Terror with some minor fixes. No cape…for that matter, no pirate theme, other than his t-shirt. I toyed with a skull mask or make-up in the shape of a skull, but that was too distracting. Keeping it simple, keeping it recognizable, and keeping it real were the most important factors going into this reimagining of a familiar character. Could probably add some more weapons, but I don’t want him to look like the Punisher, because that could easily happen.
Art by Uriel Duran!
Copyright © 2010, Vito Delsante.
Category: Superhero
About the Author (Author Profile)
I'm not exactly sure what I should put here, so here goes. I'm a writer, written for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, AdHouse Books, and Simon & Schuster, among others and his stories have been reprinted in other countries. Mostly concentrating on creator owned work right now, so the challenge suits me just fine. I live in Queens (Astoria/LIC), NY with my wife, Michelle, and two dogs, Kasey and Kirby. I'm not sure what else needs to be said, but I'm sure I'll keep changing this. Oh, here's something. I contribute to the Project Rooftop site. The RetroFix column was kind of my idea, so I feel like that experience will help me out here.Subscribe
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Nice design, Vito. Clean, modern…And there’s not much you can’t get done with a sai in one hand and an uzi in the other. 🙂
What, no bellbottoms or platform shoes? I kid, I kid. Looks good. I don’t suppose we can get a bigger pic of this, could we?
@Tyler, the sai was a last minute addition…it just…spoke to me, lol.
@Jules, well, the hope is that I can convince one of my artist friends to do versions of these characters because, let’s face it, Hero Machine is kind of cookie cutter. I’ll see what I can do, though!