Black Owl

The Black Owl is the name of two fictional superhero characters, one of which is the successor of the other. Both appeared in the Prize Publications title Prize Comics in the 1940s.

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 and an owl mask, but he soon switched to a blue and red costume.

At one point during his career, The Black Owl fought alongside The Green Lama, Yank & Doodle, and several other heroes to defeat Frankenstein's monster.

Finally, after more than three years of crimefighting, Danville decided to do something even more meaningful with his life; he joined the army and fought in World War II. 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. Whatever became of the three of them after the 1940s is not yet known.

History

In 1940, Prize Publications, which was already established as a producer of pulp magazines, jumped onto the superhero bandwagon with a new title named Prize Comics. The first issue featured a Batman-type hero named “K the Unknown,” whose name was changed to The Black Owl in issue #2 (April, 1940). In issue #24 (October, 1942), The Black Owl was part of a large crossover in which several heroes, including The Green Lama, fought together against the Frankenstein monster; the “team,” however, never got together again, and thus didn’t form a group like the Justice Society.

In issue #34 (September, 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 Yank & Doodle; 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.

With issue #69 (April, 1948), Prize Comics became Prize Comics Western, and everything that didn’t fit the new Western format — including Yank, Doodle, and The Black Owl — was discarded. The three characters have since fallen into the public domain.

Modern Appearances

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 #24, the first issue of the Next Issue Project. In issue #6 of Project Superpowers, The Black Owl and Yank & Doodle were included in a two-page layout of Golden Age 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.

References

• The Black Owl at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
• Yank and Doodle at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
• Living Legends at MetahumanPress.com
• Black Owl (1) at the Comic Book DB
• Black Owl (2) at the Comic Book DB
• The Next Issue Project #1 at the Comic Book DB
• Project Superpowers #6 at the Comic Book DB
• Project Superpowers: Chapter Two Prelude at the Comic Book DB