Friday 23 May 2008

The Black Max - the greatest British character


So lets start with my number one character and, typical of the titles and period i'm on about, the best and most interesting ones are always the bad guys.

He's not interesting character-wise (apart from the bampot notion of aiding Germany in WW1 by using a squadron of giant killer bats. As you do) and really is just there to be thwarted whilst muttering "curses" and suchlike.

No, the reason he gets the vote is the barminess of the idea, along with the most stunning black and white artwork by (mainly) Alfonso Font. A master of the use of black, he created some brilliantly moody art on this strip, along with some excellent military rendidions - but mostly the stunningly eerie character designs for the bats and the Black Max himself, Maximillian Von Kloor.

Alfonso, i salute you.

4 comments:

The Bronze said...

The Black Max is way cool and definetly needs reprinting.
You might be interested in these few sites for more info:

http://ukcomicsarefun.blogspot.com/2008/04/thunder-lion-valiant-battle-comics.html

and

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/i/ipc.htm

and

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/b/blackmax.htm



Steve Hollands blog is here THE brain of british comics.
I bet he could tell you which issues Black Max appears in.

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/

Complete guides are available from the bookpalace for Lion and Fleetway comics here

http://www.bookpalace.com/acatalog/Home_Guides_34.html

Hope this is of help to you,
Cap'n

The Bronze said...

For a small biog on Alfonso Foot go here

http://www.lambiek.net/artists/f/font_alfonso.htm

cheers,
Cap'n

Anonymous said...

I'm George, a soldier in Australia. I'm also a model-builder. I reckon The Black Max was a terrific series. I would dearly love to get the whole story with 'Hero' Hall. I intend to build a model dio (airborne, of course - Dunno how yet) of Dr von Kloor in formation with 2 bats. I have 1 L&T as my reference for the unbelievers of the modelling world.
Now that "The Hobbit" is out, Jacko, make a Black Max movie - pleeeeeeease?

Anonymous said...

On a tour of the First World War battlefields last year I told the guide my first introduction to WW1 was reading Black Max when I was 5 years old. I said it could be best described as a combination of the Red Baron and Dracula. He said it sounded reminiscent of First World War "Evil Hun" propaganda. I also told him that since it featured Fokker Triplanes and Sopwith Camels it couldn't have been set any earlier than autumn 1917 yet the German soldiers in it were still wearing Pickel Haubes. And they all invariably had handlebar moustaches.