Tag Archives: Phil Latter

The Black Scorpion

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Cover by Peter Grau

The Black Scorpion was a black and white comic released in 1991 by Special Studios, a subsidiary of Diamond Press. Although the publisher was located in Brantford, the comic itself was created by American Ron Fortier as a noir style detective story.

After writing the Green Hornet for Now comics, Fortier and co-writer Dave Darrigo wanted to produce something with a similar style but with a more modern touch. The outcome was that Fortier created the main character, the Black Scorpion, who was an African American “publisher turned crime fighter” also known as Ben Wright, and Darrigo created his young sidekick Dart.

The scripts were usually produced by either creator, and under the pseudonym George Stryker. For each issue, the two would each produced a 16 page story with the intent to find different artists for each story.

The series, like many Canadian small press comics, had a limited print run and in this case, Darrigo wanted to finish the comic after only three issues. After Black Scorpion, many of the artists became quite successful in the comic book industry. You can click on their names to see their sites and more recent work.

Luckily, most of this information can be found on GCD, but I will list some of the basic information for ease of reading.

Issue #1 April 1991 (Cover by Peter Grau)

  • Knights of Justice: Steve Leblanc (Pencils and inks)
  • Double Take: Scott Dutton (Pencils); Jim Scott (Inks)

Issue #2 July 1991

  • A Game for Old Men: Chris Jones (Pencils and Inks)
  • Roar of the Lions: Brian B. Chin (Pencils and Inks)

Issue #3 October 1991 (Cover by Peter Grau)

  • Blackmailers Auction: Peter Grau (Pencils and Inks); Fred Fairfield (Letters)
  • The Ravenia Ripper Strikes Again!: Brian B. Chin (Pencils and Inks)
If you haven’t already, I do recommend checking out some of the artists’ other work. Scott Dutton had a great site and a fantastic hand and Steve Leblanc has a great web comics blog. Special Studios did publish a few other comics which I will look at at a later date. Finally, a thanks to Ron Fortier for providing me with information regarding the short history of Black Scorpion. A really well done comic with some truly great art.