Blackmark by Gil Kane

Published in January of 1971, this paperback is considered one of the first American graphic novels, written in a combination of prose, word balloons, and artwork by the inestimable Gil Kane. Kane, an already established comics artist had helped usher in the Silver Age of comic books with his role in revamping the DC Comics characters Green Lantern and The Atom, and who drew The Amazing Spider-Man during a particularly important 1970s run. However, this isn’t his first graphic novel, having experimented with the form with his 1968 black-and-white comics magazine His Name is... Savage.

Rather than enlarging on a pre-existing idea or character for this paperback book, Kane chose to develop an original story, setting, and character. In a post-nuclear-holocaust Earth, now devastated and devoid of all technology, mankind has been fractured into tribes. Mutated beasts abound and to the north, a race of malformed men with strange mental powers plot the eventual conquest of the planet from the fortress of Psi-Keep.

Into this world, a baby is conceived between a tinker’s barren wife and a dying wizard-king named Amarix. Amarix has the knowledge of science from before the wars and is able to magically transfer this knowledge into his spawn. The child is named Blackmark and, much like Conan, eventually sees his family and village slaughtered, is captured and raised as a slave. He vows revenge and to one day become King of all Earth. But first he must compete in the gladiator arena.

I enjoyed the story, but what puts this over the top is Gil Kane’s artwork. It’s too bad initial sales of the book didn’t meet expectations (due largely to some marketing mistakes), and no further books in the series were ever published. Kane, however, had already completed a second book worth of material. This would later be published as “The Mind Flayers” in the 62-page Marvel Comics magazine Marvel Preview #17  (Winter 1979).

This one is worth tracking down, not just for its historical contribution to the graphic novel format, but for the story and artwork itself.