Bizarre Thrills #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeBizarre Thrills #1 is a foundational artifact of the Paragon Publications era — the small-press, mail-order 'prozine' operation that Bill Black ran throughout the 1970s before it evolved into AC Comics. The issue exemplifies Black's then-radical approach of blending original Good Girl Art superhero stories with reprints of Golden Age characters whose copyrights were believed to have lapsed, building toward the interconnected universe that would later crystallize as Femforce. Crucially, the Phantom Lady appearing in these pages — identifiable by her Sandra Knight alter ego — represents one of the earliest installments of Black's long-running engagement with that character, a relationship that would eventually force a creative pivot and produce the entirely new heroine Nightveil, one of Femforce's most enduring members. As a time capsule of pre-direct-market independent publishing, the issue also stands as evidence that a single dedicated creator, working largely alone, could sustain a multi-character shared universe years before that concept became standard industry practice.
"Battle Beyond Reality" kicks off with a mysterious blackjack that seems to defy logic, weaving through the pages as Dr. Heinrich Wirtham uncovers a hidden pattern in Earth's comics—each panel a piece of a larger puzzle. Written, drawn, inked, and lettered by Bill Black, the story unfolds with a surreal, obsessive energy, while Joe Staton's cover captures the eerie tension of a world on the brink.
In "Battle Beyond Reality," Phantom Lady steps into a theater advertising a film that eerily mirrors her own battle with Black Cat—only to find herself pulled into the screen, where the line between fiction and nightmare dissolves in a surreal, shifting world of fleeting images and sudden confrontations.
In "Blackjack," a mysterious card game becomes entangled with a chilling cosmic ritual as Dr. Heinrich Wirtham uncovers a pattern in Earth’s comics—where a legendary blackjack is more than a game, but a key to a dimensional rift. The story unfolds with eerie precision, blending surreal suspense and hidden mythos in a tale where the line between fiction and reality begins to blur.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Bizarre Thrills #1 was published in 1977 under the Paragon Publications banner, the imprint Bill Black had founded in 1969 — years before it was renamed Americomics (1982) and then AC Comics (1984). During this period, Black was writing, inking, and editing nearly all of Paragon's output himself, with the company producing only a handful of issues annually due to those constraints. The issue carried story and art credits for both Black and Steve Vance, with a cover by Joe Staton — an artist whose name would appear repeatedly in AC's history. Paragon distributed its titles primarily through mail-order and fanzine advertisements rather than the nascent direct-market system, which kept print runs relatively small and the books circulating mainly among a dedicated fan-collector audience.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published in 1977 by Paragon Publications (the predecessor imprint to AC Comics / Americomics), in black-and-white magazine format.
- Written and drawn by Bill Black and Steve Vance; cover art by Joe Staton.
- The issue mixes original stories — including 'Black Phantom and Her All-Girl Outlaws' and 'Stormy Tempest in the Clutches of Countess Peril' — with Golden Age reprint material featuring characters such as Phantom Lady (Sandra Knight), Firehair, Calamity Kate, Red Mask, Presto Kid, and The Ghost Rider (the Golden Age western iteration, also known as the Haunted Horseman).
- The Phantom Lady presented here is Bill Black's own version of the character (alter ego: Sandra Knight), which Black had been publishing since Captain Paragon #1 in 1972; DC Comics later pressured Black to retire the name, leading to the creation of the Blue Bulleteer identity and ultimately the sorceress Nightveil — a core Femforce member.
- Bizarre Thrills #1 was part of Paragon's broader shared-universe publishing effort, which ran roughly 1969–1982 and produced more than 40 publications before Black relaunched the characters under the AC Comics banner.
- The series lay dormant after its 1977 debut; issues #2–4 of Bizarre Thrills did not appear until approximately 2018, making the original a standalone for over four decades.
- AC Comics later published a trade paperback titled 'Bizarre Thrills: The Paragon Publications Story,' collecting the best of the Paragon-era material — including stories from this era — with new framing material and a complete Paragon Publications index compiled by Black himself.
- The 'Ghost Rider' character indexed in this issue refers to the Golden Age western hero (later re-designated the Haunted Horseman in AC continuity), not the Marvel supernatural character of the same name.
Cast · 13 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Nightveil #6 (1986), FemForce #16 (1988), Bizarre Thrills: The Paragon Publications Story #1 (2012)
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