Top Notch Comics #9
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTop-Notch Comics #9 (October 1940) introduces the Black Hood — full name Matthew Kipling 'Kip' Burland — who went on to become the most enduring superhero in MLJ's Golden Age roster, displacing every prior cover-feature and running continuously through the title's final renamed incarnation. The issue's origin concept — a framed cop trained by a hermit-philosopher to become the world's greatest crime fighter — fused pulp-magazine vigilantism with the emerging costumed-hero genre in a way that resonated broadly enough to spin off a self-titled comic series, a pulp magazine, and a network radio drama, making Black Hood the only MLJ hero to appear in media beyond the comics page. Its storytelling was deliberately ambiguous about whether the character possessed genuine superpowers, an unusual choice for 1940 that gave the strip a grounded, noir tension ahead of its time. The character seeded by this issue has never fully disappeared: he has been revived under the Mighty Crusaders banner, DC's Impact Comics imprint, and Archie's own Dark Circle line, each generation reimagining the 'cursed hood' concept introduced here.
In "null," a disgraced policeman named Kip Burland is framed by the villainous Skull and left for dead in the woods, only to be rescued and transformed by a reclusive hermit who shares his own grudge against the Skull. Trained in science, strategy, and justice, Kip emerges as the Black Hood, determined to confront the Skull at a masquerade party where a young girl is murdered by a poison pill—before the villain escapes, leaving his identity still hidden.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 20 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The series was edited by Harry Shorten, who by 1940 had already co-created the Shield — America's first patriotic comic book superhero — and who served as MLJ's managing editor. Shorten conceived the Black Hood character and brought in fellow MLJ writer-editor Abner Sundell, credited on the story under the house pen-name 'Cliff Campbell,' to write the inaugural thirteen-page origin, with pencils and inks by Al Camy (whose full surname was Camerata). MLJ's editorial confidence in the new character was immediate and conspicuous: issue #9's cover was redesigned to foreground 'Black Hood' as the dominant title while demoting 'Top-Notch Comics' to a smaller supporting circle, a bold repositioning for a debut. The anthology also introduced the 'Fran Fraser' adventure strip — about a globe-trotting girl photographer — in this same issue, with art contributions elsewhere in the book from Irv Novick and Bob Wood.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and complete origin of the Black Hood (Matthew Kipling 'Kip' Burland) — cover-dated October 1940, published by MLJ Magazines Inc. (the company that later became Archie Comics).
- First appearance of the Skull, the costumed supervillain who frames Burland for grand larceny, shoots him, and leaves him for dead — establishing the core antagonist who drives the Black Hood's entire crimefighting motivation.
- First appearance of supporting characters the Hermit (a self-taught scientist who rescues and trains Burland) and Barbara Sutton (Burland's love interest, who later appears as 'Babs' in the radio adaptation).
- Created by editor Harry Shorten, writer Abner Sundell (under the 'Cliff Campbell' house pen-name), and artist Al Camy; additional issue art by Irv Novick and Bob Wood.
- Upon debut, the Black Hood was given cover-feature billing, with 'Top-Notch Comics' reduced to a small secondary circle — an immediate editorial signal of the character's priority within the anthology.
- Black Hood ran continuously in Top-Notch Comics from #9 through #44 (April 1944), making him the longest-running character in the title's history and the sole survivor when the book pivoted to humor content.
- The character's success from this issue directly spawned a solo title (Black Hood Comics, 1943, lasting 11 issues), a pulp magazine (originally titled Black Hood Detective, retitled Hooded Detective with issue #2), and a Mutual Broadcasting System radio serial (July 5, 1943 – January 14, 1944, approximately 120 episodes, of which only one recording survives).
- The Black Hood was later revived as a founding member of the Mighty Crusaders team in the 1960s, received a second incarnation via Archie's Red Circle Comics line in 1983, appeared under DC's Impact Comics imprint in 1991, and was relaunched by Archie's Dark Circle imprint in 2015 — each iteration tracing its lineage directly to the origin told in this issue.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in The Black Hood #1 (1983), Gwandanaland Comics #177 (2017), Gwandanaland Comics #2006 (2018)
Key issues in Top Notch Comics
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.