Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Alex Schomburg, Ned Pines
Alex Schomburg’s Moon Radar Cover, The Black Terror #15 at Auction
Alex Schomburg dropped a reference to recently-revealed U.S. Army Signal Corps Project Diana in plain sight on the cover to Black Terror #15.
Article Summary
- Alex Schomburg’s Black Terror #15 cover echoes Project Diana, the 1946 U.S. Army radar contact with the Moon.
- The Schomburg cover reflects fast-moving postwar science news, not a scene drawn from a Black Terror interior story.
- The issue turns wartime technology into crime fiction, with Letholene gas and a stolen German superweapon driving the plots.
- The Black Terror #15 stands as an underappreciated Schomburg comic with a rare link to a major scientific milestone.
The sign in the background of Alex Schomburg‘s cover for The Black Terror #15 seems like it must be just another fanciful example of comic book science fiction, the likes of which the artist was well known for. But “U.S. Army Radar to the Moon” describes something the Army had actually accomplished that year. On January 10, 1946, Project Diana received radar echoes from the Moon, and the achievement was made public later that month. There’s no connection with an interior Black Terror story here, but this is exactly the sort of science news event that would have captured Schomburg’s imagination.
The Army’s Radar Reaches the Moon
The experiment took place at Camp Evans in New Jersey, where Army Signal Corps researchers obtained an echo after a delay of about two and a half seconds. The news was released to the public two weeks later, on January 25, with newspaper accounts discussing possible civilian and military applications. The structure outside the window on the cover appears to be the tower that held up the radar array. Of course, Schomburg’s ability to create astonishing science fiction art is widely known, but we can also be sure that he paid careful attention to new developments. For example, in October 1957, Schomburg stood outside his Spokane home with binoculars and watched what appeared to be a bright star move south across the sky. On one occasion, he told the Spokesman-Review that the object had remained visible for ten or eleven minutes. He and his son were trackingSputnik.
There is no radar-to-the-Moon adventure inside The Black Terror #15, but there’s plenty of science fiction elements throughout this issue. Much of the rest of the issue deals with the aftermath of the war. In one Black Terror story here, the War Department asks Black Terror’s alter ego, chemist Bob Benton, to investigate peacetime uses for Letholene, a dangerous gas held on an Army barge. Thieves steal a bottle, and the chemical in it makes their bodies as durable and strong as stone, which they use to their advantage during a robbery. Another story here shares the same theme from a different perspective. This time, a captured German superweapon is stolen from the U.S. military by a criminal chemist posing as Benton.
The CGC census currently has 31 Universal copies, including three graded 8.5 and two higher. Schomburg covers are always in demand, and this one has a little-known connection to an important historical scientific achievement. An underappreciated Schomburg cover, there’s a copy of The Black Terror #15 (Nedor Publications, 1946) CGC VF+ 8.5 with white pages up for auction at the 2026 September 24 – 26 Comic Books Signature Auction #7469.
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