Tag Archives: Dick Carstairs

For this superhero-crazed world Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of B.C. Boyer’s neglected 1980s superhero the Masked Man. For Part One click HERE 

ECLIPSE MONTHLY Vol 1 #3 (October 1983)

Title: The Birth

Villain: The Gypsy King

Synopsis: We open on the Masked Man leaving police headquarters after just having defeated and brought in the Jackson Gang. He is being swamped by reporters asking how he subdued the entire gang, the source of his abilities, the dangers of his vigilante career, etc.

At last our hero manages to get away from the mob and heads home to the apartment of his alter ego, private detective Dick Carstairs. With him as he arrives home is his newspaper reporter friend Barney McAlister, who publicizes the Masked Man’s deeds while keeping his secret identity confidential.

Dick wants to catch some sleep, anticipating another drab day at the routine tasks of a P.I. the next day. Unfortunately, African American reporter Dan Drekston has dug up the Masked Man’s secret identity and tracked him to his apartment. Continue reading →

Superheroes continue to dominate pop culture. And not just on the printed page, but on the big and small screens as well. Readers of Balladeer’s Blog are always quick to ask for more superhero entries whenever I go too long without one.

Most recently I finished up my examination of the Killraven stories at Marvel Comics. Prior to that I had looked at the Celestial Madonna Saga, the Kree-Skrull War, Panther’s Rage and the original Magus storyline with Adam Warlock. From DC Comics I reviewed the World War Two-era Justice Society stories.

This time around I’ll do a story-by-story examination of B.C. Boyer’s neglected superhero called the Masked Man. Boyer wrote AND drew the character at Eclipse Comics in the 1980s. Back then Eclipse represented the kind of bold and visionary storytelling that comic book readers of today look for with artistic mavericks like Ethan Van Sciver, Richard C Meyer, Jon Malin and others.

Just as Van Sciver, Meyer and Malin (NOT a law firm) blaze new creative trails today, Eclipse Comics did decades ago, supporting both established names AND new talent, all producing work that the Big Two publishers would have been too corporate-minded to publish.

All of which brings us back to the Masked Man aka Dick Carstairs. This creation of B.C. Boyer, who also illustrated and wrote all the character’s adventures, debuted in Eclipse Magazine in November of 1982. Continue reading →