Back in 2022, I did a very deep dive on the Bronze Age era Black Orchid. It was a ton of fun especially as I looked at those stories through the lens of a popular fan theory that Black Orchid was Supergirl.
There was one problem.
I couldn't find any evidence for that theory. Not in the letter columns in Adventure Comics. Not in the letters in the issues of Phantom Stranger where her stories landed. Nowhere. Yes, it is implied in ENB's Super Friends #31.
And I don't think that I could have made that theory up on my own. I knew of it ... but how?
Anyways, I am very thankful for the comic community out there. My good friend Isamu Hideaki-Yukinori was going through his father's fanzines and came across Glx Sptzl Glaah #1, a fanzine devoted to the works of Sheldon Mayer.
In the magazine were two articles about Black Orchid and one of them at last mentions the fan theory!
As a major fan of the Black Orchid character, I am thrilled to be sharing these with you today.
And please go to https://xum-yukinori.blogspot.com/ to see the great art work of Isamu and his father, the dear departed and brilliant Xum Yukinori, and their family.
I cannot thank Isamu enough for sharing these with me!
For ease of reading, here is the paragraph about Supergirl and another theory ... an inexperienced Power Girl.
What intrigues me even more is the first sentence. 'A number of fans' means that this was a theory out there. But how did the editors of the magazine hear this theory? Who were these fans?
While this definitively proves the theory was out there, I'd still like the raw data.
But then there is a very in-depth article about the creation of the character.
"But Where Did She Come From?" is written by famous Legion letterhack Rich Morrissey!
The first page talks about Carmine Infantino's desire to decrease Supergirl's stories (thus switching her to her twice-quarterly solo title, going from 12 issues to 8) while keeping Adventure Comics on the racks. Why not switch it to mystery or weird stories?
I love that the name Black Orchid came before the character idea. Joe Orlando told Sheldon Mayer the name Black Orchid and let Mayer get to work.
Perhaps the best line in this whole article for me is that Mayer called a florist and asked for what a black orchid would look like only to learn 'there is no such thing'.
Of course, 'There is no such thing as a Black Orchid' was one of the promo taglines for the Gaiman/McKean miniseries of the 90s.
Mayer then decided to have each story be 'an act one' putting the unknown hero in a new area with a new supporting cast and keeping her a complete mystery, a concept Orlando loved.
I do like the pic from an artist named Rodi ... perhaps Rob Rodi (who did Codename:Knockout?).
The rest of the article is a dive into the stories.
Interesting to hear why the artists went from Tony DeZuniga to Nestor Redondo to Fred Carillo (money). And it is also interesting to hear why Sheldon Mayer stepped down for Michael Fleischer (Mayer's medical issues).
This article is more an index of the stories with some of the creative decision behind the creation and continuation of the character. But there isn't much about the answer to the mystery here.
Still, for a Black Orchid fan like me, and a big fan of the 'Was Black Orchid really Supergirl' theory, this was an absolute godsend.
Thanks again for sharing Isamu! I owe you!
2 comments:
How fascinating, you are getting closer and closer to finding out where the theory began. Well done Isamu!
Hi, Dr. Anj. The fanzine lists "Bob Rodi" as a Contributing Artist, so your guess on who drew the Black Orchid pose is likely correct.
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