To answer a question from Mr Dilworth: "In the D-Gruppe 'Zeitgeist' story you featured Black Lantern. I'm curious as to where he comes from and his comics legacy... also, what happened to him next ? The last scene for him is collapsing exhausted from battling a super powerful menace. It's a tough life for a Black Lantern !"
Above from The Trial part 2 in Black Tower Super Heroes No. 4, June 2020
"A blacklight, also called a UV-A light, Wood's lamp, or ultraviolet light, is a lamp that emits long-wave (UV-A) ultra violet and very little visible light. One type of lamp has a violet filte material, either on the bulb or in a separate glass filter in the lamp housing, which blocks most visible light and allows through UV, so the lamp has a dim violet glow when operating.Blacklight lamps which have this filter have a lighting industry designation that includes the letters "BLB". This stands for "blacklight blue". A second type of lamp produces ultraviolet but does not have the filter material, so it produces more visible light and has a blue colour when operating. These tubes are made for use in "bug zapper" insect traps, and are identified by the industry designation "BL". This stands for "blacklight"."
What has this to do with Schwarze Laterne? Nothing.
The character is based on a number of things -in Germany as a kid I saw a lot of the fairy tale and myth TV shows for kids (in the UK they were billed as Tales From Europe -The Singing Ringing Tree for one) and I took the idea of a man with a magic lantern from one of these but as that was over 50 years ago don’t expect the story title!
Remember I also introduced the Pied Piper from an alternative Earth in D-Gruppe No. 2 (see below)
I then started reading various UFO magazines and books where they mentioned “solid light phenomena”-we’ll avoid the fakery and lies behind this but just say that it was an interesting idea. A man with a magic lantern that created solid light phenomena of a sort. But I then thought that every magic or otherwise lantern uses light so why not a “black light” -the lantern was magic after all.
The Schwarze Laterne was created in the mid 1970s so long before DC Comics did its storyline where their lanterns split between yellow and green and red -not sure if they had a black lantern but black is a negative not a colour, Anyway I lost interest in DC at around that time as the reboots were so regular that it made their titles unreadable.
I think I gave the Schwarze Laterne a Deutsche Michel cap originally. Seemed a bit lame. So the origin.
Ulrich Meier was 10 years old when he went off to explore the nearby forest as usual. He practically knew the forest like the back of his hand so it came as a surprise to find and old and very spooky looking cottage in amongst the tree. From behind him a croaky old voice spoke his name and he turned to find a red haired old woman who introduced herself as Katharina Henot. I ought to point out that there was a Katharina Henot or Henoth (1570 – 19 May 1627) who was probably the first German post master and an alleged and an alleged witch who was burned at the stake for sorcery in Koln (Cologne). She is one of the best-known German victims of the witch hunt, and the best known case in Cologne but whether there is any connection…? You can read more about her here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharina_Henot
On with the story. Ulrich had no fear of Katharina for some reason so when she invited him into the cottage for some cake and soda pop he followed. Once inside he was almost excited by glass jars ful of various trinkets as well as the fact that the interior looked like a drawing of some old witch house. He became drawn to a black lantern on the table where he sat eating cake and Katharina spoke:
“You are drawn to the lantern, aren’t you? It seems to have guided you here” and Ulrich excitedly asked whether he could touch the lamp and was told “Yes, you may. But be warned young Ulrich it is no oil lamp. This is a lamp of magical black light and it belonged to Schwarze Erich long ago.”
As Ulrich inspected the lamp he was told that Erich had lived long ago in the days of Charlemagne and was a renowned sorceror but that he had died when trying to use the lantern to attack a local priest for what he considered an insult. As Katharina explains all of this a solid black smiling face appears from the lamp and though taken aback Ulrich shows no fear. The face says (its mouth not moving) “This is the one. He has no fear of the Black Light. Teach him” and then the face vanished. Ulrich is asked by Katharina if he wishes to learn how to use the black lantern but warns him that if he agrees to learn then he much selfishly dedicate his life to helping not just the people of Earth but all of its life forms. Ulrich agrees.
After leaving the cottage, having agreed to return next day, Ulrich arrives home and explains what has happened to his elderly adoptive parents. His father (Federlin) lit his pipe and told Ulrich “If your mother says yes then you may go back. If she says no then I will go and speak to her sister” Ulrich is puzzled and his mother (Walpurga) explains that she is a witch and Katharina her sister whom she has not seen “for many a year” but that she is “one of the Old folk” (like druids almost) who are tasked with finding people worthy of magical knowledge and gifts. At which point Ulrich is almost explosive in his excitement as on his Earth (EP 56765) events in the 17th century caused witches to no longer be hunted and executed but respected as they had worked together to find a cure for The Blue Death that swept though Europe. Ulrich is sent to bed and his mother tells Federlin that she will go and speak to her sister.
On waking next morning Ulrich finds his parents smiling widely and his mother tells him “You may go to see my sister. You are to become the first Schwarze Laterne in 400 years!”
From that day and then every other for the next ten years Ulrich is taught how to use the lantern and on his 21st birthday he is not greeted by Katharina at the cottage door but a beautiful young woman with long red hair. Ulrich is immediately attracted to her and they end up sleeping together but as he wakes he hears the words “Thank you. I have your seed” and he sits up to find himself… in the forest. The cottage has vanished. Telling his parents about this his mother says that if the cottage and her sister are no longer there then he is now truly qualified to be the Schwarze Laterne. She adds “My sister always did have an eye for young men with raven hair” (the intimation is that the young woman was Katharina which left things very open for later stories). His mother goes to an old chest that he had never noticed before and takes out the clothing he will now wear as Schwarze Laterne but to protect the secret of who he is she also gives him a domino mask.
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One day while trying the lantern’s power a tree speaks to him. A conversation then ensues about how trees can communicate with each other even if they are on other worlds -some having been taken from Earth by alien explorers centuries before. Ulrich is told that the lantern can not just let him fly but if he wants to, and knows the location, he can travel to another world far better “than the blundering Munchhausen”. On that day Ulrich was told of a distant world and an image appears in his head of a binary star system and one particular planet and Ulrich is pulled up into the air before finding himself in space and from there is on the alien world in minutes.
Over the next 15 years Schwarze Laterne becomes a familiar visitor on other worlds and on one trip he is encased in the black light for three days. Once he is freed from the black light he finds the beings on the planet in a state of shock. Telepaths are in comas due to a great psychic wave that came from Earth. Ulrich returns to Earth as quickly as he can but finds utter devastation with only a few surviving humans -the Zeit Geist had devastated his Earth killing billions including his wife Erica and their two children, Hans and Liselotte.
His parents now appear (having not aged in the decades and usher the survivors through a magical portal to a safe world. His mother tells him that he must now pursue Zeit Geist to save other worlds and that he can never return home -this is the curse of the black lantern. His mother opens another portal leading to the next world Zeit Geist is attacking and as he enters this his mother says “Goodbye”.
From here on Schwarze Laterne meets heroes on other devastated worlds until they finally arrive on Earth 664 just before the start of events depicted in The Trial.
Schwarze Laterne was in at the end of Zeit Geist and since that time has become linked with the German super team D-Gruppe (The Zeit Geist Saga or D-Gruppe 1-4)
After being told by Rotkäppchen of her encounter with an alien in the Black Forest Ulrich has his curiosity piqued and so checks D-Gruppe’s extensive archives and learns that a UFO supposedly crashed in the Black Forest in the 1930s. “But that was long ago” he thinks. That night, as he sleeps on a church steeple (well you do, don’t you?) he has a vivid dream of the young red-headed woman from years before on his Earth, She tell him that he must go to the Black Forest and find the alien ship which is still there but hidden as it could destroy the world. Ulrich wakes and determines that he will go to the Forest and find the craft.
This leads to the story Schwarze Laterne - Schwarzwald - Schwarzer Tod (Black Lantern Black Forest-Black Death) or as it was going to be sub-titled “An Honourable Way To Die”.
That’s it.
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