Preview: ‘Black Beth And The And The Devils Of Al-Kadesh!’

by Richard Bruton

The sword-swinging Black Beth is back by popular demand in Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh! – a stunning Scream! one-shot special from The Treasury of British Comics, featuring career-high art from the amazing DaNi!

Black Beth first appeared in the 1988’s Scream! Holiday Special. A female lead, a long story, more mature than the usual Scream! fare, this was something a little different.

But the strip was actually created years before, in the mid-’70s, originally intended for a new IPC comic called Scream – a different Scream, and one that never got off the ground. Which meant the strip, complete with the incredible artwork of Spanish artist Blas Gallego, was left lying in some art drawer at IPC until it was dusted off and published in 1988, cheap filler for that Scream! Holiday Special.

Art by Blas Gallego for that very first Black Beth strip from the mid-70s, first seeing print in the 1988 Scream! Holiday Special)

And that was it for Black Beth.

Or it would have been if it wasn’t for Alec Worley and the Treasury of British Comics. A young Worley saw and loved that original Black Beth in the Holiday Special so much that he was first in line pitching it to the editors of the Scream! & Misty 2018 Special.

Teamed with DaNi on artwork, they resurrected the practically unknown character first in that 2018 Scream! & Misty Special, then in another tale, The Witch Tree, in the Misty & Scream! 2020 Special.

And now… they get a whole 32 pages in this Black Beth special with Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh!

In the Special, the main 32-page Black Beth strip from Alec Worley and DaNi, we return to the world of this warrior-woman born in anger and forged in rage. She and her blind aide Quido have traveled to the wicked city of Shadrivar, in search of the evil witch Anis-Amuun. Many think that she is long dead, but a mage called Estevan believes otherwise. He charges Beth with a quest to destroy the witch, initiating a sea-spanning quest which pits Beth’s curved blade against all manner of mystical creatures – and possibly Anis-Amuun herself!

The Black Beth Special is published on 23 June and features back-up stories of Black Beth and Death-Man by Alec Worley, Andrea Bulgarelli, Doug Graves and Vincenzo Riccardi, plus pin-ups by David Roach and Andreas Butzbach.

Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh – published on 23rd June (UK) and in July (USA) by Rebellion/Treasury of British Comics

Written by Alec Worley, Doug Graves, art by Dani, Andrea Bulgarelli, art by Vincent Riccardi, letters by Simon Bowland and SG. Cover by Andrea Bulgarelli.

Now… preview time…

Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh – Story by Alec Worley, art by Dani, letters by Simon Bowland.