The ORIGIN and DEATH of SADISTIK in BEWARE: SADISTIK #1

Available in October is BEWARE SADISTIK #1, the first comic book ever featuring the Diabolikal Super-Kriminal! This 52 page full color comic digest stars the King of Crime in his first all-new adventure in over 20 years!

The cover and lead story are written and drawn by by Mort Todd (who also adapts the SADISTIK photo novels) and is based on his TV pilot script. The publisher Comicfix is in negotiations with a production company concerning a TV series about the Imperceptible One and expects to announce news about it very soon!

The 18 page story is actually based on the opening teaser sequence from the TV script where SADISTIK is in East Berlin to steal an object of value from a degenerate Communist General. The TV series will be very true to the original photo novels and set in 1966. The first season will focus on the King of Crime's arrival in America with the beautiful Dana as he targets the scientific treasures of a corrupt industrialist who wants to crush SADISTIK. Also in the Diabolikal One's way is a joint FBI/Interpol task force dedicated to the defeat of our favorite Super-Kriminal. Thanks to his industrial espionage, SADISTIK employs technology that is fifty years ahead of his time, so he uses gimmicks we won't even see for another 10 years! An overview of the TV series is at our SADISTIK TV page where there is a heavily illustrated Top Secret Dossier on the show.

As illustrated by the page on the right, the TV show will be full of slam-bang violent action, gorgeous gals, deadly adversaries and spine-tingling suspense! The series will be like a darker James Bond or an evil Batman, set in a foreboding retro-futuristic 1960s.

Despite having a long international career in print as the star of photo novels, SADISTIK has never had his own comic book before. He has had, however, two comic stories about him printed before, featuring his untold ORIGIN and his subsequent DEATH. These rare tales appear for the first time in color and English in BEWARE SADISTIK #1!

The King of Crime had a long run in Argentina where he was known as KILING. It was so successful that after the original Italian run of photo novels was exhausted, the publisher, Ediciones Record, created new adventures with local actors and locales. They also expanded their line to include KILING paperback novels and comics. In 1974, they launched the magazine Skorpio, a black and white comics magazine featuring some of the world’s best cartoonists. Amongst strips in the first issue by Hugo Pratt and Leo Durañona was an adaptation of KILING written by Eugenio Zappietro (as Ray Collins, who also wrote the Argentine photo novels) and artist Ernesto Garcia.

While the artwork is fantastic, the plot, particularly the Diabolikal Super-Kriminal's beginnings, leaves a little to be desired. More of a generic Batman/revenge origin than proper motivation for someone to become the King of Crime, in this version he is more of a crime fighter than criminal. Though his true origin has not been revealed (yet), it is suffice to say he was not a groovy 70s French scientist before he donned the Mask of Death and there is no real explanation as to why he and Dana would have such an inseparable romance as depicted in the photo novels. Perhaps the story is disinformation put out by SADISTIK himself!

(Above) An ad for "The Death of SADISTIK" that appeared in Argentinian magazines.

In the second issue of Skorpio, they introduced a mysterious, masked crime buster that adopted the magazine’s title and purports to relate the death of SADISTIK. Zappietro wrote the tale with the entertaining artwork of Oswal adding to the fun. His work is at times reminiscent of American cartoonists ranging from Alex Toth and Frank Robbins to Mike Sekowsky and Jim Aparo.

For some reason, they didn’t feel like continuing KILING’s adventures in comics form, so they “killed” him off in this adventure. To see the final fate of SADISTIK (at least in the Argentinian alternate reality) you must pick up this collectors' edition!

Though the only two appearances of the King of Crime in drawn (rather than photographed) comics feature very decent art, the stories don't fully exploit the potential of the character. However, these rare comics are of great interest to SADISTIK fans worldwide and are presented for the first time in English and in color within this incredible edition.

Like other SADISTIK releases, by the end of the month Comicfix will offer a free PDF download preview of the comic book for you to check out before you buy. And the book will also be offered at a discount for the first month when you purchase from for the official SADISTIK website.

Speaking of which, don't forget: August is you're last chance to buy the Limited Edition SADISTIK book Hell Waits! and you can also purchase the new SADISTIK #1: Monster with a 1000 Masks! for $7.99. After September, #1 will sell at the $9.99 cover price, so get SADISTIK before he gets you! Download PDF previews of both books at our SNEAK PEEK page!