Harvey Thrillers were a comics line that was put out in the mid-60's to tap into the campy superhero theme that Adam West's Batman was making a cold fortune at. Double-Dare Adventures lasted for 2-issues and was an astounding anthology of diversified characters, one of which was titled Magicmaster, although it is a little hazy about which one of the main duo is the definitive "Magicmaster". Jim Steranko penned the timeless story about a boy and his ancient pet mentor drawn by Jack Sparling. The first adventure is broken down into a quartet of 5-page chapters with Jimmy Apollo losing his father, a famous magician labeled The Incredible Apollo who dies in a mysterious auto accident. Jimmy suspects the rival magi Prince Infernus who vowed to get back at Mr. Apollo for exposing his fraudulent act years before as the fake fakir stupidly left his turban behind near the magician's corpse. The orphaned Jimmy looks through his deceased father's library as he finds a tome with an ancient incarnation that the comics editor warns the reader not to repeat as Harvey Comics wouldn't accept any responsibility for its real-world implications. By reciting this spell, Jimmy summons up blue-skinned Shamarah The Sorcerer, a magician the gods sent to help the orphan get revenge on his father's murderer. Shamarah demos his authentic magic powers with an enchanted dagger that allows him to float, turn invisible, and create realistic illusions as he and Jimmy bust into Infernus' castle. Utilizing a mix of Jimmy's own prestidigitation with fisticuffs helps our magic vigilantes plow through a couple of goons, but they are both subdued by Infernus knocking out Shamarah as he is merely a mortal after losing his magic dagger. Infernus like an idiot throws the weapon back to Shamarah in an attempt to prevent their escape. The man-sized Smurf regains his powers and makes a mirage of a lumbering mummy, leading the evil prince into an open fire and burning to death. Shamarah promises to then teach Jimmy the same magic that he claims to have taught Merlin, Circe, and Cagliostro. Their next adventure written by Otto Binder has the twosome taking on an evil circus as Jimmy leads his own herd of magic animals. Each Magicmaster installment had a "You can do magic at home!" tutorial even if you didn't have a genie-like teacher to show you how to do a cheap coin trick. While Shamarah was billed as being the Magicmaster, he was usually advertised as being The Sorcerer hinting that Jimmy was the official Magicmaster, so the reader is left trying to figure out who is the title character.
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