The Mask...Close enough!

I don't want this blog to become a parrot to the Black Bat Facebook page (since I have nothing to do with that page, no less, and don't want to copycat) however of late their postings have been too important for any fan of the character to avoid.

Here's the latest:

Although issue # 1 has yet to be released, production on BLACK BAT - DOMINO LADY: Danger Coast to Coast continues at Moonstone Comics. As we've reported here previously, Ron Fortier is writing this 30s setting pulp series and Michael Dorman is the artist (on) the first two issues. Starting with issue # 3, Carlos Cableiro will be taking over the art chores. Here's a sample of his work.

I love that image, especially of Quinn.

I'm going to use the opportunity to segue into a comic book appearance of the past, sort of.  It's something I had dismissed when I first read about it but am now realizing that I should not have.  Let's let Wikipedia explain it first:

Due to the issues with Batman, Nedor Comics, the comic publishing arm of Thrilling Publications, did not do a Black Bat comic series; however it did do a series with a character called "Mask", based on the Black Bat. The Mask appears in the first twenty issues of Exciting Comics.

What I did not know or anticipate is how faithful to the original Black Bat material these "Mask" stories are (aside from changing the names of the various characters), at least the first one.  I assumed that the character was similar, since many pulp heroes were anyway, but the Mask story is near identical to Brand of The Black Bat.  For an example, here's the first page from issue #1, first published in April of 1940:

And here's Tony "Colby" meeting Carol "Smith".

Granted, the Mask looks rather ridiculous, but it's still cool to see The Black Bat's original story done in comic book form at the time.  I'm certain most fans of the character must be aware of it, but in case it's been overlooked by others for the same reason I did, I thought I'd draw some attention to it.

If you want to have a look at the stories in full, you can do so through the Digital Comic Museum though at some point I'll probably copy and clean up the pages and post them here.