Final Pulpsploitation cover by Nik Poliwko

Again, taken from the artist's Facebook page. The man appears to work fast; this was actually added to the gallery only a few days after the inked version that I posted here was but I just missed it. Pretty sharp.

Shouldn't be long until the Black Bat story hits my inbox. I look forward to seeing how it compares to other versions of the character.

To Battle Beyond by C.J. Henderson

Ordered today:

In the opening days of WWII, the free world sat in dread anticipation as the Axis turned its deadly attentions on one country after another. With an ocean to protect her on either side, the United States hoped to be spared participation in the apocalyptic confrontation to come. Knowing their only chance was a sneak attack, the Japanese hight command settles on a dark and terrible plan, one involving damnable sorceries and horrors from beyond to cripple the American colossus.

Join us as three of the Pulp Era's greatest heroes--primary Batman inspiration, The Black Bat; The Domino Lady, greatest of the girl detectives; and H.P. Lovecraft's immortal creation, Inspector Legrasse--band together to battle nightmare and ninjas in one of the wildest, most exciting adventure novels of all time!

C.J. Henderson created new adventures for the likes of Kolchak, The Night Stalker; The Phantom, Mr. Moto, Batman, The Punisher, The Spider, Lin Carter's Anton Zarnak; the Avenger and a score of others. Known around the world for his ability to infuse characters with a startling and electric dynamism, New Mystery Magazine said: "If as some argue, the hardboiled private eye mystery story is a literary form on a par with the Japanese haiku or Irish ballad, then Mr. Henderson deserves the mantle of literary master."

Also: A special introduction by Ron Fortier, "Who the Hell Are These Guys?", and "Only an Hour," a new Black Bat solo adventure by C.J. Henderson!

I believe the book is actually from 2008. I was able to locate it on Amazon and that site refers to it as a January 2008 release from Marietta Pub. I found out about it on the very fine Pulp Coming Attraction Facebook Page and their post in regards to it states that "To Battle Beyond returns...".  Their link led to the Bold Adventure Press website which in turn directed to createspace to print on demand.

Assuming that's The Black Bat on the rather abstract cover, that looks to be one rather unusual version.

C.J. Henderson does have some additional history with alternate Black Bats; he penned the Return of the Originals book for Moonstone (which also included Domino Lady). Admitedly, while the story itself is quite good, that is my least favourite version of the character.

Mind you, I don't know that Henderson was responsible for the redesign so I don't want to lay it at his feet. I go into To Battle Beyond with an open mind about The Black Bat, eager for a team-up with Domino Lady and curious to be introduced to Inspector Legrasse.  In light of my post from last night in which I mention my surprise at how often the character is used in team-ups, the timing for stumbling into this book couldn't be more appropriate.

Unfortunately, as you may have heard or been able to deduce from the wording of the solicitation, Mr. Henderson passed away recently.  He died of cancer in early July of this year.

Change coming soon: Colony Of The Black Bat

You'd have to be truly blind to not notice the new Black Bat-specific blog banner (see what I did there?).  That's right, Miss Fury is being removed as a regular subject of this dark little corner of mine.

It's not that I don't enjoy the character, it's simply that she's barely on the radar. As I write this, there are six projects of interest to this blog going into 2015 (see box at top right). Miss Fury is maybe going to appear in only one of them; Masks 2 from Dynamite.

The name "colonyoftheblackbat.blogspot.com" will be applied in the new year, for those who may have this place bookmarked (probably my mom and one other person, but still...), so heads up.

I wish I could have come up with something better, but it's appropriate on a couple of levels.  The obvious one: A gathering of bats is called a colony (I sure as hell wasn't going to refer to a bat cave because of you-know-who).

The name can also be applied in three ways: in reference to the several versions of the character that are already in existence (hell, Dynamite has two and Moonstone will soon), to his entourage of Butch, Silk and Carol, or to the multitude of character with whom he has, or will, partner(ed). From time to time, a post will be dedicated to one of those guest-stars, similar to what was done for The Purple Scar earlier.

As for Fury, I'm certainly not going to remove past posts dedicated to her (ironically, when I began the blog, I thought it was a little too Fury-heavy) even if the amount of content about her may seem odd on a Black Bat blog for new visitors in the future. Rather, I hope she gives me cause to reverse the decision.

The Black Bat Companion

Before I say anything about this book, I want to heap some praise on Altus Press.  I purchased this book on Cyber Monday (so December 1st) and had it in hand on Thursday, three days later. They obviously wasted no time shipping it and I appreciated that a great deal.

The Black Bat Companion was released in the summer of 2011. I waited a while before getting it for two reasons; First, I wanted to read more of the original material available before acquiring book and second, reviews were a little mixed. While some referred to the book as being very thorough, others made it sound as though it was filled with useless information.

Ultimately, even though I'm still working through the book, I'm very pleased with my purchase.

There is some repetition in the information provided, usually in the earlier chapters, which makes the page count feel a little padded at times. For example, character bios will mention errors made in regards to their names in certain stories, then the Adventure Index will also point out the error(s). But in light of the volume of information shared, this is really just a minor annoyance.

The Black Book Detective Adventure Index seems good but since I intend to read the stories myself at some point I didn't want to get too deeply into it. The book becomes particularly interesting for me at chapter nine as it provides a list of all the stories printed in Germany (including BBD reprints). Being that there were nearly 600, you could probably create a whole other companion book specific to German story summaries (feel free to steal that idea, Altus).

At the moment, I'm reading the rejected Black Bat story, The Lady Is Out For Blood. It doesn't feel like a Black Bat story at all. The lead character is totally different in name, profession and appearance, as is his female assistant, but it makes for a good read nonetheless. There are also reprints of nine comic book stories of The Mask, a character nearly identical to The Black Bat but with minor name modifications to the cast.

From that point on, it is best to think of the book as a tribute to primary Black Bat writer Norman Daniels. The next few chapters feature an interview with Daniels, excerpts from written correspondence by him, biographical information and payment records. If your interest is specific to the Black Bat character, then you may not care how much money Daniels made for writing his stories, and even less for writing about other characters, but it provides a rare window into the scene at the time. Personally, I was pleased to have it all included.

Overall, while I would have preferred to have some sections filled out more (German Bat), and could have done without a few others (such as character profiles. If someone buys this book, he or she probably doesn't need to be introduced to Silk Kilby), The Black Bat Companion is an excellent compilation of information. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to gain deeper appreciation for the histories of the character, the genre and the era.

The Bat and The Scar

It looks increasingly like Spider fans' loss are The Black Bat's fans' gain.

Moonstone Books gave The Spider a lot of attention over the past few years but now that they no longer have publishing rights to the character, they appear to be directing their energy towards Black Bat projects.

The Black Bat Facebook page recently made reference to a team-up book between our man and a character named The Purple Scar to be published by Moonstone.  I admit to not being particularly familiar with The Purple Scar so a little research was required.

There were only four stories published during the pulp era featuring this character. Altus Press has reprinted them in one volume.

The Purple Scar is a famous plastic surgeon, Miles Murdock. Dr. Murdoch's brother, a police officer, is murdered and during the attack, acid is poured onto is face causing tremendous damage to his features. His outrage at the brutality of the attack inspires Miles Murdock to create a mask based on his late brother's disfigurement and to fight crime.

Evidently, the fine folks at Airship 27 found The Purple Scar interesting enough to shine the spotlight on him.  They released a four-story anthology (176 pages in total) based on the character this past October and as you can see from the cover below, they made the scar mask far more graphic than that of the original.

How cool is that?  Click here to order the book from Amazon.

The frequency with which The Black Bat is cast into team-ups with characters such as Zorro (in Masks), Domino Lady, Captain Action, etc. is an unexpected treat.  I didn't anticipate that when I became heavily interested in the character. In this case, there appear to be quite a few similarities between Scar and The Black Bat so I'll be curious to see how the creative team (Ron Fortier and Rob Davis) gives each his own voice, so to speak.