Guns of The Black Bat cover

Well ain't this a thing of beauty (lifted from the Black Bat Facebook page)!

Coming later this year from Moonstone Comics - GUNS OF THE BLACK BAT from writer Ron Fortier. This cover is by artist Michael Stribling.

"Later this year" is more vague than I'd like (by necessity, no doubt) but seeing a cover for it makes it feel a little more real. This may be the project I'm most looking forward to in 2015. Seeing my favourite pulp character be the straw that stirs the drink, as it were, is an exciting prospect. Bring it on, Mr. Fortier and Moonstone.

Solicitation: Masks 2, #1 (of 8)

While there doesn't appear to be much Black Bat content in this book, I'll still record the official solicitation here.

Cover A Main: Butch Guice
Cover B Variant: Jae Lee
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Art: Eman Casallos

The Shadow. The Green Hornet and Kato. Black Terror. These are just a few masked vigilantes drawn into a mystery that spans the decades – a plot that threatens our society again and again. With the devastating power to kill thousands of people in a matter of seconds, the Red Death is a villain who may be impossible to stop. It will take more than a dozen masked heroes from three different time periods to stop this madwoman from bringing the world to its knees!

We don't learn much that wasn't already revealed in the press release announcing Casallos as the book's artist, but we do now know that the mini series is eight books long. That's something I guess. With any luck, Dynamite will give us a regular dose of Black Bat throughout the bulk of 2015 starting in April.

Getting to know: Doctor Satan

In an interview earlier this week, writer/publisher Ron Fortier mentioned that he had written a lengthy Black Bat story in which that character butted heads against one Doctor Satan.

I think it's safe to say that Doctor Satan is not among the better known characters from the pulp era. For that matter, everything I read about him seems to indicate that he's among the least popular. There were eight stories published about him in 1935 and 1936 in total. So we'll take a moment to find out more about him in anticipation of the Black Bat anthology to which Mr. Fortier referred.

"Doctor Satan. A man who took pride in his fiendishness! A man who robbed and killed, and broke the laws of man and God, not for gain, because he already had more than any one person could spend, but solely for thrills! A being jaded with the standard pleasures of the world, and turning to monstrous, sadistic acts to justify his existence and give him the sense of power he craved!" - Paul Ernst, The Consuming Flame, (Weird Tales, Nov. 1935).

The above was copied from the Vault of Evil message board.

So basically, if Bruce Wayne was a complete dick...

Apparently, Doctor Satan did have occult-based powers as opposed to being some stage magician charlatan who preyed on the superstitious. He had a nemesis of his own, a detective named Ascott Keane, as well as a couple of unusual assistants. I won't say any more about them in the event that Mr. Fortier plans on using them in his story but they may make a good counter to The Black Bat's entourage. This guy may end up being a perfect villain for The Black Bat if handled properly, and I certainly have no reason to doubt Mr. Fortier's ability to do so.

The cover above is from Altus Press' complete reprint of the character's adventures.  Click on it to be taken to their page.

Highlights of Ron Fortier's appearance on the Art's Reviews podcast

This is a rare two-post day on this blog, but I take that as additional proof that 2015 will be the year of the Bat.

Airship 27's Ron Fortier was a guest on Art's Reviews podcast yesterday and talked about the huge amount of projects occupying his time over the next few months. The bulk of the first half of the conversation was about Sherlock Holmes projects (past and future) but at about the 30 minute mark, the attention turns to The Black Bat for a few minutes.

I attempted to capture the information as best as I could, starting with a project that I'm hearing about for the first time. All quotes are by Mr. Fortier (host Art Sippo may as well have not been involved, he contributed very little besides the occasions "wow").

"Last year I wrote a long Black Bat vs. Doctor Satan story which will be appearing in a new Black Bat anthology from Moonstone."

Fantastic! I was getting tired of The Black Bat appearing in one story in anthologies for Domino Lady, The Spider, and so on. About time the tables were turned in that regard. I knew little about Doctor Satan but have done a little research and this could be quite cool. More on him later.

We are also given a bit more information about the team-up with The Purple Scar.

"Basically it's a novelette...It will have ten interior illustrations by none other than Rob Davis."

Onwards from prose books to comic book projects. The image below is several months old, but for those who may not have seen it yet, you could probably guess that it is meant to be the cover to the Black Bat / Domino Lady book. The art is by Mike Dorman.

"I've taken over writing two series for Moonstone. One of them is called 'Black Bat and Domino Lady: Danger Coast to Coast'...

What I've done is, every two issues we tell a complete story. In the first storyline, the Black Bat story is the 'A' story whereas interspersed between it is the 'B' story of Ellen Patrick out in Los Angeles.

When you get to issue #3, it reverses. The A story becomes the Domino Lady story, in between some of those pages you're going to find the continuation of the Black Bat saga but it's the B story now."

"And then as if that wasn't enough to fill my plate, he (Moonstone's Joe Gentile) turns around and had another comic project in the works that for whatever reason, the gentleman who was writing it took a hike...And it was going to be a pulp team book, much like a pulp version of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen but with The Black Bat as the primary, central force collecting these pulp heroes...The series itself is going to be called Guns of The Black Bat".

"Any public domain character that you can possibly imagine is sooner or later going to pop up in this series. In the first two issues we've got...Domino Lady is there, The Phantom Detective, Air Boy, I.V. Frost, Ki-Gor The Jungle Lord, Jim Anthony Super Detective and...I got to throw in my own character Nighthawk (sp?), is going to appear there, in comic book form."

So basically, in terms of Black Bat content, the exact opposite of Mask and Masks 2. Where he appears to be a bit part player in those books, he will be the hub character in Guns.

There was also a brief reference to a third volume of Black Bat Mystery. So all very good news, aside from the fact that we don't have a release date for any of them yet.

Masks 2 from Dynamite coming in April!

I came across this annoucement on First Comics News earlier today on my way to work and have been dying to give it a longer look. Here's an abbreviated version of the release, including a variant cover featuring our former cover girl.

Mt. Laurel, NJ: Dynamite Entertainment is proud to announce the full creative team for Masks 2, the eagerly anticipated sequel to 2012-2013’s pulp hero extravaganza, Masks.

Artist Eman Cassalos (Alice Cooper) joins fan-favorite writer Cullen Bunn (Deadpool) in an epic comic book event uniting such diverse pulp characters as The Shadow, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, Lady Satan, Black Terror, Green Hornet, Zorro, and more.

Slated for release in April 2015, Masks 2 will feature cover artwork by a selection of the industry’s most celebrated artists, including Butch Guice, Jae Lee, Gabriel Hardman, Colton Worley, Sean Chen, and Robert Hack.

...Masks 2 promises to expand the scope dramatically beyond even what the first series presented, while simultaneously serving as an entry point for new, curious readers.

“I’m introducing a new villain called the Red Death who is plaguing the heroes in three different time periods,” says Bunn. “Again and again, she resurfaces, in the ’30s, the ’70s, and the present day. Her agenda is a bit of a mystery… but our heroes will start to see just how dangerous the Red Death can be. Her machinations definitely have the potential to bring all of civilization to ruin.”

The complete Masks 2 roster of pulp heroes, gathered from different periods in time, includes: The Shadow, Green Hornet, Kato, Black Terror, The Spider, Green Lama, Lady Satan, Black Sparrow, Miss Fury, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, Black Bat, and Zorro. However, readers should expect the unexpected when dealing with these characters. Bunn says, “We’re working with a cast of existing and new characters who span three different timelines. For some characters, like the Green Hornet, we’ll be seeing multiple versions of those characters. We might even be seeing those various versions of those characters interacting with each other! So, the Green Hornet and Kato of the 30s will be meeting their modern day counterparts face-to-face. It’s a very ambitious, wild story. There were moments where, in the middle of writing this beast, I wondered if I’d bitten off way more than I could chew. But it’s come together, and I’m really excited for readers to dig in.”

Interesting take indeed. Full release here.

Specific to the The Black Bat, Dynamite indeed has two versions of the character; the one from the first volume of Masks and the modern-day version that had a 12-issue series between 2013 and 2014. I didn't finish that series (waiting for the Omnibus) so I don't know if he even lived through the end. Even if he did, that Black Bat seemed to be in his own setting (one without characters like The Shadow and The Spider around) so I doubt he would be brought in to Masks 2.

No sense worrying about it too much because it doesn't appear as though The Black Bat will be featured player this time around either. Clicking on the link above to view the release will display some of the covers and interior art, all of which is rather Bat-deficient. If not for his name appearing in the text, you'd be hard-pressed to know that he's included at all. On the cover below, if you squint enough, you can see him in a frame behind the logo. Hooray!!

Still going in with an open mind though. While his part was small in the first volume, he made a good team with Zorro and had an idealogical clash with The Shadow that I was hoping would lead to more. With a different writer involved, I doubt that point will be revisited but I'm eager to see what Bunn does to make him stand out.

Domino Lady: Blondes in Chains

Well here's a lucky break. Amazon offers one of the short stories from Moonstone's "Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon" prose anthology (in Kindle format) and it just so happens to be the one guest-starring The Black Bat.

Illustration by Ver Curtiss

Decades before Wonder Woman and Charlie's Angels, pulp fiction's sultry Domino Lady intrigued and enchanted and then disabled and destroyed evildoers in her vengeful quest for justice as she dismantled political machines and exposed corruption in the courts and in the Capitol.

"Blondes in Chains" (7,300 words)

Domino Lady partners with another hero—New York’s former D.A. Anthony Quinn, who secretly operates as the Black Bat. Together they thwart members of the criminal underworld of NYC as well as some apparent pillars of the community and also solve the case of the enslaved missing blondes.

Once again, the story was written by CJ Henderson. Henderson also wrote the recently-mentioned "To Battle Beyond" and "Battle for L.A.", both of which include The Black Bat.

Perhaps it's a matter of having just read To Battle Beyond, but it actually feels like this story takes place a short time after that book. Domino Lady and The Bat seem familiar with one another but I'm only a few pages into it so I may find that's not actually the case.

Either way, for about a buck, you can purchase that one story if you're more of a Black Bat fan than a Domino Lady one.

Adventure House Reprints of Black Book Detective

This falls under the category of things that I post about expecting full well that most visitors will be aware of them already, but for the sake of being a completist...

While Altus Press is reprinting the original Black Bat stories over multiple volumes, they are a long-time coming. The two volumes that are currently available were released almost exactly three years apart. Keeping to that glacial pace, volume three will be available in April 2016 or so.

Adventure House is another option then. They have been publishing reprints of pulp stories, including those of The Black Bat, bi-monthly for a number of years.

They began in issue #90 with "Brand of The Black Bat", the character's first published tale from 1939. But from there, the stories selections seem somewhat random. The Bat returns to HA in #96 but that book features "The Blackout Murders" from March 1942.

Some books seem to faithfully reprint the Black Book Detective issue of the time which means that in some cases, in addition to the "main event" Black Bat story, you also get whatever other content was included. #96, for example, also includes stories called "Snatchers Are Suckers" by Robert C. Donohue and "A Grave for Grogan" by primary Black Bat writer Norman A. Daniels.

On the other hand, some issues of High Adventure are "double issues", containing two Black Bat stories.  That's the case with issue #112 which reprints "Murder Among the Dying" and "The Skeleton's Secret", both originally from 1945.

If you're just finding out about the character and want to sample his adventures, this seems like a great method by which to do that. It bears pointing out that issue #90, with the "Brand of The Black Bat" origin story, is available at a the "special price" of $3 (plus shipping, of course). I may just take advantage of that deal for the sake of the other Daniels story that's included.

Click on the cover above to taken to the Adventure House website.

"Stand by for adventure with a special Nemo Publishing action figure sale: Celebrates the release of the new Black Bat figure"

The text below is from a press release issued yesterday.

Six years ago, Nemo Publishing released its first limited edition Mego-style action figure of the retro hero Commander X. Today, the Nemo collection has grown to include 14 action figures, including the new Black Bat and the exciting new Sea Ghost figure which will ship in January.

In celebration of this popular action figure series and the release of the new Black Bat, Nemo Publishing announces a special online sale exclusively at http://www.captneli.com. From now through Friday, February 16, all action figures (except for Sea Ghost) will be available at a special price of $15.00 (regular price $19.95).

These eight-inch collectible “maker” action figures are created in a retro-style reminiscent of those made by the Mego Corporation in the 1970s. Creator Jay Piscopo worked with Paul Clarke, known as “Dr. Mego,” to create this collection.

The Black Bat action figure is a reworking of the classic 1939 hero and was designed by Jay Piscopo and assembled with the help of Paul Clarke.

...

“I'm huge fan of the Black Bat,” said Piscopo. “He is an interesting character and has a fascinating place in pop culture history with Batman and Daredevil. It's exciting to have him included on the Nemo Toys roster. His look translates into the new Mego style extremely well. I’m looking forward to offering more pulp and golden age characters like him in the future.”

Of course I had a bunch of the Mego action figures as a kid, most of which ended up with busted legs at some point. I never thought I'd see a Black Bat one though.

I was debating whether I wanted one for my little Black Bat corner but the decision was made for me.  Apparently, they don't ship to Canada. Ah well.