Sanctum Books to reprint The Black Bat starting in July

Looks like we'll have another option for Black Bat reprints before long. The information below was first found on the Pulp Coming Attractions Facebook group.

Sanctum Books presents the 1939 novels that introduced the caped crimebuster whose adventures paralleled Batman's and inspired Two-Face's origin, written by Norman A. Daniels.

Read the classic pulp thrillers that introduced the costumed hero recently featured in Dynamite's Masks series.

First, doomed to darkness by a murderous acid attack, D.A. Tony Quinn makes darkness his weapon with "The Brand of the Black Bat."

Then, "Murder Calls the Black Bat" into a deadly war against corruption as Tony Quinn battles to prevent the biggest jewel haul of the century!

Plus, the debut of The Mask from Nedor's Exciting Comics #1.

Altus has been working on a multi-volume omnibus, but it's slow going. They release three stories at a time but only have two volumes available to this point, as well as the Companion book (all linked at right). A few weeks back I asked them, through Facebook, when they expected the third volume to be released and the answer was simply "this year".

I have no experience with Sanctum but if I have the correct website, they certainly seem prolific. Get a load of this list of releases. If they get the material out faster, I'm switching teams.

Masks 2, Issue 4 solicitation

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Art: Eman Casallos 

Heroes from across time meet, the bizarre origins of the Red Death are revealed, and an insidious trap springs shut. A dangerous adventure unlike anything you might expect awaits as the masked vigilantes of three different eras! The epic team-up of The Shadow, Black Terror, Miss Fury, Peter Cannon, Green Hornet, The Spider, and more continues, courtesy of Deadpool writer Cullen Bunn.

April 10th Bullet Points

Just a few small points that don't quite inspire a full post.

1. Now we know which Black Bat will participate in Dynamite Entertainment's Masks 2.

There he is in a group shot in the first issue (by The Shadow's right elbow). The image is a vision of sorts; the character doesn't actually appear in-story.

Frankly, when the series was announced I thought the 1940's version from the first volume of Masks was more likely to appear, or a new version based in the present. Judging from the distinctive "bat teeth" chest emblem, it seems to be the same one that had a 12-issue series recently.

Without giving anything away (even though the Black Bat's book has been out for months now), that's actually a little disappointing because the series had a fairly unique, definitive conclusion. I'm concerned that his inclusion will clash with it and trivialize it. We'll see.

2. For all that the various Black Bat projects planned by Moonstone Books, such as Guns of The Black Bat, Danger Coast to Coast and Faces of Fear, were said to be coming out "later this year", the publisher revealed its August solicitations earlier this week and there is still no Black Bat to be seen. So it'll be at least September until any of these are made available. Kind of a drag, but in the meantime...

3. Day of the Destroyers is out!

You may have noticed that Gary Phillips drew our attention to the book's release in a comment to an earlier post (see April 4th). This is appreciated because these things aren't always extremely clear (yet they seem so simple from the outside looking in...).

I knew the book was being released "soon" but that's often a relative term. Amazon (both the ".ca" version for we Canadians and the .com one) displayed different release dates later in the month, no less, complicating matters somewhat. But the Moonstone website's store now includes it in both softcover and limited edition hardcover versions, available for order immediately. If you've been waiting for this book, have at 'er.

I don't know how much of a presence The Black Bat has in Day Of The Destroyers, but its presence enough that he's named in the solicitation as a "guest-star" (along with The Phantom Detective and The Green Lama). The book contains 12 stories told over 276 pages.

Sons of Thor!

Pro Se Productions seemed like a sure bet for Black Bat material when I first became aware of their existence a couple of years ago. A longer look failed to reveal any such but a post on the Pulp Super Fan blog from earlier this week showed me I was wrong to believe that at the time.

PSF was reviewing the publisher's first compilation of "Pro Se Presents", a monthly series of pulp stories. In doing so, the writer mentioned the following issues:

#9, April 2012 and #10, May 2012 comprise a two-part series called “The Sons of Thor.” This story teams up several pulp heroes, including the Phantom Detective and the Black Bat in fighting a menace to the United States during WWII.

Ah! Pro Se seems more focused towards new pulp-style characters but evidently they do, on occasion, turn to the classics as well.

Each part's "pitch" is copied below. The cover displayed is that of the first book.

PRO SE PRESENTS, Puttin' The Monthly Back Into Pulp, brings you the first part of a TWO ISSUE EVENT! They believed that they were the chosen of the old Norse Gods. They believed they would rule first all of Europe, then the entire world. Many believed the sect gone forever. They were wrong. The Sons of Thor Live! Heaven Help the Foolish Few Who Dare to Challenge Them! THE SONS OF THOR written by Erwin K. Roberts is a fast paced New Pulp Adventure featuring nearly indomitable foes up against some of the best Pulp Heroes in the Public Domain today! Two fisted thrills, faster than lightning intrigue, and more heroes than you can shake a hammer at! Available now in its first part in PRO SE PRESENTS NUMBER NINE! From Pro Se Productions! 

Freedom Fights! The Sons of Thor Move Toward Destiny! As nations focus on the growing conflict with Nazi Germany, a devastating mission begins that threatens to unleash a horror that could lay waste to the world. As the Sons of Thor begin their final gambit, is there anyone who can stand against them in the face of certain doom? Find out in the Thrilling Conclusion to THE SONS OF THOR by Erwin K. Roberts featured in Pro Se Presents 10!

So...Not even the merest mention of The Phantom Detective or The Black Bat? It would seem that drawing attention to their presence might have been a logical way to promote the books.

For that reason, I admit that even if The Black Bat was mentioned in the Pulp Super Fan review, I was unsure about picking up the books. I wanted to avoid buying a story for a mere cameo appearance.

Then I saw the back cover of the second book on Pro Se's website...

All right, well...Perhaps The Black Bat plays a significant role after all! That cover is evidence enough to roll the dice. And so even though I believe The Black Bat only appears in the second part, I've downloaded the first book and will begin reading it this weekend to set up what I hope is a good addition to the collection.

The Black Bat meets The Rook!

Well...Met The Rook.

While on an internet search, I found out about a Black Bat guest-appearance I had not been aware of previously. He is included in one of the short stories in the third volume of The Rook. The promotional pitch for that book (at least the one I found) makes no mention of it so it was difficult to know about it. I was brought up to speed when I came across the following (partial) illustration of writer Barry Reese's website.

I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been getting several pieces of production artwork from George Sellas lately.  He’s working on The Rook Volume Three – Special Edition and, as always with him, it’s going to look gorgeous! Today we see an interesting piece featuring The Black Bat and Doctor Satan, both of whom play a large role in “The Burning Hells,” a story that kicks off the third book in The Rook series. Again, this is just a production sketch but you can already tell that George is knocking it out of the park!

Again with friggin' Doctor Satan. A couple of months ago, I'd never heard of this guy. Now I can't seem to get away from him.

I've come across The Rook a couple of times while looking up pulp news/history and have never heard a bad word said about that series of novels. This third volume was released early in 2009 and has since sold out but a special edition is planned. I believe it was originally expected to be out by the end of 2014, but I don't see any evidence that it's currently available.

When it does hit shelves, it will look like a little something like this...

The original edition's cover was a nod and wink to one of John Byrne's classic X-Men cover during the Days of Future Past storyline.

Here's a neat deal though; The Rook is currently included at bottom right of the poster, unlabeled either "slain" or "apprehended", in order to sell the fact that he is the proverbial last man standing. But as the cover was being created, The Black Bat actually held that position on the poster.

Damn.

"Slain".

But at least there's still a chance that Domino Lady and Miss Fury will escape, team up, and avenge his death. A pulp fan can dream, right?

Cool stuff. When this comes out, The Black Bat may well serve as my "gateway drug" to the Rook universe.