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.