The Look Of Love

This is a "feel good" story in every way.

If you have an interest in pulp characters, you are likely aware of this massive project. Legends Of New Pulp Fiction came about as a result of several members of the pulp creative community coming together for one of their own.

After finding out that writer (and editor-in-chief at Pro Se Productions, among other pulp-heavy career achievements in his resume) Tommy Hancock was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, an idea to create an anthology book of pulp stories to help raise funds for Mr. Hancock's family caught on immediately. Within two days of the call for submissions being sent out, more than 50 commitments were received.

The book was released earlier this week by Airship 27 with a cover by Douglas Klauba. Click here to be taken to the Amazon.com page from which you can purchase it.

Legends' page count alone is damn near legendary. It weighs in at 776 according to the Amazon listing.

It seemed unlikely that a book that size and with a specifically pulp theme would not include at least a small amount of Black Bat content. I took a moment to review the table of contents and sure enough, our hero does make an appearance in a story called The Look of Love by Greg Hatcher. It is brief, however, only 10 pages including an illustration(s) by Rob Davis.

Mr. Hatcher has experience with the character already. He wrote None So Blind, the story which kicks off the third volume of Black Bat Mystery, also for Airship 27. He has also written stories for anthology books of Domino Lady and The Green Ghost.

Good cause, great collection of talent, huge variety of characters new and old, including The Black Bat. Sounds like a winner all around.

Alternate Cover for Masks 2 #6

I didn't see this cover art when artist Colton Worley posted it on his Twitter account in October and it isn't displayed among the variant covers on dynamite.com, either.

Even though the Black Bat didn't play a huge part in the Masks 2 mini series, I hope this image finds its way into the Masks 2 trade paperback because it's quite striking.

The Black Bat Returns Hardcover...Cover

Just a small update today as Moonstone reveals for a hardcover version of The Black Bat Returns.

THIS IS A PREORDER ITEM ONLY. Book will be available Jan/Feb '16. MOONSTONEBOOKS.com EXCLUSIVE! ... SUPER LIMITED edition! Same contents as the sc, but with a new cover by Mike Fyles and high grade paper stock!

So you can get a fancier version of the book if you're willing to pay a little more (naturally) and wait a little longer (the softcover version is supposed to be in stores on December 23rd).

I'm less sure about wanting to wait any longer, but that cover is certainly making it tempting.

Guns Of The Black Bat About Ready To Fire!

According to writer Ron Fortier, we will soon see one of the several Moonstone Books Black Bat projects become available.

This should be scheduled for an April, release. The series was supposed to feature The Black Bat at the head of a group of other pulp characters, such as Domino Lady and The Phantom Detective. The cover above no longer seems to indicate that so we'll see what the actual solicitation material says.

In the meantime, I wasn't terribly familiar with Silvestre Szilagyi's work so I went on a brief hunt. The pages below provide what appears to be good sample material and if so, it seems Bat fan are in good hands.

I'll post the full solicitation when it comes out.

Edit: Since the Black Bat Facebook page included the solicitation earlier today, I'll just add it to this post:

Dateline 1938. Hitler and the Nazis have begun their plans to conquer the world. In the states, the crimefighter known as the Black Bat encounters German spies exhibiting strange, unworldly powers. Have aliens infiltrated the Third Reich and is the threat to mankind greater than imagined? Hurriedly the Bat assembles a team of specialists to help him confront this unknown foe: Airboy, Domino Lady, Moon Man, Golden Amazon, and more! They will become known as The Guns of the Black Bat. 

***RETAILER INCENTIVE: If you purchase 4 or more copies of Guns of the Black Bat #1, you will receive 1 FREE variant issue!

The book is listed as being 32 pages in length for $3.50

Fighting Aliens With Ravenwood

Shortly after deciding to focus this blog specifically on The Black Bat, I considered starting a Facebook group through which I could "meet" other fans of the character and perhaps more easily find out about past, or upcoming projects.

Of course, I quickly found out about the existing Black Bat Facebook group. I was perfectly happy with having someone do my work for me until it became clear that the group was geared towards the Airship 27 / Moonstone versions. Nothing wrong with that, but not exactly what I was looking for (or more accurately, not a complete version).

So yesterday I started a Twitter account (@BlackBatQuinn) instead. And it took all of one day to pay off.

Aaron Smith was among the first writers that I sought to follow based on his work in the first two volumes of Airship 27's Black Back Mystery. Turns out he was a little more involved with the character than I'd known.

News to me. You wouldn't know it from the front cover...

...But it is clearly indicated on the back cover.

 ...the Stepson of Mystery once again sets out to solve bizarre mysteries the police are helpless to unravel. Follow along as he confronts an amazing killer robot, teams up with the Black Bat to fight an alien horror and investigates ritualistic murders having no rhyme or reason.

And just like that, we have an addition to the reading list.

Thanks for the follow, Mr. Smith, and for the info!