Excelsior's Other Black Bat Project

It's been about two years since Excelsior updated its Black Bat webcomic. I still check in from time to time to see if any progress has been made but it's been clear for some time that this project is basically dead in mid-fight after 18 pages of story plus one cover page.

If that's the case, we might have lost more than it appears. Going back over the images posted in the Excelsior Webcomics Facebook group back in 2012, it seems as though two separate projects were underway at the time.

The webcomic was written by Nick Ahlhelm and drawn by Marc Santiago. Some of the first pictures added to the Facebook group were design sketches by Santiago. Makes sense.

But a few weeks later, artist Edgar Bercasio got into the game with, among other things, this beauty:

There was some discussion within the group about how Bercasio's initial attempt looked too much like that other Bat-themed character (due to pointy ears on the cowl, the bottom half of the face being visible, etc.). This led to the more finished product you see above.

What it didn't lead to was a completed product. The webcomic plodded along slowly, releasing a page every three months or so. But Bercasio, obviously very enthusiastic about the project he was involved with, at one point posted the first page of a story written by Gordon Dymoski.

So apparently there were plans for both a webcomic and a print one. That I know of, nothing ever came of the latter and the former has now dried out. Too bad, because that's some quality work up there.

Here's a look at another image by Bercasio. I assume it was intended to be the cover prior to the redesign of the character's appearance. Still cool.