New Page: Blitz

It only takes up a small portion of the space underneath the banner, at far right, so you may not have noticed it, but I've created a page simply called Blitz.

From time to time, historical info about The Black Bat will mention that following the end of his adventures in Black Book Detective in 1953, he became something of a sensation in Germany. Translated versions of his stories began to appear in the 100th edition of Pabel Kriminal Roman in 1960 and in short order he became the series' leading man from issue 135 to at least 667.

But you can't keep a good bat down for long.

A publisher named Blitz-Verlag has been publishing Black Bat stories for the better part of the last decade now. A number of them have been reprints from the Black Book Detective run of 1939 to 1953 but there has been some original material as well. A.S. Jones, at right, refers to a Angelika Schröder who probably added the "Jones" to her initials in homage to the G.W. Jones name that accompanied so much of the character's past adventures.

Thus far, Blitz has published 12 books, reprint and new tales in equal amounts. The Blitz page above provides cover images for each one as well as translations of the solicitation text, to the best of my ability to do so. It's a little...choppy...at times, but you'll get the idea.

I've also fleshed out the Black Book Detective page a bit, adding names and publishing dates for the covers that are NOT yet available.

I was pleased to score a decent scan of the cover to one of the last issues (Winter 1952) which, interestingly, makes reference to a Tony Quinn and Carol Baldwin mystery. Miss Baldwin did not usually get named on the cover. Being that she was such an integral part of the Black Bat's origin and entourage, it's good to see her getting equal billing, however short-lived it was.