This jumped out at me when doing a search on the character's name this morning on Twitter. It's more than a week old so I am kicking myself for neglecting that Twitter account as of late.
Here are artist Jeffrey Hayes' comments about this image, lifted from a Facebook post from July 4th.
As much as I love the original Black Bat material, I'm always interested in other interpretations. A traditionalist nonetheless, I often joke that if you include the scarring around Tony Quinn's eyes, we can be friends. I've seen instances of artists displaying the scars when Tony's in his blind DA persona but not doing so when the Black Bat mask comes on. That irritates the hell out of me.
But I quite like what Hayes did here. The original stories often mention that when Quinn needs to revert to pretending to be blind, his eyes turn milky white so whether intentional or not, the white eyes in the image above are consistent with that description of the character's appearance. I tend to think that a full mask with scarring showing through the eye holes would be the most intimidating version of the Black Bat's look but what Hayes's has done here works very well on that level too, perhaps even better.
Gorgeous work. I'll be paying closer attention to see those interiors, too!
Just got approval from author Marlin Williams to reveal the completed cover to his upcoming novel featuring the “Black Bat” due out later this year or early 2022. This was a blast to work on. There plans for a few internal illustrations, but that will come a bit later.You can view more of Jeffrey's graphics work on his website and have a look at Marlin Williams' past work on his Amazon author page.
As much as I love the original Black Bat material, I'm always interested in other interpretations. A traditionalist nonetheless, I often joke that if you include the scarring around Tony Quinn's eyes, we can be friends. I've seen instances of artists displaying the scars when Tony's in his blind DA persona but not doing so when the Black Bat mask comes on. That irritates the hell out of me.
But I quite like what Hayes did here. The original stories often mention that when Quinn needs to revert to pretending to be blind, his eyes turn milky white so whether intentional or not, the white eyes in the image above are consistent with that description of the character's appearance. I tend to think that a full mask with scarring showing through the eye holes would be the most intimidating version of the Black Bat's look but what Hayes's has done here works very well on that level too, perhaps even better.
Gorgeous work. I'll be paying closer attention to see those interiors, too!
