Update On The Airship 27 Update

The 62nd edition of the Airship 27 podcast was released last week and during this episode, Ron Fortier and Rob Davis added a few more details about the Black Bat novel the publisher hopes to publish by end of summer. 

The book will be in the 60,000 word range and its writer will be one Jon Carter. I'm looking for Mr. Carter on social media but striking out at the moment.

Interior illustrations will be handled by Clayton Hinkle. Samples of his work were also a little tricky to come by, but I did locate his deviantart profile under the nickname "gombuck". It displays all of one image but it just happens to be a Black Bat page so that worked out nicely. 

The full-sized version seems to indicate that this was a page for a Moonstone Books project but I would be hard-pressed to identify which one. 

Man, it's nice to have something to look forward to. The theory that I mentioned in the previous post was that this book would be Gordon Dymowskis "The Politics of Crime" story that was scheduled to be published by Pro Se Productions in late 2018, if memory serves. That is not the case but hopefully "Politics" is still somewhere on Pro Se's radar and we can get both books this year. 

In the meantime, if you're interested in Airship 27's just-released or upcoming projects, give the podcast a listen right here.

Update From Airship 27

Airship 27 had some much-needed good news to share yesterday on their Facebook group.

It had been so long since the last anthology, and Airship 27 juggles so many characters, that I'd kind of given up on seeing them produce another book with this one. I have a theory about it, which I'll keep to myself for now, but between this and Moonstone's planned graphic novel with Domino Lady, we might finally get some new Black Bat material before the year is out.

The Black Bat's ASPC Streak to Resume!

Airship 27's 55th podcast, released earlier today (on YouTube at least) dropped a little bit of good Black Bat news.

Airship 27 publishes novels and anthologies, but Redbud Studio is comics-focused. they have published, among many other books, four volumes of All-Star Pulp Comics, the first three of which included Black Bat stories.

Unfortunately, the character's streak ended after issue #3 but he appears set to start a new one.

Ron Fortier: John Helmer, The Publisher of Lucky Comics...this is according to Mark Davis...supposedly has a new 8-page Black Bat script that he wants to offer us for this volume.

This is somewhat surprising because Lucky Comics has its own Black Bat book in Black Bat Tales. They have two, in fact, if we consider the modern-day version of the character, The Bat.

Now the stories set in the 1930s (Tales) are written by Lou Mougin so perhaps Mr. Helmer preferred to not interfere with that process and/or to ship his own story out because it didn't quite fit into the plans. Regardless, cooperation between publishers is rarely (never?) a bad thing.

Rob Davis warns that there is no set release date for this book so let's not sit on the Redbud website and refresh our browsers repeatedly, but it's good to hear the Black Bat mentioned on an Airship 27 podcast in any case.

Here's the cover to the book which contained the Black Bat's last appearance. Hey, being that he's been a part of most of these books, maybe he's due for cover treatment?

Other stories will include the Crimson Mask and a Purple Scar / Secret Agent - X team-up. You can listen to the show here but the ASPC portion in particular is at the 15:30 mark or so.

More Black Bat Awesomeness From Andres Labrada

I have a spot on my wall dying to be covered with Black Bat art and while there are many images available that I would love to purchase, doing so doesn't appear to be particularly easy. Many artists display their work, but few of the ones I would purchase from offer that option. Perhaps it's more complicated than I realize, I truly don't get it.

In any event, I thought I would seek out one Andres Labrada about buying a print of the following image.

I love this and it would be perfect for my blank wall spot. It appeared in the second volume of Airship 27's Black Bat Mystery.

In my search, I came across a blog that the artist used to manage between 2010 and 2013 and some other scans of his from work done for that book. The two below caught my eye.

The blog post in which they're displayed is entitled "Pulp Covers" yet I doubt a cover would have the word "Meanwhile" running across the top.

It is further puzzling to note that a similar image appears in BBM2.  Same idea; a Frankenstein-looking monster crashes through a wall towards the Black Bat. It is far less detailed and makes me wonder why it would have been chosen over the above.

Doesn't make this one any less awesome though.

The Graham Hill Bat

It's been a while since I had a post specific to art. This one is the result of a Facebook image search which led me to Graham Hill's page when I spotted the following sketch.

There was something familiar about the style so I looked into Hill's portfolio further and came across virgin art for Airship 27's third volume of Black Bat Mystery.

I find it looks significantly better without all the text that blocked out the moon and lightning.  I hope Hill has more opportunity to work with the character soon.

Ravenwood/Black Bat shift to a Special Edition

I was on the Dynamite Entertainment message board earlier today discussing the Guns Of The Black Bat mini series from Moonstone Books.

Being that Ron Fortier's work was the topic of conversation, it occurred to me to ask who among the regular visitors might be readers of Airship 27's material. While gathering the link to display on the message board for those who may not have been aware of Fortier's (and Rob Davis') publishing company, I came across the following solicitation.

Of the original Ravenwood Stepson of Mystery stories, there were only ever five. In the past three years Airship 27 Productions has published nine short stories and one full length novel starring this unique occult detective. 

Airship 27 Productions is thrilled to reprint four of those fan-favorite tales in this new edition. This volume features writers Aaron Smith, Jonathan Fisher, Gene Moyers and Ron Fortier, as each adds his own storytelling talents to one of pulpdom’s least known but most original heroes. Sit back and prepare to encounter bizarre, supernatural mysteries as only Airship 27 Productions can deliver. 

(reprints three stories from the out of print Ravenwood: Stepson of Mystery V.2 and a Ravenwood story from OCCULT Detectives V.1).

In December 2015, writer Aaron Smith pointed out to me (on Twitter) that his story in the second volume of Ravenwood: Stepson of Mystery included The Black Bat. I'd added that book to my wish list on Amazon but it was never in stock.

Small wonder! As stated above, it's out of print! But since Aaron Smith is listed among the writers in the Special Edition, then presumably his story from volume two is included in it now instead.

You can purchase Ravenwood from Amazon.com or Createspace.

Beyond "Faces Of Fear"

I almost gave up. Almost. I normally listen to the Airship 27 podcasts right to the delightful closing tune but when it seemed like there would be no Black Bat discussion during episode 18, I came this close to shutting her down at the 53:48 mark. But they were moving on to fan questions, there were only about six minutes left in the show, so I said "what the hell" and finished the show.

Quite glad I did. At the last minute (very nearly literally), Ron Fortier brought us up to date on Faces Of Fear, the team up book with The Purple Scar to be published by Moonstone.  A choppy partial transcript of Fortier's conversation with Rob Davis follows (Fortier is speaking throughout):

You and I have done a book for Joe (Gentile, Moonstone Books) called Faces Of Fear in which The Black Bat teams up with The Purple Scar. 

Well Joe was so happy with that particular novella, which should be out (in) maybe another month...Well, at Windy City this year, Joe and I got to talking and Joe said "Would you and Rob (Davis) consider doing another one of those?"

And I said "'m pretty sure we can fit it in our schedule later, for the start of next year". So I said "Are we talking novella and, you know, Rob's illustrations, and all that stuff?" and he said "Definitely". 

And he turned around and told me this: "I'd love for it to feature The Black Bat and Domino Lady". And I went "Okay... " and he goes "Remember that character that you like so much on radio, Ron?...Could we incorporate that character in the story as well?".

So it's basically going to be two classic pulp heroes and the premiere of this classic radio character in print, in prose, for the first time ever.

So what do we know about this character? Prior to relating the details of that conversation, Fortier explained that the character was an inspiration to Stan Lee for the creation of a specific Marvel character.  The obvious answer would be The Spider but he doesn't meet the criteria of being a prose first-timer.

So I'm a little stumped, but it makes for a fun mystery. And it's encouraging to know that the flow of Black Bat material is not on the verge of stopping for a while.

"Gordon Dymowski on Black Bat Mystery, Vol. 3 and much more!"

Gordon Dymowski contributed "The Magnificent Anderson" to Airship 27's third volume of their Black Bat Mystery series and joined Art Sippo for a chat about that story among many other topics.

Click on the link below to be taken to the First Comics News page from which you can listen to the conversation. The Black Bat content starts at about the seven minute mark or so.

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.

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!

The Black Bat Swoops Into All-Star Pulp Comics #3!

A pleasant surprise turned in the press release announcing All-Star Pulp Comics #3 from Redbud Studio / Airship 27.

Airship 27 Productions in conjunction with Redbud Studios is thrilled to announce the release of ALL STAR PULP COMICS # 3. 

“We’re thrilled to offer up another great collection,” says Airship 27 Managing Editor Ron Fortier, “comic strip adventures of classic pulp heroes. The contents in this third volume is really eclectic representing a wide variety of pulp genres by some of the finest writers and artists in the graphic world.” 

The eight featured stories include : 

“Sinbad and the Isle of Stone”
Scott “Doc” Vaughn   

The Black Bat in “Blind Justice”
Ron Fortier & Eric Johns 

The Purple Scar in “Breaking Point”
Percival Constantine & Carl Yonder  

Lance Star Sky Ranger in “Gods of the Molten Sea”
Bobby Nash & Rock Baker & Jeff Austin  

Mars McCoy Space Ranger in “Crazy Horse”
Mike Baron (with Ron Fortier) & Eric Hurley & Warren Montgomery  

The Crimson Mask in “Killing Rain”
Aaron Smith & David Nehaus  

The Moon Man in “Dance of the Black Flamingo”
Michael Leonard & James Lyle & Greg Keyzer  

The book has a cover by Rob Davis with colors by Warren Montgomery and features the Moon Man battling side-by-side by Lt. Betty 12 from the Mars McCoy Space Ranger pulp series. 

The book is now available from...Amazon.

Several of these stories had been talked about while the book was in production, with no mention of the Black Bat. I'd believed he was not included but there he is, making a clean sweep of a all three ASPC books. Hope it becomes tradition.

It's Here! Airship 27 Releases Black Bat Mystery Volume Three!

Cover by Graham Hill, interior illustrations by Marco Santiago. Available on Amazon.com.

Black Bat Mystery Vol. 3 Back Cover Reveal

The third volume of Airship 27's Black Bat Mystery must be due for release relatively soon since they've revealed its back cover on the Black Bat Facebook group earlier this week.

Now at first glance, it might seem identical to that of volumes one and two, but it actually gives us our first hints as to what to expect in three of the four stories.  Check out the second paragraph.

Speaking of earlier volumes, the first is now available as an audiobook, if that's your thing, through audible.com. Volume Two to come soon, no doubt.

Black Bat Mystery, Audio Version, Coming Soon!

On August 22nd, Airship 27 made the following announcement:

Airship 27 Productions, one of the best known of the New Pulp publishers today, is joining forces with Radio Archives, the leading voice in audiobooks to bring their action/adventure pulp titles to the exciting world of audiobooks.

And today, they posted this on Facebook:

The following Airship 27 titles are now being recorded as audio books by Radio Archives.  

Biker
Black Bat Mystery Volume One
Black Bat Mystery Volume Two
Call of Shadows
Claws of the Golden Dragon
CO Jones - Mobsters & Monsters
Damballa
Ghost Squad - Rise of the Black Legion

Obviously, I'd hoped that The Black Bat would be selected for this treatment but did not really expect it to happen so this is interesting news.

Another Option for a Shootout

Long-time and prolific pulp writer Ron Fortier recently pointed out on his Facebook page that one of his stories was appearing in an anthology book. In doing so, he also drew attention to the fact that a previously-published Black Bat story is now available in a different publication, and in a different format.

Originally included in the 2nd issue of Redbud Studio's Airship 27 Presents: All-Star Pulp Comics (whew...mouthful...), a tale called "Shootout At The Dry Martini" is reprinted in issue number four of Wicked Awesome Tales by Wicked Wolf Comics. That book is available digitally through Comixology as of July 29th.

MONSTER VERSUS MACHINE! THE BLACK BAT STRIKES! THE STARCROSSER GETS AMBUSHED AND AN INMATE RELIVES THE WORST DAY OF HIS LIFE

I wasn't able to find out much about Wicked Wolf, but being that the majority of the stories in the WAT series appear to be written by Todd Jones (including Shootout), I suspect that it is his own publishing platform.

The art is by Lee Oaks and if you want a preview, well...Look up. The art in the banner for this blog is a panel from that story. For a letter-free look, head on over to Lee's blog.

The first issue of All-Star Pulp also included a brief Black Bat story but there is nothing to suggest that it has been, or will be, reissued by Wicked Wolf.

And speaking of All-Star Pulp, while work on a third issue continues, it looks as though The Black Bat will be shut out of this one. The following information was shared on the Redbud's own Facebook group (while I generally detest Facebook, I admit it can be handy for the purpose of staying up to date on these projects).

Heads up pulp and comic fans, we've started work on assembling Airship 27 Productions presents ALL STAR PULP COMICS volume 3. Some of the characters lined up for this issue will be Ki-Gor Jungle Lord, the Crimson Mask, the Moon Man, the Purple Scar and Sinbad the Sailor. 

Ah well. That's only "some" of the characters, not all of them, and the first two issues featured seven stories so there's some space still unaccounted for.

Death Rides The Valkyrie...Right Into Your Kindle Device!

Earlier today, author Andrew Salmon posted on a Pulp Heroes Facebook group about a recent (as in yesterday) addition to his Amazon portfolio.

On the eve of World War Two, Germany's greatest zeppelin, The Valkyrie, is on a good will tour across the US.  

But there's trouble on board and disaster on the horizon if Tony Quinn, the Black Bat, and his crew can't solve the mystery of a stolen jewel in time. 

And why did a reformed thief suddenly commit suicide? Or did he? The clock is ticking and peace hangs in the balance!  

It's murder and mayhem aboard a floating city of yesteryear. The stakes have never been higher for the Black Bat in Death Rides The Valkyrie!

Does any of that sound familiar? It should if you've read the first volume of Airship 21's Black Bat Mystery anthology as it is Mr. Salmon's contribution to that entertaining book.

There are four stories in BBM1 but you can read this one individually as a $0.99 Kindle version. The story's inclusion in BBM1 is acknowledged in the opening credits, though it refers to "an earlier version" which may mean that there are modifications to this stand alone version.

Click on that rather cool cover to blow it up. It is the work of Mike Fyles.

Faces of Fear update in the Airship 27 Podcast

The Airship 27 podcast is presented by pulp veterans Ron Fortier and Rob Davis. Being that both men are working on the Black Bat / Purple Scar book from Moonstone, they don't mind discussing a project from a "competitor".

The Podcast is an hour long and the two discuss upcoming Airship 27 projects (which involve Secret Agent X and Ravenwood, if you happen to be a fan of one or both of those characters) prior to moving on to Faces of Fear at the 27-minute mark or so.

Click on the Airship logo below to listen in. Davis' plans for the interior illustrations sound interesting.

The Bat and The Scar

It looks increasingly like Spider fans' loss are The Black Bat's fans' gain.

Moonstone Books gave The Spider a lot of attention over the past few years but now that they no longer have publishing rights to the character, they appear to be directing their energy towards Black Bat projects.

The Black Bat Facebook page recently made reference to a team-up book between our man and a character named The Purple Scar to be published by Moonstone.  I admit to not being particularly familiar with The Purple Scar so a little research was required.

There were only four stories published during the pulp era featuring this character. Altus Press has reprinted them in one volume.

The Purple Scar is a famous plastic surgeon, Miles Murdock. Dr. Murdoch's brother, a police officer, is murdered and during the attack, acid is poured onto is face causing tremendous damage to his features. His outrage at the brutality of the attack inspires Miles Murdock to create a mask based on his late brother's disfigurement and to fight crime.

Evidently, the fine folks at Airship 27 found The Purple Scar interesting enough to shine the spotlight on him.  They released a four-story anthology (176 pages in total) based on the character this past October and as you can see from the cover below, they made the scar mask far more graphic than that of the original.

How cool is that?  Click here to order the book from Amazon.

The frequency with which The Black Bat is cast into team-ups with characters such as Zorro (in Masks), Domino Lady, Captain Action, etc. is an unexpected treat.  I didn't anticipate that when I became heavily interested in the character. In this case, there appear to be quite a few similarities between Scar and The Black Bat so I'll be curious to see how the creative team (Ron Fortier and Rob Davis) gives each his own voice, so to speak.

Finally, the ASPC Black Bat has arrived!

Late last week, I received the two volumes of the Airship 27 / Redbud Studio All-Star Pulp Comics I'd ordered some time back and read through them this past Saturday.  As expected, the Black Bat content was small, but entertaining nonetheless.

The story in volume one is written by C. William Russette and drawn by Wayne Beeman. The Black Bat's detective skills are on display here as Russette uses the bulk of the few pages he has to show us how the character approaches a mystery.

It's difficult to elaborate without giving anything away.  The book was released in 2011 but who knows how many people may just now be buying it (hell, *I* just did!).  I'll only say that I thought it was well done on that level and leave it at that.

The second's volume takes a broader look at the pulp era.  Many pulp-inspired stories take place in an urban setting but volume two, for the most part, utilizes a number of different locations and eras.  We get jungle tales, air aces, a little Robin Hood...But the big city backdrop returns for "Shootout at the Dry Martini", a Black Bat story by Todd Jones and artist Lee Oaks.

As the title might give away, there is a fair amount of action in these eight pages.  And I find the art completely, appropriately beautiful.  Here are a couple of (non-consecutive and non-lettered) pages.

Scarring around the eyes.  I'm a sucker for the eye scarring.

I believe work is underway for a third volume of All-Star Pulp Comics, though whether The Black Bat will be included is unknown to me.  The only other character to appear in both books (15 stories in total) is Domino Lady so there seems to be some attempt at variety, including some pulp-inspired original creations.  However a page of art by Redbud Studio's Rob Davis recently posted on the Black Bat Facebook group is certain cause for optimism.

Maybe The Black Bat even gets his own book from Redbud?  Let's see what happens.

New Black Bat Material on the Way: Possibly, Eventually and Literally.

After a quiet spell, there has been a bit of news on the Black Bat / Miss Fury front in the last day or two.

Let's start with "possibly", because it's arguably the biggest one. It's not a huge surprise, but it was kind of a long time coming.

Dynamite Entertainment is proud to announce that comic book writer Cullen Bunn (Deadpool, Magneto) will tackle their wide cast of company-owned and licensed pulp heroes in Masks II. Following upon the success of the bestselling 2012 Masks miniseries, Masks II will unite iconic crime-fighters of singular purpose (if not diverse ideologies and techniques) in an epic miniseries event designed to appeal to both longtime fans and fresh newcomers. Dynamite plans to launch Masks II in late 2014. 

"I couldn't be more excited to be working on Masks II," says Bunn. "I've always loved these great classic characters that I will have the privilege of working with, and I'm striving to keep the tone of the pulps that have always been a big inspiration for me. I'll admit, this project is a little intimidating, because I've put together a very ambitious team-up story that readers will have to see to believe!" 

The original Masks series launched in 2012 with industry fanfare, with its #1 issue ranking among the bestselling independent comic books of the year and selling over 70,000 copies. Drawn to the premise by the work of superstar painter Alex Ross, writer Chris Roberson, and artist Dennis Calero, readers thrilled to an adventure that united classic characters like The Shadow, The Spider, The Green Hornet, and Kato against a cadre of corrupt politicians and their fascist police state. Masks II promises to follow the themes established within that first series, but in a way that's perfect for new readers. 

The presence of The Black Bat or Miss Fury's is not guaranteed but you'd think at least the latter would be included.  Neither character had a huge role in the first volume, but Fury has appeared in the Noir mini and had a digital-first mini in addition to her own book.  She seems to have Dynamite's support.

Over to "eventually".  The following wall message appeared on the Black Bat Facebook page yesterday.

Some very exciting Black Bat news on the way, BB fans. Stay tuned.

That page tends to focus on the work done by Airship 27 and Moonstone Books.  We already know about The Black Bat's team up with Domino Lady being prepared for Moonstone.  My guess then (and that's all it is) is that there'll be either a 3rd edition of Black Bat Mystery (and being that the first two are among Airship 27's best sellers, it's kind of a no-brainer) or a comic book specific to him from Redbud Studio.

Which leads me to "literally".  I ordered both volumes of Airship 27 / RedBud Studio' All Star Pulp Comics from IndyPlanet yesterday.  As mentioned in an earlier post, each book has a healthy page count (58 for volume one, 64 for volume two) but also feature several characters from the pulp era.  So the Black Bat content might be kind of light, but I'll enjoy the other stories and save the Bat for last.

I'll display a page or two from those books when they arrive, and I'll gleefully share the news referred to on Facebook when it's made public.  Looking forward to being able to do both!