The Black Bat Archives, Volume 8

The release of the latest collection of Black Bat stories was announced on November 29th. Steeger Books announced nearly 50 books in and around the week of American Thanksgiving, so this one would have been easy to miss in the crowd.

Blinded by a criminal’s acid, D.A. Tony Quinn was reborn as a relentless avenger. An operation not only returned his sight but granted him night vision—a gift he uses to strike from the dark. Assisted by Carol Baldwin, Butch O’Leary, and Silk Kirby, The Black Bat prowls the underworld with ruthless efficiency.

This Volume 8 presents three brutal thrillers by Laurence Donovan and Norman Daniels: “The Seventh Column,” “Millions for a Murderer,” and “Captains of Death”—restored and uncut.

The book can be ordered directly from Steeger Books on this page. 

At Last! The Black Bat Archives, Volume 7

I had completely given up on this. I'd written to Steeger Books a couple of times to ask if there would a seventh volume to their archive series and while they responded in the affirmative at the time, it was so long in coming that I just assumed that the project had been canned.

I believe volume six was released in 2016. Hell, Steeger Books was still named Altus Press at the time. 

In The Black Bat Archives, Volume 7, Anthony Quinn, the blind former District Attorney turned masked crime fighter, faces off against chilling new enemies. In “The Faceless Satan,” Quinn must battle a shadowy criminal mastermind, while “The Murder Prophet” sees the Black Bat racing against time to stop a mysterious figure whose death predictions come true. Finally, in “The Nazi Spy Murders,” Quinn is drawn into an international conspiracy threatening America’s war effort. Packed with intrigue, suspense, and action, this volume brings to life three unforgettable pulp adventures featuring one of the most iconic heroes of the golden age!

Laurence Donovan penned The Murder Prophet in this compilation, while the other two stories are by Bat creator Norman Daniels. All were published in 1942. Of note, Daniels also wrote a story called The Murder Prophet, but that one was only released in 1947.

Coincidentally, Murder Prophet was one of the books included in the digital package I purchased (see November 22nd post) and the one I'd chosen to read next. The style is undeniably different than Daniels' material, but unlike some other "non-Daniels" stories, it has at least avoided errors with the characters' names and major inconsistencies with their personalities. It may turn out to be one of the better Bat tales from someone other than Daniels. 

I'm very eager to get this one on the bookshelf and hope that we don't have another eight year wait for volume eight to become available! Click on the cover to be taken to Steeger's page. 

Digital BBD

Want to read the original Black Bat stories on the cheap? An account named My Books And Magazines on Etsy offers an easy method by which to do so.

17 BBD books, each scanned as a pdf file. The entire issue is scanned, not just the Black Bat material, so you get the various other stories that were included in the original magazine, the art, the advertisements, letters to the editor, the whole deal.

Of course, you also get the occasional page tear, smudge, etc. I haven't come across any such flaw that affects the ability to enjoy the story, however. 

The first book in the collection is The Black Bat Strikes Again, the third in the original series. Sadly, the bundle does not include Brand of The Black Bat, the character's first appearance, but that one should be easy enough to track down in some format or other separately.

The last offering (chronologically) is technically the final Black Bat story as well, entitled Hot, Willing, and Deadly, however I believe that is strictly a Tony Quinn mystery and that he never appears as the Black Bat as such.

Applying that criteria, the final Black Bat story would be The Killer Who Wasn't, and it is included in the collection. 

It should be noted that not counting HW&D, three of the remaining stories were not written by Black Bat creator Norman Daniels. Those tend to be inconsistent with Daniels' work and, in my opinion, of lesser quality. 

All told, this is an excellent, inexpensive way to sample the character's adventures throughout his original publishing period. Have a look around, a great many other pulp novels are offered in the format as well. Click on the image above to be taken to the page in question. 

Die Schwarze Fledermaus: Power-E-Book #1

Blitz Verlag continues to be a great friend to fans of The Black Bat who can read German. They have over 60 of the character's stories published currently, mixing of the Black Book Detective classics with some newer material, and eight more on the way next April.

While checking out their website for news, I also came upon the cover below. 

As the top banner explains, this is a compilation of four Black Bat stories, but available in e-book format only. It collects the first four that Blitz-Verlag published as a series. Those include BBD originals Brand of The Black Bat, Murder Calls The Black Bat, and The Black Bat Strikes Again, as well as a recent tale by Angelika Schroder called "Ein Harmloser Fall". I believe Schroder's story was first published in 2014.

The art is by Mario Heyer, a frequent contributor to Blitz's cover art, and the book can be purchased from Amazon.

O Morcego Negro

The image below was among the results of a search for "Black Bat" on flickr.com, of all places. Hoping to perhaps come upon someone sharing pulp-related art, I was instead rewarded with an early 1950s cover to a Brazilian publication spotlighting the Black Bat. Clicking on the image will take you to the page on which it was found.

The poster, going only by Komic-Kazi, has an album specific to that publication. All images appear to have been added during the second half of 2022.

I've tracked down the following information from Komic-Kazi's Facebook page.

Komic Kazi International has been involved in archiving and researching international comics and art on a scale not seen before.

Founded by Mr. Ott and assisted by his sons, Skye, Stefan, and Shawn this family owned and run operation has been collecting vintage comic books and comic art for over 50 years.

Their total collection includes over 125,000+ rare international issues and thousands of pieces of original published comic book art from across the globe. Both the rarity and high state of condition of their holdings cannot be overstated.

I know nothing about X-9 Magazine specifically but Komic-Kazi's displays helps a great deal.

At a glance, the ones featuring the Black Bat seem to range in publication date from 1942 to 1958. Many of the covers are near-replicas of the Black Book Detective ones and the titles, translated from the Portuguese, would also suggest that most stories are reprints of the original material.

Neither of those two criteria apply to the cover displayed above, however, unless "Simpson's Curse" is an original story under a different name. Either one of the great many German stories was translated into Portuguese instead or, much like the German novels, publisher O Globo also put out a few original tales of their own. 

The most recent update to the album was Christmas day. Hopefully Komic-Kazi has more to share. This has been a fun find.

Bud's Closeout Sale!

Bud's Art Books website has a Closeout Sale section to which I'd like to draw people's attention. The Sanctum Books Black Bat reprint material has been on sale there for some time and continue to be as I write this, along with many others including The Phantom, The Shadow, The Avenger, The Phantom Detective and Doc Savage. Check that out here. 

I took advantage of the sale and snatched two books that I might have otherwise waited on. The first was Gentlemen Prefer Domino Lady from Moonstone Books. I had planned on ordering it when Moonstone's June 2022 Triple Threat issue became available, but I couldn't pass up Bud's sale.

I was aware of a Black Bat guest-appearance in one of the stories in this anthology. What I did not know was that the story in question is Kill The Lady Goodbye by Taylor Grant.

That story has been available for download for some time on Amazon. I purchased it shortly after its release in 2017.

I admit to being initially somewhat disappointed at not getting new Black Bat material, but I'm pleased that I have this one in print format now, and a bunch of Domino Lady stories to get into. I believe every story has a guest appearance from characters such as the Phantom Detective, the Woman in Red, and Ravenwood.

The other acquisition was the fifth issue of Sanctum's Black Bat reprint series. 

I've added Market of Treason to the Recommended Reading page. It's notable for being the book in which the Black Bat sheds his cape but is entertaining regardless of that milestone moment.

The rest of the team is heavily involved, particularly Butch, which isn't always the case. McGrath can be said to score a rare win in his rivalry with Anthony Quinn as well. A one-sided rivalry is no rivalry at all, so you can't help but be a little happy for him.

And we get to meet his wife again! In reviewing a past issue, I mentioned that Mrs. McGrath had a few lines and how that came as a surprise, as she so often seemed to be out of town or otherwise unavailable when a scene takes place at McGrath's house.

That book was from 1948 while Markets of Treason was published in winter of 1944. I was unaware that we'd heard from Mrs. McGrath so much earlier. It tickles me that she is given the first name of Mary in Markets of Treason while Lieutenant/Captain McGrath (rank depends on story) is never given one throughout the entire series.

Something else caught my eye. In a scene in which someone sees Tony Quinn for the first time, Quinn is said to look about 30 years of age. This is as specific as I've ever seen Quinn's age referred to. He is usually described as a being unusually young for a district attorney when he was attacked and lost his sight. That would put him in his mid-20's in 1939. Seems to fit.

Since much of the story was described on the Recommended Reading page, there's no sense in rehashing the rest of the information here. I instead want to point out that I love Sanctum's format for these books.

They are slightly wider than your standard DC/Marvel graphic novel. Perhaps it's a result of reading the original, faded, yellowed material of late, but I found the text and image restoration very clear.

This applies to the Mask comic strip. I'd seen a few of those in the past and I figured they would be tough to reproduce but Sanctum did a good job of it.

There were a number of typos, it needs to be said, but I found those in the original Black Book Detective as well. It doesn't ruin the experience or story clarity. I enjoyed the additional essay providing historical background on the two Bat stories as well.

It's been quite some time since Sanctum reprinted Black Bat stories. They stopped after nine issues (a tenth was solicited, I believe, but never released).

I doubt that they'll resume doing so any time soon but if they do I'll now be more likely to purchase it. The only thing preventing me in the past was that I'd already acquired the material in some other format. But if you are new to the character and want to sample his stories, I would very much recommend these books as a means to do so.

The Dangerous Corpse

There has been very little news involving the Black Bat of late so I've directed a little time towards updating some of the pages at the top of the blog.

The "Reprint Resource" page now includes a publisher named Mystery House. Or rather, Mystery House is an imprint of Fiction house.

Fiction House has reprinted three of the character's early stories, oddly enough three stories that have already been reprinted (though perhaps FH released theirs first, I'm not certain). It appears as though the three were released in 2014, presumably as a result of the character getting some exposure from the Dynamite Entertainment series.

Also, the "Blitz" page has been updated to display covers and rough synopses of that German publisher's upcoming reprints. In May, they will release volumes 19-22. Must be in nice, in North America, we appear to be stuck at #18 with Altus Press.

Finally, there are been small corrections and additions to both the Black Book Detective and Fledermaus pages. And speaking of BBD...

I took the time to read The Dangerous Corpse again, one of the last Black Bat stories published (spring 1951).

When I read The Killer Who Wasn't (the issue following this one), I thought it would have made a great conclusion to the series. That description may be even more applicable to this story.

There are a couple of references to how long this group has been in the crime-fighting business. McGrath, early in the story, mentions that he's gotten old for the job. Carol, referring to a prank played on McGrath, confirms that they've been hiding Anthony Quinn's secret for at least ten years. And we get a "as long as there is villainy, team Bat will be there" kind of speech at the end. Again, it may be just me projecting, but it sounded like the series was winding down. If we were referring to a film, credits would roll.

As for the story itself, it's a decent enough mystery. A young lady is making her way to various businesses around a city neighborhood looking for someone named Whitey. When she returns to her rented room, a man is waiting for her inside. In a fit of anger, he strangles her to death and runs off. The people she spoke to earlier in the day are also targeted so many questions are raised around her identity, who Whitey is, why she sought him, the motive for the assault on her, etc. Being that she is young and clearly in need of help, Norman A. Daniels created a compelling victim for his story.

There is another unique (or at least rare) aspect; someone else has concluded that Anthony Quinn is the Black Bat and attempts to expose him. It makes for a nice change from McGrath trying to do so.

This was a pleasant read. The early Black Bat stories often feature large-scale organized crime, Nazis and/or flamboyant villains. These final couple of stories were far more down-to-earth and the variety was appreciated.

Update on Sanctum's Black Bat Reprints

A week ago, Sanctum Books' Anthony Tollin commented on a discussion about tardiness with the publisher's Spider reprints. He included The Black Bat in his response. I've copied most of it below, adding only paragraph breaks and removing a portion about recent health issues.

BLACK BAT #10 is completed and WILL soon be resolicited. Sales and income are down, and THE SPIDER and THE BLACK BAT simply were not selling well enough to justify their continuation (at least not with the added cost of the bonus Sanctum Books extras). It costs a lot of $$$ to include all the extra features and articles that are part of the Sanctum Book format, but those extras don't appear to pump up sales at all, at least not on SPIDER and BLACK BAT.  

Altus, like most other pulp reprint companies, relies on print-on-demand printing, while Sanctum has always gone exclusively with actual print runs and real warehoused first printing inventories. Hopefully, Altus will be able to make a go of THE SPIDER and BLACK BAT with the lessor print-on-demand advance overhead.  

Also, THE SPIDER and THE BLACK BAT took much more time editorially and production-wise to produce than THE SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE, and I recently had to concede that I was sabotaging/delaying several important upcoming book projects (including THE SHADOW newspaper strip collection and the revised, expanded color edition of THE SHADOW SCRAPBOOK) by devoting so much time to two time-consuming ongoing series that were not producing an actual profit. Things would have been different if THE SPIDER and BLACK BAT could have sold just a couple hundred more copies per issue, but they simply didn't.

Probably nothing that shocks anyone but it's still good to hear it from the dachshund's mouth, if I may alter the expression to refer to another interest Mr. Tollin and I share.

Last we'd heard, the books were going to come out annually. Now we're not sure if there will be an 11th issue. Too bad, but business is business.

Bummer News From Bud

I have a Google alert set up so that whenever "The Black Bat" appears in the news, in articles, etc., I receive an e-mail notification.

That often means that I am made aware of a baseball/cricket player using a black bat, pro wrestler Sting making an appearance somewhere, Jack White's Black Bat Licorice song, the horrid black bat flower and a variety of other subjects that have nothing at all to do with Anthony Quinn, masked nemesis of crime. But today's alert did, and the news wasn't good.

I was directed to Bud's Art Books website. Bud sells...well...books, including the Sanctum reprints of the Black Bat stories from Black Book Detective.

Since I was there anyway, I looked to see if anything new had been added of late. I had read some time ago that Sanctum's 10th issue of The Black Bat was scheduled for this month. #9 had only recently been released so that seemed unlikely. Hopefully Bud would set me straight as to #10's release date.

Alas, Bud did so but indirectly. He included the following information with the description of #9.

Publication note: I spoke with publisher Anthony Tollin in October 2017 and was told that this series and The Spider will now appear on an annual basis, which may help explain the long wait between last issue and this one.

Blargh. Altus Press releases have slowed to a crawl and now this. Collecting the classics is turning into a chore.

But let's not shoot the messenger with twin .45s. Between the quality of preview images (see below) and his own description of the product, Bud does a great job selling these and his shipping charges are the best I've seen. I might just give him a little business soon even if he ruined my evening. ;-)

We Are Experiencing A Lull

Aside from Lucky Comics, it seems that publication of Black Bat material has ground to a halt for the time being. Probably the most we can hope for, at least early in the new year, are more reprints of original tales from the 1940s from Altus Press and/or Adventure House.

I was using the free time that was thrust upon me to add to the Pabel Fledermaus cover collection.  With several hundred Black Bat stories published in Germany, that's a task I may never live to see fulfilled to my expectation. But while searching out more covers from that series, I found out that the Black Bat caught on to some degree in other parts of the world as well.

From what I've been able to uncover, DetektivMagasinet was published in Norway between 1928 and 1966. It included a few Black Bat stories, under the name Svarta Pantern, but did not embrace the character to the degree that Pabel Kriminalroman did when they made the character their leading feature.

Somewhat oddly, Svarta Pantern actually translates to Black Panther, not Black Bat, so I am slightly curious as to how the translation handled references to the character's appearance, specifically the ribbed cape made to look like bat wings.

And the pretense of being blind was so much more appropriate to a bat-themed character. It seems like deviating from that causes more problems than it solves.

In any event, I'm going to attempt to record which stories were reprinted and when. Finding covers to display may be more problematic but as you can see from the example at left, they tend to be knock offs (and poor ones, at that) of the original Black Book Detective covers anyway so that may not be much of a loss. As far as I can tell, the story Murder Among The Dying was the first to be reprinted, in 1947.

The Black Bat also had a presence in Sweden, it would seem.

Nyckel-Bockerna ran from 1934 to 1970 or so. In its final years, it tended to publish Westerns more so than pulp detective stories but for some time it did reprint original Black Bat tales.

As you can see from the cover at right, like DetektivMagasinet, Nyckel also duplicated the original Black Book Detective covers (rather poorly, mind you) and credited G. Wayman Jones. It also inexplicably used the Black Panther name.

The more I write that the less I get it. That's like taking Spider-Man and and naming him The Red Mouse.

But whatever. I shall track down some info about these as well. In order to make room, I've combined Dynamite's Masks series covers and the Black Bat 12-issue series pages into one and I will create a new page specific to Norway/Sweden reprints and whatever graphics I can find.

Hopefully that gets me through this dead zone and we can have new Black Bat material to look forward to.

Black Bat Omnibus Volume Three Now In E-Book Format

Are e-books your thing? If so, you're the target market for one of Altus Press' most recent releases, announced last week.

The Black Bat returns! This collection contains the next three adventures of the Black Bat: “The Black Bat’s Flame Trail,” “The Black Bat’s Triumph,” and “The Black Bat and the Trojan Horse,” uncut and restored. It’s the next volume of the complete reprinting of the series.

By purchasing them at altuspress.com for $4.99, you'll receive a .zip file containing both .mobi (for Kindle devices) and .epub versions (for IPhones, IPads and Nook devices.

The print versions are at volume 6 but I suspect 7 is on the way soon.

Two More Sanctum Reprints Coming Soon!

Good to see The Black Bat still in Sanctum's plans! It seems like forever since I'd heard about one of their reprints being released but that seems to be simply because I missed the announcement.

Volumes 9 and 10 continue to follow the format of previous volumes; two stories and a comic reprint. There's a twist though, when you get to the solicitation text to #10. Read on:

The Nemesis of Crime returns in classic pulp novels by Norman A. Daniels writing as "G. Wayman Jones."

First, the Masked Avenger of Crime rips aside the veil of secrecy that shrouds a mob leader’s murderous activities in “The Black Bat’s Invisible Enemy.”   

Then, the Black Bat pursues “The Voice of Doom," a human scourge who attacks the underworld and upperworld alike!

GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS BONUS: The Mask returns in another illustrated adventure from Nedor's EXCITING COMICS! This instant collector's item showcases the original cover paintings by Rudolph Belarski and interior illustrations by V. E. Pyles, with historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin.

The above volume is expected to be available next month, and I've been able to track down a release date of November 29th for volume 10.

The Nemesis of Crime returns in classic pulp novels by Norman A. Daniels writing as "G. Wayman Jones."

First, the Black Bat risks his own eyes to aid victims deprived of their sight in “The Eyes of the Blind.”

Then, Tony Quinn battles a monstrous killer as “The Blackout Murders" panic the nation!

GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS BONUS: The origin of the Black Terror from Nedor's EXCITING COMICS #9 by Richard Hughes and David Gabrielsen! 

This instant collector's item showcases the original covers and interior illustrations by V. E. Pyles, with historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin.

The Black Terror? I know there are only so many stories of The Mask to reprint, but what does Black Terror have to do with anything? Now I'll be curious to know who they feature next. Green Lama? Miss Masque?

Not that The Black Bat and The Black Terror wouldn't make a good team, mind you...Get on that, Dynamite!

The Germans Always Make Good Stuff

Black Bat material might be hard to come by in North America these days, but the Germans are about to be treated to another batch of books by Blitz-Verlag. Volumes 10, 11 and 12 of their paperback series are currently available for pre-order on their website.

These appear to be reprints of the original material from the late 30s to the early 50s. I believe the books are The Black Bat's Triumph, The Black Bat And The Trojan Horse and The Black Bat's Dragon Trail, based on Google Translate's rough translations of the titles. Those came out consecutively in the early 40s.

So Blitz is among the chronological original material reprinting scene and they are using updated versions of covers from the first German series for their current releases.  Example below.

The artist for those covers, by the way, was the extremely prolific Rudolf Sieber-Lonati. He was responsible for a ridiculous amount of cover art for crime and fantasy books from the 50s to the 80s but I believe he was best known for his science fiction work.

In any event, researching him specifically led me to a boatload of Fledermaus covers I still had not found, though they are of small size and/or of poor quality. I might have a little work to do there but the collection is becoming quite complete.  Here are a couple that struck me as being particularly eye-grabbing.

Shipping in June from Sanctum Books: The Black Bat, Volume 8!

The Nemesis of Crime returns in classic pulp novels by THE SPIDER’s Norvell Page and Norman A. Daniels writing as "G. Wayman Jones." 

First, the Masked Avenger of Crime fights to save a city from sinister looters, pitting himself against evil murderers with blank faces in “The Black Bat’s Summons.” 

Then, a Master Hypnotist materializes the Grim Reaper in his audience, hurling Tony Quinn into the bizarre mystery of “The White Witch." 

GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS BONUS: The Mask returns in an illustrated adventure by Kin Platt from Nedor's EXCITING COMICS plus the origin of Super-Mouse, the ONLY non-DC Golden Age superhero to continue into the Silver Age! 

This instant collector's item showcases a knockout voodoo cover by Rudolph Belarski and interior illustrations by V. E. Pyles, with historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin. 

(Sanctum Books) 978-1-60877-231-5 Softcover, 7x10, 112 pages, B&W, $14.95

Another New Page: Reprint Resource

When Sanctum Books began reprinting the original Black Bat stories from Black Book Detective, someone commenting on the announcement on Facebook said something along the lines of "why those stories?"

My initial interpretation of that comment was the poster thought the stories sucked but in clarifying later, he explained that those stories had already been reprinted plenty of times and are still accessible now, so why bother?

Fair point. To that end, I've completed a little project that I've been meaning to get to for some time; a page to assist those looking for the original stories.

The "Reprint Resource" page is at the top right, just under the banner. For now it includes the three publishers (that I'm aware of) actively reproducing the material, being Altus Press, Adventure House and Sanctum Books.

It was a fun exercise and I learned a few things while doing it.

• I was surprised to find that aside from the Brand Of The Black Bat origin, no other story has been reprinted by all three publishers. It's just a matter of time until that changes, however, as each continues to add to its respective catalog. Still, I expected a bit more overlap.
• There are two stories called The Murder Prophet. I don't know how the hell I didn't pick up on this before since both covers are on the Black Book Detective page. The first, from 1942, was not written by Black Bat creator and primary author Norman Daniels but the second, from 1947, was. At first I wondered if the earlier story had simply been used a second time but evidently not. Judging from the brief synopsis in The Black Bat Companion, they are vastly different tales with an identical title. Strange.
• While it may seem like the majority of the Black Book Detective stories have been reprinted, these three publishers combine for about half of them. The last dozen or so have yet to be made available.

For now we'll focus on these three publishers and ignore prior attempts that are only available on ebay and such. So if you want to collect the stories in original order of release, or as quickly as possible, or with a certain type of additional material included, that page should assist you in building a strategy to do so.

Volume Seven of Sanctum Press' Black Bat Reprints Coming Soon!

There seems to be a trend built where whenever an Altus Black Bat omnibus volume is announced, it is followed by a Sanctum book reprint shortly thereafter. It is no doubt coincidental, but Altus made volume six of their reprint series available last last week, and now volume seven of Sanctum's is at the printing stage.

The Nemesis of Crime returns in classic pulp novels by Norman A. Daniels writing as "G. Wayman Jones."

First, when murder pays off in millions, "The Black Bat's Justice" snarls a corrupt killer's ingenious web of doom! Then, Tony Quinn follows the trail of Soviet saboteurs who seek to undermine America's defense effort in "The Black Bat and the Red Menace."

GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS BONUS: The Mask returns in TWO illustrated adventures by Kin Platt from Nedor's EXCITING COMICS.

This instant collector's item showcases the classic color pulp covers and original interior illustrations by V. E. Pyles, with historical commentary by Will Murray and Anthony Tollin.

An exact release date has yet to be announced, however.

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.

Coming this fall from Altus Press: The Black Bat Omnibus Volume 6

Altus continues to keep its promise of a quicker release schedule for the Black Bat Omnibus.

Pulp hero the Black Bat returns! This collection contains the next three adventures of the Black Bat: “The Eyes of the Blind,” “The Blackout Murders,” and “Shadow of evil,” uncut and restored with the original illustrations. It’s the next volume of the complete reprinting of the series.

So the 16th through 18th stories of the series, all written by Norman A. Daniels this time. I'll provide an exact date when one is made available.

Sanctum Books' Black Bat Volume 6 Scheduled for Late September!

First seen on the Pulp Coming Attractions Facebook group.

Anthony Tollin's Sanctum Books 

Coming to online retailers in late August/early September!
Coming to comic shops September 28! 

THE BLACK BAT VOLUME 6:  

"The Black Bat and the Trojan Horse" & "The Black Bat's Dragon Trail" 

The Nemesis of Crime returns in classic 1940 pulp novels by Norman A. Daniels and The Spider's Norvell Page. 

First, murderous foreign agents make a deadly attack on America's prewar defenses in "The Black Bat and the Trojan Horse," an action-packed thriller edited by future Batman editor Mort Weisinger!

Then, the Scourge of the Underworld foils the Dragon Master's nefarious plans in "The Black Bat's Dragon Trail," as Tony Quinn attempts to prevent the exploitation of China by a war profiteer!

Plus, the Mask returns in a Golden Age classic from Nedor's Exciting Comics #6.

Softcover, 7x10, 128 pages, B&W, $14.95.

These are stories number nine and ten in publishing order.

Next Black Bat Omnibus Volume Premiering at Pulpfest 2016!

This news from Altus Press nearly slid by me. Luckily, reading virtually every Black Bat story that is immediately available has sharpened my detective skills to the level or a razor blade.

Altus Press Books Premiering at Pulpfest 2016. 

Altus Press is pleased to announce its summer 2016 releases, all of which will premiere at Pulpfest. They’ll be available exclusively at the Mike Chomko, Books, table.

And among them...

The Black Bat Omnibus Volume 5 

by Norvell W. Page and Norman A. Daniels 

Pulp hero the Black Bat returns! This collection contains the next three adventures of the Black Bat: “The Black Bat’s Summons,” “The Black Bat’s Invisible Enemy,” and “The Voice of Doom,” uncut and restored with the original illustrations. Featuring a story by long-time Spider author, Norvell W. Page, it’s the next volume of the complete reprinting of the series. 

339 pages | $19.95 softcover | $29.95 hardcover

Awesome. Pulpfest runs from July 21st to 24th in Columbus, Ohio.  No doubt the book will be available for order by mail right around that time.

The full list of release is included in this press release.  Quite a variety if you're a pulp fan.