The Black Bat On Film.

I came across the following comment on Twitter a few weeks ago.

I was a little thrown at first. While the image used was clearly not specific to the film, the reference to a 30s comic book made me believe that Mr. Eastwood and I weren't thinking about the same Black Bat. But I asked and, evidently, we were.

So if it does come to pass it's still far on the horizon but it may be worth keeping an eye on Orlando Eastwood Films regardless.

Now this wouldn't be the first time that The Black Bat has found his way onto screens. Are you familiar with Rise Of The Black Bat?

If you are, then you have my sympathies. This film made me wish I was blind.

And I wanted to like it, obviously. It's my favourite pulp character in a film shot in my home town. I'd met the guy playing the Black Bat; he worked (perhaps still does) at a comics store on Bank Street in Ottawa. Good lad.

But sadly not a good movie, even taking into account budget restraints. I admit that I didn't finish it and for that reason won't pile on with yet another nasty review. You can Google search those quite easily.  I will just say that while some movies are so bad that they are entertaining, I don't believe this one fits that description.

So the bar is set quite low for Eastwood. I wish them all the best, I would love to have a quality film to add to my Black Bat collection.

The Black Bat Part of Pro Se's LEGACY Imprint

Pro Se Productions sent out the press release below earlier today. It wasn't Black Bat specific, I was just stoked to The Black Bat mentioned as one of the "taken" characters.

But first, let's look back at an earlier (and abbreviated) release. It's from April 21st, to be specific.

Known for breathing new life into classic characters from Pulp Fiction, both licensed and in the public domain, Pro Se takes a step into an exciting new avenue for stories, utilizing Pulp characters in the Public Domain in ways to bring them into the modern era, telling tales using the archetypes from yesterday so many know to tell relevant stories set today. Using, at least initially, only Pulp characters in the Public Domain, Pro Se’s LEGACY imprint will be telling these tales. 

... 

The characters utilized in LEGACY works can be written in two ways-either as updates of the original character and his/her supporting cast OR as a character inheriting a legacy left to him or her by the original character. For this, research will be required. If writers cannot acquire the original works, various resources with information exist on the internet and/or a request can be made of Pro Se Productions at submissions@prose-press.com to provide links. 

... 

The first LEGACY volume set for release in late 2017 will be THE PHANTOM DETECTIVE: IGNITION by B. Chris Bell.

And more specific to our masked nemesis of crime...

PRO SE'S NEWLY ANNOUNCED 'LEGACY' IMPRINT HAS ONLY TWO OPENINGS LEFT FOR FIRST YEAR! 

...LEGACY is an imprint that will feature only digest novels (30 thousand words) or full length novels. The lead characters in these works MUST have originated in Pulp Magazines, circa 1896-1954 and MUST currently be in the Public Domain... 

Pro Se Productions opened the LEGACY imprint with the intent to fill 12 slots, enough to produce a book a month beginning in July 2017. When these slots are filled, new proposals will not be take in this imprint until at least January 2018 to fill the second year. As of this announcement, only two of the original twelve slots remain. 

Once an author makes a submission and that submission is accepted, then the character featured in that submission 'belongs' to that author, at least through the publication of the accepted work, if not longer. The update versions of the following characters are now a part of the LEGACY imprint and are off limits for further submissions at this time- 

Dan Fowler, G-Man
The Thunderbolt
Major Lacy and Amusement, Inc.
Secret Agent X
Domino Lady
The Black Bat
The Griffon
Ravenwood, Stepson of Mystery
The Phantom Detective
Dr. Satan

So I guess this means we get new Black Bat material from Pro Se some time between August 2017 and...May 2018! I'm sure the time will just fly by. ;-)

This isn't Pro Se's first go at the character. He was also included in the second of their two-part Sons of Thor story.

Early Look at Lucky Comics' FCBD Offering

The following image was recently shared with Lucky Comics fans on the publisher's new Facebook group.

It is the work of Lucky Comics regular Eric Douthitt and is an in-progress page for Lucky's Free Comic Book Day offering this year. The issue will follow Lucky's eight-page format with four being dedicated to The Black Bat and the other four to Beetle Girl.

At around the same time, the second issue of Black Bat Tales should become available and hopefully the Pulp Legends prose anthology will follow as planned.

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.

BG11 Available Now, BBT2 on Monday!

Lucky Comics' Beetle Girl #11, discussed in the previous post, showed up on Drive Thru Comics earlier today. It was originally believed that it would be available only in early April so the early release was a pleasant (and extremely rare) surprise.

The 8-page format that Lucky uses has very much grown on me. More along the lines of the golden/silver age material, Lucky's books pack a lot on a page, unlike most of today's books which commit three pages to show two dudes shaking hands or ordering coffee. At $0.75, they're not too hard on your comics budget and it's a good deal on a per-page basis, if you feel the need to analyze it to that degree.

And since we're talking finances, I've never been one to collect variant or rare covers. Never saw the point of buying the same content multiple times for what amounts to a single different page no matter how attractive the rare cover might be.

But for smaller, inexpensive books...Why not? The following cover was shared with me earlier this week (and has since been added to the Lucky Comics page above).

I didn't know if it was done with some degree of confidentiality so I didn't include it here right away, but my understanding is that the book is coming out early next week and a smaller version appears on Lucky's website blog now. I doubt I'm spoiling some big reveal then.

I quite dig this Marcelo Salaza work but I also liked the first cover that was made public. It is my understanding that the book will be available with either one, so I'll get both. One goes in the read pile, the other goes up on my wall. "Problem" solved.

As to the Beetle Girl issue, Lucky might have landed their finest artist yet (I say this without having read their entire catalog, mind you). Geanes Holland seems like a very good fit for the book.

Also, I enjoyed having the Black Bat butt heads with The Shadow in regards to methodology in the first Masks volume from Dynamite Entertainment a couple of years back. Something similar happens here, yet the Black Bat is on the opposite of the argument, interestingly enough.

The Black Bat appears in at least one more future issue of Beetle Girl and to the best of my knowledge, Black Bat Tales is meant to be an ongoing series. So it seems that Lucky Comics has become our proverbial "Bat channel" for the moment.

The Bat Prowls, Part 2 - Coming Soon in Lucky Comics' Beetle Girl!

When Lucky Comics announced in issue #9 of Beetle Girl that the Black Bat would guest-star in three issues, I incorrectly assumed that they would be consecutive.  That is not the case, since he was nowhere to be found in issue #10, but he returns in a big way for issue #11 in early April.

Art by Geanes Holland
Colours by Federico Pepito Sioc Jr.

Taking into account the Black Bat Tales series and the upcoming pulp classics prose book in which the character will appear, Lucky might well become our most regular and reliable source of new Black Bat material.

Airship 27 throws down an anthology every couple of years but has been quiet on that front since the third volume was released in late 2015. Moonstone's offerings are constantly months (sometimes years) late and Dynamite appears to have forgotten about the character altogether.

So don't be surprised if Lucky Comics gets mentioned here relatively frequently in the coming months. It's clear they have a vision, a plan and enthusiasm for the character.

The Black Bat in Behind The Mask, Volume 2

Coming soon from Fading Shadows. Contains four stories: Satan’s Minions, a Phantom Detective story, The Star of Africa, a Funny Face story, Guns of Vengeance featuring The Black Bat, and Seven Men of Greed featuring The Man In Purple. Kindle edition only for now.

Guns Of Vengeance guest-stars The Phantom Detective and his entourage.

Coming Later This Month: Black Bat Tales #2!

The first issue of Black Bat Tales from Lucky Comics came out late last summer and the second is now close enough to release that the publisher is comfortable with promoting it on social media.

The original plan was for this issue to feature a short story (prose) by Lou Mougin. That has since changed and we are getting another comics story while Mougin's tale is being saved for a book called Pulp Legends. Presumably we are getting the 1930s version as opposed to the current-day Bat character that guest-starred in Lucky's Beetle Girl title recently.

Speaking of Beetle Girl, some time back Lucky Comics announced a book called Girl Commandos which would team that character with Flame Girl and Miss Fury. That book should come out at around the same time as BBT2 and its cover was recently revealed as well. Looks sharp.

The Black Bat's appearance in Beetle Girl was drawn by one Saulo Silva. I stumbled into Mr. Silva's Facebook page this weekend and found the sketch below which teams The Bat and Beetle Girl with, I believe, a Brazilian superhero.

At first glance, I couldn't help but wonder if Lucky hadn't created its own "trinity" to match DC's Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman team. I guess we'll find out before too long if Lucky Comics has something along those lines brewing.

Digital and print versions of the Lucky line of comics are available from Indyplanet.

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

Ladies And Gentlemen, Carol...Quinn!

Several of the Black Bat stories published in Germany included "extras" such as a blueprint of stately Quinn manor and character sketches.

I believe the one below, of the now married Carol Baldwin, was the back cover to one of the books and displayed during a sale on ebay.

I was going to comment that she looked a bit older than I'd imagined her to be but then if Anthony Quinn and Carol Baldwin got married, it would be at the tail end of their crime-fighting careers. So in fact her appearance is probably quite appropriate.

Very nice. Hope to stumble into quality images of the rest of the cast at some point as well.