Pulptober

Canadian artist Scott Chantler issued a fun challenge on his Instagram account at the end of last month, to run throughout October.

Each day, fellow artist were tasked with presenting their takes on the following classis pulp characters. Yay to Scott for including The Black Bat at #15.

I have yet to find my way through all the results, but among those I've seen, the work of Scott Brian Woods below was a personal favourite. 

And below we have Mr. Chantler's own contribution for that day. 

I'm about to go on a little Black Bat art hunt then! If you're inclined to do the same, or to see the various interpretations of the other characters on the list, simply search the pulptober hashtag on Instagram.

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.

The Black Bat: God Complex, from Leviathan Labs

Any discovery of a Black Bat project is cause for excitement, but there are always questions about how faithful it is to the original source material and will be in the future.

The comic book below was found by chance while looking for cover art to German publisher Blitz-Verlag's reprints of the original Black Bat stories. It appears to have been released this past spring, by Italian publisher Leviathan Labs, with the second issue scheduled for early next month.

The solicitation text under the cover image went through the Google Translate grinder, so do not blame writer Niccolo Testi if it's a little clunky. 

Like pitch black, evil and corruption roam the filthy streets and the most oppressive alleys. It is in these places that Black Bat finds (his) origin, between madness and gunpowder, among hardened and corrupt criminals of all sorts. The city, like a sleeping Leviathan, lies beneath him, under the buildings and neon lights that accompany the disturbances and violence that will follow the black bat.

From what I've been able to piece together, the character's stories are set in a modern-day superhero universe. He is a former criminal turned vigilante following the death of his wife. I see no indication of heightened senses as a result of a period of blindness or any such, at least not from my limited exposure to the first issue so far.

Then very little remains of the original character, even though there's no question that this Black Bat was based on the 1940s version by Norman Daniels. That is made quite clear on Leviathan's social media accounts and mentioned in the book. Nevertheless, the book does look quite good so I'll support it and see where it goes.

While I prepare to do some translating, here's a look at the cover for the second issue, as well as some interior art by Gabriele Schiavoni. 

Don't Be Fooled!

Maybe you're fortunate enough to have never watched Rise of The Black Bat. I can assure you that the recently-found image below makes it look like a far, far better film than it is. 

My hopes that a new version of the film (or a new one altogether) was in production were dashed against the rocks rather quickly. Further inspection revealed that this is actually the background image used for the original 2012 movie's Amazon Prime Video presentation.

Rise of The Black Bat is currently sitting at a rating of 1.3 out of 10 on IMDB, and that is assisted by the occasional reviewer grading it a 10 as a cinematic masterpiece or some such. It's difficult to determine if those reviewers are supportive friends/family of the cast/crew, being sarcastic, or suffered a number of concussions in the past.

Whatever the cause, do not let the "repackaging" of this film con you into watching it and directing you towards a downward spiral of self-loathing by emphasizing your inability to make sound decisions. Just...Don't.

Black Bat GN Cover

 A recent Instagram post by artist Mike Belcher confirms that AMK Comics' Black Bat graphic Novel is still...well...it hasn't been completely set aside. 

I didn't include the image here upon first seeing it on IG last week because I thought I'd done so in the past. After inspection, it appears I was remembering a different one and this was indeed a new reveal by Mr. Belcher. Very good, we'll keep an eye out for more. 

The Bat, Volume 1

Well, ain't that something? Only a few days after stating that a Lucky Comics compilation of its three 8-page The Bat books didn't appear to be on the horizon, there it is on Amazon.

The Bat Volume I

The Golden Age Black Bat's legend continues with the Adventures of Michael Quinn --The Bat!

A string of murders in Hill Top City leaves only one credible suspect: The Bat! Can Detective Kelly and Cyber Jane uncover the truth behind the crime spree or will the mysterious caped vigilante rule the streets? 

Collects The Bat 1-3 (24 pages)

Words John Michael Helmer and Dan Solano

Art by Dan Solano

Edited by Michael Waggoner

I tracked it down by searching for Lucky Comics on Amazon, then selecting John Michael Helmer as an author from the write-up for one of the anthology books. Trimming down the search results this way helped a great deal.

It would be easy to take a wrong turn here, however. There's a separate author named Michael Helmer as well and Amazon seems to be confusing the two, so make sure you select the "John Michael" version.

The book is also available on drive-thru, as usual. You can take advantage of that option at this link. 

It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to enjoy a (Black) Bat comic book! Looking forward to its arrival!

The Lucky Comics Anthology Books

Let's see...

• Four issues of Black Bat Tales
• Two guest-starring roles in Beetle Girl 
• One Free Comic Book Day feature
• One appearance in Dixie Squad
• One spotlight in Pulp Legends
• One story in Unknown Tales
• Three books of his own "The Bat" series

By my math, that's 13 times the Black Bat has shown up in a Lucky Comics series, whether we refer to a version of the character set in the present, or to a more traditional one set in the 1920s or 1930s.

This past fall, Lucky Comics made a number of their stories available on Amazon in an anthology format and the Black Bat has found his way into a couple of the more recent issues. The first of these is issue #9. 

He is displayed on the cover but the material in which he's included is actually one of his guest appearances rather than from one of his own titles. Issues #8 and #9 of Beetle Girl are reprinted in this book. The Bat features prominently in the latter.

Art by Saulo Silva

He's a much bigger deal in issue #11 of the anthology book.
 

This one also collects a guest-appearance, from Beetle Girl #11, but the first issue of The Bat is included as well. The character appears in two of the three books featured in this anthology.

Art by Geanes Holland

That's the most recent issue to be released, so unless I missed something along the way, there are still ten "Bat books" that can (and should) be reprinted.

I'd love to see a compilation of all the Black Bat material in one paperback edition similar to what was done for Beetle Girl. There's no indication that's on the horizon but if it does materialize, I shall make it mine. For now, here's the link for issue #11 of Lucky Comics.

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.

Moonstone Triple Threat, June 2022B

I almost didn't scroll down far enough!

First Comics News shared Moonstone's June solicitations last week. They include one of the publisher's Triple Threat books, an ongoing series of three-story anthologies. Each book seems to run between 70 and 100 or so pages in length for the three stories combined.

Moonstone rarely has many books solicited in any given month. When I saw a Triple Threat issue that did not include the Black Bat, I figured it was another dry month for our favourite characters and was prepared to move on.

That book was labelled "Jun '22A", however, which strongly implies a "B". Clearly, reading all these detective stories has made me mentally razor sharp. Sure enough, there are two issues of the Triple Threat title scheduled for June and the second includes our boy, as seen below. 

Three pulp-action-adventure thrillers! The Lone Ranger stars in “Bad Company”, The Black Bat in “The World is Sick”, and Domino Lady and Judgement star in “Served Cold”!

David Boop has some experience with the character. He co-wrote (with Josh Vogt) one story for Moonstone's The Black Bat Returns anthology called Light And Dark in Symphony teaming the Bat with Domino Lady, and wrote another called The Blind Leading The Brave.

The cover is by John K. Snyder. This particular issue is said to be 70 pages long for $6.49. Even assuming he gets a full third of that page count (which I doubt based on cover prominence), that's not a lot of room for Mr. Boop to work with, but I'm still eager to see what he has in store for us.