The Mask...Close enough!

I don't want this blog to become a parrot to the Black Bat Facebook page (since I have nothing to do with that page, no less, and don't want to copycat) however of late their postings have been too important for any fan of the character to avoid.

Here's the latest:

Although issue # 1 has yet to be released, production on BLACK BAT - DOMINO LADY: Danger Coast to Coast continues at Moonstone Comics. As we've reported here previously, Ron Fortier is writing this 30s setting pulp series and Michael Dorman is the artist (on) the first two issues. Starting with issue # 3, Carlos Cableiro will be taking over the art chores. Here's a sample of his work.

I love that image, especially of Quinn.

I'm going to use the opportunity to segue into a comic book appearance of the past, sort of.  It's something I had dismissed when I first read about it but am now realizing that I should not have.  Let's let Wikipedia explain it first:

Due to the issues with Batman, Nedor Comics, the comic publishing arm of Thrilling Publications, did not do a Black Bat comic series; however it did do a series with a character called "Mask", based on the Black Bat. The Mask appears in the first twenty issues of Exciting Comics.

What I did not know or anticipate is how faithful to the original Black Bat material these "Mask" stories are (aside from changing the names of the various characters), at least the first one.  I assumed that the character was similar, since many pulp heroes were anyway, but the Mask story is near identical to Brand of The Black Bat.  For an example, here's the first page from issue #1, first published in April of 1940:

And here's Tony "Colby" meeting Carol "Smith".

Granted, the Mask looks rather ridiculous, but it's still cool to see The Black Bat's original story done in comic book form at the time.  I'm certain most fans of the character must be aware of it, but in case it's been overlooked by others for the same reason I did, I thought I'd draw some attention to it.

If you want to have a look at the stories in full, you can do so through the Digital Comic Museum though at some point I'll probably copy and clean up the pages and post them here.

Die Schwarze Fledermaus

While I'm waiting for official news to come from Moonstone Books about their upcoming Black Bat projects  (apparently a solo book, as well as the team up with Domino Lady) and from Dynamite as to whether he and/or Miss Fury will appear in the second volume of Masks to any significant degree, I'm attempting to educate myself somewhat on The Black Bat's publishing history in Germany.

From what I can gather, reprints of stories from Black Book Detective began to appear in Pabel Kriminal Roman starting with issue #100 in 1961.  Rather than print them chronologically though, there seemed to be a rather random order as to how they were made available to the German public.  Issue 100 included the story "The League of Faceless Men" from 1951, among the last Bat stories published.  His next PKR appearance, in issue 103, featured "The Murder Makers", originally published in the United States in 1948.

Evidently, it took little time for his popularity to dictate that he should become the book's main attraction.  The Black Bat's stories appeared periodically for a spell but starting with issue 119, the title "Fledermaus" (German for bat, obviously) began to take prominence on the cover and by issue #135, he became the focus of the series altogether.  It looks as though that held true until about issue 667 or so inclusively, with new material being written for the character once stories to reprint ran out.

A significant portion of the information I've been able to find was lifted from the Schwarze Fledermaus website.  See the "galerie" page for cover scans of every issue for more Bat goodness.

The Black Bat in Pulpsploitation: Hard Edged Heroes for the 1980's

Bah.  I found out about this Kickstarter campaign a couple of days ago, but was too slow in posting about it and now the Black Bat Facebook page has a mention of it so it looks like I'm lifting it from them... ;-)

In the 1930s, pulp fiction introduced dozens of amazing heroes to the world. Dozens of hero pulps of various success filled the racks alongside numerous other titles. Those characters formed a lasting impression on society and are still remembered fondly to this day. 

In the 1970s and 1980s, men’s adventure fiction introduced dozens of new characters and properties that captured the minds of readers young and old. Sex and violence became the new norm. They influenced heavily the decades of fiction since, even as the “exploitation” films of the same era helped to shape cinema.

Among the four stories...

Frank Byrns introduces the legacy of The Black Bat, as a new hero takes up the mantle of one of the earliest masked vigilantes.

All this information is front and center on the campaign page.  However writer Frank Byrns provides details as to what he has planned in an interview posted under the "updates" tab.

So what would that mean for a Tony Quinn in his seventies? What would he be up to? If I left him in New York, I could work in another of my passions: the look and feel and vibe of 1970s crime films. 

The French Connection, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, sure. But also things like Rolling Thunder, The Killer Elite, Charley Varrick, The Yakuza. Friends of Eddie Coyle. 

So give Quinn a pro bono legal aid clinic in a rundown Brooklyn neighborhood. Make Butch O'Leary's daughter a crackerjack young lawyer working for Uncle Tony. Have Silk Kirby's kid work as a plainclothes narcotics detective. Add in a former Vietnam tunnel rat, who's used to fighting in the dark where he can't see. The NYC heroin trade. The Mafia. Street gangs. Son of Sam. Reggie, Sparky, and Billy. The blackout.

Byrns has some history with the character already.  He wrote The Ty Cobb File story for Airship 27's second volume of Black Bat Mystery.  As an aside, the Facebook page I referred to earlier also mentioned earlier today that a third volume is underway, though no details are provided as of yet.

There's still about a week to get involved in the fundraising campaign, and to trigger some stretch goals, so if you're a fan of The Black Bat, or pulp era stories in general, you may want to get in on this. Hell, you can get the Black Bat story alone for only $1.00 in digital format. Tough to beat that.

To find out more about publisher Super Powered Fiction, head on over to their website.