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.

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.

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.

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.

Spring Comes Early Thanks to Altus!

Altus Press continues to impress.

A week ago, they announced that they would speed up their release schedule of Black Bat Omnibus volumes, starting with number 4, "hopefully in the spring". Good news on its own!

Earlier today they announced that volume was now available.

Damn. If only spring could come that fast!

So this book will feature the character's tenth to twelfth published stories that originally appeared in early 1941, being The Black Bat’s Dragon Trail, The Black Bat’s Justice and The Black Bat and the Red Menace.

As was the case for the third volume, the first story was written by someone other than regular writer Norman A. Daniels. This time, Norvell W. Page pitches in. Page is better known for his extensive work on The Spider in the 30s and early 40s.

For that matter, The fifth volume will start the same way. The Black Bat's Summons was also written by Page and it should kick off the next book. I guess we'll see later this year!

Happy New Year from Altus Press!

A month ago today, I wrote a brief blog post about how starting a Twitter account connected to this blog paid off within 24 hours.

On its "monthiversary", it pays off again. Altus shared the following earlier today.

About the only "complaint" I ever had with Altus' Black Bat Omnibus volumes was their release rate. Even if Altus doesn't quite meet their self-imposed standard stated above, it will still be a huge a improvement.

Altus relaunched its own Twitter account with the new year so if you're also on Twitter and want to keep up with their releases, follow them at @altuspress.

Altus and Moonstone Expand Their Black Bat Content

The cover at left finally finds its way onto the right border of the blog now that Altus Press has made volume three of the Black Bat Omnibus available for order. Give the side image a click to be taken to the altuspress.com page from which you can order it.

I want to reiterate how quick Altus is to get these books out to readers. I ordered mine on a Sunday night and it was in my mailbox on Tuesday. Unbelievable. On that level, Altus never fails to impress.

On a more negative note, the first story in the collection, The Black Bat's Flame Trail, is a little bit annoying. I'd read that this was case in a number of reviews but am now experiencing it first hand. Written by Whitney Ellsworth (rather than Norman A. Daniels), the inconsistencies with prior material are irritating.

Ellsworth seemed to get the back story and style just fine, for the most part, but got Carol and Butch's family names wrong on a number of occasions. I knew that going in, but it happens more often than I thought. I don't understand how one can get so much right yet whiff on those kinds of details.

Also, Butch is totally out of character. An easy example to display this is his tendency to refer to The Black Bat by his last name. In previous stories, he would usually refer to the Black Bat as "boss" or some such, but in this he often addresses him as simply "Quinn". It comes off sounding disrespectful and even, at times, vaguely threatening. I'm glad I have the story from a collector's perspective, but it's doubtful that I'll return to it very often.

Catching up with another publisher, about a month ago we shared the news that Moonstone Books was making magnets which featured the images of some of their more recognizable book covers. They have since expanded that project to include "classic" covers of pulp books such as Jungle Stories, Phanton Detective and, of course, Black Book Detective!

So if you enjoy the covers to the original Black Bat stories, such as the one at right, Moonstone now has a batch of them in their selection. Check those out here.

I may as well take a moment to point out, for those who may have missed it, that many of those Black Book Detective Covers are on display on a page that can be reached by clicking the button under the banner above.

The list is not complete and I take no credit for any of the scans. I have located them from various internet sources. At most, I may have cropped or adjusted the colours somewhat but the original images are in no way mine.

Mid-August Bullet Points

Let's get started with a loud bang.

Sanctum Books reprints now available!

Sanctum Books announced a few months back that they planned on reprinting the original Black Bat stories starting in July. They're ever-so-slightly behind schedule, but they are ready to go now.

At the printer and shipping this month: THE BLACK BAT Volume 1: "Brand of the Black Bat" & "Murder Calls the Black Bat" 

Sanctum Books presents the 1939 novels that introduced the caped crimebuster whose adventures paralleled Batman's and inspired Two-Face's origin, written by Norman A. Daniels as "G. Wayman Jones" for future BATMAN editors Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff.

First, doomed to darkness by a murderous acid attack, D.A. Tony Quinn makes darkness his weapon with "The Brand of the Black Bat." Then, "Murder Calls the Black Bat" into a deadly war against corruption as Tony Quinn battles to prevent the biggest jewel heist of the century!

GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS BONUS: the debut of The Mask from Nedor's EXCITING COMICS #1.

This instant collector's item showcases the classic color pulp covers by Rudolph Belarski and Emery Clarke and the original interior illustrations by Harry Parkhurst, with historical commentary by Will Murray relating how a lawsuit with DC Comics was narrowly averted.

(Sanctum Books) 978-1-60877-183-7 Softcover, 7x10, 128 pages, B&W, $14.95

Not to be outdone...

Altus Books' Third Volume of the Black Bat Omnibus is about to drop!

Altus announced this volume was on its way back in early July but had not specified a date, only stating that it would be released "soon".

Turns out "soon" means Pulpfest, according to a comment on their Facebook page, and Pulpfest is this weekend in Columbus, Ohio. So presumably Volume Three will be available for mail order at the same time or shortly thereafter.

Holding to the format of the previous two volumes, it will include the seventh through ninth original Black Bat stories, being The Black Bat’s Flame Trail, The Black Bat’s Triumph and The Black Bat and the Trojan Horse.

Very much looking to adding this to the collection. Hell, I look forward to being able to add it to the right side of this page!

Onwards to a project only just now being mentioned...

Super-Powered Fiction Planning a Black Bat Novel!

This is interesting news, but no more than a brief mention so far so the book is not likely to be available for quite some time yet.

Last year, Super-Powered Fiction released an anthology called Pulpsploitation featuring several known pulp era characters re-imagined for the 80's. I only signed up for the Black Bat story specifically and I enjoyed it a great deal.

In a recent update to that project, the man behind the project, Nicholas Ahlhelm, mentioned the following:

...we will wrap up this Kickstarter and start the plans for the next wave of Pulpsploitation releases: novels starring Airboy and The Black Bat. It still hasn't been 100% set in stone that we will turn to Kickstarter for those releases, but if we do, you will be the first to know right here. 

And you will be the second right here.  :-)

I hope it's a direct sequel to the story from Pulpsploitation. I was concerned that a story taking place in the 80's (or late 70's) would be filled with ridiculous pop culture references but it was actually written respectfully and tastefully. Author Frank Byrns came up with a compelling update to the character, in my opinion and I'd like to read more about the Pulpsploitation version of the character and the offspring of the original Black Bat's entourage. Looking forward to finding out about this project.

The Black Bat Omnibus, Vol. 3, coming "soon" from Altus

The term "soon" has yet to be defined, but it's soon enough that Altus Press was comfortable enough to mention it on their Facebook page this past weekend.

I'm actually most curious about the first story, The Black Bat's Flame Trail. It is the seventh Black Bat story overall but the first to not be written by Norman A. Daniels.

Rather, the story is credited to Whitney Ellsworth and what makes that interesting is that Ellsworth worked on Batman for DC Comics at around the same time as he was involved with The Black Bat. The Black Bat Companion includes a quote from Bill Finger in which he states that "through Ellsworth's intervention, a lawsuit was avoided" between DC Comics and Black Book Detective publisher Better Publications.

My understanding it that there are glaring differences and errors in Flame Trail, particularly involving the supporting cast, that make it glaring that Daniels did not write the story.

But even if Ellsworth has contributed only one Black Bat story out of the 60+ that appeared in Black Book Detective, and that story feels awkward in the collection, he may have had a major impact on the character "behind the scenes". So I'm eager to see his "in print" contribution first-hand.

Also, Altus has been slow to release these Omnibus volumes in the past. Let's hope that this signals the start of a little run. Volume two was released in April 2013, three years after the first volume. Maybe the gap between releases is narrowing, finally.

Sanctum Books to reprint The Black Bat starting in July

Looks like we'll have another option for Black Bat reprints before long. The information below was first found on the Pulp Coming Attractions Facebook group.

Sanctum Books presents the 1939 novels that introduced the caped crimebuster whose adventures paralleled Batman's and inspired Two-Face's origin, written by Norman A. Daniels.

Read the classic pulp thrillers that introduced the costumed hero recently featured in Dynamite's Masks series.

First, doomed to darkness by a murderous acid attack, D.A. Tony Quinn makes darkness his weapon with "The Brand of the Black Bat."

Then, "Murder Calls the Black Bat" into a deadly war against corruption as Tony Quinn battles to prevent the biggest jewel haul of the century!

Plus, the debut of The Mask from Nedor's Exciting Comics #1.

Altus has been working on a multi-volume omnibus, but it's slow going. They release three stories at a time but only have two volumes available to this point, as well as the Companion book (all linked at right). A few weeks back I asked them, through Facebook, when they expected the third volume to be released and the answer was simply "this year".

I have no experience with Sanctum but if I have the correct website, they certainly seem prolific. Get a load of this list of releases. If they get the material out faster, I'm switching teams.

Guns of The Black Bat

Not the upcoming comic series from Moonstone. This is a two-story novel by Wayne Skiver.

First things first. I want to throw some flowers Tom Johnson's way. I contacted him in regards to Double Danger Tales recently, specifically about whether the first volume of DDT was still available for purchase. Not only did Mr. Johnson respond quickly, he provided me with a list of Black Bat stories from various authors, published in a number of different books. It's a great resource for this obsessive collector and the gesture was very much appreciated.

This helped me to avoid duplication. Double Danger Tales has two Black Bat stories and two Dr. Satan stories. I'm not terribly interested in the latter two and I can get the Bat stories elsewhere with additional content so...why wouldn't I do that?

One of those other options is Guns Of The Black Bat, available by print-on-demand from lulu.com.

The Dark Detective of the Pulps returns in two exciting new mysteries! 

In "Death Smiles Back" Tony Quinn (AKA The Black Bat) must figure out the connection between two warring crimelords, and a strange string of murders.  Hindering his investigation is a diabolical frame up which paints the Bat as a Cop killer! 

Next up The Dark Detective squares off against the world's weirdest criminal, Doctor Satan in a deadly concert of Bullets and Brimstone.  Can the Bat survive the "Symphony in Shadows"?

As I understand it, Symphony in Shadows was originally a Doctor Satan story which was modified to include The Black Bat as the protagonist instead of the usual character filling that role, Ascott Keane. It'll be interesting to see if the Bat still feels authentic being that he's serving as a replacement.

Death Smiles Back, meanwhile, was one of the stories that I'd intended to get from DDT vol. 1. The other story in that book, Murder Under The Big Top, is included in Pulp Detectives by Altus Press (yep, those guys again...).

Every story in this book is written by Mr. Johnson. A second Black Bat story appears in addition to "Big Top", called Guns of Vengeance. I'm aware (now that Mr, Johnson has made his compilation of Bat stories available to me) of an older story that appeared in the original version of Double Danger Tales called The Black Bat's Vengeance but do not know if there's a connection between the two or if they just happen to have similar titles.

And so I dive into Death Smiles Back tomorrow morning. One thing I already know; the text is very small, yet the top quarter of every page is unused, for some reason. The layout is unusual and if small print is difficult for you to deal with, you may prefer to purchase the digital version and read it on a computer or an electronic device on which you can enlarge the text. Just a small heads up.

The Black Bat's War

In order to fill the time while waiting for new Black Bat material to come down the pike, I recently bought the kindle version of The Black Bat's War by Tom Johnson.

I'd seen the story mentioned in a few places but being that its title is consistent with many of the Black Book Detective tales from 1940 and 1941 (such as The Black Bat's Crusade and The Black Bat's Justice), I mistakenly thought "War" was a reprint from that era. Crediting G. Wayman Jones, the house name used back in the 40's in lieu of Norman Daniels and the various writers that contributed to Bat stories for Black Book Detective, on the cover for Triple Detective did little to convince me otherwise.

In fact, the story was written by Tom Johnson. Johnson has a fair amount of history with the character. His is the most prominent name on the Black Bat Companion book by Altus Press, as it should be since he's responsible for the bulk of its content.

And unless I'm mistaken, Johnson published and edited Double Danger Tales from the late 90's to the early 00's. DDT magazine promised "your favorite pulp heroes in exciting new adventures as well as the adventures of all new heroes in the classic pulp tradition."

And several of those adventures were Black Bat adventures. I haven't finished reading The Black Bat's War yet but Johnson's appreciation for, and knowledge of, the character is quite evident. Extra points for heavy usage of the supporting cast, including Commissioner Warner.

Here's the pitch for War:

In the trenches of war-torn Germany, soldiers were dying from the medicines they received for their wounds. The Army generals blamed America for the bad drugs, yet nothing could be done until the source of the deadly medicine was uncovered and replaced with good drugs. While investigators are stymied, The Black Bat and his team of crime fighters take up the challenge in New York, uncovering a giant plot by a master criminal. But would they be in time to save brave young soldiers dying of their wounds in a far off No-Man’s Land?

Unfortunately, a few typos and errors have found their way into the tale. A number of times, the number "1" replaces either a capital "I" or a small "L". For example, "Very Important Person" is abbreviated to "V1P" as opposed to "VIP". A very minor thing, but distracting when it happens. I suspect that a font change during reproduction made those instances more glaring than they were in the original document.

Johnson also adds (I believe) a specific behavioural trait to The Black Bat. I won't say what it is so that it doesn't stick out if people read the story after reading this post about it. It's something I don't recall The Black Bat doing in the Black Book Detective stories I've read, but he does it a few times in this story. It seems a touch out of place as a result, but I acknowledge that it could very well be something he came to do regularly and I just haven't gotten far enough in his adventures to know.

Neither of the above points should be viewed as major criticisms. The story is quite enjoyable and a welcome addition to the collection. It reads very much like an original Bat story.

You can order the above book from Altus Press by clicking on the cover image, or download the kindle version from this page. Some of the other Black Bat stories that have appeared in Double Danger Tales are included in volumes one through three of Tales of Mask and Mayhem.

Johnson recently released another story involving The Black Bat. It probably won't be long until I purchase that one as well and I'll discuss it further at that time but it was a nice surprise to stumble into.

The Black Bat Companion

Before I say anything about this book, I want to heap some praise on Altus Press.  I purchased this book on Cyber Monday (so December 1st) and had it in hand on Thursday, three days later. They obviously wasted no time shipping it and I appreciated that a great deal.

The Black Bat Companion was released in the summer of 2011. I waited a while before getting it for two reasons; First, I wanted to read more of the original material available before acquiring book and second, reviews were a little mixed. While some referred to the book as being very thorough, others made it sound as though it was filled with useless information.

Ultimately, even though I'm still working through the book, I'm very pleased with my purchase.

There is some repetition in the information provided, usually in the earlier chapters, which makes the page count feel a little padded at times. For example, character bios will mention errors made in regards to their names in certain stories, then the Adventure Index will also point out the error(s). But in light of the volume of information shared, this is really just a minor annoyance.

The Black Book Detective Adventure Index seems good but since I intend to read the stories myself at some point I didn't want to get too deeply into it. The book becomes particularly interesting for me at chapter nine as it provides a list of all the stories printed in Germany (including BBD reprints). Being that there were nearly 600, you could probably create a whole other companion book specific to German story summaries (feel free to steal that idea, Altus).

At the moment, I'm reading the rejected Black Bat story, The Lady Is Out For Blood. It doesn't feel like a Black Bat story at all. The lead character is totally different in name, profession and appearance, as is his female assistant, but it makes for a good read nonetheless. There are also reprints of nine comic book stories of The Mask, a character nearly identical to The Black Bat but with minor name modifications to the cast.

From that point on, it is best to think of the book as a tribute to primary Black Bat writer Norman Daniels. The next few chapters feature an interview with Daniels, excerpts from written correspondence by him, biographical information and payment records. If your interest is specific to the Black Bat character, then you may not care how much money Daniels made for writing his stories, and even less for writing about other characters, but it provides a rare window into the scene at the time. Personally, I was pleased to have it all included.

Overall, while I would have preferred to have some sections filled out more (German Bat), and could have done without a few others (such as character profiles. If someone buys this book, he or she probably doesn't need to be introduced to Silk Kilby), The Black Bat Companion is an excellent compilation of information. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to gain deeper appreciation for the histories of the character, the genre and the era.

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.

The Black Bat Omnibus vol 2 now available!

Well, that was a pleasant surprise...

Based on the comments about the first volume on the Altus Press website, the first volume of the Black Bat Omnibus came out around this time in 2010.  I picked up a copy for myself only recently and was working my way through it slowly, anticipating a long wait until another such book would be available.

I asked about volume two in the comments section and it was pointed out to me that it is currently available on Amazon (and appears to have been since March 15th).  Combined, the two books contain the first 6 Black Bat stories from Black Book Detective (late 1939, early 1940). Click on either image at right to be taken to that book's amazon page and view full product details (and in the case of the first book, a couple of reader reviews).

Perfect rainy evening reading at the cottage. Can hardly wait!

Welcome to The Bat & The Fury!

"But there must be some means of identification," Quinn pursed his lips.  "Something by which men can recognize me.  An insignia - a name, Silk - I have it!  I've been blind - as blind as a bat.  I still am as far as anyone knows.  I shall prowl during the night.  Bats are blind and fly by night also.  I'll be the bat, Silk.  The Black Bat!"

If you've visited my other blogs, this one may be slightly surprising. Of late, my focus had been on Canadian comics and characters. And it still is.

However, The Black Bat and Miss Fury are two characters in which I've had an interest for some time.

In the case of Miss Fury, I first became aware of her in the early 90's. I was a huge fan of the Protectors book from Malibu. She appeared in only a handful of issues, but a number of fans expressed excitement at her inclusion on the team resulting from a 4-issue mini-series published a little earlier by Adventure Comics. In any event, I enjoyed the character but assumed that she "died" along with the rest of the Protectors. I didn't really get the whole "public domain" thing at the time.

I've also been a Green Hornet fan for a while and bought Dynamite's Masks limited series on that basis. Miss Fury's involvement in that book, as well as recent news of her own series spinning out of it, was a pleasant surprise.

As for The Black Bat, Moonstone's version of the character is the one that caught my eye some time ago as they were preparing their "Return of the Originals" event. I was a hugely interested in Dynamite's Project Superpowers book (and its various spinoffs) at the time, so Moonstone's plans seemed to be right up my alley too.

I only vaguely knew of the Bat up until that point, but reading about him made me realise how many characters he helped inspire (at least allegedly; I know there's some debate about that). His origins and abilities mirror those of Batman, Two-Face and Dr. Mid-Nite, among others.

The Black Bat is currently appearing in Dynamite's very fine Masks book as well and will also have a series of his own starting in May, the first issue of which is scheduled to be released at the same time as Miss Fury's second issue. For both characters, the solo series appear to be different versions of the characters appearing in Masks, which is not a new phenomenon for Dynamite.

Another aspect of The Black Bat which I've found interesting is his sudden surge in popularity in recent years. Aside from Moonstone and Dynamite, other publishers have put their spin on the character. I'll use this blog to help sort out the various versions.

As I chip away at all that, I am presently reading the first volume of The Black Bat Omnibus, seen at the top of the right column. It contains the character's first stories from 1939 and only a few chapters in, I'm completely hooked. Clicking on the image will take you on the Amazon.com page from which you can order it for yourself. I don't believe you'll be disappointed.