The Killer Who Wasn't

It's not entirely necessary to read the original Black Bat material in order of release but it had been my intention to do so when I began collecting the Altus Press Omnibus volumes some years back. I was happy to hear that Altus were "ramping up" (I believe that was the term they used) production of those compilations at one point but after releasing volumes 4-6 over the course of a few months, they have not issued one in almost two years.

If Altus still intends to reprint a complete collection of Black Bat stories, at this rate I'll be long dead before it's completed. Those stories became shorter deeper into the series so perhaps Altus can include four of them instead of three going forward but even if that's the case it would require another ten volumes or so to complete the series as promised.

So I've decided to treat myself recently (through ebay) to the last Black Bat story written by Norman Daniels, entitled The Killer Who Wasn't. If I can not continue reading the series in order from the beginning, I shall start anew at the end and work my way back.

In The Black Bat Companion, Tom Johnson writes that this story would have been a good choice with which to complete the series. Having read it now, by and large I agree with him.

The only downside is that it's a "road game" for the Black Bat and his team. Rather than solve a crime in New York, he travels to a town called Haverton. By then, commissioner Warner was no longer involved in the series and the Black Bat cape was long gone but the rest of the team is there, including McGrath.

In fact, once the mystery is set, when Tony Quinn first appears in the book he is at home playing checkers with McGrath. The dialogue is like that of two old friends who share a long, colourful history. Their relationship had evolved a great deal by then. I can't say with absolute certainty that Mr. Daniels knew this was to be the last Black Bat story he would write, and perhaps I'm simply projecting, but that opening segment had something of an air of finality.

Daniels did a good job of creating suspense in this one by dedicating a chapter towards explaining the outcome of the previous one. For example, one chapter ends with Silk getting a phone call and being told that Quinn has been kidnapped from the house in which they're staying. The following chapter explains how it happened while Silk was elsewhere in the house. Daniels applies that method of story telling a couple of times to set, then explain, an in-story cliffhanger and it works well.

The majority of these original Black Bat stories include a member of the team being abducted at some point and in this case, it is Quinn. His kidnapping creates concern among members of the team, naturally.

The book concludes with Carol jumping into his arms when Tony is reunited with his full crew. While Quinn acknowledges that there's plenty of work to be done as The Black Bat and as a special prosecutor in New York, he also wonders when he finally "won't have to let go" of Carol in order focus on his ongoing mission.

It may not have been intentional at the time but knowing how things worked out in the real world, that question, inserted in the final paragraph as it is, adds a small amount of doubt about Quinn's desire to continue putting his life at risk as The Black Bat. As a result, it would indeed have worked well as a conclusion to the series.

And to my mind, it is exactly that. Again based on the Black Bat Companion, the next story (called Hot, Willing and Deadly) lacks most of the features that made the Black Bat enjoyable including, you know...The Black Bat. Tony Quinn's alter ego is only mentioned occasionally and briefly. Furthermore, the story includes the following line:

...But it had been largely at her (Carol's) insistence that he'd agreed to drop his duel (dual?) role of public prosecutor and private avenger for one (sic) and forever..."

We are then led to believe that some time following the end of The Killer Who Wasn't, Quinn had an epiphany and hung up the black mask for good.

I can live with that. By all appearances, HW&D can only be marginally considered a Black Bat tale anyway. Fans of the character probably would want the series to end with Tony and Carol finally able to be together. As The Killer Who Wasn't ends with them in each other's arms, and is Norman Daniels' last contribution to these characters, let's consider it the final chapter and dismiss the material that came after. "Killer" is a perfectly respectable and satisfying way to go out.

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.

Behind The Mask by Tom Johnson

According to Pulp Coming Attractions...

An anthology series by Tom Johnson returns in Kindle format in early February with Volume One. Right now only four issues are planned between February and July.

Behind The Mask was an anthology series that ran from the late 80's to about 2005, I believe. It reprinted pulp stories from the genre's heyday.

That is not quite the case with this edition, at least not with this first issue.  Murder Under The Big Top, unless Mr. Johnson used the exact name twice for some reason, is a Black Bat story of his that has found its way into a number of anthology books.

If you're into detective books, I probably don't have to announce which pulp character appears in The Masked Detective's Deadly Trail story (here's a clue, just in case: He's a detective and he wears a mask).

The Skull Killer is a Purple Scar story, while Fangs Of Death and The Legend are short stories. It is difficult to comment on Fangs without ruining it a bit so I won't, and I believe The Legend is a Tom Johnson original creation.

Might there be more material of interest to Black Bat fans in future releases? Absolutely. Tom Johnson has written several stories featuring The Black Bat. Mind you, he's written many stories NOT featuring the Black Bat, too, so perhaps the masked nemesis of crime gets bumped so I guess there are no guarantees. But we'll be watching.

Here's what we might get (and most, if not all of them, have been covered here to some degree):

The Black Bat's 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? 

City Of Phantoms / Guns Of Vengeance: When an old case resurfaces, the world's greatest detective is pulled back into a new battle with a deadly enemy, while ex-fighting district attorney Tony Quinn's lovely secretary, Carol Baldwin is kidnapped by a vicious mob, hoping to force the prosecution to drop its case against their boss. Two champions of justice meet in a race against time!

There are a couple of other Black Bat stories by Tom Johnson for which I need clarification. They are The Black Bat's Crisis (1995) and Crimson Harvest (1999).

Some of these stories have changed names since being written. The Black Bat's War above, for example, was originally known as Drugs Of Destruction. So it may be that I've already read them under a different name without knowing it. If not, I hope the second coming of BTM provides the opportunity.

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.

City of Phantoms

At the conclusion of my post about Tom Johnson's The Black Bat's War on  February 11th, I mentioned picking up another story written by Mr. Johnson author before long.

I followed through this past weekend. The story in question is called City of Phantoms and is a team-up with The Phantom Detective.

When an old case resurfaces, the world's greatest detective is pulled back into a new battle with a deadly enemy, while ex-fighting district attorney Tony Quinn's lovely secretary, Carol Baldwin is kidnapped by a vicious mob, hoping to force the prosecution to drop its case against their boss. Two champions of justice meet in a race against time!

Based on the cover, I was a bit concerned that The Black Bat's role might be limited. That wasn't the case at all. In fact, you could argue the opposite point. There were occasions I thought Phantom Detective fans might have been disappointed while The Black Bat dominated the story. But as a Bat fan, that worked for me just fine.

And it isn't just the Bat. I knew from the solicitation that Carol was involved, but Silk and Butch get plenty of "face time" as well.

Not that Phantom fans are shut out by any stretch. I am not familiar with The Phantom Detective (though judging by how often he's paired with The Black Bat, I guess I will be before long) but it seemed as though he had similar treatment in this story. The antagonist has ties to PD's past and a number of the supporting characters are clearly "regulars" in his adventures, not unlike Carol, Silk, etc.

Again risking that people far more knowledgeable about these characters than I am will read this and conclude that I'm a simpleton, I should point out that the story also appears in a Triple Detective volume (#4) by Altus Press. Except that it is credited to one Robert Wallace.

Now Robert Wallace is simply a pseudonym for Mr Johnson. I've found out that many original Phantom Detective stories were credited to the house name Robert Wallace. I'm not sure I see the point in Tom Johnson doing this, aside from the obvious; attempting to be faithful to the material as though it was published in 1956, as the cover suggests. I suppose what throws me off is that Johnson had another story published in the same book anyway, under his actual name.

Having only recently read The Black Bat's War, I can easily state that City of Phantoms is near identical in style, so there would be little question that Mr. Johnson did write it anyway. And again, his fondness for the characters and their history shines through.

Now then...In a bit of fortuitous timing, I've just received my copy of the Black Bat story from Pulpsploitation earlier this week and started reading it this morning. I'm not far enough into it to comment much yet, but it takes place in 1977 and seems like an interesting take on the character. It's certainly an unusual take, so I look forward to diving in further.

But while I'm working through that, I'll see if I can find a way of getting my hands on a copy of Double Danger Tales, volume one.

DOUBLE DANGER TALES, Vol. 1 

DR. SATAN & THE BLACK BAT return in 4 All-New Exciting Tales of Mystery, Magic, and Adventure! Pulp Fiction at its finest! 

Includes: DR. SATAN starring in "Symphony in Death Minor" by Wayne Skiver, and "The Prisoner" by Sean Ellis.   

THE BLACK BAT features "Death Smiles Back" by Wayne Skiver, and "Murder Under the Big Top" by Tom Johnson. 

Cover Art & Interior illustrations are by Rich Woodall. 

Join us in these Thrilling and Chilling set of stories featuring 2 Heroes & Villains, in 2 stories each... DOUBLE DANGER TALES!

I need to check to confirm, but I believe that would cover all original Black Bat material from Double Danger Tales. Frankly, I would prefer a compilation of that material in one volume but that I know of, that's not happening. DDT used to be available on lulu.com but that doesn't appear to be the case any longer, so acquiring this one might be a challenge. Wish me luck!

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.