Black Bat gets in on the action in Masks 2

The third issue of Masks 2 was released today, and The Black Bat makes his grand appearance in the series.

I don't think this falls under the spoiler category. We knew we were getting the modern day version of The Black Bat. We knew that Masks 2 would span three eras. We knew the first two issues of the series focused on the 40's and the 70's. Therefore it stood to reason that Bat would show up in this issue.

Long story short: Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt is fighting a huge bastard on a ship. After Cannon's best shot doesn't seem to be particularly effective, The Black Bat enters the fray:

As has been the case for a while with Dynamite books, this appearance seems to disregard the character's previous material in his own book. They handle(d) The Green Hornet this way. GH's presence in some other Dynamite books (such as Dark Nights with The Shadow, or these Masks books) all seem independent of one another.

Same with The Black Bat in Masks 2. The basics are there: The costume, the guns...But while the ending of the final issue in his series would have prevented him from participating in this story, his presence is not at all explained. And he leaves the scene above in some sort of "Bat Boat". *ahem*.

Ah well. It's early. Let's see where this goes.

The Black Bat fronts The Gangbusters!

The Black Bat Mego style action figure released earlier this year by Nemo Publishing was, I thought, cause for excitement. Yes, it committed the (unforgivable to some) crime of including ears on the cowl, much like a similarly-themed DC comics character, but let's face it: ANY Black Bat action figure is progress. I know not everyone agrees with that assessment (I have a similar opinion about The Green Hornet movie) but here's the thing: you're wrong and I'm right. ;-)

Writer / artist Jay Piscopo's appreciation of, and fondness for, pulp and/or public domain characters is quite evident to anyone who follows his art page on Facebook. He has his own versions of several of those characters and a tendency to group them in teams around a theme, sometimes including his own creations. The Black Bat, in this case, is included in a group called The Gangbusters.

Nemo Publishing has a couple of books available for purchase already including a Captain Midnight special drawn by Piscopo and written by Bryan Augustyn, also carried by Moonstone.

I have no idea whether Mr. Piscopo plans on publishing comics involving The Black Bat to some degree, but I would certainly be interested if he did. Even if his Black Bat has ears.

Faces of Fear update in the Airship 27 Podcast

The Airship 27 podcast is presented by pulp veterans Ron Fortier and Rob Davis. Being that both men are working on the Black Bat / Purple Scar book from Moonstone, they don't mind discussing a project from a "competitor".

The Podcast is an hour long and the two discuss upcoming Airship 27 projects (which involve Secret Agent X and Ravenwood, if you happen to be a fan of one or both of those characters) prior to moving on to Faces of Fear at the 27-minute mark or so.

Click on the Airship logo below to listen in. Davis' plans for the interior illustrations sound interesting.

Masks 2, Issue 5 solicitation

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Art: Eman Casallos 

The Red Death has sprung a dangerous trap, scattering our masked heroes through time. From the prehistoric era to the post-apocalyptic future, the Shadow, Green Hornet, Peter Cannon, Miss Fury, and others face dinosaurs, murderous masqueraders, and mutants! Along the way, they uncover the terrible truth about the Red Death.

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.

Masks 2, Issue 4 solicitation

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Art: Eman Casallos 

Heroes from across time meet, the bizarre origins of the Red Death are revealed, and an insidious trap springs shut. A dangerous adventure unlike anything you might expect awaits as the masked vigilantes of three different eras! The epic team-up of The Shadow, Black Terror, Miss Fury, Peter Cannon, Green Hornet, The Spider, and more continues, courtesy of Deadpool writer Cullen Bunn.

April 10th Bullet Points

Just a few small points that don't quite inspire a full post.

1. Now we know which Black Bat will participate in Dynamite Entertainment's Masks 2.

There he is in a group shot in the first issue (by The Shadow's right elbow). The image is a vision of sorts; the character doesn't actually appear in-story.

Frankly, when the series was announced I thought the 1940's version from the first volume of Masks was more likely to appear, or a new version based in the present. Judging from the distinctive "bat teeth" chest emblem, it seems to be the same one that had a 12-issue series recently.

Without giving anything away (even though the Black Bat's book has been out for months now), that's actually a little disappointing because the series had a fairly unique, definitive conclusion. I'm concerned that his inclusion will clash with it and trivialize it. We'll see.

2. For all that the various Black Bat projects planned by Moonstone Books, such as Guns of The Black Bat, Danger Coast to Coast and Faces of Fear, were said to be coming out "later this year", the publisher revealed its August solicitations earlier this week and there is still no Black Bat to be seen. So it'll be at least September until any of these are made available. Kind of a drag, but in the meantime...

3. Day of the Destroyers is out!

You may have noticed that Gary Phillips drew our attention to the book's release in a comment to an earlier post (see April 4th). This is appreciated because these things aren't always extremely clear (yet they seem so simple from the outside looking in...).

I knew the book was being released "soon" but that's often a relative term. Amazon (both the ".ca" version for we Canadians and the .com one) displayed different release dates later in the month, no less, complicating matters somewhat. But the Moonstone website's store now includes it in both softcover and limited edition hardcover versions, available for order immediately. If you've been waiting for this book, have at 'er.

I don't know how much of a presence The Black Bat has in Day Of The Destroyers, but its presence enough that he's named in the solicitation as a "guest-star" (along with The Phantom Detective and The Green Lama). The book contains 12 stories told over 276 pages.

Sons of Thor!

Pro Se Productions seemed like a sure bet for Black Bat material when I first became aware of their existence a couple of years ago. A longer look failed to reveal any such but a post on the Pulp Super Fan blog from earlier this week showed me I was wrong to believe that at the time.

PSF was reviewing the publisher's first compilation of "Pro Se Presents", a monthly series of pulp stories. In doing so, the writer mentioned the following issues:

#9, April 2012 and #10, May 2012 comprise a two-part series called “The Sons of Thor.” This story teams up several pulp heroes, including the Phantom Detective and the Black Bat in fighting a menace to the United States during WWII.

Ah! Pro Se seems more focused towards new pulp-style characters but evidently they do, on occasion, turn to the classics as well.

Each part's "pitch" is copied below. The cover displayed is that of the first book.

PRO SE PRESENTS, Puttin' The Monthly Back Into Pulp, brings you the first part of a TWO ISSUE EVENT! They believed that they were the chosen of the old Norse Gods. They believed they would rule first all of Europe, then the entire world. Many believed the sect gone forever. They were wrong. The Sons of Thor Live! Heaven Help the Foolish Few Who Dare to Challenge Them! THE SONS OF THOR written by Erwin K. Roberts is a fast paced New Pulp Adventure featuring nearly indomitable foes up against some of the best Pulp Heroes in the Public Domain today! Two fisted thrills, faster than lightning intrigue, and more heroes than you can shake a hammer at! Available now in its first part in PRO SE PRESENTS NUMBER NINE! From Pro Se Productions! 

Freedom Fights! The Sons of Thor Move Toward Destiny! As nations focus on the growing conflict with Nazi Germany, a devastating mission begins that threatens to unleash a horror that could lay waste to the world. As the Sons of Thor begin their final gambit, is there anyone who can stand against them in the face of certain doom? Find out in the Thrilling Conclusion to THE SONS OF THOR by Erwin K. Roberts featured in Pro Se Presents 10!

So...Not even the merest mention of The Phantom Detective or The Black Bat? It would seem that drawing attention to their presence might have been a logical way to promote the books.

For that reason, I admit that even if The Black Bat was mentioned in the Pulp Super Fan review, I was unsure about picking up the books. I wanted to avoid buying a story for a mere cameo appearance.

Then I saw the back cover of the second book on Pro Se's website...

All right, well...Perhaps The Black Bat plays a significant role after all! That cover is evidence enough to roll the dice. And so even though I believe The Black Bat only appears in the second part, I've downloaded the first book and will begin reading it this weekend to set up what I hope is a good addition to the collection.

The Black Bat meets The Rook!

Well...Met The Rook.

While on an internet search, I found out about a Black Bat guest-appearance I had not been aware of previously. He is included in one of the short stories in the third volume of The Rook. The promotional pitch for that book (at least the one I found) makes no mention of it so it was difficult to know about it. I was brought up to speed when I came across the following (partial) illustration of writer Barry Reese's website.

I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been getting several pieces of production artwork from George Sellas lately.  He’s working on The Rook Volume Three – Special Edition and, as always with him, it’s going to look gorgeous! Today we see an interesting piece featuring The Black Bat and Doctor Satan, both of whom play a large role in “The Burning Hells,” a story that kicks off the third book in The Rook series. Again, this is just a production sketch but you can already tell that George is knocking it out of the park!

Again with friggin' Doctor Satan. A couple of months ago, I'd never heard of this guy. Now I can't seem to get away from him.

I've come across The Rook a couple of times while looking up pulp news/history and have never heard a bad word said about that series of novels. This third volume was released early in 2009 and has since sold out but a special edition is planned. I believe it was originally expected to be out by the end of 2014, but I don't see any evidence that it's currently available.

When it does hit shelves, it will look like a little something like this...

The original edition's cover was a nod and wink to one of John Byrne's classic X-Men cover during the Days of Future Past storyline.

Here's a neat deal though; The Rook is currently included at bottom right of the poster, unlabeled either "slain" or "apprehended", in order to sell the fact that he is the proverbial last man standing. But as the cover was being created, The Black Bat actually held that position on the poster.

Damn.

"Slain".

But at least there's still a chance that Domino Lady and Miss Fury will escape, team up, and avenge his death. A pulp fan can dream, right?

Cool stuff. When this comes out, The Black Bat may well serve as my "gateway drug" to the Rook universe.

Which Bat When?

It was revealed some time ago that Dynamite's second volume of Masks would feature, at least in some cases, different versions of some of its chosen characters over three different eras.

This, of course, raised the questions of which Black Bat we might get. Dynamite had two versions of the character, one from the late 30's who appeared in the first volume of Masks, and one who was based in the present day and modernized. Would either make an appearance, or would we get new versions altogether?

An interview with writer Cullen Bunn from late February, posted on comicvine.com, provides another hint, but may also raise another question or two.

Which masked heroes will be cast as the defenders of each of the three eras? 

“From the 30s, we have the Shadow, Green Hornet, Kato, Miss Fury, Black Sparrow, and Black Terror,” Bunn said. “From the 70s, we see a new Miss Fury and Black Sparrow. From the modern era, we have Peter Cannon and Black Bat. 

And then we have the Spider, Lady Satan, and Green Lama. They’re playing around on the fringes of this story. And as you might guess, that means something really strange is going to happen. Did someone say there are going to be more than three timelines visited?" 

... 

Will we some the same character in different eras—a Golden Age Green Hornet and a modern Green Hornet, for instance? And if so, will the older guys share their crime files with the newer incarnations? 

“We are certainly going to see the Green Hornets of different eras,” Bunn said, “although I’m a little more interested in the Katos of different decades. Playing these characters against each other was one of the things that is most exciting to me about this series.”

So are The Green Hornet and Kato the only two getting this treatment? I suppose if we assume that Fury and Sparrow will also meet their counterparts, the whole thing could get old if it happens to too many characters. As a less-established part of Dynamite's stable, The Black Bat might be out of that equation.

At the end of the day, it appears likely that we may only get one Bat, and it will be a current one. It's just not clear whether it will be the same Black Bat from the earlier Dynamite series.

Can't wait for this book, but...we'll need to for just one more week. The first issue hits shelves on April 1st.