Dynamite Entertainment's Miss Fury November 2013 solicitations

Had a bit of a scare here.  I found a large list of Dynamite solicitations for November and Black Bat wasn't on it.

Sales for the book do not appear to be strong, but according to writer Brian Buccelato, he had signed on for 12 issues.  I was concerned that the book was either ending prematurely, or falling behind schedule, something that has plagued Dynamite books a number of times in the past.  However, the actual answer for his absence is quite simple; the list I have found is incomplete.  So when the solicitation(s) for The Black Bat are revealed, I'll have a post specific to that.

In the meantime, let's see what's in store (pun intended) for Miss Fury.

Miss Fury #8
Story: Rob Williams
Art: Marcio Abreu

The Pharaoh of Time is alive and he and his enormous mothership have come to 1943's New York City for Miss Fury. But which one will he find? The immoral murderer with the samurai sword, the titanic stash of grenades and the epic love of debauchery or the Miss Fury who is lost in time, grasping for a sense of sanity and for the good inside her? It's a metaphysical battle played out with martial arts as two futures of our hero fight for supremacy, and only one Miss Fury is getting out alive.

And here's an unexpected treat...

Noir #1
Story: Victor Gischler
Art: Andrea Mutti

Prelude to Miss Fury! When thieves steal from other thieves it always causes problems, doesn't it?  So when The Black Sparrow is hired to steal a mysterious "Moon Stone" from a museum in New York, her decision to keep the thing for a better payday annoys her former employers who then steal it back from her.  Now it's The Black Sparrow who is annoyed, and that's a dangerous thing.  All she wants is what she stole fair and square, but she needs help.  She needs The Shadow!

The first volume of the Miss Fury series also comes out in November. Entitled "Anger is Energy", it checks in at a healthy 144 pages.

Miss Fury Digital #1, Chapter Two

Dynamite Entertainment quietly snuck this one out today.

Once again, it is available for $0.99 on Comixology (click the cover above to be taken to the page).  Where the first issue clocked in at 10 pages, this one has 12, yet seems like a quicker read.

These chapters take the time travel aspect of the series further.  In fact, they arguably take it too far.  She encounters Roman soldiers in this issue (among other things, but we want to remain spoiler-free) and based on the solicitation for the second compilation of digital chapters, they're going to be sticking around a while.

It was one thing when Miss Fury was travelling through two time periods in the regular series.  In this digital one, others are travelling to hers, and she also travels to a third era.  It may be getting to be a bit much.

Miss Fury Digital 1

Mystery solved.

This book's solicitation has been confusing from the beginning.  But a conversation with another poster on the Dynamite Entertainment message board finally cleared it up.

Bottom line: Three short stories are released digitally.  They are eventually collected into a 40-page print edition.  The first such collection will be available in stores in August.

The first "chapter" was very quietly released last week on Comixology.  It includes eight pages of story for $1 (The 10-page count includes to cover, inside and out).

The "digital" tag applies to more than the release format in this case.  It also refers to the art style (or at least it did in the first chapter).  See an example below.

Assuming that each chapter is the same length, that only cover 24 pages, so I'll be curious to see what fills the rest of the 40 pages.

Dynamite Entertainment October Bat/Fury solicitations

The solicitations below were posted on Dynamite's website earlier today.

The Black Bat #6
Writer: Brian Buccellato
Art: Ronan Cliquet

Detective Brody is on the move with the suitcase bomb. Will he plant it in the courthouse before The Black Bat finds him? The clock is ticking and all hope rests on the Black Bat's shoulders!

Miss Fury #7
Writer: Rob Williams
Art: Marcio Abreu

Trapped in a past that isn't her own, Miss Fury comes face-to-face with a version of herself who never found love, and it's a bloody, murderous revelation. Is this immoral figure who Marla Drake really is? Or has she grown through time into something better? And when the two Miss Furys cross swords, which one will survive?

Miss Fury Digital #2
Writer: Rob Williams
Art: Fritz Casas

The harrowing conclusion to Miss Fury's race through time! Find out what happens to our hero and her roving gang of Roman soldiers. Can they defeat Harmon, or will they be stuck time-traveling forever?

So what jumps out?

I think I remembered Brian Buccellato stating that he was only on board Black Bat for six issues, but he may have said that his first story was six issues long.  The solicitation does make it sound like the current arc is coming to an end, so I'll be looking forward to the solicitation for #7 with much curiosity.  Edit:  Buccellato confirmed to me on Twitter that his first storyline is actually 12 issues.  What a guy.  :-)

Speaking of departing talent, and for that matter, six issue stories, it seems Jack Herbert may be off Miss Fury.  Or perhaps Marcio Abreu is only filling in temporarily.  If not, what can we expect?  Here's a sketch that he recently posted on deviantart.

And Miss Fury Digital.  This one has been peculiar.  The first issue was actually solicited for August, yet there it is on Comixology at least two weeks early.  One would have assumed that the second issue would have been available in September then, but it's in the October solicitations.  And now, it's a 3-parter, apparently.

Peculiar, and unnecessarily confusing, but whatever.  More Miss Fury, for all of a buck, is a good thing.  Perhaps Dynamite is testing the waters with this digital-only stuff.

The Black Bat in All-Star Pulp Comics

I wish I was able to say more about this book.

I have long been unable to order from Indyplanet and at the moment, this is the only place from which Redbud Studios' All Star Pulp Comics can be had, either in print or digital form.

Here is a partial solicitation.

Standard Sized Trade Paperback
Black & White
Page Count: 58

Written and Illustrated by •Green Lama by Adam Garcia & Mike Fyles • Jim Anthony by Erwin K. Roberts & Pedro Cruz • Black Bat by C. William Russette & Wayne Beeman • The Blue Lady by Sean Taylor & James Ritchey III • The Rook by Barry Reese & Craig Wilson • Secret Agent “X” by Bobby Nash & Jeremy McHugh • Domino Lady by Percival Constantine, Rock Baker & Jeff Austin • Cover by Jeff Butler

There is a second issue as well. It also includes a Black Bat story but the solicitation does not indicate which writer tackled which character.  The writers of the Black Bat story in the first issue are not named in the credits to the second so evidently someone different handled the character.

If you're interested in the character and actually able to order from Indyplanet, then you may want to check these out.  Let me know what you think.  :-/

Black Bat by Bai Xau Li

I don't have much to add about this piece, simply because I first struggled to find the person to give proper credit to, then when I did, the page was written in Spanish. So here is the image, and if your Spanish is far better than mine, then by all means give it click to reach its source!

Dynamite Entertainment's September Bat/Fury solicitations!

So much for the double dose of Miss Fury in September. August's Miss Fury digital #1 was said to be the first of two issues, but the second is not solicited for September.  That whole thing has been unnecessarily complicated, for some reason.

As for the regular books, here they are:

The Black Bat #5
Written by Brian Buccellato, art by Ronan Cliquet, covers by Jae Lee, Billy Tan.

The Black Bat's loyalty to Carol and his mystery benefactors are put to the test when he is ordered to team up with a foe from his past. Also, Snate's suitcase bomb is on the move, putting hundreds of lives in danger!


Miss Fury #6
Written by Rob Williams, art by Jack Herbert, covers by Billy Tan, Ardian Syaf, Colton Worley, Sean Chen.

Miss Fury's journey through time has ended. But when she returns to "her" Manhattan, she finds that her lover, Captain Chandler, has disappeared. Did he ever exist at all, and if not, what does that say about her sanity? And how do the Crusades-era knights fit into the puzzle?

Black Bat prose in "Domino Lady: Sex as a Weapon"

First Comics News revealed Moonstone Comics' October (already?) solicitations recently.  Here's an abbreviated version:

The Domino Lady: “Sex as a Weapon”
Interior Art: Ver Curtis
222pgs, Squarebound, 6” x 9”, $16.95

New printing of this long sold-out collection!

Nine all-new tales of one of the world’s first female masked crime fighters, by Nancy Holder, Chuck Dixon, CJ Henderson, Martin Powell, Ron Fortier, James  Chambers, Bobby Nash, Gail McCabe. Introduction: Mystery Writers of America Raven Award winner Joan Hansen!

Stunned and enraged by the murder of her crusading politician father, beautiful socialite Ellen Patrick becomes determined to bring her father’s killers to justice…at any cost.  A talented Berkley graduate, she knows that to truly fight the men who killed her father she must break all the rules.  Donning a distinctive white dress and a black domino mask, she becomes The Domino Lady, one of the sexiest –and most elusive—crime fighters of all time.

Guest-starring: SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE BLACK BAT , & AIRBOY!

I removed the cover artist's name because the cover itself was not displayed.  The one at upper right is from the original hardcover edition of the book.  Being that this solicitation is for a reprint, I'm not 100% that the same cover will be used.

I had written to Moonstone recently to find out which books featured their version of the Black Bat. I was told to expect the Black Bat "in the pages of the upcoming 'The Spider's Web' and 'Spider/Domino Lady'.

There already has been a Spider/Domino Lady book, but its solicitation says nothing about a Black Bat appearance therein.  Presumably, based on the wording of Moonstone's response, there's another such book on the way.

While it's good to see The Black Bat show up in various Moonstone books, I'd be more interested in seeing his own series continue.  That I know of, the second issue of his own has never been released and the story in the first issue was never completed. For those who may have missed it, here's an unused cover below (or if it was ever put in proper use, by all means someone draw my attention to it).

Miss Fury cover(s) reveal

When Dynamite's August solicitations first became available, the various covers for the fifth issue of Miss Fury were not displayed, oddly enough.

Here's one of them below.  You can click on it to be taken to the full solicitation to view the others.

I'm still unclear about the solicitation for Miss Fury digital #1 since it sounds very much like the story from the current book.

An all-new Miss Fury adventure never before seen in print! Miss Fury is back in time again! Or is she? Will Miss Fury be able to make it home for a nice long bath, or will she forever be transported? Find out now! This issues has all three digital chapters of Miss Fury in a new, never printed, super-sized collection!

There are a couple of extra details now though.  For one, it is now listed as being 40 pages instead of 32, so the claim of the book being "giant-sized" makes a bit more sense.  Also, it is now specified that the book is the first of two, so I guess we get a double serving of Miss Fury in September as well.  Good news!

The solicitations also offer an alternative cover to Black Bat #4, available to early subscribers.  It was done by Billy Tan.

The Black Bat by Ken Hauser

Artist Ken Hauser has worked on Dynamite Entertainment's Living Corpse series and he provides the rather ass-kicking pinup of The Black Bat below.

At first sight, I assumed it was meant to be a variant cover for a future, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  For one thing, most of the covers seems to be routinely done by the same handful of artists, and for another, the dimensions may not be quite right.

Nevertheless, a pretty awesome image.