Bat Update from Artist Daniel Solano

It's been a while since Lucky Comics released a new issue of either its 30s-based Black Bat Tales book or its modern-day version of the character, The Bat. Artist (for the latter book) Dan Solano provided a little update earlier today on the Lucky Comics Universe Facebook page.

The Bat #4 is coming, work on writing and illustration has begun on a new series. If you’re familiar with some of my previous work, then you can expect some special appearances from previous characters in the Lucky Comic Universe. I’ve also spoken with John and he’ll be releasing a special collection of issues 1 through 3 with a brand-new Cover, so be on the look out for that. 

"A new series". I believe that means issues four through six of The Bat telling a self-contained tale as opposed to a whole other book being published by Lucky. The first three issues of The Bat told a story called All Points Bulletin.

And for all the fans of some of my previous work here who want to keep up with the progress of the comic and get an early preview, I’ve set up a Patreon page. Currently only one tier exists, but it’ll give access to my page where you’ll see all of my Lucky Comics work before its published for just $1 per month. I have some plans later to expand on what I can offer on the page but for the moment being this will help me keep in touch with anyone who wants to see the work here continue and new comics be produced.

That would be me.

The page was set up less than a week ago so the content is a little thin at the moment but it does include a preview of the cover to the volume 1 compilation referred to above as well as two pages from the fourth issue of The Bat. Sharing those here would defeat the purpose of the Patreon account so I won't, but you can join up for a whole buck a month, support the man and help move the project(s) along.

Your Annual Reminder that Moonstone is Publishing a Black Bat Compilation Some Day

In February 2014, writer Ron Fortier announced a Black Bat / Domino Lady comic book to be published by Moonstone. It had originally been meant to feature a teaming of The Spider and Domino Lady but the publisher had lost the license to The Spider so the Black Bat was going to take that character's place. Cool beans.

In February of the following year, Mr. Fortier sent out a call for an artist to help put together this book, now knows as "Danger Coast to Coast". Cool title, too!

In May 2017, the project was said to in "its last stages of production" yet in October 2018, we were told that the Black Bat and Domino Lady would return in a huge compilation "this winter". Both claims were made on the Black Bat Facebook group.

And now here's another, from the same source, on Friday night.

...DANGER COAST TO COAST, thanks to letterer Patrick Williams is almost finished...at long last...Our best guess is this giant comic will debut early in 2020 and we couldn't be any happier.

Two preview pages are shared, only one which of features the Black Bat. That one is copied below. If you want to have a look at the other, the post is right here.

No knock on anyone here, I'm sure no one wants to see this book published more than Mr. Fortier and Moonstone books. There have been so many of these messages though that I can't get excited for it anymore. Wake me up when it's available, if that ever comes to pass. With Moonstone, it's usually best to not get your hopes up too high.

The Black Bat's ASPC Streak to Resume!

Airship 27's 55th podcast, released earlier today (on YouTube at least) dropped a little bit of good Black Bat news.

Airship 27 publishes novels and anthologies, but Redbud Studio is comics-focused. they have published, among many other books, four volumes of All-Star Pulp Comics, the first three of which included Black Bat stories.

Unfortunately, the character's streak ended after issue #3 but he appears set to start a new one.

Ron Fortier: John Helmer, The Publisher of Lucky Comics...this is according to Mark Davis...supposedly has a new 8-page Black Bat script that he wants to offer us for this volume.

This is somewhat surprising because Lucky Comics has its own Black Bat book in Black Bat Tales. They have two, in fact, if we consider the modern-day version of the character, The Bat.

Now the stories set in the 1930s (Tales) are written by Lou Mougin so perhaps Mr. Helmer preferred to not interfere with that process and/or to ship his own story out because it didn't quite fit into the plans. Regardless, cooperation between publishers is rarely (never?) a bad thing.

Rob Davis warns that there is no set release date for this book so let's not sit on the Redbud website and refresh our browsers repeatedly, but it's good to hear the Black Bat mentioned on an Airship 27 podcast in any case.

Here's the cover to the book which contained the Black Bat's last appearance. Hey, being that he's been a part of most of these books, maybe he's due for cover treatment?

Other stories will include the Crimson Mask and a Purple Scar / Secret Agent - X team-up. You can listen to the show here but the ASPC portion in particular is at the 15:30 mark or so.

The Black Bat is an Amazing Hero!

We knew this of course, but it turns out that he has been officially given that label by Fresh Monkey Fiction. FMF has included the Black Bat in their third wave of 4.5" plastic action figures.

While the pre-order period will only last another week or so, I shall post the link here anyway. I believe whatever number of figures are left will then move to the general store page at some point.

Anyway, let's have a look...

I know to expect these to be a little plain but I wish they'd have included a belt, holster...hell, footwear, even! It's clear that they based themselves entirely on cover images and no part of the character description within the stories themselves.

On that basis, I understand the lack of gloves, of a full face mask (or "hood") and so on.

The unfortunate thing is that the guns in the image of the action figure are "for display purposes only" and are not included with the package. I also wish that the scarring around the eyes had been added to make the figurine a bit more distinctive (and, frankly, authentic).

Nevertheless, I'm glad that the Black Bat made the line-up. I've known of Fresh Monkey Fiction for some time and even considered suggesting to them that they create a Black Bat action figure at some point but decided against it thinking that the character was not flashy enough for them. They seemed to prefer more colourful types like Silver Streak and the American Crusader. I'm pleased to have been incorrect on all counts.

The Black Bat by Fabio Alves

The image below, of the Dynamite Entertainment version of the Black Bat was included along with several others in a Facebook post by artist Fabio Alves. Alves was displaying his considerable skills in a group designed to help comic book creators connect.

I am always surprised when I see artists take a stab at the Dynamite Bat. His series from a few years back was not particularly popular, to my knowledge, and he has made very few appearances since. Yet that version of the character is still the model for some people.

Fortunately, Alves also graced us with a take much closer to the original version.

That's some good stuff, Fabio!

Murder Town

The previous post about 31 Deadly Guns was actually in draft for about four weeks. I had neglected to publish the post and only noticed this today.

At the time that I finished 31DG, I thought that it would be a while until I got my hands on more original material. Instead, I found a good deal on Murder Town (Winter 1950) and jumped at it. I finished Murder Town this past weekend and in beginning to write about it, I noticed the earlier unpublished post about 31 Deadly Guns. This is why the two posts appear on the same day.

So then...Murder Town. I enjoyed this one a great deal.

The story begins with a failed suicide attempt. The gentleman attempting to kill himself confesses to a murder but then is himself murdered while incarcerated, no less. What's going on? Anthony "Black Bat" Quinn and his team are out to find out.

There are a number of highlights in this book. I found McGrath hilarious. He's again working with Quinn more so than attempting to arrest him but his conviction that Quinn is the Black Bat has not gone anywhere and it demonstrates itself through sarcastic comments along the lines of "The Black Bat showed up tonight, Quinn...But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you??" He has a strong, hands-on role in this one and his back-and-forth with Quinn is highly entertaining.

This is good because Silk is essentially written out of the story at one point. It is hardly a Black Bat adventure without at least one member of the entourage being abducted and tortured or beaten. Normally he or she returns by story's end but not this time. For quite some time, Silk is out of circulation.

Silk's absence creates a challenge in that Silk tends to assist Quinn with the latter's pretense of blindness. Without someone to guide him around, Quinn struggles to continue to "act blind".

It also creates an unusual anger in The Black Bat. The hired gun who takes out Silk also threatens Carol. He comes across as more psychotic, and therefore threatening, than the muscle usually does in these stories. When The Black Bat catches up to him, Tony Quinn let's him have it a bit. I found it more intense than usual.

There was another moment which I found interesting. The Black Bat and McGrath are reviewing evidence when...The Black Bat suddenly disappears on McGrath.

"You may keep the picture," The Black Bat said. "There isn't much we can do tonight. Show it to Quinn in the morning." 

"Okay," McGrath nodded. "I'm done in anyhow. Let's go!" 

The Black Bat had been moving toward the door as McGrath still studied the picture. When there was no reply, McGrath turned. He was alone in the room.

According to this cbr article, it would seem that Batman first pulled that sort of trick on Commissioner Gordon in 1972 or so. I doubt that it was inspired by a Black Book Detective issue from 1950 and there would be no evidence I'm aware of to support the notion that it was. Still, like the use of the name Red Hood in a Black Book Detective story well before it was applied to the Joker, it appears to be another of a great many coincidental similarities between the two characters.

This is just one small, enjoyable moment in an overall good book. The Black Bat entered his final full year of publication in full stride with this one.

Edit: I read The Black Bat's Justice during a mid-October vacation and the Black Bat pulls the disappearing act twice on McGrath in that book. I can't believe this didn't jump out at me upon my first reading of the story a couple of years ago. It is cover-dated March 1941 so well before the book above and, obviously, even much earlier than when Batman first did it to Gordon.

31 Deadly Guns

My reading of original Black Bat material continues with 31 Deadly Guns from January 1949 (cover date).  It was the character's 50th published story and it's a pretty good one, though many of the elements that made the early stories interesting are not present.

Shortly after making an urgent phone call to Tony Quinn to arrange a meeting, a prominent politician named Victor Dermont is shot dead on the courthouse steps. The shooter, named Ernie Ward, is apprehended but he is expected to succumb to a terminal disease in a short amount of time.

Tony Quinn believes that Ward was put up to to the task of killing Dermont and wants to track down who pulled the strings before the case dies along with the uncooperative shooter. There are, of course, several people with a variety of motives to investigate.

An interesting aspect of Ward's character is that Quinn knows him from one of his first cases as a young lawyer starting out. Black Bat stories, at least those penned by Norman A. Daniels, often to appear to be written in "real time". Tony Quinn is said to have worked Ward's case 13 years prior which would put us in 1936, prior to Quinn being a young district attorney that would become the Black bat in 1939.

Among the Black Bat's crew, Silk Kirby is the only one to be featured. Carol Baldwin and Butch O'Leary have only small roles. McGrath is present but very much working with the Black Bat rather than trying to apprehend him. I believe that by this far into the series, that was the norm. Still, it does feel like something is missing but overall this was an entertaining read.

The Vanguard by Jay Piscopo

Sadly, the image below is not for an upcoming book (to my knowledge).

Artist Jay Piscopo often has fun grouping various pulp / public domain characters into groups including this one which features a Black Bat that is more traditional in appearance.

I mention the traditional appearance because Piscopo was ridiculed by some (or perhaps one person in particular) for a more kid-friendly version of the character which had ears on his mask. That Black Bat was a member of the Gangbusters some time ago (along with Domino Lady, or Lady Domino, whatever).

Piscopo posts art on his Facebook page regularly, you can check that out here.

City of Hate

City of Hate is another book I've owned for several months and only recently got to reading. And if Murder Deals in Ersatz was somewhat disappointing, City of Hate (Nov. 1948) got things back on course.

Once again, Tony Quinn and his crew take their skills to a different setting. The story would not work otherwise. Quinn is hired to prosecute a man accused of double murder in a town called Norwood. The man is named Jonathan Bolton and he is despised by the majority of the population, hence the name of the book. Quinn suspects, correctly, that Bolton is innocent and seeks to clear him of the charges whilst appearing to prosecute him. Nice twist.

There are several suspects to the killings with a variety of motives (in addition to the common trait of loathing Bolton) making the actual guilty party difficult to pin down.

Of course, being that the story takes place out of New York, McGrath is not present to harass the crime-fighting foursome, however he is mentioned several times. One the Norwood cops is trouble enough for the team so it doesn't feel like as much of a loss. Butch provides the comic relief here, He has been given a private investigator's badge by Tony Quinn and he can't get enough of flashing it around.

There is plenty of action in the middle parts of the book. I found a chase in an office building to be a little tricky to follow but there is plenty of excitement later as well as Quinn and Carol Baldwin attempt to evade capture from police.

So a fun, fast-paced read. I'll be directing my attention to other material for a bit but then will tear into 31 Deadly Guns, the story that followed this one.

Murder Deals In Ersatz

Ersatz: (of a product) made or used as a substitute, typically an inferior one, for something else.
"ersatz coffee" 

synonyms: artificial, substitute, imitation, synthetic, fake, false, faux, mock, simulated; 

antonyms: genuine

Don't pretend you knew, I know you're lying. :-)

I've owned this book for a while now but had held off reading it. For a while, I succumbed to my obsession with readings things in order, but between Altus no longer reprinting the character's stories, and an inability to find The League of Faceless Men at a price I'm willing to pay, I was able to overcome my self-imposed limits.

Tony Quinn and his loyal aides march into battle against a sinister crew of home front enemies whose despicable crimes of sabotage and treachery call for swift and sure punishment.

Sadly, this outing was a little disappointing. There is a note to readers prior to the start of the story that may partially explain why.

TO OUR READERS: Our new format preserves critical materials - but you will find that there has been no reduction in the amount of reading matter per issue.

I would be interested in finding out Ersatz's word count because that story felt shorter than the other Black Bat tales I've read. I suspect there is more "reading matter" in the various short stories in the back of the book than usual.

There are a few moments that stand out. Tony Quinn is immediately on the case as the Black Bat. Typically, at least in the early stories, Commissioner Warner would visit Tony Quinn and suggest that if Quinn happens to be in contact with the Black Bat (nudge nudge wink wink), perhaps he could ask for the vigilante's help. Writer Norman Daniels went off-pattern here and included the Black Bat before even introducing Quinn and it was a refreshing change-up.

Also, McGrath gets a pretty solid win in his ongoing battle (more or less) to unmask the Black Bat and expose Tony Quinn. He doesn't fully succeed, of course, but if he were truly, fully motivated to end the Black Bat's career, he could have done it here. Rivalries can't be compelling when they're one-sided. McGrath was reaffirmed as a threat here somewhat.

There is little mystery to speak of, unfortunately. The usual apparently-nonsensical-but-key clue made an appearance; in this case in the form of paper clippings of auto accidents. The suspects are revealed very early. One is a particularly good fit but so much so that you dismiss him as being too obvious which really only leaves two that are a little too interchangeable.

Another highlight is the full-page image below. If the mystery was lacking, the action was quite good, including a well detailed car chase it illustrates.

Oddly, it appears during the second chapter of the book but features a scene from chapter eight so perhaps its placement could have been better.

I certainly don't regret purchasing this book but while it had its enjoyable moments, it was among my least favourite Norman Daniels stories. It was the 30th published Bat story and is dated Fall 1944.