The Black Bat is a lesser pulp hero, but still well remembered. He was part of the “third wave” of pulp heroes (Will Murray‘s term), all of whom could have been comic-book characters, and appeared in Black Book Detective, published by Ned Pine‘s “Thrilling” pulp line (aka Standard or Better).
The Black Bat wore a costume similar to Batman, who came out around the same time (1939), which is one of the reasons I think most people remember him.
With all the recent new Black Bat stories (especially the new comics from Dynamite Entertainment and Moonstone that aren’t that authentic), it’s important that people understand who the character really is, and maybe read the original stories (which are available).
As noted, The Black Bat was part of the “third wave” of pulp heroes that started in 1939. These characters were marked by being more colorful and more comic-book-like. The Black Bat, while developed separately, could be confused with the Batman because of his outfit.
The Black Bat was one of the few pulp heroes that was able to continue into the 1950s, and outlasted Doc Savage and The Shadow, and was canceled just prior to The Phantom Detective who was the final pulp hero to be published. The Black Bat was published for over 60 stories!
Unlike what is shown in most artwork, he has a full-face mask (the cover and interior artwork of recent collections of new Black Bat prose stories correctly shows this).
The Black Bat was really former District Attorney Tony Quinn, blinded by a criminal’s acid (similiar to Batman’s Two-Face). After a secret surgery to transplant the eyes of a murdered police officer, he regains his sight, and finds he can see in the dark. This, he learns, was due to additional changes to his eyes done by the surgeon. Keeping his new sight hidden, he begins a new career to fight crime as the Black Bat!
He is decked out in an all black outfit, including a mask, gauntlets, and a ribbed cape. He puts a black bat sticker on the foreheads of criminals he kills (similar to the way other pulp heroes marked their prey). He is assisted by Carol Baldwin, the daughter of the slain policeman; she serves as a possible love interest. Joining them are “Butch” O’Leary, a large, strong man, and “Silk” Kirby, a small-time confidence man who is recruited as Tony’s valet in the first pulp story.
There is also Capt. McGrath (early stories have him as a lieutenant, then detective sergeant), who is sure that Tony is really the Black Bat, and tries to prove he can really see. This provides a little comic relief in the stories.
Sadly, the Black Bat pretty much only goes after ordinary crooks and criminals in the original pulp stories — none of the “supercrooks” that The Shadow deals with, which makes the stories less interesting then they could be. He ran in 60 some issues of Black Book Detective from 1939 to ’53 (as noted, outliving some other characters).
Much is made of the similarity of the Black Bat and Batman. Some try to claim that one influences the other. In terms of creation, this is unlikely, as they came out so close together, there couldn’t be any influences. The two companies almost went to court about it, until others in the company, who knew there was no influences, worked things out. As part of this, Thrilling agreed not to use the Black Bat as a comic book character. Well, not quite true. Nedor Comics, which was owned by Ned Pines, came out with stories of The Mask, which was based on the Black Bat, but with the names changed.
Now in the public domain, several authors have taken to writing new stories of the Black Bat, sometimes teaming him with other pulp heroes. Airship 27 has started a new anthology series (two volumes so far, with a third promised), and Altus Press is doing a new complete reprint of the original series (two volumes so far). Altus has also put out “The Black Bat Companion,” which is a complete study of the character (and even includes some of The Mask comic book stories).
As noted, there are new comics with the character. Moonstone started doing Black Bat comics first, but we haven’t seen much with him in awhile. Sadly, they made changes to the character, giving him “radar senses,” which the original Black Bat didn’t have. Dynamite has also started a comic, and also made changes, making Tony Quinn be a corrupt lawyer who is trying to redeem himself, an element totally wrong for this character.
Watch for more in-depth reviews of the New Pulp and the comic-book Black Bat, as well as the “Companion” volume.
Nice write up Michael. The Black Bat is reasonably run-of-the-mill. Similar in some ways to other costumed vigilantes of the time. They weren’t as fever-dream crazy as The Spider or outre as The Shadow or Doc, but were better than say, The Moon Man. I haven’t read any of the new stories or comics based on him but the interviews I’ve seen from the writer of Dynamite’s Black Bat made me not want to bother. They changed his motivations and core reasons for fighting crime (revenge rather than a true sense of justice). Those sort of changes make me wonder why they do these sort of adaptations at all.
When I do my followup posting on the recent comic book versions, those comments will be part of the article. Like you, I didn’t care for his take of the Black Bat. Its totally out of character. But, sadly, this has been the case with several of the recent comic book versions of different characters.