Johnston McCulley’s The Bat

Most pulp fans are familiar with The Black Bat, but how many know of the early character called only The Bat?

The Bat was published in Thrilling Publications’ Popular Detective pulp from November 1934 to February 1935. This is before both Thrilling’s The Black Bat or DC’s Batman, who appeared in 1939, but after all the major pulp heroes who started in the early ’30s (The Shadow, Doc Savage, Phantom Detective, Moon Man, G-8, The Spider, Secret Agent X and Operator #5). Altus Press has reprinted the whole series as The Bat Strikes Again and Again!

Now, these four short stories of this character were published under the C.K.M. Scanlon house name. Per Will Murray, in the introduction to the Altus Press reprint, this hid, for some reason, Johnston McCulley, the creator of Zorro. Many fans may not know that McCulley created several other early pulp characters, which I’ve covered previously. One would think that with his fame, they would not have wanted to hide the fact that he wrote them.

The Bat was in the model of several of McCulley’s other characters, wearing a sack-cloth mask with a white bat on the forehead (as we see on the cover of this collection), and the common theme of an innocent man framed, who strikes back at his enemies. And like other such characters from McCulley, uses a special gas gun. Like The Spider, he has a special ink stamp that he stamps on the forehead of the criminals he catches (but doesn’t kill), at least in the first story.

Overall, in some ways, the stories were part of one big story. The setup is in the first story: a state gripped by criminal corruption. Dawson Clade, private detective worked the case, is framed and will be executed. The governor, about to sign his pardon, is murdered! His assistant takes the unsigned pardon, signs it, and drives to the prison. He convinces the warden and the executor (who are on the side of the reforms) that the pardon is genuine, but to fake the execution so that Clade will be free to gather evidence.

In the stories, Clade, now operating as The Bat, works to find evidence of the criminal corruption, and clear his name. He deals with the murderers of the governor, and shows the corruption of the lieutenant governor (now governor), and gets a confession from him that Clade was innocent.

Apparently the series was planned to continue, with a fifth story announced. Was it written — perhaps re-written — as another character? (McCulley moved on to his Green Ghost character, who was similar). We may never know.

In addition to the stories, we also have the original illustrations, which just adds to the overall package from Altus, including the cover done in a consistent style with their other McCulley collections.

Now, Murray has tried to push this character as “the inspiration for Batman.” I would have to say, after reading them, that no, that’s a bit of exaggeration. He may be an inspiration, but I really found only one element of The Bat that could have influenced Batman, in my opinion.

An interesting, if short-lived character. As noted, he fits into McCulley’s series of characters. Am not aware of anyone doing new stories of this character, but think that Tom Johnson may have done so.