The Black Bat

THE BLACK BAT

         The Thrilling Group kicked off their second round of pulp hero heavyweights in 1939. In June of that year, the Candid Camera Kid popped up in DETECTIVE NOVELS and in July we found the Black Bat in the pages of BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE. More heroes would follow in 1940 and '41. Standard's wordsmith, Norman Daniels, created many of the new series.

         Daniels' original idea was for Tony Quinn to fight crime as The Tiger. Blinded in the courtroom by acid, the damage left scars around his eyes, giving him the moniker. The story was accepted, but Leo Margulies, head editor for Standard at the time, wanted something that would coincide with a magazine they'd recently picked up, BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE. A short story series that ran in a previous title, The Bat, in Popular Detective, may have influenced their final decision. The Tiger was changed to The Black Bat, and became one of the most popular of the late edition heroes for Ned Pines' Thrilling Group. It was merely coincidence that The Black Bat and Batman started during the same period.

         Standard slapped their house name, G. Wayman Jones on the stories to let Norman know the character belonged to them, but he became the main author for the series throughout its long run. He told me that Leo wanted the character to have the feel of The Shadow, and that every time Walter Gibson got a raise, so did he. In Markets of Treason, Winter 1944, the Black Bat does drop the ribbed cape, and now merely wears black to blend into the shadows. The stories continued to be top notch. However, the bat regalia was now missed by most readers.

         The July 1940 entry, The Black Bat's Flame Trail is the first unknown author assigned to the series. Will Murray believes this author is Whit Elsworth, but I lean more towards Prentice Winchell (most familiar to readers under his pen name, Stewart Sterling). Two more stories, The Black Bat's Dragon Trail, January 1941, and The Black Bat's Summons, July 1941 are also unknowns. Perhaps the three are by the same author. I suspect at least two of them are.

         There is no question on the next ghost author. Laurence Donovan writes three non-Daniels' entries, The Murder Prophet, September 1942, Millions For A Murderer, March 1943, and Without Blood They Die, Summer '43. The rest of the stories are by Norman Daniels until the end of the series. Daniels told me that a new editor had been assigned to the series, replacing long-time editorial head, Leo Margulies. Who this new editor was, he couldn't remember, but said it was a woman, and she wanted more adult content to the stories. Norman didn't feel comfortable writing sex scenes, so she brought in another author. The Eyes of Death is promised for Spring '52, but does not appear. Instead, the next novel to appear is Prentice Winchell's Hot, Willing, And Deadly, Winter '53. A little research does turn up an old novel titled, The Eyes of Death by Stewart Sterling. It was a Dan Fowler story published in November 1941, and involved Nazis. My guess is that Sterling planned on rewriting the Fowler story into a Black Bat entry, but was having trouble replacing the Nazis. Or else the new editor rejected the rewritten story, skipping an issue, until Sterling/Winchell could come up with another story. Hot, Willing, And Deadly was probably more in keeping with what the editor wanted. Another story is promised, The Lady of Death by Prentice Winchell. It doesn't appear. The series is ended. Winchell/Sterling rewrites The Lady of Death as The Lady's Out For Blood, and sells it to Triple Detective, Spring '53, Tony Quinn has been replaced. Norman Daniels had written an unpublished Black Bat story, The Celebrity Murders, but it never appeared. Maybe it's out there somewhere also (it’s been discovered, and reviewed elsewhere).

         Stewart Sterling was a good writer, and had worked in the pulps for years. I'm sure he was writing Phantom Detectives, early Dan Fowlers, and probably those early Black Bats. I wish we could find his records, as I'm sure we would uncover some interesting facts, as well as possibly some unpublished manuscripts. But those final Black Bat stories were an incredible jump from a good series, to mediocre stories. The sex and rough language the editor wanted just didn't work well on Norman Daniels' 1939 creation. Personally, I think they should have left it alone.

         As with all of the single character pulps, the early stories were the best in the series. So it was with the Black Bat. At least up through the end of the World War, we had some exciting stories of Nazis and sabotage, and even some super criminals. After the war years, the stories tended to tone down, becoming more simple crimes, especially the "long ago crimes", where something happens years before that not surfaces into some new crime. Until the end, when we are given drug or juvenile gang-related criminal activity. Or, as with Prentice Winchell, prostitution and crimes of passion. Good stories perhaps, but I missed the super criminals and foreign agents bent on the destruction of America.

         I often wonder how the series would have fared had it began in the early Thirties, as a companion to The Phantom Detective. There is a possibility it would have been more popular, and even outlasted the great Phantom. Unfortunately, it would have been created by someone else, and ended up with an even more chaotic authorship. Perhaps it's best the series waited until 1939 after all.

         Happy reading!