Black Bat
| The Black Bat | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | Black Bat Detective Mysteries (1933) |
| Created by | Murray Leinster |
| 'Black Bat Detective Mysteries' | |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Pulp magazine |
| Genre | Hero pulp, detective fiction |
| Publication date | 1933 – 1934 |
| Number of issues | 6 |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Murray Leinster |
| The Black Bat | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Thrilling Publications |
| First appearance | Black Book Detective (July 1939) |
| Created by | Norman A. Daniels |
| In story information | |
| Real name | Anthony Quinn |
| 'Black Book Detective' | |
| Publisher | Thrilling Publications |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Pulp magazine |
| Genre | Hero pulp, detective fiction |
| Publication date | 1939 |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Norman A. Daniels |
The Black Bat was the name of two unrelated pulp heroes featured in different pulp magazine series in the 1930s, most well known because of their similarity to DC Comics hero, Batman.
He appeared in Black Bat Detective Mysteries, a short-lived pulp which saw six issues, all written by Murray Leinster (a pen-name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins), between 1933 and 1934. The character was called Black Bat in the way Simon Templar was called the Saint; unlike the Simon Templar books, however, none of the Black Bat stories ever mentioned the character's real name.
In July 1939 Ned Pines' Thrilling Publications (also known as Standard or Better) introduced a new Black Bat in a series called Black Book Detective. Written mainly by Norman A. Daniels under the house name G. Wayman Jones, the stories describe the crime-fighting career of former District Attorney Anthony Quinn. In a clear departure from most pulp characters and heroes, this Black Bat actually has an origin story, describing how Quinn became the Black Bat after being blinded and disfigured by acid when trying to save evidence against Snate in court, an idea borrowed a few years later by DC Comics for the creation of both Doctor Mid-Nite and Batman villain Two-Face when D.A. Harvey Kent is disfigured by having acid thrown in his face (Detective Comics #66 August 1942. His name was later changed to Harvey Dent). Marvel later also had the blind lawyer who gained "super sight" and became Daredevil. The Black Bat left paper stickers of a bat stuck to his victims, so like The Spider before him (who used a blood red spider stencil on their foreheads), innocent people would not be blamed for their death, and other criminals would come to fear him.
Both the Black Bat and Batman hit the newsstands around the same time, and both claimed that the other was a copy. The threat of lawsuits ended when DC editor Whitney Ellsworth intervened. Ellsworth had once worked for the Black Bat's publishers and brokered a deal that allowed both characters to co-exist peacefully. It is probable that the costumes of both characters were copied from the 1933/34 Black Bat series which featured costumed illustrations of the Black Bat inside the pulps though actually the "Black Bat" in the stories was indistinguishable from any other man in his choice of clothing. Batman creator Bob Kane always contended that the only bat-like man he had seen was the villain from the 1930 film, The Bat Whispers. However, the Black Bat did have a permanent influence on the Batman: chief Batman scribe Bill Finger called Kane's attention to the unique gauntlets the rival character wore. Subsequently, similar "fins" were added to Batman's gloves which remain to this day.
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Wikipedia