The Black Beetle (Dark Horse Comics)

The Black Beetle
Cover to The Black Beetle #1 (art by Francesco Francavilla)
Publication information
Publisher	Dark Horse Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Superhero
Publication date	December 2012
No. of issues	5
Creative team
Created by	Francesco Francavilla
Written by	Francesco Francavilla
Artist(s)	Francesco Francavilla
Editor(s)	Jim Gibbons (2012–2015)
Collected editions
No Way Out	ISBN

The Black Beetle is a comic book series about a masked vigilante. It was created by Francesco Francavilla and published by Dark Horse Comics.

The Black Beetle made its first appearance on the forum drawingboard.org on the twelfth of January, 2006, as ten-minute doodle. In 2009, Francesco Francavilla held a poll on his blog, Pulp Sunday. He had decided to do a webcomic and asked readers whether they would rather Max Malone or The Black Beetle, described as "in the vein of masked vigilante pulp in some sort of '40s/'50s settings, with some slight (40s/50s) sci-fi tone to it". More than two-thirds of the readers voted for The Black Beetle. Shortly after, he came up with the setting of Colt City, his own mix between New York City and Gotham City.

On Sunday, May 17, 2009, The Black Beetle made its debut as the opening page of No Way Out (although at the time this title had not yet been announced). This first appearance ran for a total of ten pages, appearing on most Sundays until August 2, when it ended with The Black Beetle falling from a rooftop. These ten pages were billed as the first part of six. The pages were printed in The Black Beetle ashcan, which was first sold at HeroesCon 2009.

In December 2009 Francesco Francavilla attempted to tell a shorter Black Beetle story, a one-shot, roughly 20 pages, between his paid publishing work. This story was released in a landscape format. The plan was to update as frequently as possible, sometimes twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays. Upon reaching the tenth page, Francavilla stated the comic was one-third finished. Page 11, which was supposed to be the first page of the middle third of the story, was the last completed page.

The Kara Böcek was mentioned in the Dark Horse printing of The Black Beetle #1: No Way Out (Part 1), and Francavilla said he intends to return to the story some day in the letters column of The Black Beetle #0: Night Shift.

In December 2011 Dark Horse announced The Black Beetle's debut in the pages of Dark Horse Presents. The story, Night Shift, was told in three eight-page parts in issues #11-13 (April–June, 2012). The story was later republished as The Black Beetle #0 in December 2012.

At a Dark Horse convention panel in July 2012, Francavilla announced that The Black Beetle had been picked up for its first miniseries, No Way Out, the story originally started on his Pulp Sunday blog. The series began its run in January, 2013. The first ten pages were from the original version of the story on Pulp Sunday, but recolored and with altered text and art.