The Black Bat

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The Black Bat was the name of two characters featured in different pulp magazine series in the 1930s.

The first Black Bat appeared in Black Bat Detective Mysteries, a short-lived pulp which saw six issues, all written written by Murray Leinster (a pen-name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins), between 1933 and 1934. He was a man 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 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 was actually an origin story, describing how Quinn became the Black Bat after being blinded and disfigured by acid.

Black Bat Detective ran for 62 issues, from July 1939 to Winter 1953, one of the few hero pulps to survive past World War II. A few titles have been reprinted.

Along with other pulp heroes such as The Shadow and Doc Savage, the Black Bat was an influence on DC Comics' Batman.