Black Bat

He appeared in Black Bat Detective Mysteries (published by The Berryman Press), a short-lived pulp which saw six issues, all written by Murray Leinster (a pen-name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins), between 1933 and 1934.

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.

It describes how Quinn became the Black Bat after being blinded and disfigured by acid when trying to save evidence against Oliver Snate in court, an idea borrowed a few years later by DC Comics for the creation of both the hero Doctor Mid-Nite and the Batman villain Two-Face (when D.A.

[1] In the first issue, DA Tony Quinn is blinded by acid thrown by a thug working for Oliver Snate, a crime lord, and believes his career is over until a mysterious woman arrives (Carol Baldwin).

She tells him that her father is a small town policeman who is dying from a gangster's bullet and that a surgeon is willing to perform an operation to graft his corneas onto Tony Quinn's eyes so that he can see again.

None too intelligent but completely loyal and "a hulking giant of a man who was never happier than when his fists were flying in defense of the law and in the aid of the Black Bat".

Friend to Quinn, the bulky lieutenant, Captain McGrath (under Commissioner Warner) who is so honest he would turn in his own mother if she did something wrong is also enemy of the Black Bat.

Issue 11 has the Black Bat investigating a strange plane crash as well as a missing fortune in diamonds, needed for America's war effort.

Russia initially started the war on Germany's side so issue 12 deals with Russian spies who commit sabotage and murder in America.

Issue 25 has Nazi fifth columnists steal a supply of bauxite (aluminum ore) which America desperately needs for the war effort.

In 2011 Anthony Quinn is stated as dead in the Clockwork Comics series Education of a Superhero by Adam Dechanel and a new Black Bat under the alias Steve Ventura took on the daunting legacy.

Moonstone Books included the Black Bat in a new series of comics based on public domain pulp heroes called "Return of the Originals", which began in September 2010.

DC Comics began using the Black Bat name for another completely unrelated new costumed identity for the character Cassandra Cain, who had previously been the fourth Batgirl.