The Black Bat

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.

The first Black Bat

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.

The second Black Bat

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 has actually 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.

The Black

The Black is a rock band from Austin, Texas that formed in 2002 when singer/songwriter David Longoria began collaborating with drummer Andy Morales. The two were later joined by renowned guitarist Alan Schaefer (son of famous guitar maker Ed Schaefer) and Nick Moulos of the Austin band The Crackpipes.

History

The group began playing regularly at Emo's and house parties until Schaefer moved to France to teach English in 2004. Longoria joined major label act ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead during the band's hiatus, his first performance with them on the Late Show with David Letterman in January 2005. Schaefer joined the rest of the band to support Trail of Dead on their European Worlds Apart tour. During the tour Trail of Dead was the band's backing band for a handful of shows.

Their full-length album Tanglewood was recorded in 2004 and released the spring of 2005 on their own record label K Woo.

The band's next release, titled Donna, was released in the summer of 2007.

The Black (Asking Alexandria album)

The Black is the fourth studio album by British metalcore band Asking Alexandria. The album is due to release on 25 March 2016, and marks the first album featuring former Make Me Famous guitarist and Down & Dirty frontman Denis Shaforostov as the band's new lead vocalist, best known under his moniker Denis Stoff, succeeding former frontman Danny Worsnop who has departed for hard rock supergroup We Are Harlot. It was proceeded by the singles "I Won't Give In" released on 26 May 2015, "Undivided" released on 25 September 2015, and the album's eponymous track "The Black" released on 2 February 2016.

Background

On 22 January 2015, former frontman Danny Worsnop announced his departure from the band to focus his work on hard rock band We Are Harlot, however, he stated that the band will continue touring as well. This has been done with the induction of former Down & Dirty and newly introduced Asking Alexandria frontman Denis Stoff. Stoff's Asking Alexandria covers on his YouTube account above92 had drawn the attention of Ben Bruce, with Bruce stating that "it had to be Denis" for whom he was praised for his much greater vocal range and his style which was inspired by Worsnop during the band's early stages, believing he was capable of performing their songs live on a much higher level than his predecessor. Moreover, just like Asking Alexandria, Stoff's previous bands were contracted to Sumerian Records, which may have granted him an easier transition on succeeding Danny Worsnop.

List of Amalgam Comics characters

The following is a list of fictional characters that appear in the comic books of Amalgam Comics. Any characters mentioned, but not seen, are excluded. They are listed by comic book and a team section is also provided. The amalgamations of characters or the Amalgam versions of one character are given. Plots of the Amalgam comic books are given in the list of Amalgam Comics publications and additional information about characters is provided in the references.

DC Versus Marvel

Standard Comics

Standard Comics was a comic book imprint of American publisher Ned Pines, who also published pulp magazines under a variety of company names that he also used for the comics. Standard in turn was the parent company of two comic-book lines: Better Publications and Nedor Publishing Collectors and historians sometimes refer to them collectively as "Standard/Better/Nedor".

In business from 1939 to 1956, Standard was a prolific publisher during the Golden Age of comic books. Its best-known character, initially published under the Better imprint, is the Black Terror. In June 1949, the Better and Nedor imprints were consolidated as the Standard Comics line, with a "Standard Comics" flag-like cover logo. The titles previously had no publisher logo. In 1956, Standard ended and only two titles continued, published by Pines Comics.

Beginning in the 1980s, Standard/Better/Nedor characters have been revived by other publishers. Publisher Bill Black used many of them in his 1980s imprint Americomics (later shortened to AC Comics). Many of the female heroes are members of the AC Comics superhero team Femforce. In the 2000s, Standard/Better/Nedor characters have appeared in writer Alan Moore's comic book Tom Strong and its spin-off Terra Obscura. Marvel Comics used the names American Eagle, Grim Reaper, and Wonder Man for its own, different characters.