Sunday, August 30, 2015

Crossover of the Week

1940
THE BLACK BAT AT BAY
Jim Anthony comes out of retirement when he is tasked by the N.Y.P.D. with capturing the Black Bat, who has been framed for murder. Anthony was recommended to Commissioner Warner by FBI agent Dan Fowler, with whom Anthony has worked before. Anthony also tells Warner, “A famous member of my fraternity once said that pertinence is purely a matter of perspective.” The Bat attacks a group of criminals at the wrecked Comet Club, which was once owned by a man named Suydam, who died in 1921 in the same fire that destroyed the club. Gangster Gentleman Jack Schulz has a penthouse in the Shandor Building.
Short story by Josh Reynolds in Black Bat Mystery, Volume 2, Airship 27 Productions, 2012. The Black Bat and Jim Anthony appeared in the pulp magazines Black Book Detective and Super Detective, respectively. FBI agent Dan Fowler’s stories appeared in G-Men Detective. Fowler and Anthony previously met in Erwin K. Roberts’ story “Neighborhood in Peril” and Reynolds’ tale “Proof of Supremacy.” The fellow sleuth quoted by Anthony is either Sherlock Holmes or C. Auguste Dupin. Suydam is a relative of Robert Suydam from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Horror at Red Hook.” The Shandor Building is from the movie Ghostbusters. Anthony must have permanently resumed his adventurous career after this, given his appearances in “The Carolingian Stone” and other stories.

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