[guyserman82]

Hey, I'm looking for some pulp fiction masked adventurer stories to read. I'm looking through the pulp fiction section on here, and I'm kinda lost. Can someone lead me to some good stories?

[paw broon]

I think most of the mainstream American pulp heroes are not p.d. so I'll leave that to see if anyone else can help.  But, all is not lost.  In the story papers section, you'll find 3 episodes of The Black Whip, British masked mystery man.  Have a look here - it's the first 3 books on the list and he's cover featured on the 2nd. one:-
https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=2295
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=31027
For real pulp thrilling crime with superb, atmospheric, moody illustrations, I suggest The Thriller and you can find some examples here:-
https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=740
Union Jack was a weekly paper featuring the adventures of the world's greatest detective, Sexton Blake and he is occasionally paired up with, or fighting against, Waldo the Wonder Man. :-
https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=732
Perhaps not exactly what you were after but some thrilling reading nevertheless.  I'd be curious to hear how you get on, even if you you think it's all rubbish.

[captblitzdawg]

I found this website, http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/p/pulphero.htm. I didn't have time to go through and see if any characters matched up to public domain, but it is another starting point. Hope this helps!

[Lorendiac]

Union Jack was a weekly paper featuring the adventures of the world's greatest detective, Sexton Blake and he is occasionally paired up with, or fighting against, Waldo the Wonder Man. :-
https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=732

Thank you for this. As fate would have it, just last week I started to get curious about the old adventures of "Sexton Blake" which ought to be in the public domain by now. I spent a little time searching for online e-texts of his early adventures, and only found a couple. (I don't think I'd ever before read a "Sexton Blake" story in my life, or if I did, I've long since forgotten.)

It had never occurred to me that a site specializing in public domain comics might also have scanned images of some of Sexton's old stories. Sheer serendipity that I happened to be checking up on this forum again for other reasons, and this thread title caught my eye . . .

[narfstar]

Lorendiac good to hear you found us by whatever route.

[73042helloworld]

I will make a comment about a US pulp that I've only seen one story about...and it was borrowed so I don't have it.  "The Black Bat" appeared in BLACK BAT magazine almost the same time as Batman appeared in DETECTIVE COMICS.  I have seen reports that legal action was brought by Detective Comics Inc. causing the Black Bat to be cancelled.  The Magazine continued for some time afterward.  Both Batman and The Black Bat wore very similar outfits with Batman adopting the bat-wing gauntlets within an issue or two (I'd have to run through my Batman scans to determine just when - it was very soon).

I believe there is a Canadian group that has published some new Black Bat stories in the last few years, but have not seen them.

[paw broon]

Yes, there has been a lot of discussion on Black Bat and Batman over the years.  However, the avenging, or villainous bat figure has been around for a while prior to either of those two.  In fact there was a discussion over the past couple of weeks of bat figures in comics and story papers on
www.comicsuk.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=5900
strangely enough, in the Phantom section.
I bought some of those Black Bat reprints when they came out and thoroughly enjoyed them but my pal, Russell, has a nice collection of pulps and I borrowed a few originals.  Excellent and not only the stories but the smell and feel of that old pulp paper.