Kara Böcek (story)

Kara Böcek was the second Black Beetle story published on Francesco Francavilla's Pulp Sunday blog. It was later published in its completed form in Dark Horse Presents, then later as a single issue of The Black Beetle.

Chapter One
December 5, 1934. A man calling himself Thomas Sawyer arrives in Constantinople to collect a mysterious object. He attracts the attention of Fräulein Elsa Vogel and Ihsan, who attempt to follow Sawyer. However, Sawyer loses them when his cab driver takes a shortcut through the Grand Bazaar.

Chapter Two
Sawyer arrives at the Safrana, an antique store run by a friend of his, Aziz. The two agree to meet later and exchange the object Sawyer is looking for. Sawyer stays the night at the Grand Milano Hotel where he meets a friend of his, Captain Ahmet Kavur. Meanwhile Ihsan has discovered where Sawyer is staying.

Cast

 * “Thomas Sawyer”
 * Fräulein Elsa Vogel
 * Ihsan
 * Mysterious monocled Nazi
 * Aziz
 * Captain Ahmet Kavur

Pulp Sunday
In December 2009 Francesco Francavilla announced Kara Böcek, a short story (originally planned to be roughly twenty pages) to keep The Black Beetle a part of Pulp Sunday while he continued to develop No Way Out. The story was meant to introduce elements that would play a part in larger Black Beetle arcs in the future. Unlike No Way Out the story was drawn in landscape format.

The first page debuted the 6th of December with two new pages planned every week, one on Wednesday and one on Sunday. This schedule soon became a monthly update. With page 10 Francavilla declared the story one-third finished. Page eleven, the last page of the currently unfinished story, was posted on the 22nd of April, 2010, accompanied with promises of bigger action for the middle third of the story and some revelations for the final third.

The Pulp Sunday pages can no longer be viewed online, except for unreadable low-resolution images.



Dark Horse Comics
In the Black Beetle letters column Francesco Francavilla had indicated that he intended to finish the story, perhaps as a special one-shot or as part of a Black Beetle annual. At the time editor Jim Gibbons said there were no plans to publish the story.

In 2016, the story was announced for Dark Horse Presents, beginning in issue #28 :

"New this month, Francesco Francavilla and Dark Horse celebrate ten years of the acclaimed creator’s work! Beloved pulp superhero the Black Beetle returns in a brand new story—“Kara Bocek”!"

The story was altered from its original Pulp Sunday presentation from landscape to portrait, with altered art, extra panels, and new coloring.

All five parts of the serialized comic were later published in a hardcover collection in September 2017.

Covers
All covers are by Francesco Francavilla.