Creation
Black Beetle was created by Francesco Francavilla, debuting in Dark Horse Presents #11.
Francesco held a poll in the blog Pulp Sunday, asking the fans which character they would rather to see: The Black Beetle or Max Malone. The readers choose The Black Beetle with more than two-thirds of the voter. Francesco described him at the time as “in the vein of masked vigilante pulp in some sort of ’40s/’50s settings, with some slight (40s/50s) sci-fi tone to it”.